Baby birds & Ladies' Night Out.

There are now three baby barn swallows in the nest on the front porch ... three tiny little heads peeking over the edge of the nest when I walk by there. The two adult birds are flying back and forth with food for them-- I watched them yesterday as they flew over the front pasture and caught insects in flight, then flew back to the next to feed the babies. I can't even imagine how many bugs they have to catch on a daily basis to keep the babies satisfied.

The swallows in the nest on the back porch are still waiting for their eggs to hatch. The mama bird is still sitting on the nest day in and day out, taking just short breaks to drink some water out of the fountain in the front of house, and I'm sure she's catching bugs and insects for herself along the way. Her mate sits close by and guards the nest, swooping down towards the cats if he thinks they're getting too close. Within a few weeks now, all the baby birds will be perched up on top of the porch columns, ready to test their wings and see if they really work. If all those baby birds come back to these same nesting places next Spring, we're going to have a porch filled with barn swallows.


I went to dinner tonight with three of the ladies who live nearby. S called yesterday to ask if I would like to do a "Ladies' Night Out" dinner, along with B and J. Seemed like it would be a fun thing to do, and we went into the next town to the Mexican restaurant there. They had been there before (promising that the food was as good as any of the Mexican restaurants in Houston)-- and they were right. Everything was homemade, and the menu choices were clearly marked with the really super-spicy items so you didn't have to take your chances.

The inside of the restaurant looked like a kaleidoscope ... so many bright colors, surrounded by heavy carved-wood tables and chairs. Definitely the place to go if you want Mexican food in this area, and I'd definitely go back there.

We talked about city-life vs. country-living, being that all of us once lived within the Houston city limits. What did we miss about the city? Full-service gas stations (only self-service here). SteinMart and Chico's for clothes (best we can do is Palais Royal in town). Grocery stores being within ten minutes from your house (takes you more than ten minutes to get from our road to the main highway, then it's 12 miles to the nearest supermarket). Wearing high heels when you went out for dinner (high heels just aren't practical here because you never know if you'll be walking on cobblestones or pea-gravel). The downtown museum and theatre districts (we have one of each, both minuscule). The ethnic restaurants (does our one Mexican restaurant count?). The endless choices for home-repair service companies (at best, we have a handful -- not counting the husbands).

We all agreed, though, that there's no place we would rather be. Even if we do have to pump our own gas and our "dress-up" clothes are now a good pair of jeans that we don't wear out in the yard.