Girls' Weekend

(I meant to get this post out last week, but I rarely got on the computer, which is pretty different for me. The computer has some problems and Mr. Honey has been trying to fix them. We think our poor computer is getting old and overloaded.)

The girls and I got to go to Fredericksburg with my mom not this past weekend, but the one before. It was a good time-- we drove down on the highway, and saw so many wildflowers-- some I had never even seen blooming in Texas. Here is a partial list:

bluebonnets (of course)
indian paintbrush
indian blanket
coreopsis (lots and lots)
wild foxglove (we had to get out of the car and use the field guide on this one.)
false cotton (woolly rose mallow-- we saw fields of this-- amazing.)
pink evening primrose
several kinds of yellow flowers we couldn't identify-- I think some of it was goldenrod.

(I do have pictures, but, to tell the truth, I am too lazy to post them. Some blogger I am, lol!)

And at the wildflower farm we saw poppies. A whole field of brilliant red poppies with dark, dark centers. And a bed near the front of the farm with poppies of white, pink and red. Gorgeous.

When we arrived in Fredericksburg, we got the key to the cottage we would be staying in, and drove into a little neighborhood. The house looked very small from the outside, but had quite large rooms. It was built in 1910, and had wooden floors and walls, a front and back porch, and a large yard with many trees and a big patch of bluebonnets. We opened the doors and let the breeze waft through the house. There were vents that allowed the draft to refresh the side rooms as well as the middle ones, and I just wonder why we don't build our houses like that any more. (Of course, this isn't August.)

The kids ran and played outside while Mom and I drank tea and visited on the screened back porch. It was idyllic.

We ate homemade pizza in the dining room and then the kids watched a movie while Mom and I visited some more. The frogs croaked an amazing choral symphony down in the creek next door. We couldn't figure out what it was at first.

Then I started seeing occasional flashes of light. I was sure they weren't fireflies-- this was the end of April! But finally I called Mom's attention to it and we both watched carefully. They sure were fireflies! We called the kids to come see the fireflies and hear the noisy frogs.

We put the kids to bed in the big four poster beds (done up with the finest of comfortable comforts)-- except Triss, she got the hideaway-- and Mom and I watched our own movie before going to bed ourselves.

We finally got our bluebonnet pictures Saturday morning in the backyard! (You "have" to have bluebonnet pictures if you live in Texas.)

Then we reluctantly left the cottage, well aware that we had plenty of shopping to do in the few hours before needing to drive back home.

This home reminded me of a Victorian house we once visited at a historic park. That house was complete with period furnishings and plentiful warnings to the children about keeping hands off! This home had enough period decor to feel old, but enough sturdy items for comfort and ease. There were pictures of the family that used to live in the house, and a guest book in which previous guests shared their impressions of their visits.

As for our shopping time-- we only got up and down Main Street, but saw plenty! They have a lot of signs with sayings on them. They were very attractive, but I couldn't bring myself to commit to having a saying on my wall forever. I like to post quotes and things on the fridge for a time, and then when I stop noticing that they are there, I remove them. I would feel guilty removing one of these nice wooden signs. So I am going to stick with my printouts of quotes in pretty fonts that I make on Word. (I do a lot of that. I sometimes wonder if my family gets tired of it. But I just really like reading the fridge and the mirrors and the sides of the computer armoire. What can I say?)

What did I buy? Books, of course. :O) I bought a beautiful children's cookbook called Look and Cook by Tina Davis, and a book on being ladylike by Candace Simpson-Giles. The lady book makes for interesting reading, as it is about how to be a lady in the 21st century. Triss and Cornflower bought clothes for their dolls. Grammy bought treats for her girls. Of course. :O)

(Oh, I forgot. I did buy something to furnish the house. It was a stand for cookbooks that looks like it is made of twigs with leaves on them.)

We had tea at a beautiful tea room off of Main Street, and then found some things for the girls at a kids' consignment store. Then we slowly meandered back to our car and started the drive home. (We stopped at the wildflower farm-- isn't that an oxymoron?-- on the way home.)

It took awhile to get home-- we didn't make it in until late Saturday night. But it was so much fun. Mom and I talked and talked and talked, and the girls got to ooh and ahh over all kinds of cute things.

(Edited several times to add and fix things, because I don't seem to realize what a thing looks like 'published' until it actually is. My apologies.)

(Thing, thing, thing. Then, then, then. There.)