Meet Belle and Willow

Meet Belle and Willow, the two new American Black Bears at the Houston Zoo.

*They were hanging around a bar in the mountains near Maricopa, California when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were notified. The older of the two orphans had made herself right at home and regularly wandered into the bar. A few weeks later, she was joined by another young cub. They quickly learned to paw at the ice cream freezer until someone gave them a treat and even made friends with local kids.

Unfortunately, these adorable baby behaviors translate into a dangerous nuisance as the bears grow up. They were taken to DPW holding facility after their adventures at the bar. Calls were made to different zoos to see if anyone was looking for bears. These two girls gave the Houston Zoo the opportunity to talk about conservation efforts of bears in the wild. No one knows what happened to the mothers of our girls. It is illegal to hunt black bears in Texas, but is legal in other states. The cubs' appearance a the bar coincided with the California hunting season so it is likely their mothers were shot by hunters.

Historically black bears ranged throughout Texas, but they were largely eradicated by hunting in the early 1900s. The bears are making a come back in Texas. Because it is illegal to hunt them here, they are migrating into the state from neighboring states.

You notice that they are called American Black Bears but they are, in fact, brown in color. There are several subspecies of black bears in North America and this difference in coloration reflects the differences in subspecies.  Most of the bears east of the Great Plains are black in color while the bears west of the Great Plains are brown or a lighter cinnamon color.

*All written information about Belle and Willow from Wildlife published by the Houston Zoo.
Photography of Belle and Willow by me! 


Wishing YOU well and much joy!





Thank you, Misty!

Thanks to Eileen at Saturday's Critters.

Little Things

It really is the little things.

-A cat (or two) curled up next to me while I read.

-A good book ... this week a police procedural:  Roseanna by Sjowall and Wahloo.

- Stepping into Musashi's Garden (my postage stamp backyard) and smelling orange blossoms. The citrus trees are full of blooms.

- Coming into the house from the garden and smelling like rosemary and basil.

- I'm used to seeing Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, their blue jay, dove and sparrow friends,
but when I looked out the door yesterday I saw this little guy and his friend.
I grabbed the camera to try to capture this little house finch, but all I got was cute little tail feathers. Perhaps they will be back today.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Thank you, Kim!

Teavivre

I was asked several weeks ago by Teavivre if I was interested in tasting some of their teas.

Since tea is one of my favorite things, I didn't hesitate and said "YES"!
My package arrived late last week.
I quickly opened the box, reached in, and picked the first tea to taste --
Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea.
(Clicking on the links will give you even more information about this tea.)

The tea leaves are a lovely jade green and sword shape -- all very much the same size.

When I opened the package there was a slight grassy smell and after steeping

I picked up a slight hint of spinach (that's great -- I love spinach).

I steeped and tasted at 1 minute, 3 minutes and 6 minutes. 

At one minute the taste was very light, mellow, almost sweet.

At three minutes, the taste was a bit stronger with some of the nutty flavor starting to appear.

At six minutes, there was no bitterness at all and the nutty flavor was strong. 

The color was still this lovely yellow-green.

Known in China for more than 1500 years, Dragonwell is still hand picked and processed according to the ancient methods of "Cha'Ching" or "the way of tea."

Dragonwell is famous for promoting mental alertness.

I can see why this was the favored tea of the Chinese emperors. 

Tea to the Chinese is like wine to Westerners,

With changing colors, aroma and taste.

There are many different kinds to suit individual and social tastes,

and able to refresh the palate, restore the spirit and can be medicinal.

Wishing YOU well, much joy and a delightful cup of tea!

A big thank you to our tea party hosts:

Tea Time Tuesday

Teacup Tuesday

Friends Sharing Tea

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Sun Lit Sunday

This is the last Sun Lit Sunday for this year.

Thank you Karen for hosting.

I'm going to miss them.

Azaleas blooming at the Houston Zoo:

And at the Japanese Garden:

Last year I missed the azaleas blooming in Hermann Park, the zoo and the garden.

Thanks to our cooler weather, the blooms were running a little late 

and I ran on time! 

What a treat!

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Potpourri

Easter is just around the corner.
This is reproduction vintage postcard that the Lillian Vernon Corporation offered many years ago. I love the embossing. I happened on this cute card while cleaning out a closet. Wonder what else I might find!? A big thank you to Beth for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday.

*

It gets quiet around Twisty Lane during college baseball season.

I try to keep up with posting, but I'm not always successful.

I've been watching ....

COSMOS and I'm loving it.

I remember watching the original Cosmos with Carl Sagan ... 

"billions and billions of stars".
Cosmos' "ship of the imagination" -- 
a vehicle to take viewers through wonders large and small -- 
now has a new captain, astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson.
I could listen to Tyson for days on end. 


I'm reading ...
JOY FOR BEGINNERS by Erica Bauermeister.
Kate has won her battle with a life threatening illness and has invited her six close friends to dinner to celebrate. At the dinner, her friends challenge Kate to go white water rafting down the Grand Canyon. Kate is reluctant and decides she will do it if her friends will do one thing in the next year that scares them. Since Kate didn't get to choose her challenge, she wants to choose theirs. It's agreed and the adventure to experience true joy begins. 
I enjoyed Bauermeister's THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS and hope I feel the same way about JOY FOR BEGINNERS. So far so good!


If you've been following the daffodil saga, I'm happy to announce
that I now have a house full of daffodils.
Trader Joe's came through again.
YeeHaw!
Spring can now officially begin.

I was determined I would not miss the azaleas this year.

They were late blooming with all the cold weather so I had no excuse.

Here's some of what I found at the zoo this week:

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

A big thank you to Nancy for hosting.