My Life: A Little of this.......... A Little of That: Old Friends, Great Music, and Fermented Evenings

What a great weekend! Friday (6/8) morning we dropped off Lilley at our daughter Pamela's house and we headed to

Luckenbach, Texas

As always Thomas Michael brings in talented artists and he is an entertainer. Of course we have our favorites... Thomas Michael Riley, Max Stallings, Black Top Gypsies, Davin James, Jamie Richards to name a few. This was actually the first time we had heard the Black Top Gypsies play in person. Heather Stallings is the fiddle player in this band. David and I were suprised when she put down her fiddle and picked up a guitar and started playing. Wow. Talented and beautiful. Her fiddle playing blows me away. It was also great to see the lead singer Andie Kay on stage singing her heart out. She was a very sick girl not long ago. I mean it was touch and go but by a miracle she pulled through it all.

This weekend was all about music, a little wine, a few beers, a couple of moonshine drinks and long time good friends. There was a lot of laughs and great stories. This is first time all 4 couples have been together in 3-4 years. Us girls were sorority sisters at U of H.
David and I headed to Fredericksburg via Blanco. Just a slight jog to the North West so we could go eat at the 300 BBQ place and go shop at couple of the antique stores we like there. What a joke! When we hit Blanco we were hit by the crowds of people, no parking or if you found it you had to pay $10. Okay all we wanted to do was eat BBQ. What the heck is going on we thought. After circling around a couple of times we decided to keep going down the road. We went a new way through Luckenbach on the back roads. Saw lots of pretty sights... houses, land, views and water. By the time we got to Fredericksburg we were starving and needed a little something to tide us over. He wanted Whataburger and get this we couldn't find a parking place and the drive thru was into the street. Holy Cow! We ended up at McDonalds. We didn't want anything big but something. It was crazy. David found out later that Blanco was having a Lavender Festival. Awesome.

Captured this nice picture of Tim and Gigi while listening to Max Stallings.

I took this picture with Ross and was going to post on facebook that I had traded David in on a new model but shortly after this picture I changed my mind. He's real trouble with a capital T. Okay maybe not that bad.

You see I took this picture of us and didn't think to lock my phone so mmmm someone decided to take more pictures for me....

He took this nice picture of Kathy and Mark.
And then took a few more....... Just a sample of what he took.

So now he has become part of my blog. LOL
I knew better the rest of the night to not leave my phone unattended and unlocked. I did get hold of his phone and took a few return pictures.

I did take a decent picture him with his wife Sheryl.
And one of me and my honey.

The evening was hot but fun.
Saturday morning we all met at Hilda's Tortillas. If you order taco's you get what they have left. You have to get there earlier if you want sausage and egg for sure. This place is know for it's breakfast taco's. People come in just for the breakfast taco's. Gigi got lucky because they had a potato and egg breakfast taco left. The rest of us ordered Migas. Actually David and I shared and order. They are not stingy with the quantity of food they serve. They are darn good too. We got there at 9 and between eating and talking it was almost 11:30 before we split up and went different directions for a while. We decided to meet up later at the Bending Branch Winery then go to the Hill Country Distillery. Some woman came in around 11:30 and got real mad when she was told they were sold out.

David and I headed out to Kerrville for some antique shopping. We ended up at the Sunrise Antique Mall. We saw lots of cool things. Sometimes I buy old wooden spindles to wind scrap strips of fabric around to save for a later project. But David found this little cutie. No fabric will be put on this one. Someone painted this cute bunny on it. This will be purely a display spindle. Can't cover up the bunny.

We realized it was nearly 1pm and we had a 30 minute drive to meet up at the winery. We about half way to Bending Branch when my phone rang,...Sheryl and Ross were already there.
Mark and Kathy said they'd pass on the winery and meet us at Hill Country Distillery for a little moonshine. Right after I took this picture of Sheryl and I, the Ragan's showed up. We all had a glass of wine and a little conversation before heading out for the next stop.

At the distillery I had a bloody shiner which is a bloody Mary with a punch. It's made with jalapeno moonshine. and I add about 5 dashes of Tabasco. mmm so good. I tried a new drink for me any way called the Bushwacker. YUM.
1 oz Texas Dulce Coffee Liqueur
1/2 oz Texas Prickly Pear Cactus Spirits
1 oz Crème de Cocoa 3/4 oz Cream Coconut
Shake with ice, pour in a tall glass, add ice and fill with milk,

Here's us girls. Normally we sit in a row but mixed it up this time. LOL Came out pretty good.

Gigi Me Kathy and Sheryl sitting.

Such a good time.
I guess we should have taken a picture of all the guys too. Too late now.

After leaving the distillery we headed off to Hondo's in Fredericksburg for dinner before Davin James went on stage at 6. Tim and Gigi passed on Hondo's so we just met them in Luckenbach. Had a great grilled poblano chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries and a jalapeno margarita. Oh Yeah. The jalapeno cuts the sweetness of the margarita with a slight punch. So good. You could eat the jalapenos if you wanted but I'm not into the possible burning pain so I don't.

When we got to Luckenbach Davin James was already singing, pickin and rockin the stage. No seats were inside the dance hall so we found a shady spot outside which actually seemed to be a bit cooler since there was a breeze. I had snapped this picture of us before Tim and Gigi came out of the sponsor area to join us. Should have snapped another. I guess I was talking too much.

Fun Fun times. Hope we can do it again next year.

Sunday David and I got up to try and have a quick bite at Whataburger and not spend a lot of money but now we see why the lines were so bad Friday. No one was up front to take our order. We stood there maybe 5 minutes or so. Plus this guy stepped up to the pick up area and goes " Can you tell me how much longer it's gonna be, I've been here almost 20 minutes" At that point we walked out and went to the Sunrise Grill. Not as cheap but the food is really good. I don't think we'll try Whataburger again when in Fredericksburg. Anyway at the Sunrise Grill there's a bit of a wait sometimes and their parking sucks. It's small and tight but that day we got luck and slide into a parking spot right in front and sat at a table outside in the shade with no wait. We don't tend to wait around if the anywhere if the wait is over 30.

After breakfast we made our annual stop at the Wildseed Farms. We wanted to see if they had any bluebonnet seeds to spread this fall at the farm but, nope not yet. So we wandered thru the stores and grounds.

This Red Cardinal greeted me as I walked into the Butterfly Garden. He was just a singing.

We came up on this flowering bush. Aren't the blooms just beautiful? A friend asked if it was a Camilla bush but I'm not sure, Maybe. What do you think?

The more I look at the leaves I think Barbara just might be right.. a Camilla bush....

Next we saw a desert willow tree. It was tall. Over 15 maybe. We had never seen one this tall. Somewhere in that foliage is a hummingbird. I want this tree at the farm if it'll grow and the Camilla bush if that's what it is.

On the way the way out of the garden I saw a black panther napping on the rocks. Okay just kidding it was just a plain ole kitty cat. I didn't disturb him. I let the sleeping cat lie. Well maybe I did call him but he never opened his eyes and just barely twitched his ear. He was hot and tired.