View from the bridge

Captain Little Ted surveys the view from his command.















I think he is contemplating sinking a passing aircraft carrier!

Ted has gone native

Not a pretty sight I'll grant you but this is reality!
Sandals, shorts, shades and sombrero; well actually it is more of a Fedora - but that didn't alliterate.
Whatever it is called it protects my ears, nose, and back of the neck from sun the like of which they never saw in bonny Scotland, och aye.

Swimming Pool and yet more "pets"

At last, to the delight of Eddy and Little Ted, our swimming pool project is complete and hopefully there will be no more earth moving projects for Ted in the near future!
The pool itself had been abandoned in the middle of the yard after the disastrous first attempt to fill it (well, it looked level to me!) and so had become home to several more little green frogs and a big fat toad. These creatures have now distributed themselves about the backyard and, I believe, quite enjoy the liberal splashing of pool water which accompanies every use of this facility by Eddy and Little Ted:-)

Of fire ants and snakes

Yesterday, while Mrs Ted and Eddy went to lunch with Grandmommy after church, Little Ted and I went for a cycle run in Memorial park. Little Ted loves to be pulled around the park by Ted; of course he thinks he is cycling but really he is dead weight! Regardless of our different perspectives we enjoy a cycle run together and stopped to take this picture:
Thistle growing amongst the Indian Blanket

Thistles are supposed to be Scottish but here they are growing in Texas. It's enough to make a body homesick, but not me. We moved straight on to another lesson in how to recognize, and therefore avoid, the pesky fire ant population of Memorial park. Little Ted, being but four years old, still thinks it might be fun to stomp on the fire ant mound but my ancient wisdom prevails when I point out what happened to Daddy's foot when he inadvertently did some stomping of his own!
So on we cycle around the pond or lake or whatever it is called in these parts. The sidewalk is still flooded at one point and as we drove through it it crossed my mind that there might be water moccasins in the area. (Not that I would know one snake from another) Anyhow as we did our second circuit of the "water feature" guess what? Yes a snake slipped out from the side of the path, swam over the sidewalk and disappeared into the lake. It was only 2 or 3 feet long and Little Ted missed it altogether but I can now say that I have indeed seen a live snake in Texas. May all my encounters be at the 10 foot away mark!
Here is the place I saw the snake although I have no photographic evidence of the actual beastie.
:

The pet collection continues ...

A green frog adhering to the vertical surface of my front door. Oh goody, another bug eating pet.
I also spotted a small green geko in the flower bed but he was too quick for me to photograph.

Tartanted.com relaunched

Those of you who have been following Ted's progress will know that, having arrived in Texas after almost a year seeking a permanent resident visa, one of his first tasks was to transfer the hosting contract for Tartanted.com from the UK to an American provider. Of course this involved a certain amount of downtime and therefore the opportunity to re-create the website.
After much phaffing about, that rewrite is now complete (as much as any website can be complete - work in progress you know!), and so here is the new American Tartanted site.

If you follow Ted's adventures then this is the site to bookmark now because this blog has been integrated with the website as has Yamboy's Garden. So TT can now be a one stop shop for all things Ted and family.

Mrs Ted has viewed the new site and her comment was "you have more pictures of dogs on that site than you have of our children"
It may have been unwise to respond with the factual statement "yes Dear, but I have had more dogs than we have children"

BTW there is no content in the private section as yet but please don't let that stop family and friends from requesting an ID and PWD. Ted is hoping to add some movies to the site under that heading in the next few days. The reason for using a "private" area is simply that the content therein will only be of interest to people who know the family; after all there is a limit to how cute non family find other folks kids!

What's that in the oak tree?

It's Little Ted's pet tree lizard again!
Trying to pretend he is not there by blending in with the bark pattern.

Sleeping Cat

Spotted in the street behind our house.
Yellow flowers and yellow "plant"

Little Ted - back at the wheel

Little Ted has always been fond of the Suburban. In Scotland he used to hug the tyres of Jim's 6.5L 4 x 4 turbo diesel version whenever he could. Now he finds himself behind the wheel of the gas powered model courtesy of our new neighbor, Tom, who took this photo. Note the sunglasses and, no St Christopher's medal for him, rather a dragon on the dashboard.
(The dragon is Little Ted's, not Tom's!)