I can’t believe that my blog has hit this milestone! WOW!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you who have spared some of your precious time to read my posts. I really do appreciate it.
During my recent visit to Austin, Tx with my Boy Child for the Motogp weekend at COTA, we traded one kind of horsepower for another on the Friday evening.
The pro rodeo event was in town!
Before I go any further, if you are averse to such events, please stop reading and I’ll see you next week for a different blog. It is 100% not my intention to offend anyone’s sensibilities with this particular blog.
I will also add right at the start here that all living breathing creatures including humans left the arena unharmed.
Ok, still with me?
Rodeo remains a contentious event across the USA with many states restricting events or banning them entirely. (It’s banned in the UK and in many European countries) Professional rodeo events are strictly governed and sanctioned these days primarily by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA).
In Texas, rodeo is the official state sport with Rodeo Austin being one of the top five pro rodeos in the USA. Rodeo Austin is a non-profit organisation that been fundraising for the children of Texas since 1938. To date Rodeo Austin has awarded $9.7M in scholarships with 2525 recipients benefiting from this as they work to cultivate agricultural education. This was all positive news to me! Naively, I thought it was simply a two-week event for largely entertainment purposes.
Rodeo Austin is held at the Travis County Expo Center and to be honest, as we approached the site in our Uber, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.
Rodeo Austin is a family event. Outside the Luedecke Arena was a sprawling fairground complete with the obligatory Ferris wheel. It’s the first time I’ve seen a carousel where one of the options was a rooster than a traditional carousel pony.
As we were early for the actual rodeo show, we wandered round checking out the various food trucks until we found ourselves outside a large open barn with a sign saying, “Milking Parlor”. Curious, we wander in and came face to face with a Longhorn bull in a pen!
In the middle of the building, countless cows were being prepared for their appearance in the show ring. Never in my life did I imagine that I would see cows getting a shampoo and blow dry!
The rodeo event itself began at 7pm in the arena. Having had our hands stamped on entry with a purple ink cactus stamp, we took our seats in the bleachers ready to experience our first taste of rodeo.
How many of you have watched Yellowstone and had your heart stolen just a little bit by the inept wrangler and rodeo rider, Jimmy Hurdstrom? I know I have and Jimmy was on my mind as we settled down to watch the show.
There were nine events lined up for the two-hour programme. After a patriotic start, the first of these events was the bareback riding, where the cowboys have to last at least 8 seconds on the back of a bucking horse while only holding on with one hand. You learn very quickly that 8 seconds is a long time!
The most dangerous event of the night is reportedly the steer wrestling. This is where the cowboy comes in on horseback and wrestles the cow to the ground by grabbing it by the horns. I’ll be honest, I found this a tough watch.
So, how do kids aspiring to be cowboys start out? With Mutton Bustin’! A group of kids ranging in age from 5-8 years old lined up next for their 8 seconds of fame when they got to burst out of the chute riding a sheep bareback. This really was a firm crowd favourite and just too cute to watch. It was great to see the winner being awarded the treasured rodeo prize of a belt buckle, same as the adults. Not sure anyone managed the full 8 seconds to be fair.
Probably my favourite event of the evening was the ladies only event – Barrel Racing. For those who don’t know, barrel racing involves entering the arena on horseback at full speed then sprinting in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels. Fastest lady wins and there’s time penalties if a barrel is knocked over. The speed of this event is a sight to behold!
The last rodeo event of the night was Bull Riding. Fortunately, none of the bulls involved horns as impressive as the Longhorn we’d see earlier! These bulls are huge animals! Why anyone in their right mind would want to attempt to ride one is beyond me. Kudos to the cowboys who do, especially to those who lasted more than 8 seconds.
National Poetry Month is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
This annual celebration of poetry originated in the USA in 1996 as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry. Two years later the celebrations spread to Canada and its popularity continues to grow. (The UK celebrates Poetry Day in October so we’ve still to get on board with this celebration.)
Something many of you might not realise is that I was published as a poet several years before I made my debut as an author. Poetry has always been close to my heart.
English class was along time ago but three poems from those high school days have stuck with me over the years: –
The Coming of the Wee Malkies by Stephen Mulrine
In The Snack Bar by Edwin Morgan
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by WB Yeats
(Feel free to Google them once you’ve finished reading this.)
When my son was little, he attended a speech and drama group through his nursery class where he had to learn various poems. Memories of two of those continue to make me smile: –
Thank You, Dad, For Everything by Doug MacLeod
Daddy Fell into The Pond by Alfred Noyes
Over the years I have shared many of own my own poems on my blog. I love to write acrostic poems where the first letter of each line reads downwards to spell a word. There are several of those in my poetry anthology, Beginnings, that I published a couple of years ago.
A bit like journalling, I use poetry to express my unspoken emotions. It can be an amazing emotional release!
I firmly believe that anyone can write poetry. So, my challenge to you, as part of National Poetry Month, is to write a short poem and to share it in the comments below. I’ll never ask anyone to do something that I am not prepared to do myself so here’s mine.
Pick a theme or a word.
Ordinary items will do.
Explore its meaning to you.
Test your abilities.
Relax and enjoy writing it down.
You might surprise yourself.
For those of you who have not yet found my poetry anthology, here’s the link-
Introducing the Silver Lake series. From their first encounter on the beach in Rehoboth Beach, DE, Jake Power and Lori Hyde form a strong bond. Stronger Within (the first song Jake writes for Lori) sees their friendship and relationship blossom as well as the career of rock band Silver Lake taking off. There are tears and heartbreak for Jake and Lori and the Silver Lake family in Impossible Depths (named after Silver Lake’s second album) before there are tears of joy and happiness in Bonded Souls (another beautiful Jake Power ballad). Emotions and relationships share a roller coaster ride in Shattered Hearts (the title track from Silver Lake’s fifth album). Will Jake and Lori find their happy ever after or will Long Shadows (possibly a Jake Power solo song) be cast? Read the series to find out.
Decades ago, I developed a fear of bats. I’m terrified of them!
The fear originated when I was about 12 years old and one on me indoors! We were on holiday and staying in a holiday house. The living room was at the front of the house and the loo and the hall light switch were at the back of the house. One night, after watching tv I was walking down the hall in the dark on my way to the loo when this thing brushed across the side of my neck. It was the creepiest thing I have ever felt touch my bare skin! As my mum will testify to – I screamed the place down!
It was a bat.
After terrorising me, it had flown into the kitchen where my folks spent the next hour trying to catch it to set it free. The creature eventually fell, exhausted, into the sink. My dad trapped it in a tea towel and cupped it in his hands. I remember him bringing it into my bedroom to show me my attacker.
I’ve been absolutely terrified of them ever since.
Move on forty some years and I found myself in Austin, Texas for a few days. Fabulous city but one of its main tourist attractions is the bat colony that lives under the Ann W Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in the heart of the city.
Every night at dusk the entire colony flies out from under the bridge. Folks wait on the bridge and down on the banks of Lady Bird Lake or in boats on the lake for hours waiting for the bats to flock out.
The very thought sends shivers to my core!
When I first visited Austin two years ago, I declined to go and watch this spectacle. I recall walking under the bridge late afternoon one day and hearing the bats stirring. They were chirping and squeaking. That was as much as I could cope with that trip.
However, some fears perhaps need to be faced. So, big girl panties pulled up, I agreed to go and watch the bats fly out for the night.
The bat colony in questions are Mexican Free-tailed bats. They took up residence under Congress Avenue Bridge around 1980 when bridge renovation work created perfect narrow dark warm crevices for them to hide in. The bats are great for the local environment as they consume a huge number of insects, including mosquitos, evert night. Its estimated, depending on the time of year and size of the colony that they eat between 20 000- 30 000 pounds (9 -13.5 tons) of bugs a night!!
So, how many bats are lurking under the bridge?
Numbers vary depending on the time of year. At peak season, after they have bred, there are 1.5M of them.
At this time of year, their numbers are considerably lower. There were around 150 000 in residence while was in town. More than enough for me, thank you very much!
On our first night in town, Boy Child and I headed to the bridge as the sun was setting to secure our rail spot for the night. Definitely not my usual preferred kind of rail spot! With my stomach in knots, I stood leaning on the rail watching the kayakers and tourist boats gather below on Lady Bird lake and the crowds gather on either bank and around me. My heart was pounding as I waited.
Eventually, the bats began to emerge. I had expected them to fly out in a big group but on this evening they came out in several smaller groups with many of them spending time flying round the columns of the bridge itself. It was getting quite dark as most of them flew east across the sky.
A few nights later, we were waling back across the bridge to our Air BnB after dinner as they were emerging again. This time it was earlier in the evening and it was lighter. It was also less windy and I suspect that plays a part here too.
We stopped on the bridge for a second time to watch them set off for a night’s hunting. This time they swarmed out in a constant flow of tiny fluttering critters.
Coral McCallum 