This little fellow spent the better part of 15 minutes chattering at me from the peak of my roof the other day.

---

This is the first bloom of the first rosebed I have ever attempted to grow. I know I am not the first person to discover that it is possible to grow roses on South Padre Island (merci mucho, Nancy Marsden!) -- but so happy am I with this success that I might as well be ;-)

---

This castle was created by the Regelado family, visiting from Ill. (I helped a little.) Photos of this lesson were shot by New York photographer Nancy Rica Schiff for her next book - "Odd Jobs II."

(Rudy Regelado was a student of mine at Weslaco High School in the early 80's back when I taught English. I really enjoyed spending some time with him and his family this week.)

The castle stood unmolested for a couple of days. Wags always had to give it a good sniff when we walked by -- I am pretty sure he could tell that I had been involved in its creation.

---

Island resident Nancy Marsden (of US Classic Billiards fame) has taken upon herself the creation and maintenance of a butterfly garden at beach access #? (located near Marlin St.) Nancy is on a quest to save native island vegetation and is providing a "plant relocation" service for home builders and developers.

Nancy is making South Padre a nicer place to live and visit - hooray!

Below: Amazin' Walter is another Island beautifier. He and your humble webwiz are hard at work on rebuilding the sand castle in the Convention Centre sand box. Come by and say howdy...

---

With Easter coming so early this year it makes for a mighty long stretch until summer -- or even the windsurfer blowout. The skies have been gray and there aren't a lot of people around. The only thing animated around here is the political rhetoric, which is raising to a fevered pitch on the SPIRIT forum and my own weblog. With three of the candidates declaring themselves a prefab team, a line has been drawn in the sand. Brisk deiscussion has ensued and is likely to increase as the May 7th election draws ever nearer...

In the meantime, there are good times and good music to be had every Tues. evening at Kelly's Irish Pub. I think they are calling themeselves the Manglin' Wranglers or something like that. I would call them "Toonz Enhanced" (Paul, Andy, Jamey and Omar) and suggest you catch 'em while they're hot.

---

Thanks to all who participated statewide in the GLO's Adopt a Beach Cleanup. The SPI SoBs were up near Port Arthur at McFaddin Beach where I carved this logo as a part of the sculpure we created for the cleaneruppers of that beach.

---

We have word that a clutch of turtle eggs - the first of the season - has been discovered here on South Padre Island and is being relocated to the new "Turtle Corral" as I write this -- Hooray!

The Turtle Lady Society is working towards getting a flag made - perhaps it will look something like the image above - to fly at the visitors center (and on this web-site) as a reminder to all that our endangered friends are busy trying to procreate.

We think that is a darn good reason to celebrate - don't you?

---