Questions from a Saturday Stroll

Why do people start houses then just abandon them, leaving sad, skeletal structures?

Why do people build houses shaped like this? 

Why do people build on a hill with a beautiful view of the Hollow,

 then stick a telephone pole right in the middle of it?

Why do I enjoy taking photos of blue rope and piles of metal? 

(Where are the wildflowers?)

Why do little boys and little dogs have so much energy?

Why do neighbors give away perfectly good wood, 

even load it on a trailer and venture down a path you call a driveway 

(but that resembles a dry creek bed more than anything) 

in their pretty truck

 to deliver it right where you want it?

What are we going to do with all of this wood?

Walking Through Austin

On Sunday, marathon runners streamed through Austin's twisty, hilly streets.

I preferred walking, camera in hand.

Walking through almost any city means walking through history, walking through art...

When I walk through these old parts of Austin, 

I imagine I'm retracing steps my great-great-grandfather took a hundred years ago...

I wonder if he ever had reason to step inside this house? (I wish I had reason to!)

We had a long walk Sunday, from 38th to10th and back again. 

Thank goodness I had my camera to take my mind off of my aching feet, legs and back, 

because Austin's art has no boundaries...

Hello, Blue Cow...

Art takes many forms. 

Take a look at this porch roof...

It's like a fairy tale house, isn't it?

Such attention to detail. See the flower bed? 

The fairy-tale house was exciting, but we were getting tired...

But we kept on (what else could we do?) and were rewarded with this suburban windmill...

 and other architectural treasures, like this wall I fell in love with...

I just love the colored glass blocks...

I had a lot of fun snapping shot after shot...

...including one of this wagon wheel wall connected to it...

Then I realized Tom and Daniel were leaving me!

I caught up to them at this alley... 

And Tom asked me to take a shot of this house - pretty cool, isn't it?

But then I got distracted again by this little barn... 

I took lots of shots of it to play around with...

There was a face painted on the side...

...and more faces along the way farther down the road...

What's up with the faces?

I have no idea who painted them or why, but they helped me forget my aching legs!

...I loved the contrast between the old shadowed tin and the bright green in this alley... 

but mostly I loved that it was just steps from our destination! 

Hope you enjoyed the walk as much as I did!

A Snow-Covered Morning (part 3)

Highs in the 70's. Tons of sunshine. 

No flowers lining the road, but plenty of green, thanks to the juniper and yucca, 

and the birds are singing like it's Springtime.

Could that really be it for us? No more Winter?

Between you and me, I hope the birds are right.
But it makes me extra glad I took so many shots of the snow while we had it.

Let's see, where were we? Oh, yeah... puppies playing...

They weren't the only ones playing in the snow it seems...

Not quite enough snow to cover the rocks, but that's okay. 

I love the shadows...

Why do I love photographing barbed wire and cedar posts?

Not much difference in snow and caliche...

Except snow angels are much easier than caliche angels...

More shots of the dogs, of course...

The pond even started freezing up... (although I wouldn't try ice skating on it!)

When there’s snow on the ground, I like to pretend I’m walking on clouds.

~Takayuki Ikkaku and Arisa Hosaka

That's it until next year! 

(I'm pretty sure, anyway. This is Texas, after all. You never know what the weather is going to do.)