End of Winter, Edge of Spring

Here in my little Texas hollow, Winter mostly dresses in drab greens, grays and browns - downright flamboyant, I guess, compared to its more northern wardrobe of solid white, but still wearisome to me, seeing the same old colors every morning...

But hallelujah! Winter's lease is up and Spring is moving back in, looking very fashionable. .

Every spring is the only spring — a perpetual astonishment.

Ellis Peters

British writer, 20th century

"None can have a healthy love for flowers unless he loves the wild ones."  

-  Forbes Watson 

"Little flower, but if I could understand what you are, root and all in all, I should know what God and man is."  

-  Tennyson

"What a desolate place would be a world without a flower!  It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome.  Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our starts the flowers of the heaven."

-  A.J. Balfour    

Stay tuned for more Spring fashion... I have a feeling the show's just getting started.

"With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy."   

-  Lope de Vega  

This is my contribution to focus52 sponsored by Jan at twoscoopz.com - this week's prompt is "Variety".

To see other contributions, click HERE.

El Capitan

When you return to the town of your childhood, 

the word "aged" takes on real, visual, meaning.

Neon lights still grace the movie house 

where you watched Elvis strut his stuff in "Viva Las Vegas" 

and couldn't wait to be old enough to sit in the balcony

(or maybe the cry room way up in the corner, where you knew the older kids were making out)...

...but they no longer shine and the ticket booth is empty. 

A peek through the glass doors reveals abandoned counters and dark stairs...

 ...and a building becomes a mirror, 

reflecting the lines on your face and gray streaks in your hair.

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!