Sisters of the Sea

Don't these little girls just melt your heart?

Of dozens and dozens and dozens of photos I took during four days on the coast with my own sisters of the sea (story here)

this is my favorite.

(I'll post the rest later.)

(No, not all of them, I promise.)


Thanks for choosing this as a Post of the Week, Hilary!

Last, but not least... the Pigeon! (Georgetown Flashback #5)

I'm just returned and not quite recovered from a weekend at the coast with 15 other women and haven't yet had a chance to sort through the zillions of seagull and pelican and sunrise photos I snapped. 

In the meantime, I remembered these shots of a Georgetown pigeon I met while looking up at the glorious buildings.

He couldn't quite figure me out...

"Aren't you through snapping?"

(I know what he was thinking because I see that look on Tom's face all the time!)

Little Church on the Square (Georgetown Flashback #4)

I'm drawn to old churches, anyway, 

but this one just a few steps off of the courthouse square in Georgetown, Texas, 

especially caught my eye, 

with its castle-like, fleur-de-lis tipped architecture. 

  

But what I loved most about it (as you'll see) 

were the windows, the clapboard siding, 

and the pretty red flowers lining the ramp.

Beautiful combination, right?

It doesn't take much to make me smile.

It's now the home of the Georgetown Heritage Society. 

Very fitting.

In Homage to the Architects of Old (Georgetown Flashback #3)

I look up when I wander through old sections of small towns, where progress looks outward, into the farmlands, filling the fields with unadorned concrete, glass and sheet metal buildings, built to be replaced.

The buildings in these small Texas towns were designed with pride and built to last, to show off, to stand out. 

It breaks my heart when I see them neglected.

That's not the case in Georgetown, though. At least not now. 

“Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.” ~  Ernest Dimnet 

"There are three forms of visual art: Painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you can walk around, and architecture is art you can walk through." ~ Dan Rice

Can you tell I love these stairs? Such a great example of function meeting art - anything can be made beautiful, if attention is paid to the details and worked with pride.  

I almost missed this, hiding under an eave at the corner of a building. 

It becomes art when every surface is a part of the canvas.

“The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.” ~  Frank Lloyd Wright

“This building is like a book. Its architecture is the binding, its text is in the glass and sculpture.” ~  Malcolm Miller

“An architect is the drawer of dreams” ~  Grace McGarvie 

In these old towns, each building has its own personality.

“Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen music.” ~  Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling

Georgetown Flashback #2 - Around the Square

I love a courthouse...the architecture, the history...but I'll be honest, I love the square around it even more, all the eclectic shops and wonderful old buildings.

Especially if it's revitalized like the one in Georgetown, where the old buildings are put back into use, refurbished, painted, filled with antiques, crafts, books or quirky gifts and busy with customers. 

Our first stop was Handcrafts Unlimited, an amazing Co-op that has been in business for more than 25 years, a place where senior citizens can sell their handmade crafts and art.

I came across these crocheted watermelon slice potholders - exactly like the ones my Grandmother made. In fact, I found several things in the store exactly like my Grandmother made. I wish she'd had a place like this to sell her products!

What tempted me the most were these pottery pieces. But as I mentioned in my last post, I was on a strict budget. To fight the urge to buy anything, I just snapped more photos...

...like this one of my friend Mary Kay. She bought a few things, I believe, but mostly she gathered ideas. But also take a look at this shop, at the wood floor and tin ceiling and quilts draped along the railings. Such a cool building. The women working there are all volunteers.

Of course, there were plenty of antique shops as well.

I had to go into the Georgetown Winery Tasting Room and gift shop. Loved this sign!

Decorative man-hole covers and old brick sidewalks added lots of personality...

...as did this sculpture on a side street.

Another junky antique shop lured us farther down the side street.

I've posted this book-chair before but had to share it again... it's so original!

I shot it from several angles. Just love the detail on it! I wonder where I could find one of these?

And look at this vintage beauty I spotted on the square. See the blue in the hubcaps? Nice touch!

Stay tuned for more scenes of Georgetown. 

(Yes, there are more! My camera saved me a lot of money that day!)

Separation Anxiety (and a Georgetown Flashback, Part 1: the Courthouse)

I finally dropped my Nikon off for some much-needed TLC last week.

It was tough letting go, I admit it. But when the technician cleaning my lens muttered something about it "living in an unclean environment" as the pile of dirty Q-tips on the table grew larger, I felt ashamed of my selfish clinginess.

The poor thing has suffered such abuse over the past few years! Even cameras deserve a vacation, don't they? I vow to take much better care of it from now on.

It helped to have my iPhone - I even discovered I can take videos! But I'll be so glad to hold my Nikon in my hands again. Nothing can take its place (except maybe a Nikon D7000...)

I've been going through some 'old' photos, reminiscing about the good times I've shared with my camera, and look what I discovered! Some shots of a day we spent together in Georgetown, Texas back in July. 

Antiques and architecture... two things my camera and I both love!

We were there for several hours and since I was on a tight budget and only window-shopping, I ended up with dozens and dozens of photos. 

I'll start with the courthouse... (I love courthouses, don't you?)

I have no idea who this is, but no courthouse is complete without a statue or two, right?

I loved the contrast of colors and materials they used on the courthouse. What a great clock!

Lady Justice - let's hope she still wields some influence!

Keeping an eye on the courthouse square. 

It looks surprisingly clean, doesn't it, considering all of those pigeons?

Come back tomorrow for "Georgetown Flashback, Part 2"!

Harvest Moon

We're caught in a clash of seasons, here in Central Texas. 

Nature blatantly dons the latest autumn fashions - leaves glisten in oranges and golds while the sky is sheathed in brilliant azure - but stubborn summer refuses to give up control of the thermostat. 

Triple digits again today.

Sigh.

"Sorrow and scarlet leaf,

Sad thoughts and sunny weather.

Ah me, this glory and this grief

Agree not well together!"

-   Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September

And yet the Harvest Moon rose, right on schedule. Kinda reassuring in this crazy world, isn't it?

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,

The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth

And you walk under the red light of fall

The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain

The sharp, gentle chill of fall.

Here as we move into the shadows of autumn

The night that brings the morning of spring

Come to us, Lord of Harvest

Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."

-  Autumn Equinox Ritual

(Cropped but otherwise, straight out of the camera. Love that orange color!)

"And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun." 

~ Roy Bean