Wordless Wednesday: what rain can do

Not just a facelift

I knew that the Municipal Auditorium—a venue downtown that's staged shows (we saw Phantom of the Opera there years ago), high school graduations (both of our kids', plus countless others), Fiesta royalty coronations, etc.—is undergoing a renovation. (Controversial to some degree, but, then what isn't when a historical building is involved?)

But I had no idea how extensive the project is...the information was there, but I just hadn't followed the story that closely. 

So imagine my surprise, when I walked from the bus stop to a nearby restaurant for some Texas Public Radio volunteering this weekend, and got a gander at what's happening to the Auditorium's guts! I took this picture from just across the River.

there's just nothing left!

Wow! No wonder the project's not scheduled to be completed until the end of next year. I had wondered why it would take so long. Where are all those kids going to graduate in the meantime?

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By the way, I saw some other interesting sights on the short stroll from bus stop to event venue. (While being so glad I hadn't needed to find a place to park; with the Auditorium construction it's even worse than usual.)

a Texas Mountain Laurel in FULL bloom...these wonderful trees all have
 different blooming schedules most of the others I've noticed are just budding

our wonderful enchilada-red central library across the way (I can't believe I haven't blogged about this amazing structure before...I'll have to pay it a visit and take some pictures for you soon)

Drops in the bucket

As you might have been able to infer from my last Wordless Wednesday post, Canyon Lake is still 'way, 'way down, thanks to our current monster drought. (notice closed boat ramp listings prominently displayed on the Chamber of Commerce website).

Here's a zoom out from the WW shot, showing a bit more of the usually-not-exposed shoreline:

(Perspicacious readers will remember that I've WW-ed the low lake level before)

On our most recent visit, however, we did see some signs of hope for those closed boat ramps. We've had a lot of rain (for us) the last several weeks, including a pretty big storm Friday night. So a hike around the place Sunday morning showed water still flowing into the lake, at least at our little cove:

(for reference, normal pool elevation has the water just below the top shelf shown here!)

As you can see, though, it's got a long way to go. The weekend's only occasional sunlight really showed up the beaches-that-shouldn't-be-there:

How long—if ever—before they get covered up again?

Wordless Wednesday: ghost trees

A blogging first

You guys will think I'm so very backward and twen-cen-ish, but this is the first blog post of mine to feature a photo taken with my phone:

I was on my way to work on a slightly foggy morning when the "lighthouse" in the middle of Woodlawn Lake caught my eye. Darn it! I left the camera at home that morning!

Somewhat to my surprise, however, I realized I had another camera. And I thought I remembered how to send a photo taken with it to my email. [There's probably a way to send it straight to Picasa so that it would be available directly to put in a blog, but I haven't gotten that far yet into the 21st century!]

So this rather nice image got saved for posterity after all. Do we live in a wonderful world or what?!

Wordless Wednesday: a Valentine's surprise

Window treatment

We are having a VERY cold and gloomy day here today. There might even be snow! Although it will probably be sleet. But if there's any frozen precip I'll try to get pictures of it so my northern readers can laugh at how excited such an experience makes all of us down here.

However, I'm spending most of the weekend working on curtains. This is an activity that I haven't attempted in many, many, years. But I'm finding that the deeply-rooted experiences passed on from my mother and grandmother have remained accessible by my brain's RAM system. Not to mention that my ancient sewing machine (a surprise present from my Mom while I was in college; which, trust me, was a LONG time ago) is still functional.

Looks like a good day to be inside instead of outside...

In spite of the fact that the window above looks like it could use a treatment, too, what I'm working on are curtains for our place in Colorado. We've had new shades installed for the expansive windows in the main room of our place (thanks to super-handyman Chris for sending us this picture...we haven't personally seen the shades yet):

We think they will cut down on the glare from the low winter sun while still letting in some of the ambient scenery. But for one of the windows, that faces our next-door-neighbor's place rather cosily, we thought privacy might occasionally be appropriate. So that's the main curtain I'm constructing. 

However, thanks to a cache of attractive fabric that my mother-in-law had put away, and that we recently discovered (I'd seen it in the bin before but thought it was a tablecloth...Tootsie was very big on table settings), I have enough material for not only that curtain, but also for some in the bathroom, a kitchen door, and valences for above the shades. 

Here's the fabric we found:

Isn't it pretty?! And we think it will both complement our newly cream-colored walls and provide welcome splashes of color on them.

I got sort of an idea of how the things will hang by trying them out on a new curtain rod suspended between two doors, as you see below. I'm going to wait to do the final hemming up of the bottoms until they are in situ, since I don't fully trust my measurements. But I'm pleased with how they're coming out.

The whole process would be going much more smoothly, and would be more enjoyable, if Mom and Momoo were around to consult with and answer questions. But I hope they would be happy with how I've channeled their expertise. I can't even think about sewing anything without remembering their patient teaching sessions. 

So much for the blogging break...back to work!

Wordless Wednesday: almost done!

A quiet corner

I apologize for being so remiss about blogging lately.

I have several excuses:

• other projects real (sewing curtains for our place in Colorado) and virtual (a new web project that's not quite ready for prime time yet—perhaps a preview will be coming soon);
• bad cold that's hung on with a cough and sapped energy; and, perhaps most telling,
• a case of the blogging blahs

But, on the way to speak in a science class, I happened to see a quiet corner of the campus from a new angle, and my near-dormant blogging juices felt a stir.

I pass the Marianist cemetery going to and from the bus stop every day, but hadn't seen it from this slightly elevated viewpoint before. And since I've always found cemeteries to be uniquely peaceful and welcoming places, I thought it might make an interesting blogging subject.

Especially when we were fortunate to have a foggy morning earlier this week. Fog enhances any landscape, but perhaps especially one like this!

The cemetery is a final resting place for over 100 lay and professed Marianists who have taught or otherwise been associated with the University. It's next to the residence where many of them live. The building on the far side of the graveyard in the picture at the top of the post is their chapel—great acoustics! the college choir I sing with has performed there.

Also next to the chapel is the largest set of windchimes I've ever seen...it takes a bit to get them going, but when they swing they sound amazing!

Here are a couple more atmospheric foggy shots of this peaceful place:

I've been at St. Mary's a long time, but of course the earliest gravestones in the cemetery memorialize educators unfamiliar to me. 

But the more recent names are another story. For example, Brother Paul, the gentleman whose stone is on the left was director of the Library where I work when that building was constructed in the late 1960's. Word has it that he had a lot to do with its design, and I must say he did a great job. It's been a very pleasant work environment for me all this time. He'd already retired when I came to work here, but he continued to be active in library-related work, spending many years as the Marianist archivist.

We are making some big changes in the Library, though, this year. I'll tell you about that in a future post. 

Wordless Wednesday: sunrise with the sunset setting