A good color winter

When you've seen as many seasons change as I have, sometimes they tend to run together in the random access memory.

But it really seems to me that 2013 has been an exceptional year for "fall" color (which comes into its full splendor in winter around here).

See what you think...

cedar elms were particularly bright...this is one on campus

looking up our street

in front of St. Louis Hall on campus

our cedar elms

the view from our porch

The photos above were all taken earlier in the month. Now almost all the cedar elm leaves are down, but a rather surprising corner of our yard has taken center stage at this late date.

This is the cheery view that greets me from my kitchen window here at year's end.

On the right is the large golden raintree that I've written about before. It was a "volunteer" in my Mom's yard in Houston before it came to live in San Antonio, obviously many years ago. The little guy on the left is a newer volunteer, an SA native.

I've always liked having these trees in our yard, but I honestly don't remember them giving us quite such bright color in years past. 

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I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas/New Year inter-week and that you have such nice views out your windows.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Our street has really gone Snoopy this year! No, we're not nearly energetic enough to put up decorations this elaborate in our yard, but we do enjoy the fruits of others' labor.

We hope you and yours are enjoying a fun holiday!

Discouraging uninvited guests

No, I'm not offering Miss Manners-type tips for awkward holiday situations. The uninvited guests I'm referring to were (are?) of the furry variety. And I think you'd all side with me in wanting to keep  them out of the house, no matter what the season.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the guests themselves, but I can show you how they were gaining entry. It's the rotted-out hole in our facia board that I've marked with a red line in the photo above.

Imagine, if you will, a little furry brown head sticking out of that hole, essentially thanking us for providing such a snug home-away-from home. Both Henry I and saw them up there, on various occasions.

Then, weekend before last, the situation became completely untenable. It sounded like something of a feud going on over this prime real estate, between rival gangs of squirrels. You could hardly hear the TV for their chittering. Yuck!

So I put my foot down and said that something had to be done. What I'd like to have done (and what will be done, as early as possible in the new year) is for all our rotted wood trim to be replaced and painted. But we needed an emergency stopgap measure, to encourage the Sharks and the Jets to move their squabbling elsewhere.

Henry drafted the assistance (and the ladder) of his friend Bobby and the boys went into battle with the rodents. Although not directly. The little cowards made themselves pretty scarce while this Maginot Line construction was going on.

sizing up the problem

barrier board selected

putting seasonally-appropriate scrap board in place

the final fasteners

I'd like to say that we channeled Martha Stewart and painted the board its festive color for this mission. But we aren't nearly that sensitive, home-decor-wise. It was a leftover shelf from one of the kids' rooms that we found in the garage.

Here's the finished product. Cheery-enough, isn't it?

I'd also like to say that this solved the problem completely. But we can't be sure. We definitely don't hear the scratching when we're watching TV any more, but I've occasionally caught some of the same kind of noise in my study, on the other side of the house. There's probably another hole. 

But that will get taken care of when the house gets painted. AS IT WILL VERY SOON.

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I hope all of your holiday guests are of the very-much wanted variety, and that you're having great pre-Christmas visits with them!

Wordless Wednesday: perhaps an over-stock of vacation reading?

Wordless Wednesday: everyone's cold here

Old and (mostly) new in Austin

Walking in Austin's Turkey Trot last weekend was a lot of fun. And a real bonus treat was getting to see and snap photos of some of A-town's attractive new skyscrapers.

The city has grown by leaps and bounds since we were law school and library school students there in the '70's. (Meaning that we define "new" as anything built since then.) And it's still growing, as you can see by the construction cranes in this panorama of downtown from across the river, at the Trot's finish area:

Unlike some cities that shall remain nameless, Austin hasn't just bulldozed all their old structures to make room for the new. So tourists are able to see cool vintage buildings along with the flashy new ones...

A particularly photogenic structure is this tower, right on the riverside:

The kids knew enough about Austin architecture to tell me that this was used by the Fire Dept. Which tidbit allowed me to find this interesting description on the all-knowing internet.

It's not the only quirky photo opp, either, not surprisingly, given that this is Austin, after all.

are you feeling lucky? are you?

a houseboat near the 1st Street bridge

Such an interesting city. With all kinds of funky little pockets and buildings. I couldn't resist including this shot of the little bakery where we picked up a late post-race brunch:

So cool! And yummy muffins to boot. Plus, they were OPEN on Thanksgiving, which was much appreciated. 

Another odd Austin note for this place: they are on 38½ Street, which is more of a major street than 38th is. Gotta love weirdness like that.

Wordless Wednesday: Low winter sun

Trotting turkeys and other creatures

How did you spend your Thanksgiving?

I did something I don't think I've ever done before. I participated in an event where you wear a number on your chest.

Our kids had us come to Austin for the annual Turkey Trot for charity. As you can tell by our clothing, Thanksgiving Thursday in this part of the world was unusually cold. But that didn't stop nearly 20,000 runners and walkers (I was among the latter group, the rest of my party the former) from showing up on the the First Street bridge in the brisk morning air for a mass start.

A fun time was had by all, especially by the imaginative folks who dressed up for the occasion. Here are some I was able to snap:

pie guy, complete with whipped cream dollop

a fellow walker

reminders to "hydrate" are always welcome

a whole turkey family on the walkers' route

flower for a sunny day (but I don't know what
his companion was supposed to be; it looks like
she had toilet plungers with streamers for hands ???)

a whole row of appropriate costumes under the start banner

a bold fashion statement

peas in a pod

The last two photos above were taken at the festival-like après-finish area, where they were handing out welcome free water and treats like cookies, muffins, and fruit. I thought the woman in the pea costume was especially cute. Later I saw her with a companion dressed as a carrot. Vegetarians, perhaps, protesting the consumption of turkey? That wouldn't surprise visitors to Austin.

Henry and the kids were pretty pleased with their times, but I was disappointed that I was only able to get a picture of Sally as she neared the finish line. Apparently Hal and Carey passed right in front of me but there were so many runners I missed them. I told them next year they all need to wear brightly colored t-shirts like Sally's. She was hard to miss even in the crowd.

Although our group didn't dress up with holiday-specific garb, I think they made runners' fashion statements all the same.

I took a lot of pictures of downtown Austin in addition to these of costumed runners. Next time I'll share a few of those.

A majestic setting

I finally gave up this year on convincing Henry to buy season tickets for the San Antonio Symphony and bought a 7-ticket package for myself.

There's nothing quite like live music performances, and our fine symphony never disappoints.

Last night I used my second ticket and thoroughly enjoyed the program, especially the Mendelssohn violin concerto performed by a charming, talented, and rather nice-looking young man. Our bus schedules being what they are, I arrived downtown well before the show started and was able to sit in on his pre-concert discussion of the the piece before heading up to my seat in the Majestic Theatre's balcony.

As some of you might recall from previous posts, this place is really, really amazing. Built at the beginning of the motion picture era, it exhibits all the glorious decorative excesses of the period, and has been lovingly restored. (The link above the previous picture discusses the history of the building and its restoration; the video is long but very interesting.)

So I thought I'd use some of my extra time last night taking shots of some of the decorative features that caught my eye. Maybe I'll take some more photos on my next ticket, but here's a starter... (note: I took these with no flash so they're a little dark; the Majestic website has some that show details better)

stained glass fixture on the underside of the mezzanine level

ornate ceiling medallion

chandelier view from the mezzanine

Mezzanine "Ladies parlor"...so much nicer terminology than "Ladies loo"

railing of the stairs to the balcony

light above my balcony seat

super-ornate stage frame

boxes to the right of the stage

boxes to the left of the stage, and the balcony/mezzanine boundary aisle

Next season, the symphony will be moving out of the Majestic and into what's supposed to be a more up-to-date, technically-superior venue (also a restoration, sort of—but I think all that's really left of the Municipal Auditorium is the outer shell). And it might sound better there, but I can't imagine the new surroundings being as visually interesting.

I have fond memories of some even more gorgeous old movie houses in Houston that are no more. (A friend of mine from high school compiled this collection of photos from some of these monuments.) Every time I see the restored Majestic it makes me sad that H-town couldn't be bothered to do the same with the Loews and the Metropolitan.

At least my adopted home town had more sense!