Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to Everyone!

So many stockings!

(Two more than last year; Gramma has been busy)

Fabulous photos

Yes, I know this isn't a photograph, but isn't it spectacular?! 

This is just one of the many great pieces of art at our local Briscoe Western Art Museum. I've written about this place before; follow this link to see more of its treasures. 

But the reason we visited it this week was to see its exhibition of stereo photographs of old San Antonio. You can see some of the images (in mono) here. (Their photos were much better than any I could have taken.)

I love old pictures, especially of scenes that are at least somewhat familiar, and the addition of the stereoviewing made it that much more exciting. They have the exhibition set up very nicely, with plenty of binocular viewing glasses so that you can really enjoy the stereos. We were there on a free Tuesday night, and even so it wasn't too crowded and we never had to wait for any binoculars.

If you are near SA, I highly recommend going to see this exhibit, but don't wait! It's only up until January 21.

More color

Last week I treated you to some gorgeous natural color in our yard and our neighborhood. But the brilliant fall we're having extends much further afield. The picture above was taken at a friend's cabin near Leakey, almost two hours west of San Antonio.

Yes, this is the same place we came to about 6 weeks ago for a fun paddle on the Frio River. This trip I didn't go on the river (the flow was even higher than before, and I had more excitement than I really like on that excursion) but enjoyed the scenery all the same.

The weather was so bright and beautiful that day that even the past-their-prime brown leaves of some oaks near the cabin were eye-catching...

blue sky and shapely branches

brown is beautiful in full sun

Of course, the fact that I didn't want to paddle did not deter Henry. Plus, my friend and I not paddling simplified his shuttle. I got some nice snaps of Frio cypresses in full fall glory while waiting, and their brown looks pretty good, too...

Closer to home, I promised glimpses of some more of our neighborhood's fine trees. So here they are:

this red oak might have been mis-pruned at some time in its past,
but its color is glorious

this beauty is both shapely and colorful;
one of my favorites all year round

not sure if this is more cedar elm beauty, or something else...

...but I'm pretty sure this is...

...and this probably is, too; doesn't it look great against the white facade?

a couple of youngsters strutting their stuff

And it's not just leaves that are colorful. Just take a look at these abundant fruits!

Wherever you are, I hope your fall is/has been colorful!

Watch out, New England!

Thanks, I presume, to a couple of unseasonably early cold snaps, we have fabulous fall color these days around here. Honestly, probably not to rival NE too closely, but, for here, it's astounding! [Full disclosure: I did just have cataract surgery, so it's possible that the colors on view the last couple of falls were muted by the slow clouding of my old, natural lenses. The new cyborg ones are pretty sweet!]

The photo above was taken on our street, and the gloriously golden trees on the right are our very own cedar elms. Aren't they impressive?! They always look pretty nice in the fall, but this year, like many other trees in the hood, they've outdone themselves.

Here's a closer look at one...

...and as you can see, their brilliant gilding blends very nicely with some of my neighbors' reds, not to mention the greens of the guys that don't dress up for fall...

What's even more wondrous, last night we had a little rain and wind. So this morning there's a veritable yellow brick road up our front sidewalk...

...and on up the steps of our porch...

But wait! There's more! [flash to cheesy infomercial announcer voice  ]. I know I've written about our neighbor's ornamental pear tree before (history and pix can be found here, along with some other fall color snaps). But nothing prepared me for the brilliant carpet I found on our driveway this morning...

I don't think these leaves have ever been so vibrant! (removal of cataracts notwithstanding)

I think my little camera did a pretty good job of capturing this riot of color, but, believe me, there's nothing like standing in the middle of it. I just couldn't quit snapping the shutter...

our back steps

a closeup look at some of the pixels...
doesn't it look like a trendy drink decoration?!

Next time I'll venture further afield and show you some of the color around the neighborhood and countryside.

Wordless Wednesday: Not true! (in Texas, anyway)

Wordless Wednesday: neither snow nor rain...

Wordless Wednesday: glorious fall!

Raintree country*

We have our wettest-in-history-September, I presume, to thank for the gorgeous blooms and bracts that have been showing up on raintrees around my neighborhood. I rather suspect that the last few summers, being as dry as they've been, have kept these showy beauties from reaching their full potential, since their lavish production this year has really caught my eye.

There seem to be a lot of these trees around, too, and, going by my experience of how easily they sprout volunteers, I can't help but wonder how many are scions of the one in our backyard...

the one on the other side of the fence is most certainly one of our "children"

...which was, in turn, volunteered from one in my Mom's backyard in Houston. I think that might be the parent tree next to my parent, very early in its life, the skinny sapling you can barely see at the left here:

Whether Mom is ultimately responsible for the profusion of raintrees around here or not, they surely were pretty a week or so ago.

And not just as trees, either, but also as their golden largess coated many surfaces, including the canoe that's regularly stored in our backyard:

Normally, "yellow snow" doesn't have a pleasant connotation, but when the "snow" is made up of these lovely blossoms...

...it makes for a very attractive decoration, whether in the street or on a canoe:

You have to look quick to get the best effect of the raintrees' blossoms, but their aesthetic contribution to the neighborhood scene doesn't stop there. For every blossom, there's a handsome russet bract soon after, and these stick around a little longer...

one of my biggest volunteers, showing off her bracts

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*I've always remembered raintrees because of what must have been a very striking movie ad I once saw for this flick (I was a big fan of the young Elizabeth Taylor in my youth); I never saw the movie, but thought a call-back to it made a nice post title .

Long time, no paddle

We have water! Actually, we have 'way too much water, but that's kind of the way it is around here: not really feast or famine, but rather absurdly forced feeding until you explode, or famine.

Last weekend we headed out to our friend's cabin near Leakey, in order to mount a paddle on the Frio River, which is usually not paddleable at all. But as you can see, above, our recent rains brought it up to the very nice level of 275 cfs.* 

Although this doesn't sound like much, the high flow did necessitate some adjustment of our plans for launching and shuttling, since most of us were reluctant to drive across Third Crossing, where we launched, like this truck did.

This lovely river, with its crystal clear water and banks graced with tons of stately cypress trees, gave us an exciting and enjoyable afternoon of boating fun.

view from our launch site, on the near side of the river

delicate cypress branches not quite turning yet
(we did see some getting reddish later on)

the view downriver

This pair of cypress are possibly the largest, and most gorgeous, I've ever seen; aren't they spectacular?!

As you can tell from these shots, the scenery around this part of the Frio is especially wonderful. From the trees I've been gushing about, to some particularly handsome—and rugged—cliffs...

this hardly looks like it's in Texas, does it?

view from our friend's cabin

Our lodging spot isn't on the Frio itself, but rather one of its forks...still quite scenic, and with more water than usual.

Here are the little rapids just down the hill...

...and the fork, with lovely fall blooms in the foreground...

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*As an example of the water feast-or-famine that I mentioned above, go back and look at the pictures I showed you of the Frio and imagine the water to be 10 feet higher; that's what it was like just two days after our paddle, and after a lot more rain (the rain that caused the tragic Llano flooding that's on view in the link near the top of this post). From 275 cfs on Saturday, it crested at 23,000 on Monday morning. Feast or famine, indeed.

Scenic and exciting Portland

Isn't this a lovely view?! My last night in Portland, the kids treated me to a delightful pizza picnic on the Eastern Promenade (such a classy-sounding area!), specifically at Fort Allen Park. We were gifted with great, cool weather, and wonderful views of watercraft of all sizes and descriptions...

one of the city's ferries heading back into port

we got to watch this behemoth steam out into the Bay of Maine

another large vessel in the background, with probably not as luxurious accommodations

Here's a look at our delightful viewing/eating/playing spot:

Earlier in my visit, I was treated to some other nice views 'round about town. For instance, while accompanying the fam to the newest granddaugher's 1-month checkup, this nice vista of downtown was on offer...

...and I finally was able to snap a good picture of this iconic factory...it makes me hungry just looking at that logo!

Closer to home, there was quite a show on the kids' street. No, it wasn't the mucking out of the storm drains, like we got to witness a couple of summers ago. This time it was taking down a very large tree. I didn't get pictures of the first part of the lumber-jacking, but when they (or, rather, he—just one guy!) came to haul off the logs I couldn't resist trying to record this riveting drama.

several of Adorable Granddaugher's animals got to watch the show with us,
perched on the window sill; this is her alpaca

My son says Gramma seems to hit it pretty lucky, coming at just the right time for these unusual entertainments. As you can see, this was not an easy job: those logs were gigantic, both long and thick...

...and such cool machinery!

I wonder what astounding "dirty job" will be on offer during my next trip?!