Holding court

I have occasionally mentioned here how much we love Texas courthouses. One of the finest in the state is very close at hand, right in the middle of our downtown.

I was a little surprised to find that I hadn't displayed more pictures of it in the blog, but here's a fairly nice one.

A week or so ago, I found myself down there again, to attend a reception, and had time to snap a few shots of this great building, inside...

lovely light fixtures

...and out:

You can see more pictures, including a couple of really neat ones on old postcards, at this woefully short Wikipedia article.

They are in the midst of an extensive internal restoration project, trying to redress at least some of the modern "improvements" and return some of the spaces to their Gilded Age glory. I hope to be able to show you some of this work in the future.

But for now there are at least some objects in evidence that let you touch the building's past:

now THAT's a mailbox!

Back when it was sunny...

We've had some pretty nasty weather lately. Which made my discovery of a set of photos taken in mid-December when it happened to be super-sunny a very welcome surprise.

I know I'm quite late in telling you about this pleasant walk I took with a friend, but I'm glad I hadn't blogged about it sooner. I rather need these glimpses of blue, blue sky now more than I did then!

It might look like the location for this walk was out in the country somewhere, but it's actually right in the middle of town—sort of.

I have blogged about Woodlawn Lake before, but I never have walked all the way around it. 

It's very easy to do, since there's a nice walking trail (although some of it was undergoing refurbishment work on this particular day). Even marked off to show you how far you've gone...

The bus that I usually ride to work runs right by the lake, and I've kept note of some serious flood control construction that's been going on along its north side. We had to make a detour for several months while the bridge on Woodlawn Avenue was being rebuilt. That's finished now, but the project still has a ways to go.

However, they've also completed some very nice new bridges over the feeder creek that comes into the Lake. And I got closer views of these on my walk...

new pedestrian bridge

new vehicle bridge

They're doing a very nice job with this creek, adding walkways and other amenities that remind me somewhat of what we've seen on the re-done sections of the San Antonio River.

Doing this walk somewhat regularly wouldn't hurt my weight-loss efforts a bit. And it would be nice to be able to keep up with the infrastructure work more closely than I can from the bus windows. I'll try to post some updates when it's finished!

Wordless Wednesday: first trip to LB*!

*Los Barrios, a family favorite since before her Dad was born!

Christmas in A-town

On a visit up I-35 last week we braved the crowds to see Austin's famous Christmas tree in Zilker Park (there's even a song about it! but then everything in Austin is of course super-cool).

After a yummy dinner at a nearby food-truck lot (it was our granddaughter's first food-truck experience, but she slept through it), we walked over to the tree. It's next to the Trail of Lights, which looked pretty impressive, 

But we weren't up to that long a stroll, and experienced plenty of Christmas awe just standing under the tree. The way the lights are strung to create the tree is quite clever, making a spiral effect when you stand directly under the center...

There are smaller-scale, and quite lovely, Christmas cheer elsewhere in town, too. Like on Sally's front door...

But of course, the main Austin attraction these days isn't directly related to Christmas, although her appearance in the world is the best present we could ever have...

little Nix and her two happy grandmothers..she's #1 for both of us!

Wordless Wednesday: natural Christmas red

New England in south Texas

Thanks to an early cold (for us) snap, we are enjoying one of our best color autumns in years! Here's a sample from around the area, for your enjoyment...

at the end of my street

I swear I don't remember some of the trees that are spectacular this year ever being colorful at all before! A good example is the guy above. I'm not even sure what kind of tree this is...never having noticed it before.

one of our front yard trees

The cedar elms in our front yard are always nice, but seem to have a little extra punch this year...

...as do these beauties at St. Mary's...

next to St. Louis Hall

at the front parking lot

Not just San Antonio, but the whole area, is experiencing a peak color season...

looking up in an Austin back yard (note the half-moon)

reflections in the San Marcos River

These may not seem like much to our friends and family in the far northeast, but for us they're pretty special!

Wordless Wednesday: Professor Aunt Sally