Our neighborhood school

The weather here on Christmas day was delightful. A front was on its way in, so it was breezy, but it wasn't all the way here yet, so it was cool but not cold.

I had planned to take a calorie-burning walk, and at the last minute Henry decided to join me. I wanted to walk the few blocks over to Trinity University and see what was up with the large new science building that they've been working on the past several months.

(One of our nephews recently graduated from Trinity, with a degree in physics, and expressed his disappointment that they hadn't built this massive new science building a few years earlier. This lament reminded us of our days at library and law school in Austin at UT; the student union building was closed for a spiffy renovation almost the whole time we were there!)

this is just part of the new building!

We ended up taking a much longer walk than I had originally planned, but it was a lot of fun. The Trinity campus is really beautiful, partly due to its hilly location (the site of a former quarry) and abundant beautiful trees...

...but also because of its lavish buildings and other facilities...

[I'm going to try not to be snarky in my descriptions of the Trinity campus because it really is lovely, and the school is an asset to the city. But they obviously have so much more money than my school across town. However, they just as obviously don't have as much money as Rice, my alma mater, so I guess I can't complain too much.

And, I do like the bronze Rattler statue outside of our gym more than Trinity's tiger (see left). Although the latter is quite handsome. When I get back to work next month I'll snap a photo of the snake and let you decide.]

Since the buildings were all closed up for the holidays, our sight-seeing was limited to exteriors on the campus, but that meant we could take in a lot of athletic facilities. Wow! They play a lot of sports over there, for a D-III school, and they play them in some pretty nice accommodations.

We've been to some games in their very attractive soccer stadium. They came up with a great way to make room for a lot of spectators in a relatively small space (reminiscent of English football's terraces, but without the enormous crowds that made those places so dangerous).

It would be fun to go to a lacrosse game (or LAX, as I've learned to call it, thanks to another nephew who plays regularly); we'll have to keep an eye on the schedule. I made Henry out-stand in the field so that I could showcase his handsome office building in the background. He can watch games out of his office window, should he need to take a break from work—occasionally.

There's also tennis, in this and yet another tennis stadium:

And swimming, in this very nice outdoor pool:

And, of course, football. Although the fact that St. Mary's doesn't have a football team is one of things I like most about it...

[last Wednesday's Wordless post was taken on the track that encircles the football field]

I've often said that if St. Mary's, where I love my job, could just swap places with Trinity, I could walk or ride my bike to work. But, since that's not how things are, I ride the bus instead. However, it's nice to have Trinity close by, to provide a pleasant walk on a balmy Christmas day, all the same.

Very sweet homes

When I biked over to Koehler House last week I couldn't help but notice that it's not the only really cool house on Belknap Place.

So on my ride home I made a few stops and took pictures of some of the most spectacular buildings along the way. [Side note: it surely would be a lot easier to take good pictures of these structures if the utility wire were buried in this neighborhood. Sigh.]

The neighborhood is called Monte Vista and it's one of those areas with its own special street signs, as well as its own historical association. [However, without buried utility lines!] It's also much larger than the area where I was taking pictures on my bike ride. One of these days I need to take a more comprehensive ride through it so that I can show you even more of the wonderful houses there.

One type of structure that you can't help but remark upon as you ride down Belknap is the sacred variety. You can start right across the street from Koehler House...Temple Beth El:

This is serious architecture! You can see Beth-El's distinctive dome from all over town; I have spotted it from an upper floor of the admin building all the way west at St. Mary's.

Not quite as spectacular, but still lovely, especially with all the great trees around it, is Christ Episcopal:

A couple of blocks further north is this church building, which used to be a Christian Science building but for the past several years has been used by other congregations:

And you even have my bus-stop church, where I recently attended a super-duper organ concert, Laurel Heights Methodist:

You could do a lot worse for a bike riding neighborhood, I think. I will try to show you more of it as I attempt to follow a new year's resolution to walk and bike more often in 2013.

Wordless Wednesday: countdown (to a new year)

Playing favorites

Nothing says Christmas to me more than tree ornaments.

And, although I'm quite fond of the plain, colored glass balls, I find each year that the ornaments I most enjoy placing on the tree are the ones with special stories or that are unique in some way.

I thought it might be fun to see if I could take decent pictures of some of these treasures. In some cases I was better at this than in others, but I hope you forgive some of the blurriness and enjoy seeing them. And I hope they might make you remember some favorites of your own.

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Ornaments made at school are the most precious:

Sally in pre-school, 1987-8

Hal at Mother's Day Out 1983

And then, of course, the hand-made treasures from school days are priceless:

Some other of the hand-made ornaments we have aren't as obviously handmade...

one of my great-aunts was very into ceramics and made this for us

stitchery was very popular  in my family for several years...

personalized, dated, handiwork is especially treasured

My mother made us a series of little gingerbread men like the one you see above here. Also featured in this photo is another good category: ornaments from favorite places. The blue-white ball is from Glacier National Park. And the ball on the lower right is a favorite old ornament that I "inherited" from Mom's collection. Here's another one:

In general, I'm a fan of simple elegance in ornaments...

but as much as I like the clear ball above, I'm also fond of a set of ornate hand-mades that, unlike most of my Christmas crafts, actually turned out okay:

Another favorite series are some "crystal" plastic plaque-like ornaments that Mom gave us. Dated! Which automatically brings back memories of Christmases past...

beside the 1981 plaque is another favorite "inherited" ball—looks very '60's, doesn't it?

the 1982 plaque is near another one of those gingerbread men

1980 was a very special Christmas...the first one that we were really a family instead of just a couple

I'll finish up with one of our favorite whimsical decorations...and we're hoping he—and we— have some snow to ski on soon!

I hope you are all enjoying your trees and other decorations and are having a wonderful holiday season!

Cadillac office

I'm not sure I could be very productive if my office were in a building like this:

I mean, wouldn't you feel a bit Downton-Abbey-ish just coming in the door in the morning? 

My friend Susan seems not to let this bother her, though, as she works on the second-floor of this splendid edifice, and has for some years. I don't think they'd keep her on if she just sat around ringing bells for servants all the time.

The house is used as offices by San Antonio College, having been donated to the wonderful Community College District by the Koehler family (pronounced, in German-Tex, as KAY-ler) who built it in the 1890's. (You can read more about its history here, as well as find out how to have a party, wedding, or other event inside. After you've seen some of my pictures, you might want to do this!)

I biked over to SAC yesterday, and Susan was kind enough to give me a comprehensive tour of the building, being one of only a few souls still working. Wow! What an amazing place!

I confess that I probably went a little bonkers with the camera. I hope, if you enjoy old houses as much as I do, especially the lovely little details of decor—like the exquisite tiles on the left, from the kitchen wall—and architecture, that you don't mind the length of this post. (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)

First of all, to prove that she really works in this dreamy place, here is Susan's office:

(The only advantage my workspace has over this one is that I haven't had to be in it for the last week...I get a longer Christmas break than she does. Nyahhh!)

Staircases are understandably a striking centerpiece of houses like this. Here's looking up the main stairs...

...and down...

A meal in this luxurious dining room would be heavenly. But I hope they don't try to have work conferences here. It would be really hard to concentrate, I should think. All that gorgeous wood!

There's even TWO dining/meeting areas!

Susan thinks this lovely tiled space was once a conservatory:

tour guide striking an appropriately Downton-ish pose

Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that I timed my tour visit for the holidays, when everything was especially fancied up. Can you imagine a better setting for a Christmas tree than this "nook"?

As spectacular as the spacious rooms are, though, it's the decorative details that really catch the eye in houses like this. Here's an absolutely exquisite window in one of the bathrooms:

And here are more of the tiles. I had to take pictures of every one of these walls that I saw...

The last tile masterpiece isn't on a wall but a floor; specifically, the top step of the side porch. Which is also graced by extra-delicate stonework...

The final Downton Abbey touch (although without the bells that you see in the opening credits) was this signal board in the kitchen. Some people really did have this many rooms and needed to send servants to the right ones, I guess!

One thing Koehler House has that they don't even have at Downton (at least not that's appeared in any episodes so far!) is in the basement...

This, and a few other murals supposedly painted by the original owner himself, depict the activity...bowling! 

Yes, the Koehlers had their own private bowling alley. The neatest thing about this single lane is the beautiful wooden ball return on the right!

(You might notice in the mural that the bowlers are drinking, too; appropriately, since Mr. Koehler is best known as the owner of the Pearl Brewery. Which has now become a popular mixed use development that I've written about before, not far from the house.)

The grounds are as lovely as the interior of the house, with some really spectacular trees...

All in all, a really wonderful treasure that SAC is, I must say, taking very good care of. Thanks again to Susan for taking time to show me around!