Flowers my Mom would love

Her favorite color was yellow...

...so I think she would have liked this field of daisies in Johnson City. We stopped here last weekend to check out the Pedernales River.

We saw a lot of black-eyed susans, too. These were in Pedernales Falls State Park:

Of course there's always more to see in fields of flowers...

the lizards here were very well fed!

And there were a few non-yellow blossoms sprinkled in the mix:

a primrose?

one of my favorites: a winecup

But the yellows, especially in such profusion, always remind me of Mom. We miss you, Granny! Wish you could have been with us last weekend.

River watching, not paddling

Our unseasonable rains lately actually put too much water into our local rivers, too much for paddling that is. 

But it makes for great river tourist-ing!

We spent last Saturday touring some river scenery that we don't see often. The Pedernales River west of Austin is usually not-paddleable. And it wasn't last weekend, either, but for the reason opposite to the usual one.

The fabulous scene at the top of the post is part of the eponymous Pedernales Falls at the State Park. Those rocks are usually almost completely dry, and all that water coming over the top of the falls is normally more of a trickle. (Pictures on the State Park websites show the more common conditions.)

But before culminating our visit at the Park, we made a couple of other stops to check out crossings of the River upstream.

You can tell how much above normal the flow is in this shot; notice the inundated plants:

And here, at an LCRA dam (in their nice park) in Johnson City...in these conditions, I think the warning might not be needed!

What a pleasant way to spend a non-paddling Saturday! Here are some more shots of those spectacular falls:

one of the Park's convenient overlooks

the middle section

the lowest section

Who knew?

Who knows how much history is in the land around us? Even in something so mundane as the street beneath our feet?

The other day, when I arrived back at my car after riding the bus from work, I saw what looked for all the world like a historical marker, right by the vehicle.

Now, I know that our cars are all getting pretty ancient, for cars. But I don't think any of them will rate historical status for a while yet.

And they don't. But what does, rather surprisingly, is the street upon which this one was parked. Here's the marker after its unveiling last weekend:

The nice, wide street by Laurel Heights Methodist Church, which I picked as a place to park on my bus-riding days because it's well-traveled, but not so narrow that a parked car would pose a problem for anyone. Well, it's historic!

Made of concrete of a special kind developed in San Antonio over 100 years ago, it's still doing its job and facilitating neighborhood transportation. Just as it did back when at least some of the traffic moving over it was hooves instead of wheels.

I'd always noticed the patterning of these few blocks of Belknap Place, and rather assumed that it was paved in brick—an usual-enough occurrence. But it turns out it's even more unusual. That's concrete that was intentionally scored that way to provide some traction for the horses. 

Knowing how this was made, and for what reasons it looks like this, really makes history come alive. This whole area used to be farmland, and, a little over 100 years ago, homes started being built here, and folks needed roads to get around. Voila! The street that I park on today, existing pretty much as it did then, with no major repairs needing to be made in all that time.

Who knew, indeed!?!

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PS. There was a celebration to mark the uncovering of the marker, and it would have been fun to attend it, but we were busy in the country that day. I'll tell you about that trip next time.

Wordless Wednesday: sentinels

Wearin' of the green

I know I'm a little late for a St. Patrick's reference, but you can't help but be overwhelmed by the greenness of everything around here lately. It's amazing what somewhat regular rainfall can do!

Not only was the Guadalupe at an almost perfect level last Saturday, thanks to rains earlier in the week, but the foliage of all kinds was almost blindingly green. I'll wager that scene of the Zoeller Lane bridge above hardly ever has such colorful framing greenery.

(And a few minutes after the photo above was taken we saw our Dear Leader, unable to join us on the river today, watching our little caravan pass under the bridge. Now, that's dedication!)

There's also more moss than I usually remember seeing on these cypress, isn't there?

I know moss isn't green, but it's still pretty photogenic

Of course, for me, the foliage of the trees, even when unseasonably colorful, is never the whole story of how wonderful these old friends are. Just look at the intricate weaving of this cypress' roots:

...could a sculptor have fashioned anything more whimsical and intriguing?!

And it's always interesting, if somewhat sobering, to see evidence of the recent high water, like this debris pile choking the outlet of a small creek...

...or here where the debris and a tree that's leaning precariously over the water courteously left just enough room for us to slide through...

Evidence of floods long past is also all around us on these paddles. Like these eroded limestone shelves; I know I've shown you countless photos of this kind of feature, but every time I see them I can't help snapping more shots.

And from a rather cataclysmic event, as opposed to a slower eroding, here's a block that must have disconnected from its mother cliff not too long ago, judging by the light, unweathered color of both the block and its former resting place. 

Geology [almost, fortunately!] in action

We had a little rain the last half of our trip, but nothing too heavy. Although all our clothes and gear was soaked and it's taken a while for it to dry out, given this very unusual wet weather pattern we've been experiencing. But we'll take it, if it leads to more fun, green, paddles like this one.

Wordless Wednesday: back to church

It's getting real...

...retirement, that is.

What once seemed comfortably in the future has all of a sudden moved to just around the corner. In fact, in a few days I'll have single digit workdays left!

And I've had not one, but two fine retirement parties...so I guess it must really be happening. The lovely flowers shown above are from the university-wide celebration for all the retiring faculty. It was very nice, and in addition to getting to take home some of the floral decorations, I was given this wonderful watercolor by Bro. Cletus Behlman, the University's talented and prolific artist in residence:

It shows the distinctive main administration building and is now proudly on display in our downstairs powder room, where we've had another of his paintings for some time.

But a more special party was thrown by my wonderful colleagues on Friday. Look at these great decorations (and decorative eats)—a perfect sendoff for a government information librarian.

Here's a closeup of the cake, "painted" by our own cake-artist-in-residence:

Even the cupcakes sported stars and bars!

We had to have the party now since several of my co-workers will be on vacation the rest of the

month, but I'll be working thru May 31.

I have a lot of old emails and documents to sort through, I need to do some final tidying-up of our tangible collection, and I want to go over my research guides again to catch anything that needs updating.

Since they are not replacing my position, my work is being divided up among several of my colleagues, and I want to leave things as shipshape-and-Bristol-fashion for them as I can.

That's the least I can do for this group of friends who went to so much trouble for this great party!