Look! it's the A Tribute to Elvis car parked outside the Little White Chapel. The wad of flowers is hot-glued onto the car, as is the length of festive red tulle. It's really quite fancy, if you like that sort of thing.
As you probably are aware, the Little White Chapel is where Joan Collins got married. But I don't know which time.
I KNOW there are a bunch of dummies out there, but I was still startled to see this display of books for dummies. Quite a range was represented, and this picture shows only half of the ones on the table.
We moved to this house in the spring of 1985, and started planting trees as soon as we could afford them. (The house wasn't new when we moved in, but the yard was in pretty sad shape.)
The first clump of live oaks in the front yard didn't survive and had to be replaced, and we chose a pair of shademaster locusts on the west side of the driveway. This is the first year that the oaks and locusts have met in the middle of the two-car driveway.
The rain this afternoon was sort of tropical - it lasted a few minutes, came without the drama of thunder and lightning, fell straight down, and was gone.
I sat on the deck and watched the rain run off the roof, channeled into parallel lines by the ridges of the metal roof.
Brady, Texas Un-named motel, with room-side garages Refrigerator parked in one of the garages Unpaved parking lot Clump of live oaks Three wooden crosses.
Is it just me? Or, if Andrew Wyeth had lived around here, would this scene have been in one of his paintings?
Wastella, Texas
PS - Yep, that's the actual name of the town:
With the arrival of the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway in 1908, landowner Will Neeley donated the land for a new town. The rather unusual name was meant to honor Neely's eldest daughter. Wastella did develop as a town - and even had a hotel and a few stores, but being just one train stop from Roscoe stifled real growth. According to the detailed TxDoT Nolan County map, Wastella cannot even claim a cemetery.
from www.texasescapes.com/TexasGhostTowns/Wastella-Texas.htm, which goes on to note that the most recent census numbers, in 1990, put the town's population at 13.
It New Orleans, it would be called a "neutral ground" - the grassy strip between the one-way streets. There's no compact term for it here, so I guess we'd just have to call it the grassy strip between the one-way streets.
At any rate, this metal building has been there as long as I can remember, looking incrementally worse for wear each year. It looks like now the graffiti artists have even given up on it, which would be depressing for a building that was self-aware.
For my faraway friends - and you know who you are - that doubt the existence of something called "frito pie," here's photographic proof.
Fritos, chopped brisket, beans, cheese, barbeque sauce, in case the above-referenced friends want to make some themselves. Although the frito pie purists might disagree, I supposed you could add sour cream, or relish, or jalapenos also.
My friend Martha gave me this excellent paperweight. It's glass, green that goes to purple at the edges. It's heavy, just heavy enough to feel good in my hand. It lives on the left side of my computer, and when I am have trouble getting just the right word or image, I'll cradle it in my hand.
Thanks, Martha!
Lubbock, Texas
(On the back it says "Robert Held Art Glass - Canada")
The big liquor election is tomorrow. Maybe... maybe there are enough forward-looking voters that we can soon be treated like adults around here and be able to buy alcohol in town.
Hannah is so used to having her picture taken (I don't know how that happened!) that she refers to all photographs as "hannahs" - and she really doesn't seem to have the slightest clue that there could possibly be such a thing as a "hannah" without her in it.
Inspired by a character in the Tom Robbins' novel Skinny Legs and All, I started a collection of random pieces of silverware. This forest of spoons is part of what I have accumulated.
Which character was the inspiration? Spoon, of course.
Read the novel if you want, but get ready for... well, get ready for a Tom Robbins novel. (Publishers Weekly called Skinny Legs and All "a phantasmagorical, politically charged tale." Sadly, they failed to mention my spoon collection in the review.)
Abandoned and disintegrating farm buildings dot this part of the country. This one had an additional feature: an old storm cellar that was guarded by a green lizard.
The "Where the Spirit Left" project loaded in the back of my car, and ready for the drive to Llano, Texas, tomorrow. The show will be at FUEL Coffee Ministries through May 23, so be sure and stop by if you're in Llano...
One of my earliest memories is of my parents staying up late to process slides in the kitchen. I can still remember the first photograph I took - of a rock, with a mountain in the background. In college, I was almost positive I was going to be the next Ansel Adams.
All of which has led me here.
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