Musings

A relic loblolly pine forest…so unexpected to me in my ignorance. Scientists have looked at the genetics, and these trees are closely related to others to the east. Thus, this is the westernmost stand of the eastern forest in this part of North America.

Of course, over a century ago, a big forest meant that loggers showed up. And the mills were built in Bastrop, and many people there became wealthy. Now the town seems bent on being uber-charming, to attract visitors (with credit cards and puffy pocketbooks) from nearby Austin, especially, and elsewhere.

Bastrop’s mills were powered by the water of the Colorado River, and here’s the old vehicle bridge (current one to the right), which is supposed to be a pedestrian bridge, but is closed presently.

Onward. Look: traffic. And more traffic. Look: a capital. Yes: Austin.

Post-dinner stroll: hey, Stevie Ray Vaughan, a man from a line of three-named men.

Riffles from passing crewing skulls. Yes, in the dark. And, yes, there’s a Goooooooogle “G” on the building opposite.

Playing with computational photography in the darkness under the railroad bridge over the Colorado. In between taking this and the previous photo, I was looking up for the lone star, but I saw more than one.

Posted at 8:52 PM | Comments Off on Into the political center

Turns out our word bayou is from a Frenchified Native American word. Most I’ve seen are like this—dredged and channelized.

Photographically, the high point was a morning walk in a wildlife preserve also known as a swamp. Lots of Spanish moss but no Spanish.

The trail took us back to open water—a lake? This bird kept its distance yet still was curious about us. Snowy egret.

Closer was this little blue heron, busy hunting and mostly ignoring us.

Back on the road we drove through an area with lots of ship-building, which appeared to be roadside but was really in nearby channels.

Later we got into a cane-growing zone. It is harvest season and a few guys and many machines were active. Lots of trailers, full and empty, moved the chopped plant material to…to…I assume presses?

Many bridges, a few high enough for ships to pass.

Much later we were in a traffic jam (no alternative routes), and the Guru made a new friend. Kinda.

And another spectacular sunset. Life is darned good. We sleep in Texas tonight. [Those two sentences not logically connected.]

Posted at 6:22 PM | Comments Off on Bayou territory glimpses

We joined the highway hoards returning to their nests after holiday adventures (eating, shopping, hopefully laughing), and found these junque-laden Joads on the move. The retired schoolbus was packed and the maroon crossover(?) seemed the spriteliest vehicle of the bunch by far.

Note in this snap and the previous one that the traffic was heavier in the other direction. For something like 50 miles of interstate it must have averaged about 30mph. We only had momentary slow-downs in comparison. Don’t know the temporary migration patterns that would produce this differential.

We stopped in Pascagoula to stretch our legs at a park across from this pier. I surmise that all had been rebuilt after Katrina (now way back) in 2005.

The park had a shallow wading pool with misters that could have been no more than ankle deep on a toddler when activated. Off to the side was a sign: “Please rub top of bollard to activate.” The Guru looked at it and said, “You first.”

We looked for a seafood place along the Gulf. The first choice was up on super tall pillars with a great view, but closed for cleanup (not cleaning). Ooops. But it was next to a marina full of working boats with nets not crab/lobster pots, which of course was very interesting.

We continued along the shore and found this place, not up on pillars, but still with a fine view of the water from the dining room.

These nifty new phones/cameras are wonderful. These are the colors of the sunset. Ignore the insect blotches, plz.

Deciding that it’d be wiser to get a needed car wash before we got to the desert, we went through the Wall of Foam (blue sign), and got the worst of the accumulated gunk (nastiness of oak residue was particularly worrisome on the hood) removed.

There wasn’t any other traffic on the old US highway we took instead of the interstate parallel to the shore, and the Guru stopped so I could nudge the phone/camera into the land of computational photography. It was darned dark out, but it captured the bridge superstructure as well as a few stars in the night sky. Oh, boy, we’ll have fun experimenting this whole trip!

Posted at 4:26 PM | Comments Off on You first

We had a miscellaneous errand over toward downtown, so we strolled around that area. This is the view of downtown from Jackson Street bridge. You many have seen it in a movie or in advertising art.

Turns out the libraries are closed for the holiday, so we used the book drop. Our regular branch is closed for renovations, so we used a different branch, over by the MLK center. [TMI, pretty sure.]

One of my favorite public art pieces of all time. MLK stating that he has a dream, I’m guessing.

People live around here now, in some rather expensive new apartments and not in the crack-infested public housing that was here.

Nice reflection in window of business undergoing renovation…sign is for an axe-throwing business. Have fun, it states in multiple ways.

Pansy (etc.) triangle by the MLK center. Your federal dollars at work. National Park Service property.

We discovered that we didn’t know that the Grady HIGH SCHOOL football team has a practice field. More tax dollars at work.

Posted at 6:45 PM | Comments Off on More than tax dollars

Or is it an easy one?

Watch the rain fall…or watch the bread cubes for the dressing dry?

Posted at 7:16 PM | 1 Comment »

Acorns becoming acorn flour and being blown to the curb on a street. From passing tires. Big waste of protein. If not people food, would be quality pig-food.

Some brickwork remains, but little of the wood structure above the floor (will they keep the floor even?). Wonder how much of a McMansion this will become.

Posted at 6:12 PM | Comments Off on Transitions

The overnight cold snap and a day of wind brought down the pecan leaflets to the extent that they made a carpet beneath the trees.

This gingko (and another I found) also lost many leaves, but the branch snapped before the wind really got started.

Full birdbath, yet no ice.

Posted at 6:41 PM | Comments Off on Effect after cause

Windy today, really quite windy. Makes me nervous, duh. I got out wearing overpants and turtleneck, gloves and wind-blocking ear covering and jacket. Yup.

Obviously, one double-u is the weather (supposed to be well below freezing overnight—brrrrrrrr), and the other is Washington. DC. Which I’m trying to not think too much about—generates stress.

Posted at 7:03 PM | Comments Off on Double double-u day

Sun playing peekaboo. [It’s a perspective Thang.] We wound through some valleys, and spent our last hurrah-miles up on a long ridge. I liked the views down into the piedmont. All blue, as in blue-ridge-y.

Oaks overhead. The press release on the weekend of the prime leaf color must have come out, and, with the coming weather changes, the meteorologists on the morning news shows kept repeating it. So as not to miss It, we headed out to see the leaves! But these southern mountains are mostly vegetated with oaks and evergreens, and not so pretty as maples. Still: darned lovely!

Posted at 8:04 PM | Comments Off on Ridge-running

Beautiful shade of purple, and unexpected in a grass.

Assorted smallish tall objects.

BeltLine art and Ponce City Market, the former Sears Roebuck building.

Lantana blooms and berries.

Very small puffballs.

I pondered composing a screed about the inefficiency of bureaucracy, but: too familiar, too boring.

Posted at 6:23 PM | Comments Off on Change of direction