We have yet to attend the weekly Monday evening gathering of neighbors (to play music) but even so we meet someone now and then when we take one of our frequent walks on the street. We recently had the good fortune to meet the Mystical Magical Michael, a traveling magician who lives two-doors down. I say good fortune because he’s on the road once again for a couple of months to perform!
My reserved food area for the pigs has grown from a single leftover yogurt container, to two or three containers, to 3 containers in the door and the entire left-side drawer of the fridge. Rob hasn’t said a thing as I’ve slowly co-opted a larger and larger area for random animals.
The other evening I noticed Cheech scratching her side on a tree so I went inside and grabbed a scrub brush and scratched her, petted her, and she proceeded to lie down on her side and bask in the scrub rub. Then she fell asleep for a few minutes! WOW!
Look in the center area and zoom in
We recently attended a free talk at the botanical garden about growing your own herbs in Austin. I was kind of in awe when I learned how many attendees were “master gardeners”. I didn’t even know there was such a designation! I think everywhere we go there’s expert musicians hiding in plain sight, and if not, they are magicians, artists, or secret agents for Tokyo Electron.
So we cut out early and walked through some of the garden and saw a dainty little snake in a watery zone. Then we cut across a busy road to take a peek at Barton Springs, which is an incredibly popular spot to cool off in the summer.
Roman ruins? Actually, no. I think there was a sign about how there are blind salamanders here or something? Ask Rob about that. I didn’t stop to read it all. Halfway want to snorkel in there.
As I write, I’m waiting for Paige to wake up as she just arrived yesterday for a short visit. I saw Notorious in the back eating the fruit from the tree back there. If she gets up and looks out her window now she’d see her! Later today we are hosting a gathering of new Williams students sourced from Austin and their families.
Birthday dinner! Paige turned 21!
We’ve gone out a couple of times with Louise & John, who we were lucky enough to meet via Sarah H’s long-distance introduction! I was just bragging to my landlord that we have made friends beyond Riverside Farms Road!
I didn’t even notice the naked lady prominently featured here when I took this pic. Well maybe I did? Can’t recall.
Speaking of our landlord, she invited us to another 50th birthday party of hers at another one of her homes out in New Braunfels, which is about an hour away, almost into San Antonio. We were blown away by her location which overlooks the Guadalupe River where loads of people come to go tubing. Her party featured several tube floating rides so we watched a group depart as we sipped cocktails.
Endless cool bars with outdoor seating. Note that often more people are sitting outside than inside in the heat of the summer!
One of the best beers in town!
YUMMY sandwiches at Yellow Jacket Social Club! Notice Rob’s new haircut too.
Pickled okra. We are going to wait a week or two before tasting! Not sure the random coriander seeds and stuff we threw in there will be palatable…
This insect seems to prefer to hang out on the road where inevitably it gets squished by a car (or a horse). I happened to find one pre-smushed. And then I realized it is actually TWO of them!
Last thought: why don’t shops sell pre-stamped postcards? How many times have you purchased postcards but end up bringing them home with you because you don’t get around to buying stamps for them? I bet they’d sell exponentially more postcards if they pre-stamped ‘em for the tourists.