India Ink

Brazos Bend

In Houston for Thanksgiving week with my sister, we spent a morning checking out the Brazos Bend State Park.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck (I think...)

Swirls of duckweed cover the lake

Fungus

We didn't see any alligators on this overcast day....

but we did spot this one croc... ;o)

Donna checks out the Spanish moss, which we learned, is doubly misnamed, being neither Spanish nor moss!

Austin, the Sequel

I haven't forgotten about y'all.

It's just that my personal laptop, with all my blogging words and pictures on it, is still at laptop hospital, and I won't be able to get it back until my next trip back to NY. The Colors of New York will return in a few weeks.

Anyway. Here I am, back at my old stompin' ground, Austin. On my first night here, dining at the Iron Cactus on 6th Street, I realize what a high being in a new place is for me. Even when it's an old new place. Everything seems vaguely familiar, yet shiny and new. 

The previous Austin chapter of my life began over two decades ago. When I moved here in the 1980's, it was with some reluctance and trepidation; it wasn't my first choice of home. But I was In Love With A Boy. Who was moving here to get his PhD. You know how that goes, internet, don't you, when you're young(ish) and in love?  Not moving with him didn't seem like an option. Then, once I was here, I figured I might as well pick up a degree of my own. When I said good-bye to Texas seven years later, I left with a PhD, but without a relationship.

Aside from The Boy, there are three things that I most associate with Austin. The oppressive summer heat. The breathtaking beauty of its spring bluebonnets. And the thousands of intense volunteer hours I devoted to the Austin shelter for battered women.

This time around, it's too late for the summer heat, too early for wildflowers, and little time to engage in volunteering. Both the degree and the boy are distant memories; neither has much relevance to my life today. So perhaps Austin seems shiny and new because I am a very different person than I was 20 years ago. Or perhaps it's that Austin too, has grown and changed over these decades.

In any case, I'm happy to be back, exploring the new as well as the familiar. I can't wait to walk the UT campus again. To reconnect with some old friends. To visit the bats again. To chow down good Tex-Mex. And to see what the new Austin has to offer the new me.

Go Back Up Your Files

The Colors of New York City series is temporarily on hold due to a major computer malfunction, which resulted in my (non-work) laptop (with all my photographs on it...) being sent off to computer hospital for surgery.  The good news is, my laptop is still under warranty. The bad news is, I was about a month behind in backing up my files, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will still be there when I get it back. :o( 

Colors of NYC will resume as soon as my machine is back in service.

In other news -- my NYC assignment has come to a close and I had to say good-bye to this fine city this weekend. I'm in Rochester this week, and will soon be heading out to Austin, TX for my next assignment.

Now go and backup your computer files. Seriously. Do it NOW.

Colors of New York City: Orange

Torii at the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Gay Pride Parade, Manhattan

"Suited for Subversion" civil disobedience suit by Ralph Borland at Museum of Modern Art
"Suited for Subversion is a project to create a suit that protects the wearer at large-scale street protests. The suit also monitors the wearer's pulse and projects an amplified heartbeat out of a speaker in the chest of the suit."

'Man, Heroic and Sublime' by Barnett Newman
Art installation at MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)

Daffodils, New York Botanical Garden

Nasturtium, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

Central Park, Manhattan

Staten Island Ferry

Fish at Bronx Zoo

Carrot tops at Easter Bonnet parade, 5th Avenue, Manhattan

I Cracker NY? - Times Square ad

Like orange? Go here to view 2005 Orange Colors of India and 2007 Orange Colors of Asia

Colors of New York City: Purple

4th of July fireworks, Manhattan

Mural on Coney Island boardwalk, Brooklyn

 

Passionflower (Passiflora), New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

Japanese beautyberry (Callicarpa japonica), New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

Purple sequins & Jesus, Easter Bonnet Parade

Street performer, Manhattan

Flags at Pride parade, Manhattan

'Cries & Whispers', art installation by Hill Jephson Robb, at the Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan

"After Robb's sister lost her fight against cancer, leaving behind a seven-month old daughter, the designer attempted to restore the feeling of security that the child had felt with her mother. Cries & Whispers is a safe space of security and comfort, for physical and emotional, for a child whose mother is absent. The womb is created by wrapping, wetting, and rolling felt. The entrance, like the entrance to a nest, enlarges as the child grows."

Kale (Brassica oleracea) at New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) at New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

Like purple? Go here to view 2005 Purple Colors of India