Celebrate Halloween

It's Halloween. And here's a detail from the window of Gail Chovan's brilliant Blackmail Boutique on South Congress. The entire window is done up for a tea party of spooks. The old china is decorated with spooky images and the tea cups allow you to pick your poison. The cake with skulls for roses is hilarious.

Name That Halloween Tale

Whoa! It's almost Halloween. At this house in South Austin they are obviously re-enacting some scary Halloween tale about, hum, a pregnant girl on her wedding day? You tell me, kids, I'm not much into horror movies.

Street art

Someone went to a lot of trouble making this street sign in South Austin look fancy.

Lots of locks

We were walking by a historic condo building in downtown Austin the other day and saw all these locks on a fence. Realtors can use them to open up condos for sale.

Abandoned Shoes

You really can't make this stuff up. Yet another pair of abandoned shoes. These may have a broken strap. Still...why not use a nearby trash can?

Open To Interpretation

Often I'm not sure about the interpretation of some graffiti. This Jesus-like fellow is either doing a rap move, a blessing or a Hook 'Em Horns (UT's hand signal). And he has that flowery Hawaiian-style shirt. Oh, well. You decide.

Preservation

There was an old apartment building at this location on Guadalupe near 18th Street. It's been razed with the doorway surround restored on the new roomy sidewalk. Interesting landmark!

Gourds galore!

Here's a shot of some of the fantastic-looking pumpkins and gourds at Whole Foods. They stock some amazing natural wonders.

Just like mom used to make.

One nice thing about cooking at home is that you can make the food taste the way you really like it.  We chopped a lot of vegetables and added some rotisserie chicken into this soup we made not long ago.  I thought the way it looked was so colorful that I'd take a shot of it.

A long wait

About 12:30 a.m. on a recent Sunday, I looked out from our balcony and saw this line of cars on top of the parking garage across the street.  These people had probably been at a concert in the neighborhood.  I would not like to be in that mess! From the horns I heard honking, I think a few people were starting to get frayed nerves.

The star-making machinery behind the popular songs

I was walking the Hike and Bike Trail and saw this huge gaggle of cherry pickers behind the stages at the Austin City Limits Festival not long ago. When you have several stages and about 50,000 people in the audiences, it takes a lot of preparation and some heavy-duty contraptions like these. 

Some Days Start This Way

Last Thursday was a good day for catching the sunrise. So we popped out on the balcony and did it.

Unsafe at any speed.

I wonder what part of "Emergency Use Only" these people don't understand.  Several million taxpayer dollars were spent building a fine pedestrian bridge just to the east of this narrow raised path along the Lamar Bridge, after a pedestrian got hit and killed. Makes me angry to see blatant disregard for the rules. It also scares the heck out of me when I am driving my car over this bridge and someone is teetering inches from my right side.

Let's meet at the big rock, guys!

These turtles were having a discussion in Barton Creek the other day.

Choose your method!

Sailing and rowing were ways people were enjoying Lady Bird Lake on a sunny day not long ago.

Enough for a double feature!

Delicious looking popcorn was for sale at the Farmers Market recently. Big bags indeed!

Shoo, evil spirits!

This scarecrow was doing its job the other day in front of a pumpkin display.

Greetings!

People enjoy having their photo shot in front of this iconic mural just off South First.

Evil rabbit.

Seeing this strange rabbit along the Hike and Bike Trail was kind of unsettling.

Pick a pear (or two).

This farmer was selling a nice selection of pears at the market on a recent Saturday.

Dandy Dog

This little girl dog had on a cute outfit.  Her owner was nice enough to let me take a photo of her when we were walking past.

Hotel Rising

On Congress a very large hotel is being built, the new JW Marriott. A couple of weeks ago the skin climbing on the Brazos Street side reflected the clouds

A grand time was had by all!

Linda and I went to a black tie gala recently.  I took a shot of the pretty decorations in the middle of our table. (Plus a half empty wine bottle.)

Old Business on the East Side

On one of few cool days we have had this fall so far we walked to a hip new restaurant east of IH35 a mile or two. Near the new restaurant was this old school business, still in operation. The name of this poultry business has nothing to do with the location however. FFP remembers when he was growing up that the owner was Alvin East.

Canine equality

Love this new mural on the side of Frank, a delightful restaurant in downtown Austin not far from our condo.

Working high above the street

We were walking on the University of Texas campus a few days ago and saw these workmen rehabbing a church steeple across the street.  Their bodies on the scaffolding made a nice composition.

Stevie Ray contemplates

He is shown here checking out the "Thirst" banners that are around the lake at this time.

"Thirst" flags

These flags are part of the art installation "Thirst" that we showed yesterday. Here you see a large group of them at the circular pedestrian circle on the Pfluger Bridge.

"Thirst"

This tree is being planted in Lady Bird Lake near our condo.  It is part of an installation called "Thirst" by Women and Their Work, a local arts group that features work by, yes, women.  The installation is meant to draw attention to the lack of water in the area and to promote conservation.

Trio of Gazpachos

This selection of gazpachos at a local restaurant the other night made for a colorful photo. They were really tasty as well -- and they were lined up sweetest to most tart, left to right.

Decoration Details...East Sixth Street Bar

It's theme day. The theme is details. This is a detail of an extensive 'decoration' around the door of a bar on East Sixth Street. Yep, they've just nailed up beer bottle caps. I'm sure they had plenty of them. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the City Daily Photo family makes of this theme.