Paw Preece's Harvest Soup

I make this soup with butternut squash and sausage. Goes well in cold weather!

Winter? What winter!

I took this pano on the Great Lawn in Zilker Park the other day. That is my blogging buddy in the foreground. It will get greener in a couple of months.

Mighty, mighty fine.

Big new food truck in the neighborhood. I need to try one of these burgers.

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign

I wish they would. (Yield, that is.)

Bike tour checks out SRV

This bike tour guide had two of his charges stop at the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue.

Drone View

When Jackie was taking the sunset picture (shown yesterday) on January 17th, she noticed another photographer at work...with a drone!

Sunset View

Our friend Jackie has the greatest view for sunsets. This one, taken on January 17th is fantastic.

Feel the Bern!

Bernie Sanders has a campaign office on the east side.

Well, yes!

Pretty much says it all.

One stop shopping

Here's a great way to spend a day -- get your taxes done and get a tattoo while you are at it!

Come on down! SXSW will soon be here!

Want to rent a parking lot to do a pop-up display for SXSW? I don't even want to think how much this space will rent for!

Another bar on Rainey! Oh -- Redux!

Local bar Lustre Pearl will have new life on Rainey Street. Hula Hoops?
I took a photo of this sign outside the place the other day.

Hopping John -- popping with flavor

This exquisite dish was served at Olamaie's the other day. Loved it.

Big plans

This huge apartment complex is being built along the railroad tracks in east Austin. At the rate people are moving to town, I guess they'll get filled pretty fast.

Community service

Walk down an Austin alley and who knows what you will find!

High hopes -- and she's not just fiddling around

Well, she knows what she wants!

Burger Boom

There always seems to be some burger joint where people in this town are standing in line for the wondrous offerings. We have never tried most of them because we don't eat burgers every week. But we did try Shake Shack one day on our exercise walk. (Negating any effect of the exercise no doubt.) Two Shack Burgers with cheese and one order of crinkly fries. The funny thing is that we go to New York City now and again. And that's where Shake Shack originates. Never been to a shop there. We still haven't tried the local P Terry's or the California In 'N Out Burger or Hopdoddy (Although I think we have taken pictures of lines there!) Our favorite joints for this sort of fare are Billy's on Burnet and Dirty's. And truthfully at Billy's I always get an avocado Reuben which not only isn't a burger but has no meat!

Catch the Wave

There is a car wash called H2O on South Lamar that has this mural. I captured it with the nicely washed sports car in the lot while we were walking up South Lamar for our health (and to try a Shake Shack burger).

Northshore

Jackie shot this from the trail. The building almost looks finished (except you will notice a construction elevator on the right edge). It is an apartment building going up on the site of the former Green Water Treatment Plant and it is called Northshore because, of course, it's on the north shore of Lady Bird Lake! When we moved downtown the lot that this building partially occupies was filled with the holding tanks and a water tower for the treatment plant. It was decommissioned in a very interesting demolition activity. Rendered into a sandbox and then a holding pond that was meticulously kept green by the city until this construction began. We had a pretty good view of this construction from our building's vantage point on the other side, but the building is gradually disappearing to us because of the office building being constructed on the same lot (you can just see a crane in the area to the right of the building in this picture). It is fascinating to be a witness to the evolution of our neighborhood.

Lost Shoe

Quite a nice little shoe placed on the restroom sign on the Butler Trail in hopes someone will come and find it again. Captured by Jackie for our ongoing abandoned shoe project. Never staged, always photographed just as found. Well, mostly. It's amazing how many shoes are left behind.

George Ezra

Jackie shot this picture of George Ezra, a talented singer-songwriter at a December ACL Live show. I love the composition and the smile he has as if he is responding to the audience and their response to him.

Long Boat!

Jackie has the vantage point to capture some great shots on Lady Bird Lake. She says, "I read about this in the Statesman and then caught a shot just after it passed under the Lamar Street Bridge this afternoon [that would be January 2, I believe]. 144 feet, 24 seats! In town today for “Pulling for Pink,” a benefit the Breast Cancer Research Center." Wow!

Christmas hangover

You have to admire persistence like this. These decorations were still up on a recent walk-by.

Form over function

The trash cans in out room at a local hotel got full in a hurry with the small opening at the top.

Nothing like some modesty

Well, you have to be proud of your product.

Helping hands

This maid service has a clever logo that grabs attention. I see their cars all over downtown.

Duck, ducks!

These ducks on Lady Bird Lake were expecting people to throw a few treats their way.

Dogging it

We went to a New Year's Eve Eve party and saw a lot of good friends. Our pals who were throwing the shindig have a beautiful dog named Jack. He was content to collect pats and sleep on the rug. 

Manhattan -- or the ATX?

We stayed for a couple of nights in the new Van Zandt Hotel in the Rainey Street district. This photo I shot with my iPhone shows the fancy crowd in the bar at Geraldine's, their restaurant. We were impressed with the hipness factor.

Goooood Morning Austin!

Always nice to start the year off with a sweet sunrise! This is the view from our balcony.

The Picture of the Year

It's a new year. Welcome 2016 with enthusiasm! City Daily Photo participants pick a picture each January 1st for theme day from the hundreds posted during the year before. In October, FFP caught a photographer using the parking garage across the street and the skyline for this exuberant photo. A single moment in the life of our city. There are no icons like the Capitol or Frost Bank Tower in it. Just use your imagination for the shot the photographer got while FFP stood above capturing the moment. Life in 2015 in Austin was like that: changing, moving and without much of a steady state.

Pictures of the year from around the world are shown here. A selection of others we considered for our 2015 picture of the year is here. A selection of other 'pictures of the year' is here.