Spring on the Avenue

Flowers bloom and cacti sprout in front of the Yeti Store on Congress Avenue. That's FFP with the shopping bag and the Frost Bank Tower and then the Capitol in the distance.

They Seem Pretty Good

Noticed these on the sidewalk. As with all abandoned shoe photos, shot as found.

Getting good and dirty

If you like to dig and till the earth, a garden in the middle of town is there for your use.

Yep. Says it all.

A local wine shop had this to say before Mother's Day.

Another Austin icon dies

Sammy Allred was a local radio personality who recently died. "Good night nurse" was one of his favorite sayings.

Wild flora

The wildflowers of Texas are always inspiring. It's nice to have these pretty plants so close to us along the trail. 

Wagging along!

Loved this pack of dogs these women were walking on the lakeside trail the other day. They had them under control and the pups were all getting along with each other.

Take Some Texas Home

Tourist or local, this South Congress shop has a bit of Texas to take home whether it's a smart summer cowboy hat, snazzy yellow and black boots or a tiny cactus.

Hidden Sculpture Surprises

Every tour around Laguna Gloria brings some new sculptural surprises.

Tree Trunk

On the grounds of Laguna Gloria is what appears at first glance to be a dead and hollowed out tree trunk. It is actually an iron sculpture (entitle iron tree trunk) by the famous artist Ai Weiwei.

Model Home

We stopped by the Sales Office of the Independent the other day and I tried to snap a picture of the model. Couldn't quite get the top in the narrow room! I photoshopped a black background to protect the privacy of a future resident who was explaining his future home to what we think might have been his grandparents! Click here for an image of the almost complete real building.

Muck Rock

I don't get the meaning of the mural nor do I know what Muck Rock is but it is very interesting. Found where East Sixth meets IH35.

Bird Down

We discovered this Painted Bunting on a downtown sidewalk. Breathing but not hopping or flying from the foot traffic.

A Little Art for Nueces Street

Saw the artist making this happen just off Nueces Street a couple of months ago.

Thoughts on South Lamar

Graffiti artist Drib thinks the big thoughts.

What Beat is That?

I think this east side mural has to do with hip-hop or rap or something.

The winning poems

Here are the winning poems from the event we highlighted yesterday.

Our honorees

Each year, Linda and I review a stack of poems and stories by local students in the Badgerdog creative writing program sponsored by the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation and pick winners and runners-up for 3-6th graders and 7-12th graders. Here you see your blogger Forrest with three of the winners. The fourth one couldn't make the event. We will show you the two winning poems tomorrow.

A great writer speaks

Our friend Elizabeth Crook was honored at the Library Friends Foundation event the other night. She has a number of novels in print.

Big rain's coming!

Eleven years ago, I would have never thought that this would be the view out of our living room window.

Words to note

Our neighborhood French restaurant has this to say on the wall --"Just so you'll know, from now on, I'm going to act rather than speak."

Planted Buddha

This little Buddha seemed very zen and right at home in this plant. We saw him in a local restaurant, Old Thousand, the other day.

Nice commentary

This sign pretty much says it all.

Happy to serve you!

This Buddha was all smiles at Old One Thousand. Nice atmosphere in this restaurant and very good food.

Hot and sour is one sweet soup.

Loved this soup at Old One Thousand restaurant the other day. One of the best versions of this traditional Asian dish we have tried.

Pink and black is back!

This show window has a lot of style. Very retro.

Charting a successful dinner

We went to manners class the other night. This is a continental place setting.

Trumpeting on the street

I used to love to cultivate trumpet plants when we had our house and our beautiful yard. But I could never get mine to grow like this.

Command of color

I loved sitting there at the Blanton Museum, trying to figure out how the artist chose all these colors in such an array.

Stairway to heaven?

Another striking piece of artwork at the Blanton Museum.

Performance Yields a Laugh

It's the first of the month and, hence, theme day for City Daily Photo. The theme is 'Laugh.' We were at our new favorite Austin club the other night (Parker Jazz Club) when I captured this blurry but painterly photo of Matt Maldonado having a big laugh during a big band performance of mostly '20's and '30's tunes. The reed players really have a job during this set, switching around on tenors, baritones, altos, sopranos, and clarinets. Matt plays tenor and soprano. And has a big belly laugh now and then, too. Click here for other City's interpretations