Hill Country and Lake Austin

I think this photo (thanks to my friend Jackie for it) epitomizes the landscape of the Hill Country with the Little Colorado River (we just call it the Colorado here) meandering through the hills of scrubby vegetation with various dams controlling its flood fury and providing lakes for recreation.

Home with a View

Some friends of ours are selling a home with magnificent views of Lake Austin. Especially at sunset. Thanks to Jackie for this picture.

Wild With Color

Linda and I treated ourselves to a day like many retirees enjoy yesterday by going out to Fredericksburg, having lunch and then taking a leisurely drive through the Hill Country to see the wildflowers. There is a sweet oval of country road called "Willow Loop" northeast of the town that takes you in a fantasyland of flowers. We got out several times to use our cameras. This is my favorite photo of the ones I took. The loop was packed with other people doing the same thing we were. Quite a fun time -- and what a beautiful day.

Out to the Hill Country

From the top of the west side of the 360 condos, the Monarch (right) and the topped but unfinished Spring Condos loom in the foreground with the Hill Country beyond. Frankly, I wouldn't want to live so high.

The Hill

In the early nineties I bought a new Civic. My old Subaru had a habit of spitting and coughing when it was cold and not going when I said 'go' with the accelerator. While this saved me from colliding with a red-light running vehicle going about sixty miles per hour one time and a deer, a big buck with lots of points, another, I got tired of it and bought a new Honda. At the time I worked on 360 (aka Capital of Texas Highway) and the hill in this picture was part of what could be one avenue of commute. If only your car could go up with the proper energy. So when I test-drove that Civic I took it up that hill. Its satisfactory performance made me buy it and I'd probably still have it if people had managed to quit running into me in it. This hill is the end of Spicewood Springs Road on the east side of 360. If you plan on continuing on the old scenic Spicewood Springs Road after careering down to the stoplight at the bottom of the hill, you have to take a left turn and dog leg to the western part. Years after 360 intersected Spicewood Springs at this curve, they blasted up the hill on the other side to make a different street, Bluffstone.

Photo was taken hastily out the car window. Still you get the idea of how steep it can be to come straight down one of our little hill country hills. It's much flatter, by the way, a few miles away in our neighborhood. Because the coastal plain begins in Austin with the hills on the west.