Sparkly Sparky Park

We love this little pocket park in north central Austin. What a sweet place of respite. 

 

Eastwoods Park

 Eastwoods Park is a haven just north of the University of Texas. Here you see my partner in life walking through it on a recent sunny afternoon. 

Our Park

This is the view of the nearest park to us from our balcony. Before the isolation we have been undergoing we walked to and through this park all the time. It has been refurbished and is quite nice with paths, sculpture and heritage live oak trees. However, lately, we only see it from our place because there tend to be people there and at the nearby bus stop in unpredictable quantities.  The street nearby is closed on Saturdays to allow a Farmer's Market. We haven't been going there either. Maybe soon as we see how the infection affects our city. Many things are opening up.

Today is theme day for City Daily Photo. Click here to see what other blogs from around the world did to show a park in their city.

A quiet walk

We were on one of our usual treks through the dog park off West 9th and I caught this shot of Linda walking in front of me. We love our walks.

A last long look

Our graffiti park with the castle in the background is on its last legs. The property has been sold and it will be used for building some more housing.

This took a lot of work!

"Stickwork" is a sculpture made entirely from invasive species of vines found at Pease Park in central Austin. Patrick Dougherty is the artist who made it happen.

Fancy, fancy!

Every time we walk on the Shoal Creek Trail, we see some fine new additions to the visual appeal. This wall displays some great stone work. You see my partner in life walking by it here.

Park Rules

This West Austin park has some rules! The good news about the pets on leash is that there is a off-leash park about a hundred feet away!

If I Had a Hammer

This is part of the Pease Park/Shoal Creek Trail installation I introduced you to day before yesterday. The stars make me think the glove on the other one was part of the art. Freedom? Hammer? Hmmm....

Finding Your Way in Art

We walked through Pease Park and up the Shoal Creek Trail to 29th Street the other day. Someone had made art from a few logs in a clearing. Not sure if the glove was part of the installation or lost and found.

High water mark in the park

Linda and I were safely holed up in our condo Wednesday night and early Thursday morning during the worst of the rain and flooding. Our Facebook friend Jerry M. Withers took this shot the morning after in Northwest Park, one of the largest recreational spaces in north Austin. It looks like this picnic table was underwater at one point. After the massive flood of 1981 that took 12 lives and ruined a lot of homes, the city made Northwest Park into a quasi-holding pond. It paid off this year. 

Ribbon Cutting for the Grand Reopening.

A group of local dignitaries rededicated and reopened one of our grand central Austin parks --
Wooldridge Square -- recently.  I caught an image of the ribbon as it was being cut.

Timeless Shakespeare for a Historic Park

These are three of Austin's finest actors who declaimed some modified Shakespeare as an invocation to the ceremonies at the Reopening of Wooldridge Square Park last Friday.  

Here is what they said:



A: What city, friend, is this?

B: This is Austin, lady. In first days christened Waterloo, Which, in the Commentaries Caesar writ, Is term'd the civil'st place of this state: Sweet is the country, because full of riches; The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy.

A: I doubt not but this populous city will yield many scholars.

C: They say this town is full of cozenage, As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind, Soul-killing witches that deform the body, Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, And many such-like liberties of sin: If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.

B: Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.

A: Here is everything advantageous to life. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green! Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, And were the queen on't, what would I do? I' the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things; for no kind of traffic Would I admit; no name of magistrate; Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, And use of service, none; contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none; No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil; No occupation; all folk idle, all; No sovereignty; All things in common nature should produce Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine, Would I not have; but nature should bring forth, Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance, To feed my innocent people.

B: This Austin, o'er which we have the government, A city on whom plenty holds full hand, For riches strew herself even in the streets; Whose towers bear heads so high they kiss the clouds, And strangers ne'er behold but wonder at; Whose men and dames so jetted and adorn'd, Like one another's glass to trim them by: Their tables are stored full, to glad the sight, And not so much to feed on as delight.

All: This earth of majesty, this seat of Muses, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set on the silver lake, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Austin, This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world.

Beautiful trees

These crepe myrtles and a cypress tree were looking green and flush the other day.

Up, Up and Away

This contraption is part of the Austin BMX and Skate Park near House Park. This replaced some rotting buildings and tennis courts that were an eyesore for years. The kids make good use of it.

Unexpected Picnic

On our walks  we sometimes cut through Duncan Park which runs between 9th and 10th on the east side of Shoal Creek, just east of Lamar. Occasionally there are people using two picnic tables, usually folks who look homeless. Mostly these amenities just sit out in the scruffy park, picnic-less. One day when we walked there something caught my eye: they have elaborate tile-mosaic tops. Brightens things up.

New look on a venerable park

Linda and I went for a walk yesterday.  We went past Wooldridge Park, which is a few blocks north of our condo.  Just a few months ago, it was a victim of overuse and lack of watering, so its lawn was brown and the trees were parched.  Thanks to shutting it off from public use for a while, resodding and installing a new irrigation system, it looks wonderful now--the way I remember it from my younger days. I shot this photo with my iPhone through a tear in the green covering on the fence surrounding it. Hopefully, it will stay this way for a while.

Refresh Yourself

In Pease Park, this splash pad provides some refreshing fun for the little ones. Tempting to all of us on a hot day.

Urban Hiking

We hiked on the Pease Park trail the other day. Catching a glimpse of the Austonian and W Hotel through a gap in the trees was the only reminder that we weren't really out in the forest.

Spider Attack

This giant spider at the Mueller Development looms over visitors. The sculpture is by Dixie Friend Gay.