October 31

Would it have been wrong for me to pick out the candy that I liked best before the trick or treaters arrived?

Lubbock, Texas

October 30

Late afternoon
St. Pete Beach, Florida

photographed 10.24.2010

October 29

Uh, sorry.  This is the result of a Dali hangover from yesterday.

The Holiday Motel
St. Petersburg, Florida

October 28

You didn't REALLY think I could post a photo taken from the front of the Salvador Dali Museum and not do some crazy things to it, did you?

St. Petersburg, Florida

October 27

The Chihuly chandelier

Renaissance Vinoy Hotel
St. Petersburg, Florida

October 26

A confection of a building

downtown St. Petersburg, Florida

October 25

 

A hole in the clouds above Tampa Bay

along the St. Petersburg Pier

St. Petersburg, Florida 

October 24

The beach and the Don CeSar Hotel

St. Pete Beach, Florida

October 23

A Chihuly installation and the tower at the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel

St. Petersburg, Florida

Where have I been?

I have been gone since Saturday, at a conference.

But don't worry - I took photographs while I was gone and will be posting them upon my return.

Aren't you SO excited at this news?

October 22

Sometimes, you see something that is unbelievable, and you just can't stop thinking about it.  You wish that you'd stopped to take a picture, mostly to prove to yourself, later, that you really DID see what you thought you saw.

I saw this yard full of vacuum cleaners in Denver.  Didn't take a picture.  Ate lunch.  Drove around.  Thought about the yard full of vacuum cleaners.  Went back.  Took a picture.

But I still can't explain why they are there - there wasn't a garage sale sign, and no one seemed to be monitoring the appliances.  

I think my favorite part is that two of them are elevated, perched on plastic boxes.  I want to think they are the best vacuums (however one might judge that) and earned the right to spend the day two feet higher than the rest.

Somewhere in Denver, Colorado

photographed 6.20.2008

October 21

If you are lucky enough to see the full moon this month, remember that some Native Americans refer to it as the Dying Grass Moon.

Notes in my writing studio
Lubbock, Texas

October 20

[INSERT YOUR OWN JOKE HERE]

at the grocery store

Little Cayman Island

photographed 7.10.10 

October 19

Hello, and welcome to One Year Ago day here at the blog.

One year ago, I was at Windbreak House on a writing retreat.  

While on a break from writing, I found this very tall, mostly dead cottonwood tree.

Windbreak House

near Hermosa, South Dakota

photographed 10.19.2009

October 18

Sometimes, the scenery is behind you.

Somewhere along the road between Levelland and Crosbyton (but closer to Crosbyton)

PS - That's cotton, not snow.

October 17

Camels!
Buffalo!!
A giant red gun!!!

They've got it all.

South Slide Road
Lubbock County, Texas

October 16

I was doing some research today*, in Brownfield**, and saw this at the intersection of FM 168 and US 380, in Terry County.

My favorite part:  the way the dead tree, the old shack, and the live tree are all leaning to the north, having spent their lives pushed that way by the wind.

Terry County, Texas

*Really.
**Where would YOU go for research?

October 15

This is shocking news:  I cooked dinner tonight.

(I'll wait while you regain your breath......)

OK, to continue:

I made a mélange of chicken sausage, onions, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, garlic, and these fabulous fat green olives.

Yum.

My kitchen
Lubbock, Texas

October 14

NM 28
Chamberino, New Mexico

photographed 5.2.2010

October 13

Ralls, Texas

photographed 4.22.2010

October 12

A random, roofless building
Puerto de Luna, New Mexico

photographed 4.10.2009

October 11

Did you ever wonder why some of the cotton was shaped like loaves and some of it was round?  Here's an explanation, by guest blogger Melinda Williams Chapman, who lives on a cotton farm near Lorenzo, Texas:

The loaf shaped ones are what most everyone is making. They are built in the module builders. The round bales are something that is new in the past couple of years. There is a cotton picker that John Deere makes that actually makes these inside the picker as you are pulling the cotton. When the round bale is made it is wrapped in a plastic wrap and then dumped in the field where ever you happen to be. Case also makes a cotton picker that does the same thing, but the modules are square and look kinda like half of a regular module. These are very expensive and there aren't many out there yet, especially in this part of the country where we run cotton STRIPPERS instead of cotton PICKERS. It does save on equipment and labor costs though. Stripping cotton to make the big modules requires a stripper, a tractor to run the boll buggies (which is what the stripper dumps the cotton into) and a tractor to run each module builders (which is what the boll buggy dumps into) and someone to run the stripper, the tractor for the boll buggy and the module builder. With the new cotton pickers you could conceivably strip cotton alone. Steven has talked about buying one of the new module building pickers, but is waiting to see if John Deere will make a cotton stripper that will do it instead of the cotton picker. Cotton pickers are generally used where the cotton grows tall. The row units are tall and have little fingers that turn on a vertical shaft that actually "pick" the cotton out of the burr. Stripper row units are short and made to harvest shorter. Those row units have brushes that "strip" everything off of the plant and then they have what is called a burr extractor that separates the burrs from the cotton before it is blown back into the basket. Gins are having to modify how they move the round modules to get them into the ginning process. Our gin at Lorenzo has 1 farmer out here who has one of the pickers that makes the round modules and they had to figure out last year how to move the modules without spending a ton of money on equipment to handle just one farmer's cotton. 

And so now, thanks to that fine explanation, you know!

Arnett Gin

Hockely County, Texas

October 10

Water, and the sky

Yellowhouse Canyon, Texas

October 9

Rocks, wood, and two leaves.

My backyard
Lubbock, Texas

October 8

It was somewhere in Nevada, north of Interstate 80 and east of Elko.

photographed 1.28.2009 

PS - "It was somewhere in Nevada" is from the John Hiatt song, "Tennessee Plates."  In case it sounded familiar.

October 7

If you need something to do, here's a suggestion.  Start in Lubbock, and take highway 114 west.  Just past the county line, on the north side of the road there's a junk store.  (It's in the community of Hurlwood, if you want to spot it on a map or Google Earth or something.)

Anyway, the junk store has all kinds of junk - in fact, it may have the very best selection of junk in all of Hockley County.  Stop and take a look around.  You'll be amazed.  There are old signs (like the one in the photograph) and poles and posts and more miscellaneous crap than you could ever hope to see in one place.

Route guidance (correct as of earlier this afternoon):  there is a 1975 New Holland combine out in front.  It'll be the only 1975 New Holland combine along this particular stretch of road.  That's how you know you are at the right place.  Unless someone bought the combine; the price seemed pretty reasonable to me ($2500), but what do I know about combines?*

photographed 5.22.2010

*  Very little.  The sign that said "1975 New Holland combine, $2500" was actually quite educational.

October 6

To be fair, the bagels were pretty good.  But that sign didn't inspire too much confidence.

somewhere in Houston

photographed 2.13.2010

October 5

A couple of years after my mom passed away, my dad wanted to make one more visit to England to check out their favorite places.  He planned the trip, and we saw things like Canterbury and Winchester cathedrals, stone circles, ancient National Trust properties, the national auto museum, and so on.

But really, the best part of the trip was the few days we spent in the Cotswolds, which were hilly and green and lovely.  I would like to go back - and I can see why my dad was so set on his own return visit.

a tiny road, somewhere in the Costwolds
near Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire
England


photographed 10.22.2007

October 4

They also sell books at the bookstore, just not very close to the front door.

Lubbock, Texas

October 3

Lots of old buildings in downtown Abilene have been gutted and are now used as covered parking.  At least they are being used for something.

Abilene, Texas

photographed 4.3.2010

October 2

Yellowhouse Canyon, Texas

October 1

Detail, architectural rendering (color added)
Texas Tech University College of Architecture
Graduate Studio

First Friday Art Trail
Lubbock, Texas