Lackadaisical

I've been a little lazy with my camera/blog lately. I feel like most the things I've taken pictures of, I have a zillion others just like them. Not to mention the fact that Skye hates posing for pictures and I hate being in pictures even more than she does, so there are rarely any family shots.

That said, last week we went to our yearly Sherwood Forest Faire celebration. It's always a fun place for us all. I didn't even pull my camera out but for one picture, and I couldn't resist because it was such a beautiful creature staring us right in the face during the jousting match....

Toby and I also made our first trip downtown in a few months. The cold winter and SXSW kept us away for awhile. It was a beautiful day for an urban walk....

I liked this one. "BE A NOBODY". I think I got that one pegged....

I suppose this is a little encouragement for those of us who never got the memo....

The Treaty Oak. Such a beauty...

Even though the sunsets have not been that glorious this year, this is some of the best it's given...

Walking Taylor, Texas

I woke up this morning with full intentions to hike the Comanche Bluff Trail at Granger Lake.

I figured while we were driving through Taylor, we could check out Louie Mueller BBQ (named the top BBQ joint in Texas by Texas Monthly and other reputable sources) for lunch.

We got there just before lunch time and the line was already to the door....

We stood in line for a good 30 minutes. We typically would not wait in line that long, but considering Toby's specific diet issues, we didn't have much other choice but to wait patiently.

We finally sat down to our larger than expected meal. It was good, but I could honestly think other BBQ joints that were better.

While we were eating we decided that we would instead take our hike around the small town of Taylor since we had never actually been there before, only driven through it. I love small towns in Texas. They always have such personality and interesting things to look at...bakeries, vintage stores, gift shops, etc.

There were a lot of churches in the small downtown area, which said to me these small town folk are quite religious....

There were also some impressive looking old homes.....

We walked down towards the rail road tracks to a more "sketchy" area with a lot of run down old buildings..

This guy was just sitting in the window....

There was also this very interesting structure. I'm not sure if it was a place of business or someones home, but it was an old train car with a courtyard area and other odd structures. It was really very intriguing to look at....

We came upon the city park and walked around it for a bit....

There were many white cranes hanging out on this island in the pond....

We got in a lot of steps in this small town in Texas.

We also sat out and enjoyed our first beverages of the season on the patio a couple of evenings ago while enjoying the sunset. Hopefully, we will be seeing more of the sun in the next couple of weeks. I sure have missed it....

Something Is Better Than Nothing

For reason after reason I haven't been able to go on any of my big hiking trips I've planned, so I've at least been trying to get in some cheap thrills with small local hikes. Any time outdoors is better than nothing, in my opinion.

Since we had errands that needed to be taken care of in North Austin I selected Mills Pond as a short suitable hike for the day. It's actually more of a recreation area in the middle of a neighborhood with a hiking trail that connects to another park...or two. As I said, I was grasping for straws.

It's a very nice area and the trail was an easy couple of mile walk. The pond was very nice and peaceful....

I assumed these were Purple Martin houses, but it looked more like black birds...but then again, I'm not really sure what Purple Martin's look like...

The trail meandered through a neighborhood. Toby and I agreed that if we were going to pay a fortune to live in suburbia, we definitely would make sure it has this sort of amenity...

A swing....

Here's a nice sitting deck underneath a nice shade tree....

Toby playing on the equipment....

We finally came upon the park where we used to take Skye when she was younger with an old homestead on it. It brought back a lot of memories and made me realize just how long it's been since she was young enough that we took her to the park to play. Sweet memories stored in my mind...

Aside from the warm day, there were a couple of other signs of spring. I spotted a Robin for the first time since I've lived in Texas. We had tons of Robins in Mobile and spotting one always meant spring had sprung...

In Texas, the Red Buds blooming are a sure sign of spring...

I enjoyed the walk and didn't even mind sweating a bit.