Sunday, January 31, 2016

Paw Preece's Harvest Soup


I make this soup with butternut squash and sausage. Goes well in cold weather!

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Winter? What winter!


I took this pano on the Great Lawn in Zilker Park the other day. That is my blogging buddy in the foreground. It will get greener in a couple of months.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Mighty, mighty fine.


Big new food truck in the neighborhood. I need to try one of these burgers.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Bike tour checks out SRV


This bike tour guide had two of his charges stop at the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Drone View

When Jackie was taking the sunset picture (shown yesterday) on January 17th, she noticed another photographer at work...with a drone!

Monday, January 25, 2016

Sunset View

Our friend Jackie has the greatest view for sunsets. This one, taken on January 17th is fantastic.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Friday, January 22, 2016

One stop shopping


Here's a great way to spend a day -- get your taxes done and get a tattoo while you are at it!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Come on down! SXSW will soon be here!


Want to rent a parking lot to do a pop-up display for SXSW? I don't even want to think how much this space will rent for!

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Another bar on Rainey! Oh -- Redux!


Local bar Lustre Pearl will have new life on Rainey Street. Hula Hoops?
I took a photo of this sign outside the place the other day.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Monday, January 18, 2016

Big plans


This huge apartment complex is being built along the railroad tracks in east Austin. At the rate people are moving to town, I guess they'll get filled pretty fast.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Friday, January 15, 2016

Burger Boom

There always seems to be some burger joint where people in this town are standing in line for the wondrous offerings. We have never tried most of them because we don't eat burgers every week. But we did try Shake Shack one day on our exercise walk. (Negating any effect of the exercise no doubt.) Two Shack Burgers with cheese and one order of crinkly fries. The funny thing is that we go to New York City now and again. And that's where Shake Shack originates. Never been to a shop there. We still haven't tried the local P Terry's or the California In 'N Out Burger or Hopdoddy (Although I think we have taken pictures of lines there!) Our favorite joints for this sort of fare are Billy's on Burnet and Dirty's. And truthfully at Billy's I always get an avocado Reuben which not only isn't a burger but has no meat!

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Catch the Wave

There is a car wash called H2O on South Lamar that has this mural. I captured it with the nicely washed sports car in the lot while we were walking up South Lamar for our health (and to try a Shake Shack burger).

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Northshore

Jackie shot this from the trail. The building almost looks finished (except you will notice a construction elevator on the right edge). It is an apartment building going up on the site of the former Green Water Treatment Plant and it is called Northshore because, of course, it's on the north shore of Lady Bird Lake! When we moved downtown the lot that this building partially occupies was filled with the holding tanks and a water tower for the treatment plant. It was decommissioned in a very interesting demolition activity. Rendered into a sandbox and then a holding pond that was meticulously kept green by the city until this construction began. We had a pretty good view of this construction from our building's vantage point on the other side, but the building is gradually disappearing to us because of the office building being constructed on the same lot (you can just see a crane in the area to the right of the building in this picture). It is fascinating to be a witness to the evolution of our neighborhood.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Lost Shoe

Quite a nice little shoe placed on the restroom sign on the Butler Trail in hopes someone will come and find it again. Captured by Jackie for our ongoing abandoned shoe project. Never staged, always photographed just as found. Well, mostly. It's amazing how many shoes are left behind.

Monday, January 11, 2016

George Ezra

Jackie shot this picture of George Ezra, a talented singer-songwriter at a December ACL Live show. I love the composition and the smile he has as if he is responding to the audience and their response to him.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Long Boat!

Jackie has the vantage point to capture some great shots on Lady Bird Lake. She says, "I read about this in the Statesman and then caught a shot just after it passed under the Lamar Street Bridge this afternoon [that would be January 2, I believe]. 144 feet, 24 seats! In town today for “Pulling for Pink,” a benefit the Breast Cancer Research Center." Wow!

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Christmas hangover


You have to admire persistence like this. These decorations were still up on a recent walk-by.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Form over function


The trash cans in out room at a local hotel got full in a hurry with the small opening at the top.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Helping hands


This maid service has a clever logo that grabs attention. I see their cars all over downtown.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Duck, ducks!



These ducks on Lady Bird Lake were expecting people to throw a few treats their way.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Dogging it


We went to a New Year's Eve Eve party and saw a lot of good friends. Our pals who were throwing the shindig have a beautiful dog named Jack. He was content to collect pats and sleep on the rug. 

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Manhattan -- or the ATX?


We stayed for a couple of nights in the new Van Zandt Hotel in the Rainey Street district. This photo I shot with my iPhone shows the fancy crowd in the bar at Geraldine's, their restaurant. We were impressed with the hipness factor.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Goooood Morning Austin!


Always nice to start the year off with a sweet sunrise! This is the view from our balcony.

Friday, January 1, 2016

The Picture of the Year


It's a new year. Welcome 2016 with enthusiasm! City Daily Photo participants pick a picture each January 1st for theme day from the hundreds posted during the year before. In October, FFP caught a photographer using the parking garage across the street and the skyline for this exuberant photo. A single moment in the life of our city. There are no icons like the Capitol or Frost Bank Tower in it. Just use your imagination for the shot the photographer got while FFP stood above capturing the moment. Life in 2015 in Austin was like that: changing, moving and without much of a steady state.

Pictures of the year from around the world are shown here. A selection of others we considered for our 2015 picture of the year is here. A selection of other 'pictures of the year' is here.