Corner of Kingsbury & Austin Streets

I have been trying to get a good shot of this sign for some time. I smile every time I drive by because it is so clever. I haven't been there as a customer, which I suppose is a good thing, but they do brisk business from what I see.

Veterans Day

Grave of a forgotten veteran...

Calvin Williams was born a slave in Orange County VA on Juy 4, 1832. After securing his freedom in 1864 he joined the ranks of the Union Army. After the Civil War, Calvin re-enlisted and served in the 38th and 24th Infantry as one of the famed "buffalo soldiers" assigned to protect settlers on the American frontier. After his discharge in 1871 at Ft. McKavett TX, he settled in Seguin TX. He lived the remainder of his life there, quietly raising a family and developing the Second Baptist Church, which still stands today. He passed away on Jan. 12, 1909.

That very year, his grandson Joseph Williams embarked on a professional baseball career that earned him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

Today's post was written by Mark. Thanks, honey! I knew you would be the best person to write this for Calvin. On October 29, 2007, I posted something else about Calvin.

Red eye candy

I don't even like candy apples but I was so drawn to these beautiful red creations I just had to ask to photograph them. The lady was so nice, she took the plastic off the top. Can you spot something interesting or unusual about one of these?

We saw these at La Paleteria, which I posted about on October 20, 2006. It's a local ice cream place we keep hoping will succeed but worry about b/c we hardly ever see people there. There is ice cream, fruit bar, shakes, smoothies and more! If only they were on the town square, it would be lovely to walk around there with a yummy treat.

Here's a Photo without flash, which I sort of like though the vibrant red with the flash won out on it.

White Plumeria

It has been a super hectic week at work. I am barely keeping up with things. I did want to post this Plumeria bloom. I find it so soothing, the white on green. Our plant is about 3 or 4 years old and has never bloomed until this year, when we put it in the ground. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Gift & Gourmet

This is a wonderful little gift shop right across the street from our home. I love walking over there. Or I should say, I use to. I have not been in there for some time so I will try and check it out next weekend for an inside shot. I like to check out the window display. I took this right before Halloween, hence the pumpkins and so on. I meant to see about that green dish towel with the candy corns. It looked so fun.

I knew the lady who owned this store but Anne has sold it (I think last year) to another lady, her name escapes me but I did meet her once in the store. There was always something wonderful in there I wanted and Anne kept a wish list for customers so that she can make suggestions to shoppers. That was really nice to have a retailer give you that attention. She also bought some earrings I made and so that was coolto see my stuff in the display case. I think that was my first official sale to a store (versus friends and family buying my creations). Sometimes, I would just hang out with Ann and chat. That seems ages ago.

Water Tower Completed

All summer, we passed the water tower and it was covered either partially or entirely. Very mysterious even though we knew it was getting a cleaning and new paint job. And now here it is! I really like the clean look and the blue lettering. If you want to see what it looked like before and during the face lift, check out these links:

Photo 1 Before facelift and Photo 2 During facelift

Men at Work

Something blue for the theme today - the sky! I saw these two men working waaaaaaaaaaaay up high at the high school before one of our Friday night football games. Gotta make sure all those lights are fully functional I suppose so they kids can see where they're running and throwing the ball. :)

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Well, tonight we see how many visitors we have. I have my candy bowl ready and Mark and I managed not to eat all the Snickers, 3 Musketeers and Almond Joys (my fav). Hope you all have a great day and plenty of fun!

Honey from our bees

They didn't make as much as Mark had hoped but our bees in the backyard should have enough for the winter. They swarmed early in the summer, splitting the hive in half. We are glad they all didn't leave us!

Lights, camera, action!

We don't know what they were "shooting" -- couldn't decide if it was a movie, commercial or print shoot. It's not everyday you see the Texas Theatre lit up so we drove by twice (thank you honey) so I can see what was the best shot. I mainly wanted to get the theatre lights. There were several trailers, trucks and other vehicles. Not to mention tons of equipment and people working in the dark.

Praying mantis

This "little" guy hangs out in our front yard quite a bit. Here he was just walking along the driveway. I actually don't know if it's a he or she; how can one tell? Anybody? There is also a green one that I am still trying to get a good shot of to post. It hangs out on our plumeria, which is about to bloom. We have lots of late bloomers in our yard; like the plumeria and esperanza...they always bloom much later than other people's plants.

Pecan Fest

It's time I gave blogging here another go at it now that things have settled down a bit for me and I'm not traveling as much. Here in Seguin, it's fall and the weather is actually acting like fall would act elsewhere in the states. :)

This weekend is our Pecan Fest so in honor of that, I'm posting this picture. I'll try to catch some of the activities this weekend. Our crop is fantastic this year. There are pecans galore all over town and they taste GREAT. We have two pecan trees only and we can hardly keep up picking them up. Mark is shelling them. And when you drive around town, you have to be very careful of pedestrians b/c everyone is out and about picking up pecans wherever there's a tree nearby! Even if it means along the side of the road!

Calvin Williams but in DC

While in DC for a library conference, we went to visit the African-American Civil War Monument b/c one of Seguin's very own soldier is listed on the memorial wall!

Though I am working in town now, the new job is requiring more time and energy than anticipated. So I must go on break for a while. I will post at some point in the future. Meanwhile, you can check out photos on my flickr page if you wish. I try to post pictures at least. Take care and have a great summer!
.

Indian Blankets

Lesser known than the famous Texas Bluebonnets, the Indian Blanket flower is quite pretty. It blooms later than Bluebonnets so it doesn't have to share the limelight. It is a couple of weeks past prime right now. I took this and forgot to post it earlier.

It is amazing to me the variety of wildflowers in south Texas. I am really enjoying getting to know more about flowers that I did not know growing up in North Carolina.

Have a good week everyone.

Texas Peaches

Though we are not pulling in a "crop" of these goodies, our peach tree is at least producing more peaches this year than last. They were very pretty to look at and pretty tasty to munch.

Lately we have been very very humid. I have learned to tolerate it after 12 years here but I don't like it. Makes everyone feel yucky and lethargic. Especially when you go for a walk, which we did this evening. It was hard to keep moving. On Friday, the temperature was 93 degrees but with the heat index, it felt like 102 I read. That is not good. I hope this doesn't mean a crazy not summer ahead.

Memorial for Teyran "Ty" Patterson

Today was the memorial service for a local hero. His name is Teyran Patterson and he is the son of friends of ours. Ty served as a game warden and though I did not know him personally, I wanted to post a tribute to a young man whom the community loves so much. The Patterson family and local officials expected about 1000 people to attend the service, standing room only at our coliseum. It is a statement of what Ty meant to Seguin and to his colleagues in law enforcement.

Update June 5th: the local paper today states that about 2100 people attended Ty's memorial service.

Lemongrass

We have had a lot of rain lately. I think it has been the wettest (?) May I have seen in a while. So, as a wonderful result, all our plants are nice and green. This is a lemongrass plant that my mom gave me year before last. She always has a wonderful garden no matter where she lives and her gardens always seem to thrive! It was shaky at first but my cutting from her original survived and now I have successfully split it and put some stalks in a pot.

Memorial Day

We made time to take a spin around town and it was really nice to see all the flags on display to honor our armed forces personnel.

Update on the Water Tower

We happened to be driving by and saw some activity on the tower. I snapped several shots of the skirt going up so you can click on the pic to go to my Flickr page for more. The skirt was huge and looked so cool going up; it was a very impressive job they did. It only stayed up for several hours and came back down. Looks like they sandblasted while it was up and we should see a new paint job soon. It still has the little "hat" on it as of today.

Seguin Water Tower

I was driving by the Library a while ago and noticed a funny thing happening with the water tower behind the Public Library. Looks like they are doing some work on the tower. This made me think the tower had a "hat" on. I am not sure what the setup is but it looked neat. I tried to get a good shot of the tower but it's hard. Didn't want to get too close so b/c you can't see the top well. I shall go back by there and see what progress has been made.

Sorry for the lack of postings. However, I hope to be working in Seguin very soon so that means no more commute to San Antonio. Which means, possibly, more time to post. Of course, I have a whole list of things to do to catch up around the house and town so give me a bit of time to do all this.