The Aumont

Per a request from an anonymous visitor, here is a shot of the Aumont Hotel. There is now a dance hall in there along with some office space and apartments. I think it would be neat to live there and to be near the center of town. We see more and more activities all the time downtown and the area is looking very nice.

The one story adjacent space is now a pool hall. Haven't checked it out yet but want to. It's immediate previous life was spent as a tattoo parlor. That didn't last long however.

New Year Money

For Lunar New Year, I like to give unusual currency for fun. We don't typically spend what we give each other. We like to keep it as a momento. I liked the $2 bills from my sister but I was so excited when I saw they had introduced a new dollar coin. I love coins and these have a wonderful feel to them. I'm going really try and circulate a ton.

Happy New Year!

According to the Lunar calendar, today is the first day of the new year. This year is the year of the pig in the Chinese zodiac. One of the things one does is to offer thanks to Buddha and also to your ancestors. And to ask for additional blessings in the new year. On the ceremonial table, you will find things such as water, coffee, cookies, candy, meat fill rice cakes, and other yummy treats.

Hagn House Retreat and Spa

I passed by this and was surprised to see it. I've been in Seguin for over 8 years and now all of a sudden, spas are popping up all over town. There's this one and another one, FX Spa or something. And then there's the medical spa, that's one on the fancy side so I'll swing by sometime and snap a shot.

I haven't tried any of these spas in town. I've only been to one and it was Patricia's in San Antonio. I get massages at the Hair Haus, where the staff educated me on how people have different meanings for "spa" and your spa experience at one place may be totally different from your spa experience at the next place. It was all very interesting.

Going back to the Hagn House, I'm curious if you can hear traffic and such since Kingsbury is a rather busy street right in front of the house.

Where's our veteran?

It was really cold that day but we wanted to see if the memorial brick for Calvin Williams had finally been placed. And we found it (thankfully) within about 20 seconds. Calvin was a Buffalo Soldier, was stationed at Fort McKavett (after marching hundreds of miles on foot) and settled in Seguin. He was also the grandfather of "Smokey" Joe Williams, who later was an amazing pitcher in the Negro Leagues. Joe was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. I know all this b/c my husband has done extensive research on the Williams family.

Misty Guadalupe River

This was taken last week actually but I only have some time and a good connection for posting it. This was on one of our ice days and we got to play hooky from work. It was very nice that the City of SA decided to close rather than have employees try to make it to work.

I really liked the misty setting when I saw the river. It was about 29 or 30 degrees that day.

Arctic Blast!

I am sure you've seen our area on the news the past couple of days. It's not everyday we have arctic air blasting through here with ice, sleet and snow! Seguin didn't get any snow unfortunately but the icy conditions did give us an "ice day" which made me feel like I was in school again. A day off meant lots of knitting, watching news coverage of the big storm and lots of photos being taken, of course! To be near and below freezing for so many consecutive days is rare here in South Texas.

Mark was nice enough to scrap ice off the car and drive me around town in search of interesting things to photograph. I had several cool shots and it was hard for me to pick one but I decided on this light. Love all the icicles!

Update on the Memorial

You may recall I posted a shot of the Guadalupe County Veterans Memorial November 8. Well, every time I drive by, it appears that they have added another component to it. I thought it was completed already! Personally, I liked it as it was on Nov. 8. It seems a bit busy now though I do like the eagle. What do you think?

Mockingbird on Pecan

Happy new year everyone!

This one is for Annie of Little Rock. This is from my kitchen window looking up into the pecan tree in our backyard. The birds were very active this weekend. The weather has been gorgeous after the rain last weekend. Temperatures are in the upper 50s, lower 60s during the day. And as you can see, no clouds! It was gorgeous.

I also spied this cool woodpecker. There were two of them flying around and I wanted to practice with my new digicam. More pics of the backyard animals are on my Flickr page.

Cruella De Vil

I loved this car! It looked so coooool! Where are the dalmations?

Gingerbread House

I don't know how long ago their tradition started but in the 10 years I remember driving around Seguin, this home decorates for Christmas. It's a gigantic g-house! The little gingerbread people move -- the cowboy's lasso moves round and round, the decorators' arms move up and down with the strings of lights, etc. It's a pretty big job and lots of people stop by to admire the scene.

Fall finally arrives!

I was doing stuff in the kitchen and noticed that it finally looks like fall in Seguin. That's a crepe myrtle in my neighbor's yard. The pecan trees don't really turn color. They just somehow go from green leaves to brown leaves. Nothing in between. And then the leaves drop all around. And yes, we probably can use a rake...

Pool Company

I have always liked this cute little building! I love the color and the waves.

Toasty

Another shot of Hair Haus but this time it's inside...where you can get toasty with hot stones. I've had wonderful massages here but haven't tried the stones yet. Everyone have a great weekend!

Texas Theatre

I have posted the Theatre before but from a different angle and on this day, the lights were on, which I rarely see!

Christmas Lights

The square is now all lit up for the Christmas season. I took tons of pictures but none came out like I hoped or envisioned so I'm still working on it. Meanwhile, I'll at least post this one. I love Christmas time.

Hair Haus

This is my all time favorite place to get my hair cut. And that covers the places in North Carolina as well as the San Antonio places I have been in the past. The owner is named Audra and she opened her new building last year. She's a great stylist and the place is so cool, cute and super clean. For a small town, this is a real treasure. You can get your hair done and also do the nail pampering as well as super massages.

Unique Home

Such a cute little house. Not sure I want one for myself but I like driving by and looking at this one. I wonder what it's like inside and it is very small.

Pecans

It's that time of year again. No, not just Christmas! It's time to harvest pecans (or buy somebody else's harvested work). These were picked up from our front yard. There are lots of pecan trees in Seguin, as you may recall from an early post I had of our Big Pecan.

This year, the worms did not kill off the harvest but as usual the squirrels are doing their best at eating up anything they can get a hold of. What kills me is that they only eat 1/3 or 1/2 of the pecan and then they toss it down. Anyway, that's another story. I am not fond of our huge population of squirrelly squirrels.

I missed the PecanFest this year. Not sure when they had it down at the Pecan Bottom but it has not yet grown much beyond a display of pecans and printed info and occassionally some baked goods.

I will soon snap a shop of a great place to go for pecans and other gifts -- Pape's Pecan House, home to yet another "big pecan." There's a dispute over who has the right to claim this.

Downtown Building

Another one of the many old buildings you find near or on the square in downtown Seguin. Just posted a shot of a downtown building in San Antonio as well. Just a happy coincidence. The first level is not unique but the 2nd floor has possibilities I thought as I gazed at it while at a stop light. If you click on the pic and look at the details on the 2nd floor, it's pretty cool and has great potential. Looks like there used to be big windows up there, which would be consistent with other buildings along there. Might be fun to have an office or apartment near the square, especially during Christmas and other event times.