pepsi, the ranch dog

Pepsi invites you to the reception for "Putting on the Dog" the International Cultural Center's annual photography exhibit which hangs through August 17.

Friday July 27  5-7 pm

ICC, Texas Tech

Pepsi - Yankee, New Mexico

5.26.2012

wading bird

I gave up googling to identify this bird.  A black-white, long-billed, red-legged wading bird seems out of place in a Lubbock County playa lake.  I'm pretty sure it's not a long-billed dowitch nor a black-headed godwit, but it's definitely lost.

daylily

While the daylily bloom is shortlived, the plants are hardy.  This flower is a progeny of roots transplanted at least 4 times the last 20 years in various moves.  The original daylilies grew under my bedroom window at the house in New Deal.  Before the house was razed in the 80s, I raided the beds and saved some daylily roots.  Half a century later, they are still blooming.

damn hot

Triple digit heat again today but not hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.  Another myth disspelled!  Maybe June is too early and attempts should be made in July and August.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/friedegg.html

hannah

lantana in yellow pot

william

manneken pith

Brussels doesn't have anything on Lubbock.  The renowned "Manneken Pis" landmark in Belgium is often replicated.  Today it was found as yard art on the Garden Tour.  The Belgian statue has a vast wardrobe of costumes (Ukrainian folkdress the day I visited); the Lubbock lad is protected from the sun by a pith helmet.

Lubbock Arboretum Garden Tour

rattlesnake bomber base

Other than leftover concrete, there's little to indicate that Pyote Air Force Base was once a major training center for highly trained flying crews.  In the wide open spaces down the road from No Trees and Monahans, in 1944 Pyote had over 6,000 personnel  and countless rattlesnakes.  After the war the base stored over 2,000 planes, mostly B-29s and B-17s, as well as the Enola Gay.  Today one has to imagine the history, especially since the small museum is being moved to Monahans.

Pyote Air Force Base

www.co.ward.tx.us/ips/cms/PyoteRattlesnakeBomber

10.15.2006

"my paw paw's oil well"

This photo is from my mother's baby book containing the caption "my paw paw's oil well."  She and my grandmother Burma are standing in front of great-grandfather Elijah Howell's oil well on the homestead in Trent, Texas in 1927 (wondered what happened to the mineral rights?).  The past connects to the present.  Today I received an email from some one who had seen reference to Elijah Howell on my 2010 blog.  Come to find out we're 3rd cousins -- his great-grandfather was Elijah's brother. Small world.  I was looking for family pictures when I was distracted by the oil well. 

Trent, Texas

1927 (photo not taken by this photographer!)

horseshoe ends up -- good luck

Anvil at V8 Ranch

Lubbock County, Texas

11.18.2011

reflection in a horse trough

V8 Ranch

Lubbock County, Texas

11.18.2011

kayaks

Erie Canal Harbor

Buffalo, New York

6.8.2012

stand of cotton

The benefits of the rains this past on the stands of cotton has been offset by the need to "sandfight" (a tillage or light plowing of the crusted earth to minimize wind and sand damage).

Cotton Field

Lubbock County, Texas

maid of the mist

Beneath the rainbow with Canada in the background, the Maid of the Mist ferries passengers for a closer look at Horseshoe Falls.  It was amazing to watch, on television from the comfort of my hotel room, Nik Wallenda walk a high wire 200 feet above the river at its widest point  at night (from the United States into Canada June 15, 2012) -- just a week after I was at that spot on the Maid of the Mist.

Niagara Falls, New York

6.8.2012

On almost any corner in Dearborn, Michigan one can watch the Fords go by.  In Greenfield Village, Model Ts are the preferred mode of travel.

Greenfield Village - known as "The Henry"
Dearborn, Michigan
6.12.2012
www.thehenryford.org/village

a bright idea

Some men collected coins or stamps; Henry Ford collected historic buildings.  Greenvillle Village, established in 1929, displays his collection of places dismantled, moved and reconstructed -- ranging from the courthouse in Illinois where Lincoln practiced to the Wright Brothers cycle shop to a Cotswold cottage from England.  Tour the village in Model Ts or horse-drawn carriages -- the village is microcosm of early American life.  Ford was friends with Thomas Edison who donated his Menlo Park, New Jersey buildings to the village, including the lab where the light bulb was invented.

Greenville Village

Dearborn, Michigan

6.13.12

ambassador bridge

The Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River which connect the U.S. with Windsor, Ontario, Canada had the longest suspended central span in the world when completed in 1929.  It would hold that title until the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931. Privately owned, the Ambassador is the busiest international border crossing in terms of trade.

Ambassador Bridge

Windsor, Ontario

michigan motto



Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903.   Employees number about 213,000.

big boy

As I took a picture of Big Boy, a woman asked "Is this your first visit to Michigan?"  It seems visitors are impressed with BB but the natives are not.  As the lady said "we have thousands" (although the webpage indicates only 17 in Michigan).  The restaurant has its headquarters in  Warren, Michigan.  Big Boy was started in 1936 in Glendale, California by  Bob Wian who sold his prized DeSoto Roadster to purchase a small hamburger stand that he named Bob's Pantry.  For more history, check out www.bigboy.com/history.html.  I remember eating at the Dallas franchise - Kip's Big Boy.

Big Boy Restaurant

Romulus, Michigan

symbol of buffalo

The 32-story City Hall was dedicated in 1932.  The Art Deco building with its ornamentation and geometric patterns is a great sight.  Unfortunately, I visited on a Saturday and we all know municipal buildings are closed then and thus the observation tower was unavailable. Who remembered from American History that both Presidents Grover Cleveland and Millard Fillmore hailed from Buffalo?  And that William McKinley was assassinated there.  One could spend much time recognizing the symbolism of pioneers, Indians and Greek figures.  I just wondered where they found Art Deco window air conditioning units.

Buffalo City Hall

65 Niagara Square

Buffalo, New York

6.9.2012

www.buffaloah.com/a/bflobest/city/city.html

Driving along the Outer Harbor I spotted a lighthouse out on a spit of land.  Then I passed a sign:

"Boquard's Boat Livery - Lighthouse Keepers Since 1894."  I pulled in and was greeted by this gentleman seated in a chair in front of the trailer house.  He explained that the "boss lady" didn't let nobody walk out to the lighthouse because of liability.  He said he didn't have a boat to rent me and then bemoaned the lack of business.  They didn't rent boats anymore because people wrecked 'em.  It had been a mild winter with no snow and there was no ice fishing; he was actually quite loquacious.  However, he did permit me to take his photograph.

Historically, fishermen's clubs along the Niagara River and the Eire Towpath were popular social systems. Alongside the fishing clubs and sometimes sharing the same buildings were the boat liveries where boats, bait, and fishing tackle could be acquired. Most fishermen rented boats rather than owning them. Until after World War II, most Buffalonians relied on public transport - buses and streetcars - to get around the city. For a fisherman who did not own a car, trailering a boat home after a day's fishing was out of the question. Even if they did own an automobile, there was often little room to store a boat. Houses were built close together, and garages and backyards were very small.  Boquard's is still in business today, one of Buffalo's last boat liveries. 

Boquard's Boat Livery

Outer Harbor

Buffalo, New York

boat ride

Seen from the observation deck 200 feet above, passengers in blue slickers board the Maid of the Mist for a close-up view of Horseshoe Falls.

Niagara Falls State Park

Niagara Falls, New York

fortune cookie

If at first you don't get the fortune you want, order more cookies!

P. F. Changs

Buffalo, New York

br& passenger depot

The Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh passenger depot was built in 1912 in the bustling heyday when rail travel was the primary means of transportation city to city.  Today the building is restored as the rail museum. The town of Salamanca is located on the reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians -- population 5,851.



farm - cattarangus county, new york

After traveling all day (brunch in Chicago) I arrived in Buffalo.  Along the way to Little Valley (well-known ski area in western New York state, one county east of Lake Erie), I oohed and aahed over the farms, barns and onion-domed silos.

Cattarangus County, New York

what the heck?

Ever come across something strange and wonder about the story behind it?  What did the guy imbibe from the plastic cup that caused him to lose  his prosthesis?  How did he get home -- walk?  Did a previous drunken encounter cause the loss of his real limb?  Does he have a spare at home?  Wouldn't the neighbors know where to return it?  Or is it just trash fallen off the garbage truck?  Inquiring minds want to know.

E. 3rd and Igoe Street

Anton, Texas

6.2.2011

hmmm . . .

It's hard to know whether this directive refers to the snakebite salsa for mama's mucho nachos

or the frozen margaritas!

MamaRita's Border Cafe

66th and Slide

Lubbock, Texas

warning

So much for small town friendliness.  Thanks goodness for a long zoom -- I didn't get off the public roadway!

Anton, Texas

farm girl

This corn isn't as high as an elephant's eye, but it is as tall as three-year old Clara.  We took "environmental" birthday pictures (daddy raises corn).  The photos on the John Deere tractor were cute too.