Happy New Year 2008!

As I have for the last several years, I spent New Year's Eve out in Marathon, Texas, hanging out with a great group of friends and ringing in the new year with fellowship, food, drink and music. Base camp, as usual, was at Ty and Kate Fain's wonderful home in SoMar (South Marathon).

It was cold out there. How cold was it? Check out the fountain in the courtyard of Ty and Kate's home.

Daybreak in the Hill Country

I am spending the Labor Day weekend out in the Hill Country near Mountain Home, at my favorite place on earth. I got here yesterday afternoon and had dinner at the fabulous Cowboy Steakhouse in Kerrville. Dinner was great, even though my friend (and restaurant owner) Lorrie Ferris was not there.

I went to sleep last night with a cloudy sky and a milky full moon trying to peek through the haze. This morning dawned slow and sweet, with the air cool and damp and a light haze over the hills in the distance. This was the view from the porch of my cabin.

Today's agenda: a hike with Xena, some reading and relaxing, and an hour or two spent in the swimming hole.

Home Sweet Largest County In The U.S.

This is the view from the porch outside my cabin at the Marathon Motel. I got here yesterday for a quick weekend get-together hosted, as always, by Ty and Kate Fain. Their New Year's Eve parties -- when they and their Merry Band throw the best bash in the Big Bend -- are legendary, and this weekend is a summer version of that gathering. About 20 people are here, hanging out during the day and eating, drinking and making merry in the evenings.

This afternoon a large contingent went down to the Post, a county park five miles south of Marathon. The Post is like a little osais in this semi-arid country. It is luch and green, partly because there's been so much rain out here. While we were out there, a little storm washed over the area, freshening and cooling the air.



Tonight we'll have dinner, and then some musicians will entertain us for the balance of the evening.

UPDATE: I've posted some pictures from the weekend on Picasa, here.

Let It Snow -- in Texas

When I was out in West Texas a couple weeks ago, we were treated to some snow in the high desert country of the Big Bend. The snow fell overnight on Thursday, December 28 and I spent that Friday driving around and snapping some pictures.

As a native of San Antonio and a 20-year resident of Austin, I am not used to the words "Texas" and "snow" in close proximity, although I realize parts of our state get snow on almost an annual basis.

I've spent lots of time in the Big Bend region, though, and never thought of its sweeping vistas and sere landscapes in snow-covered terms. So it was a delight to see some of that area under a blanket of snow and clouds. I want to share some pictures, both to celebrate the natural beauty of that area and because, as far as I know, that snow is long gone by now.

Hilltops outside of Alpine. The view of the cloud-wrapped peaks, with wind and fog blowing off them, and the snow-covered slopes below was majestic.

A picture of the high desert outside of Shafter, on the road between Marfa and Presidio. This was taken about 11:30 a.m.; by the time I came through on my way back to Marathon later that day, this snow was gone.

My dog Xena standing in the snow just west of Alpine. She's only seen snow once before, in Montana in 2001. I tried to get her to sit for her "portrait," but she was having none of it.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's the beginning of a new year and the beginning of this new blog. I have an interesting life, I think, and I want to share some of the joy and fun, and maybe even heartaches, with others. Mostly I am doing this because I have lots of cool pictures and I want a venue to share them. If it works to do it in the blog, great. If not, I am open to suggestions on other venues.

I was out in the marvelous Big Bend region of west Texas for the new year. I stayed in Marathon, where a group of my disreputable friends and I celebrated the new year. Normally, this is dry, arid, high desert country, but we had a treat that week. A couple days earlier, it had snowed west of there, so I spent the Friday before New Year's driving from Marathon to Marfa, down to Presidio, into the Big Bend Ranch State Park, and back again. All told, almost 350 miles, which is astounding when you think about it. Not only did I drive 35 miles and not leave Texas, I drove that far and was only in TWO COUNTIES. Big country out there.

I am still trying to figure out how to upload pictures. So far, no luck. I will do a new post once I have figured it out.