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Sunday, December 24, 2006

My usual haunts



Started the morning getting a cup of coffee at That Ubiquitous Coffee Place, filling the tank with gasoline for a drive to the country so I could wander around with my camera and eat good BBQ.



The hunters were out in abundance by the time I got to Cooper's.

Some of the things I saw that day:
An Eastern bluebird, the flash of azure diving towards my car then wheeling away
Long, golden, almost iridescent sunlight combing the dried roadside grasses
A ranch-house entry with at least seven fake Santas arranged as if they were waving to passers-by
A man clearing brush in front of a pre-fab warehouse, riding on a rust-patina'd small tractor
At Cooper's, a delicate elderly woman, silver-haired and pale-skinned, dressed neatly in shades of lavender and rose, looking a bit lost as she leaned back against a knotty-pine wall beneath the taxidermy deer heads

(To me, some things are simply for the seeing and recalling, not the catching.)

More wandering, and then the long drive back to town and a cup of hot tea at That Enormous Natural Foods Grocery Store.

5 comments:

polona said...

i wish i could sketch like you. but there are limitations to my skills :)

i enjoyed your observations, too. each one a small gem.

as to your question over at my blog, i'll be honoured if you link. will do likewise (may take a day or two, though).

happy christmas to you and yours!

Tricky Trev said...

Ah-ha! Now I see where all my drawing energy went to. It's ended up in Texas. Well, at least it's in good hands. I'll borrow some of it back over the Holidays. Great sketches BTW. Very lively.

Happy H's, Lo-Wi. I'm off to go hang some stockings and spin a dreidel or two. ;)

Anonymous said...

Cooper's--definitely a worthy site of pilgrimage. I remember a junk store around the corner from Cooper's that had an old-fashioned soda machine, the kind like an icebox.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful smile on that woman's face. Your sketches are such a treat, Lori. I can see, with the mind's eye, the scenes you describe, in your style, just (almost) as if you'd posted photographs of them.

Lori Witzel said...

Hey y'all -- it's a chilly wet Texas Christmas Eve, and I hope you're staying dry and warm. Thanks for coming by!

Polona: Drawing? All it takes is being dared into it, and about a jillion drawings' worth of practice (for me, while I was in art school...hence my rusty hand.) Thanks for your kind compliments, and I'll be linking soon!

T-Man: Oh, please do borrow some back, I need a rest! Happy Massive Holiday Fun, and hope you win lots of Chanukkah gelt (gotta love a holiday that encourages gambling.)

Brett: Welcome! Wandered by your blog and see you're in Phoenix -- so has Cooper's in Llano become that well-known? It's tasty for sure, but seeing (and feeling) the enormous fires burning the wood down to smoky coals is an added treat.

Laura: Thanks so very much! That lady was actually a bit hard-looking, but when she was watching her grandkids (my assumption that these were grandkids) she warmed right up. She kept giving me little stern looks over her glasses -- I forget that people wonder why I'm looking at them more than the usual amount...