SPLORIN': FIRST THURSDAYS ON S. CONGRESS

I fell in love with street markets on our honeymoon, when John took me to several in Hong Kong and Singapore, on our way to live in Indonesia. The one they hold on S. Congress in Austin, on the first Thursday evening of each month, may not be quite as exotic as the one held on Bugis (pronounced boogey) Street in Singapore, where all the transvestites congregate, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun!

THE STUBBORN ONES

Is it just me? Has anyone else out there found themselves questioning their friendships over the years, since joining facebook? Whenever I reconnect with someone on facebook, after that initial flurry of back and forth messaging where you catch up on everything you've missed over the years, and then spending some time reading their status updates and the comments that their other friends leave for them, I usually end up asking myself one of two things:

A) How did we ever drift so far apart, when we have so very much in common?

OR

B) How did we ever manage to stay friends for so long, when it is now obvious that we are polar opposites on almost every issue?

I mean, honestly. It got me to wonderin' just what my criteria has been when it comes to forming or discarding relationships , and the only common factor I can see is proximity. I'm rather ashamed to admit this, but I have come to the conclusion that I must be a "love the one you're with" kinda gal!

Did I give up on forming deeper relationships because we moved so often, and keeping it light made it easier to leave when the time came? Or was it just that, when I was younger, I was more willing to go with the flow - hide my true feelings in order to blend in? I don't really know. What I do know is that I am ever so grateful for a handful of friends, like Paula and Tim, who absolutely refused to be discarded the way a snake sheds old skin. No matter how often we moved, or where we went, they persisted. They wrote letters. They picked up the phone. They drove all the way down to Kingsville in south Texas, and way out west to Midland. And, because they did, we now have a great history together, and a relationship to be treasured. Thank God for the stubborn ones!

WHOOSH!

I can't believe October is almost half over with! As usual, the Texas summer dragged on for-EV-er, but as soon as we had our first break in temperatures, someone pulled that lever that causes all the clock gears and

pendulums to begin doing the quickstep. These beautiful fall days are speeding by so fast, I just can't seem to grab hold of one long enough to give it all the attention it truly deserves! Guess it's time to step away from all the "to-do" lists for a few hours, so as to concentrate on "what-is". For example, have you noticed the way the cool temps are causing all the succulents, which have been mostly solid green all summer, to finally show their true colors?

FREDERICKSBURG: MORE PICS

FREDERICKSBURG: A DIFFERENT SORT OF HILL COUNTRY TOWN

My sister was just here for several days, and one thing at the top of her to-do list was to make a trip over to Fredericksburg, a quaint little town just over an hour's drive from here. Fredericksburg has a very different feel from Wimberley, having been settled by German immigrants, and is known for having good food, biergartens, great B&B's, lots of cute shops, a lovely herb farm, and for being home to several good wineries as well as Wildseed Farms.

Driving over there always puts a grin on

my face, because I can't help but be reminded of the first time John and I drove there, after buying this house. That was the trip that finally made me understand why it took Moses so long to find the Promise Land.

Carolyn and I were a tad disappointed to discover that our favorite restaurant (Pasta Bella), Rather Sweet Bakery, Homestead, and Dooley's Five and Dime were all closed, it being a Sunday. In Wimberley, everything closes on Monday or Tuesday, so as not to miss any of that good weekend tourist traffic, but I guess those Germans are more devout than us hippies. Nonetheless, there was still plenty of fun to be had!

SEASONALITY IS IN THE HOUSE!

As a result of my simplification campaign over the past several years, I no longer haul out enough Halloween geegaws to decorate every surface in our home. Nevertheless, signs of the changing seasons still manage to make their appearance. A pine cone here, a fuzzy lap throw there, suede and corduroy pillows on the sofa...feels like fall to me!

COLOR MAD MONDAY: ONLY IN TEXAS

SUNDAY INSPIRATION: JUST ONE LOOK AND I COULD HEAR MY HEART SING

My, My! How could I resist ya? How could I resist a book with this cover, and this title, and this much delicious color, looking so sad and neglected, having been dumped in a bargain bin in the aisle of my grocery store and marked down to a fraction of it's original cost? Especially when the first thing I spotted when I flipped through it's pages was a darling, hand-knitted tea cozy?

That tea cozy was just the first in a long string of commonalities, of shared background, beliefs, interests and inspirations, that seem to link me to the author of this book, Ms. Jane Brocket. Here is a sampling of what I found within the first few pages, which is all I've had time to read so far:

• Domesticity, not domestication - "There is a world of difference between domesticity and domestication. This book is about domesticity and the pleasures and joys of the gentle domestic arts of knitting, crochet, baking, stitching, quilting, gardening and homemaking. It is emphatically not about the repetitive, endless rounds of cleaning, washing, ironing, shopping and house maintenance that come with domestication. Domesticity rises above the bossiness of cleaning products and media exhortations to keep our houses pristine and hygienic, and focusses instead on creativity within the domestic space."
• Coming Out - "It still isn't easy to come out as a practitioner of the gentle arts. I know, because I tried, and failed, for many years. I was embarrassed about the knitting and my obsessions...So I knitted and quilted and stitched in isolation...This muddled approach--great private pride in my ability to knit and sew and bake, plus a personal recognition of their value, combined with a public silence about my cherished activities--finally came to an end when I discovered the world of knitting and craft blogs. I was immediately drawn into this mostly female community of domestic artists who shared their creations and wrote articulately about the values and processes. Here, at last, was the opportunity to unite my creative and intellectual interests, and I joined the blogworld with yarnstorm in February 2005."
• Inspiration, A Habit of Seeing - "I used to assume inspiration was the province of artists and poets...I was wrong. Inspiration is inspiration, whether the end result is a painted masterpiece, a soul-searching sonnet, a richly colored homemade quilt or a batch of freshly baked scones. We shouldn't diminish our creativity by despising the results of our inspiration, but instead celebrate and exploit the wonderful feeling of elevated energy and enthusiasm we experience when we feel inspired. That quickening of the senses and the heightening of the imagination are, I'm sure, just the same for the Matisses and Wrens and Brownings as they are for the rest of us...We can walk through life without seeing, without taking in the details, the words, the colors, the pictures, and miss the whole point of inspiration. Or, we can adopt an approach that allows us to stop a while and look and listen and reflect and enjoy...For the one thing that sets creative people apart is that they have all acquired the habit of being receptive to inspiration, actively seeking it or even simply recognizing it...the domestic artist is in the glorious position of being able to find inspiration in daily, domestic life."
• The Hidden Advantages of Being a Blogger - "Writing yarnstorm has made me focus each day on something positive so that I have a subject for my posts. When I started photographing the details of my domestic life, I was quite sure I would run out of material in a matter of weeks. But, instead of exhausting all possibilities, I actually found myself unearthing more and more sources of inspiration, all within the confines of a quite ordinary, domestic life."

P.S. Many thanks to purlbee.com for the image above.