Back in the pool!

Temperature shot up today - over 70F by the afternoon - so I went to the pool at 9.0 am for water aerobics.  The water was not quite as warm as it's been before and it was cloudy, but the exercise was wonderful!   Came home, had a hot shower and a cup of coffee and shot off again for lunch with an artist friend Mary.  Long gossipy lunch (mainly consisting of lettuce) and then back home again to prepare food for dinner on Saturday night at Carol's.  My contribution is Monica's red pepper soup and Nigel Slater's Moroccan chicken, baked rather than flash fried.  The soup is easy to make but the blending of it in a temperamental blender liable to go off like Vesuvius was touch and go.  Got the chickens jointed and in the bag with the marinade and then couldn't face making supper, so we went out to the Sichuan restaurant we like and met Phyllis and Davis by chance.  So a long, happy and sociable day!

Preserving the past

I discovered this week that the small photograph of my mother that I've been keeping in my purse had got badly damaged.  This must have been happening gradually and I realised that I needed to do something to stop the deterioration.   I took the photo to the library yesterday and tentatively asked if they would be kind enough to 'laminate' it for me.   They seemed to look upon the task as a pleasure, a duty and contribution to history. 

One person made 2 scans of the picture and emailed them to me, another produced some special tissue paper and a specimen box and the third lady tenderly carried the photo away to her office on her flattened palm and 'encapsulated' it.  Apparently this is what they do to preserve archive material without damaging it.  So I now have a preserved treasure to take home.

This week's Wednesday adventure

Dispite the cold we ventured outside College Station for another of our Wednesday adventures - 'adventure' in the sense that sometimes Carol has no idea what we're going to find!  We are dauntless!

Yesterday Carol drove us to Caldwell, a small town which we often pass by on the way to Bastrop to see Bob and Mary.  On the way through we've seen the obligatory fast food places and gas stations and not much else.  But, turn left at the lights and you find 'The Square' and a sense of what the place was like several decades ago.  Around the massive court house are raised sidewalks and shops in various stages of disintigration - except for the banks of course of which there are three within eyeshot of each other.

Mad Hatter's Tea Room

Also doing a roaring trade (that's fairly genteel roaring you understand) is the Mad Hatter's Tea Room complete with mad hats! And not just those you can see on display near the ceiling, in the back was a room full of hats, scarves, shawls and necklaces.  Apparently the thing to do is to dress up for afternoon tea.  Fortunately it was 10.45 am so Carol and I could remain hatless.  We ordered coffee and were offered regular coffee or Snickerdoodle coffee.  Guess which one I had.  Carol said the Snickerdoodle coffee tasted good, but I sniffed  it and it smelled like biscuits which I later discovered is what Snickerdoodles are.  Enough with the Snickerdoodles!   Then we debated whether it was time for lunch (it was 11.00 am by this time) but  decided to restrain ourselves and instead just ordered apricot and pecan scones to keep us going.  And very nice they were too!

Scones!

Then on to Manuel's a dress shop owned by an old acquaintance of Carol's.  The owner was out to lunch so we went off to see if we could find the advertised Czech Museum - this being an old Czech settled town.  No sign of the museum but we located the huge (empty) visitor centre and the lady at the desk switched on the lights for us!  Turns out she came from Glasgow by way of Gloucester and had been living in Caldwell for 12 years, and much longer elsewhere in the States.  Very strong American accent and a lot of "Yes, ma'am."  She unlocked the little museum for us and we admired the domestic artefacts.   These little museums are everywhere.  Set up many years ago with the purpose of preserving the history of the place, they don't get updated.  The labels fade to nothing, the pictures curl.  It's very sad in some ways.

Many Czech immigrants were carpenters and cabinet makers

Domestic history

Silly English tourist!

Back to Manuel's where 'Miss Miriam', as she is known locally, was back behind the counter and very pleased to see Carol.  Miriam is 90 and still running her own business, though thinking of selling now and moving to Austin to be near her daughter.  Miriam brought out a photo book which her family had made for her birthday and we both admired it.   The shop can't have been updated since 1940.  A real time warp!  To my amazement a lady walked out with a purchase as we went in.  What do I know about fashion!

Here's a flavour of the layout and the stock.

I was rather tempted by some of the winceyette nighties though!  And there were some very comfy knickers on display...

In addition to the colourful parts of the shop, there were also a lot of empty racks and empty shelves with old storage boxes.  Hat's off though to a 90 year old running her own business and going to work everyday.

Miriam (l) and Carol (r)

More knitting

Fear not...this is not turning into a knitting blog.  However, the weather is cold and I can't go swimming and walking hasn't been much fun either, so I have been keeping busy knitting.  In fact I have discovered a fantastic knitting website where people share patterns and I discovered this little beauty and knitted it for Nicky's granddaughter Sophia. 

But there is more to life than knitting...this week's activities include:

• Book group - discussing Donna Tart's book 'The Secret History'
• A concert by a guitar quartet https://www.facebook.com/pages/VIDA-Guitar-Quartet/151110851592
• Tomorrow a trip out into the country with Carol
• Library on Thursday...starting a blog for the oral history project
• Concert on Thursday night
• Lunch with a friend on Friday

My first completed tea cosy!

 Using up left over wool...my first attempt at a tea cosy.  Clearly I don't have enough to do!

Knitting

As befits a granny, I'm knitting furiously.

Here's my latest creation made with some yarn left over from a sweater. It's a tea-bag hat for one of the grandsons...whichever one it fits best I think.  The tassles are a little questionable, but can easily be removed!

I've accumulated a large quantity of bits of wool of all colours, and I've been thinking of ways of using them up!   So I'm teaching myself to knit an old fashioned tea cosy which I found on a wonderful tea cosy blog! 

I've also invested in a book of little bears to knit.  Should keep me busy for a while!

Intense weekend of cinema

Actually, it has been a very lazy weekend.  It was a long one with Martin Luther King's birthday on Monday, which is a holiday here.  The weather has been glorious.  Starting off cool and crisp and sunny and staying sunny and warming up.  Over 70F yesterday.  We should have been off walking, perfect weather for it, but my leg/knee is taking ages to feel right again.

So we used the excuse to stay in bed late and read a lot.  Peter is completely absorbed in a Bill Bryson book 'One Summer: America 1927' and insists on reading bits out.  Apparently a lot happened in 1927.  Peter's so enthusiastic that I might have to read it though I've found Bill Bryson a bit too cheerful in the past. I've been catching up with the last two editions of the London Review of Books and read, in particular, an article about a writer Penelope Fitzgerald who's work I don't know at all.  It sounds interesting though and I've downloaded her first two novels on to my kindle.   We also ate in the yard twice...a great treat in January.

However, we did stir ourselves to leave the house.  On Saturday night we went to the cinema to see '12 Years a Slave'.  It was unmitigated sorrow and distress from start to finish.  Well, not really unmitigated...mitigated by great acting and photography...but misery just the same.  It was the story of a remarkable man, based on a book he wrote after his ordeal, but I was disappointed that it didn't add anything to what I already knew about slavery.  It would have been interesting to know what was going on inside the heads of the Texan audience.  The cinema was packed. 

On Monday night we went again to the cinema, this time to see 'Gravity' which many people have recommended to us.  The cinema was empty, most people having seen it already I imagine.  Anyway, we donned our 3D glasses with an open mind - our last experience of 3D, 'Gatsby', was sickening - and sat through 90 minutes of tension.  Yes, great filming, but once again we staggered from the cinema exhausted!

There are 20 screens at our local cinema, so plenty more opportunities to 'enjoy' a film.  And I realised, with a sinking feeling, that we went in an out of the cinema yesterday without remarking on the pervasive smell of butterred popcorn and the number of people armed with multiiple drinks and massive buckets of the stuff plus other snacks shouldering their way in through the screen doors.  At Cinema City we make do with a cool glass of Viognier!  However, at Cinemark the tickets for seniors are $4 each - that's less that £2.50!  Mustn't complain!

Talking of the African American experience, the South and Martin Luther King Jr, a friend on face book drew my attention to this piece about what Martin Luther King actually did.

Beef shin on the bone

I love this cut of meat.  Slow cooked it becomes very tender and the bones yield their marrow and enrich the sauce.  Made it last night for a dinner for friends...Hungarian goulash style with paprika and red peppers.  Not quite as tender as the first time I used this cut, but I was afraid of it falling apart.  I asked for shin on the bone at the butchers on Norwich market when we were back over Christmas and the young man got out an entire leg from the fridge and proceded to saw off a piece off the end.  All bone and hardly any meat and wanted to charge me the regular price per pound!   But these beauties from HEB are just the right about of meat to bone. 

Finished off with good old apple pie...one for us with sugar and one, slightly less attractive, for Peter without!

Good news, bad news, good news!

Good news 1.
After limping around San Antonio with an aching leg (following my spectacular collision with wet concrete at the pool) and restless nights with toothache in my leg, I went this morning to a walk in center.  No one in the waiting area.  Details taken right away.  Nurse hovering in the doorway ready to take me to a room for blood pressure test and vital signs.  There were some, thank goodness!  Then into a private room where I am gowned, labelled and laid out on a bed.  Doctor comes back with a) different nurse and b) additional person balancing lap top who takes all the notes.  Doctor does squeezing and twisting and elicits one sharp howl and orders x-rays.  Radiographer comes and wheels bed into x-ray room.  Takes three x-rays and wheels me back.  Unseen Radiologist reads the x-rays and reports to doctor.  Doctor returns.  No break, just bad bruising.  Expect it to be painful for at least another week.  Rest with your leg up (yes! yes!) and take these very strong painkillers.  At the check out we give the details of our UK travel insurance company and leave.  Total time taken? 1 hour!

Bad news
With all those people involved the bill is going to be high!   Much paperwork to follow, no doubt.

Good news 2.
Back home and lunch in the garden...in the warm sunshine.   In January!  Wonderful!

Two and a half days in San Antonio

The hunter gatherers arrive with lunch

Hoisting up the pinata

 We start with a picnic in Brackenridge Park by the river under the pecan trees.  Around us people are picking nuts off the ground.  We join in and crack a few.  The weather is great and the many ducks at the water's edge are getting frisky.  Almost spring!  At the next table a family prepare for a celebration, complete with pinata, BBQ and many coolers. 

After lunch we go to the McNay Museum - an interesting collection of paintings, sculpture and a cinema costume exhibition.

War mother and child

Courtyard at the McNay Museum

Made, I think, from Cheesy Wotsits!

As worn by Jonny Depp in
Pirates of the Carribean

Kiera Knightly's costume
from Duchess of Devonshire

Bob and Mary, resting

The house where Bob's
parents used to live

 In the evening we walk along the riverside and find our restaurant... (terrible camera settings, obviously!)

Strange resemblance to 'The Scream'!

Riverside walk

Riverside boats

From a bridge

San Antonio Art Museum

On Sunday we go to the San Antonio Museum of Art housed in a converted brewery.  Beautiful galleries and another interesting collection.

Love it!

Love it from this side too!

Peter in reflective mood

I can make it...

My turn on the chair

View from the skywalk between two halves of the museum

Ditto

Then off to The Alamo...

Venerable oak tree

In front of The Alamo church...taken by a lady from Pennsylvania

Next stop the Mexican market...

Dancers

Elvis waiting his turn

Animated line dance!

On Monday morning we explored an area in south east San Antonio and found some murals that I'd read about.  Pity we didn't have time to discover a little more about this art form or see more, but they were scattered about and not easy to find.

Next stop, a shoe factory outlet with an interesting collection of old cars outside.  Beauties!
Mary bought two pairs of shoes! 

Ford truck

Bob used to have one like this!

Mine was this colour!

No one came to shine his shoes!

 Our last stop, La Fonda, a Mexican restaurant where we had probably the best meal of the weekend.  Delicious and different and eaten outside!

A great weekend!  Thank you Bob and Mary!