Piggen Wiggen

In the late summer last year, we were driving home one evening and, stopped at the lights going into our neighbourhood, I was looking idly about me. Suddenly -

"I see a pig!" I said to Dave, half jokingly, and we both tried to get a closer look in the half-light of dusk. Concluding I'd made a mistake, and seen nothing more than a dog, we went home and I didn't think about it any further.

...Until the next evening, when there he was again, quite unmistakably; whiffling about in the grass and undergrowth right by the side of the road, cars a few metres away.

We went around the block and tried to get a closer look, but by then someone else had seen him and parked nearby; the car didn't bother him but the person getting out of the car scared him and he scampered off into the undergrowth.

And so it went for at least a week; about dusk, he'd come out of the trees and rootle about for a bit; and every attempt we made to get a photo of him was foiled by people or darkness or both.

Finally, we decided to ambush him; we waited, camera at the ready, in the nearby school parking lot at the time we were used to seeing him, and waited... and waited... and just as we were about to give up, out he came.

And it was lucky we did that, as we never saw him again after that day. But even now, we look wistfully at that corner when we pass; it's much more interesting to have a Piggen Wiggen in the neighbourhood than a bare mound of gravel.

Tempting --

 -- but no.

Suburban Deluxe

A Grand Day Out

I know I've said it before, but one of the best things about living in Houston is leaving it... there are so many interesting places just a few hours away; it's one of my favourite things to have a semi-early start on a Saturday or a Sunday and go driving out to somewhere new (or old!).

A few tell-tale clues will reveal that this trip actually took place in mid-October last year, but due to aforementioned laptop issues I didn't get to post the pictures until now.

Old Courthouse - Blanco. We went in and looked at historic photos which lined the hallways on the ground floor - fascinating!

The current Blanco Municipal Court. I guess while you wait to be judged you sit in the porch swing and compose your mind.

I have to confess that I have developed a real taste for proper Barbecue, since living here - and this sort of place, somewhat rough-and-ready, one-off places in small towns, tend to have the very best. As witnessed below (that's for Dave AND me - I'm not quite such a piggy as to be able to eat all that alone!):

Above and below - Wildlife Garden and seed farm.

Courtyard of an antique store in Fredericksburg (our actual destination, but it took us most of the day to get there, as we stopped off so much!)

The eight-sided church in central Fredericksburg. It was in a park in the main part of town, which was holding a mesquite festival the weekend we were there - lovely handmade furniture, Christmas decorations, and similar.