Monthly Archives: June 2015
No one swims
Singer/songwriter James McMurtry’s song “We Can’t Make It Here Anymore” sums it all up:
In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That’s done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Spur, Texas
photographed 5.24.2015
Wideness of being
This is my first attempt at a panorama, and was taken from the edge of Yellowhouse Canyon in Lubbock County, Texas.
Yes! In spite of all my talk about how flat it is around here, we’ve got this gem hiding in plain sight. This is (in my opinion) the very best view in the county. We are lucky enough to own some land out here; in theory this view will some day be my every-day view. In practice? Uh…we are still in the planning stages. Normal people would have bought the land a decade ago and been living out here already for nine years. Here’s the thing: my husband’s an architect, and I have a degree in architecture, making us the worst clients ever. We make design decisions, then endlessly second-guess them. We want a big house! Or a little one! Stucco! Or that cool steel that’s made to rust on purpose! It should definitely have a courtyard! Unless a courtyard’s a dumb idea! Something on the house should be yellow, as an homage to the location! But that’s SO predictable! And so on.
On the practical side: it’ll make my drive to work 60 miles, one way. It’s nearly three miles off the pavement. There’s a very steep hill that’s impassable when it snows. It’s a long way to the grocery store.
But this view. This wide and beautiful view…
Yellowhouse Canyon, Texas
photographed 5.29.2015
An open door policy
Evidence suggests that Wilson’s Grocery store used to have a location here in Spur. However, the internet seems to be unaware of that fact, which makes me wonder how long this door’s been leaning here on the wall.
Spur, Texas
photographed 5.24.2015
Flat Land
This is the geography that I am used to. Some people think there’s nothing to see out here. Some people are wrong*.
Lubbock County, Texas
photographed 5.24.2015
*I once had a conversation, via letters, with writer William Least Heat Moon. He’s one of my favorite authors, but I took exception to something disparaging that he’d written about driving across the Texas Pandhandle, where he claimed the drive was boring and there was nothing to see. We finally agreed to disagree. He’s still wrong, of course.
One Day | One Image 