Travel

Most people won’t realize how funny this is, but damn, it’s funny.
Last September Bizarro went on a crazy romp through Austin.

Here are some photos and an interview conducted by Kevin Flood.

Getting set up for the interview.

The interview itself.

Here’s the guy who took Bizarro on his adventure

Some crazy mad scientist who made a pickle explode during his speech. He was awesome and he clearly loves Bizarro.

Bizarro hamming it up.

Taking a break.

Taking another break.

He didn’t work very hard.

I’ve compiled some of my favorite pictures from my trip to England.

The Tower Bridge (look familiar?)

Bill, my and Alba’s host in Cambridge, who indulged me an an hour-long conversation about my favorite British TV shows

A much deserved beer at the end of a long day of biking around Cambridge

How much I adore a decent half-pint!

My tower of coasters

Self-portrait at Picadilly Circus

Getting attacked by a street performer

Lovely shadowplay on the Houses of Parliament (courtesy of Alba)

Self-portrait in front of the Tower Bridge

An alley cat I made nice with in a pub in Harrow

See the guy in the back, on the right? Later that day, he gave me his match ticket from the match that had played that day in Wembley Stadium - what a lovely souvenier!

The only rain I saw during my whole trip was as I was about to board the plane home

A few weeks before we went to Portland to visit my family, there was an article in the N&O about being “Carless in Portland.” In one part of the article, the article mentions the public art project in the Pearl district.

You’re probably familiar with the public art projects that have been cropping up in major cities the last 10 years or so. The city will pick an icon, such as a wolf, a catfish, or a mermaid, then ask local artists to paint these oversized beasts and place them throughout the city. At the end of a specified period of time, they have an auction for all the beasties. Well, Portland, a city where it’s not uncommon to see bumper stickers that say “Keep Portland Weird,” decided to do it a little differently.

According to the website for the horse project, the artist Scott Wayne Indiana “knew about the horse rings in many Portland sidewalks and thought it was a shame that we don’t tie our horses to them anymore. Scott decided to change that and tied his first pony to a horse ring in the fall of 2005 in the revitalized Pearl District in Northwest Portland.”

I had told my brother about it, and sort of wanted to hit the Pearl to find a pony. But my brother and his wife, who’ve lived there for years, had never heard of the horse project before. Our last night there, we were finally in the Pearl district, wandering our way toward dinner when look what I found!

Everyone else had already walked by it when I spotted it. I was so happy!! The best part is that they want you to help. So if you live in Portland, go adopt a ring, donate a steel cable tie, and put out your own horse!

See more photos at the all the tiny horses pdx photo pool on Flickr.

The star of the show, of course, is little Evan. We spent the weekend entertaining him and he is just cute as a button. He is a water baby and loved time with the pool and the hose. While we were there, he ate his first piece of meat (deli turkey), had his first piece of toast, and said his first word (cow). He is definitely a handful but clearly a delight to his proud mama and papa. Speaking of which, here are our happy hosts at our lunch at the Salt Lick, an Austin-area institution.

A lovely dinner Monica prepared for us!

Giving Fin the love he deserves

Grayson getting the same love

We had a great, very relaxing time and loved seeing Scott, Monica, Evan and the whole farm!

They also have a herd of Texas longhorn cattle, about 21 head. They are huge and I will never get used to walking in amongst all those enormous horns.

Their donkeys, Fern and Felix, have two babies. They’re cute, but pretty shy unless they think you have food.  

I like to jokingly refer to their place as “the Ark” becuase they have so many pets and other animals. Now that they have little Evan Almighty, it’s perfect!! They have a few indoor pets: three dogs and two cats. Nina and Fin are chihuahuas, while Grayson is this teeny little miniature of a regular dog. Seymour  is a total snugglepuss and ferocious player. Alabaster didn’t make it into the pictures somehow.

Nina

Grayson and Fin

Seymour

The newest addition to their flock is, well, a flock. Five bantam chickens named Eleanor, Abigail, Chester, Teddy and Lucy. Chester and Teddy are roosters, and it’s still out for decision exactly what Abigail is. A prize for whomever can guess the naming convention for the chickens.

There are also seven baby chickens that Monica allowed to hatch. They’ll join the rest of the flock in a few weeks. The best part about these chickens (besides the incessant crowing) is their cute feathered feet - how adorable. We enjoyed a bunch of fresh Banty eggs while we were there - yum! I wonder if our covenants forbid raising chickens??

Abigail and Chester

Lucy laying an egg

Abigail

Baby Chicken with feathery feet

A lovely, lazy weekend at Scott and Monica’s ranch in Wimberley. Thursday night started off with a bang when Monica discovered a snake in the chicken coop, bulging with the two eggs it had just stolen from the hens’ nests. Scott quickly dispatched the snake, a few feet long, with his rifle. It kept moving after it was killed, heightening my sense of how creepy snakes are.

Hanging out at the ranch is always a time for nature exploration. Aside from all the animals they own and actively tend to, there are a host of wild critters easily available to view. Dave spotted this jackrabbit by the way the sunlight made his ears pink.

This orb spider has woven a huge web outside Monica’s office window.

Care for a close-up? Click here OrbSpiderFull.

There are also teeny wild deer and a family of wild turkeys. We spotted one toad (larger than my fist) on Thursday night and another one Friday morning before the dew burned off. There was a spiny lizard sunning himself on the back porch, too. Monica keeps lots of hummingbird feeders out and it’s not unusual to see a half dozen or more hummers circling about. She also has some fabulous birds - we saw cardinals, titmice, and chickadees, along with a number of buzzards.

Me hard at work.

And Bizarro hard at work.

Be back home Sunday.

Jeni and Dawn - aren’t we cute?

Jonathan (my brother) and Jeni

Dave and Jeni 

Nolan is a HAM

Nolan and Jonah, sacked out in the car

Jonah and his iPhone

Jonah loves his Uncle Dave

UPDATE
This cover from the Ziggy Stardust Cover Contest really shows how the cover relates to the scene now. Apologies for not giving props to whoever created this - it’s not listed on the site that I could fine. Hi-C, thanks for pointing this out to me!!

So, while in England Alba and I visited the site where the photo for the cover of the Ziggy Stardust album was taken.

Here is the original.

It took us a bit of time to find it. We were wandering around holding the picture above, squinting at all the building facades, when a helpful passerby said “It’s over there.” I think he worked there and must have been used to seeing people hunt for this landmark.

This is from the end of the street. You can see the site on the right-hand side of the street. On the building at the end of the street (which is The Living Room), note the wood framing over the first floor and the side-by-side rectangular windows at the top of the building. You can see those very clearly in the album cover. Strangely enough, what Graham told me didn’t really jibe with what we saw - the site does not really appear to be part of the building that houses The Living Room.

Here is a sideway view of the building, looking to the right corner. It’s not clear which doorway the picture was taken from.

Looking down the street from the far corner of the building. The picture was taken further down the building, but all of the markers, the light, the K.West sign, the boxes, are all gone.

So, we found it! With the restaurants that lined the entire street all filled with patrons, it was impossible to get in to the actual site, but we got close!! It was fun to have a mission to accomplish, and satisfying to have accomplished it. I probably should have taken more pictures, but I’m happy with what I got.