MY ACCIDENTAL GARDEN

The other day I wandered outside, in the front yard, where I hardly ever go. There is a raised brick flower bed next to the house. Something there caught my eye:

TOMATO PLANTS!
WITH TOMATOES ON THEM!
(Those are artificial flowers on the right.)

This was truly a transcendental experience, for I had wanted to plant tomatoes for this first spring back in Texas. But, like many other best-laid plans, they never materialized.

Should I plant heirlooms or hybrids? Where? Anywhere in the back yard, the dogs would destroy them. Maybe in the side yard, which is fenced off, but just the thought of working that black clay gumbo soil into something resembling beds was exhausting. In the meantime, the window for germination passed. I was resigned to spending the next year in more planning and research, and making trips to Whole Foods  and farmers markets to buy heirloom tomatoes raised by someone else.

On that glorious day there were tomatoes in my very own front flower bed, having germinated and now flourishing with no intervention on my part. I was deliriously happy. The scene immediately evoked childhood memories of plucking a perfect tomato off the vine and eating it right then and there, with the sweet juice dribbling down my chin.

Close-Up of the First Tomatoes

These tomatoes must have been some accident, leftover from the previous tenant, dormant for a whole year and surviving the drought. A wet spring brought them to life. And, ironically, they are probably an heirloom variety because hybrids won't grow from the previous generation's dropped fruit.

Regarding these unexpected tomatoes as a Gift from God, I proceeded to hover over them like a mother hen. Several trips to Home Depot produced bamboo stakes (because metal tomato cages are incredibly expensive), MiracleGro fertilizer, more MiracleGro garden soil to amend the native gumbo, a few Homestead heirloom plants, and one Big Boy for making sandwiches on fresh white bread with mayonnaise, the closest thing to heaven on earth.  While I was at it, I picked up a few strawberry plants for this sunny location.  I had probably spent more money on these unexpected tomatoes than I would have in buying them ready-to-eat.

The tomatoes have been thriving, and are now at least doubled in size after two weeks. I've done extensive research on the web and have judiciously pinched off sucker branches so the plants will have more energy for making the fruit. New blossoms have appeared.  All seemed well.

But with the luxuriant growth have come new challenges:  bugs. I'm determined to keep this garden pesticide-free.  This morning I found these critters:

Ack!  Something's eating my tomatoes!

 A quick search on Google Images of "tomato bugs" revealed that these are juvenile leaf-backs. I found the mamma bug lounging on another tomato.

Panic set in - what to do? Obviously this city-slicker is emotionally fragile when it comes to raising food.

After giving the matter much thought, I went back outside, picked up most of them with a tissue and squashed them. As much as I respect life, I wanted tomatoes more.

A few of the babies escaped. The survivors had returned to the same spot an hour later. This time I spritzed them with a pyrethrin spray left over from the previous tenants. So much for organic gardening. But pyrethrins are "natural" - made by chrysanthemums and marigolds (which I never got around to planting either).

I harvested two of the bigger tomatoes and immediately washed them off with dilute liquid detergent, then made fried green tomatoes for supper. Their tartness was a perfect complement to the sweetness of the canned vegetarian beans and veggie-franks. Or maybe that tartness was from the residual pyrethrins. Whatever.

My favorite merlot rounded off the meal.

Ahh, life is good.

Stay tuned for the ongoing Battle of the Bugs. Yes, I WILL have that perfectly-ripe tomato sandwich!

After dinner, I went out back with the dogs. A mockingbird was serenading the sunset with its limitless song.

In these days of endless wars and meaningless political rhetoric, it is so satisfying to find so much pleasure in such simple things.

Yes. This is where I belong.

And tomorrow I'll buy those marigolds.

-bjd

TEXAS WILDFLOWERS

Yesterday I drove up to the Hill Country to see the wildflowers.  They are supposed to be especially good this year, because of our winter rains.  It has been many years since I've seen bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and other flowers for which Texas is known.  This is Lady Bird Johnson's legacy; she convinced the Texas Highway Department not to mow on the right-of-ways until the wildflowers had bloomed.  And it's quite a sight.

I'd been waiting all week for a window of favorable weather and light, and it finally came on Friday.  So off I went, maps in hand and a definite plan in mind.

First I detoured up the Grey Forest Scenic Loop, and then meandered through back country roads to Highway 16 headed north to Bandera.  Here are some views along that leg of the trip:

Grey Forest Scenic Loop: Old Tractor

Tarry Bank-Toufant Beauregard Rd:Yucca and Flag

There was nothing worth seeing in Bandera.  Long known as a tourist destination for dude ranches, it is now taken over by bikers on the weekend.  I got out as fast as I could.

I stopped in Fredericksburg for a lovely outdoor lunch at a restaurant called "Smoke and Sweet".  They feature home-smoked meats and baked desserts.  Sort of an unusual combination, but it works.  A young woman played the guitar and sang for us.  She sounded a lot like Nora Jones. 

After lunch I headed up to the Willow City Loop, a famous ride for viewing the flowers.  Here are some of the things I saw:

Ranch Rd 1631: Longhorns and Indian Paintbrush

Willow City: Wildflower Landscape

Willow City: Phlox

Willow City: Wildflowers and Prickly Pear

Then it was time to head south on Highway 16 back to San Antonio.  I retraced my path (except for the Scenic Loop) but still had a couple of surprises along the way:

Camp Verde FM480 S of Center Point: Bison

Hwy 173 S of Center Point:
Bluebonnets in Late Afternoon

The light was not right for capturing the old storefronts in downtown Center Point.  This is a charming town (though not as charming as Comfort, in my opinion).  I'll make a special trip back to photograph Comfort and Center Point.  Comfort was settled by liberal Free Thinkers from Germany and still retains more 19th-century charm than many of the other nearby towns, including tourist-spoiled Fredericksburg.

Finally, here are some special scenes on the way back closer to San Antonio, as the afternoon light took on that wonderful golden quality of late afternoon:

Highway 16:  Phlox and Sheep

Pipe Creek Hwy 16: Old Service Station

On the whole, a tiring but most enjoyable day.


-bjd

TURNING POINT

Wow.  It's been four months already since I've arrived in San Antonio. Hard to believe.

So I guess you could say I'm getting settled in. Have had my beloved car back since Christmas Eve. It's a 10-year-old Ford Focus with 132,000 miles on it, but it still has a lot of life in it. Am slowly getting the work done on it which will hopefully keep it running for another 100,000 miles or so.

Life is good.

Today I was coming back from a conference in Clear Lake. It was thrilling to see NASA across the street from the hotel, even if I didn't get to go inside. I did get an inside tip on a VIP tour in the future. That will definitely be worth blogging about.

During these four months I've been creeping toward becoming a vegetarian. My diet has consisted largely of oatmeal for breakfast, and beans or lentils with rice or cornbread for the other meal each day, with an occasional meat meal thrown in. But my one experience with cooking chicken was a big disappointment - it was flavorless and rubbery in texture. Certainly not your grandmother's chicken.

It feels good eating this way. At the conference I saw an old friend for the first time in several years. She has been a vegetarian for some time and for the past year and a half has gone to the next level of vegan-ism. And she looks absolutely great.

Maybe this is the turning point. Not all the way to being a vegan, because dairy products are too dear to me still. And I could allow an occasional meat meal so as not to feel totally deprived. Actually I don't feel deprived anyway. And the last few beef meals have made me sick.

So, coming back to San Antonio from Houston on I-10, I passed through Luling, the barbeque capital of Texas. Texas claims to have invented barbeque - at least the kind with beef brisket cooked over a huge pit. I had planned to enjoy one last meat meal in Luling. But for some reason I wasn't looking forward to  it.

On the way into town from I-10, there were several groups of very contented-looking cows munching on grass now succulent from the recent rains. Now that brisket plate seemed even less appetizing.

But I persisted and found the famous City Market, rated by Texas Monthly as having the best barbeque in the state:

Texas Monthly, where they take barbeque seriously.
They even have an app for it.

City Market is in the quaint main historic business district, which seems to have been virtually unchanged for the past hundred years or so.

But today is Sunday, and it turns out City Market was closed.

Alas, that last meal of barbeque was not meant to be. And, to be honest, I was not disappointed.

In case you're interested, here's what the beef link pit looks like at City Market, thanks to the Full Custom Gospel BBQ blogger. There are four other similar pits for cooking beef brisket, chicken and ribs.

At City Market in Luling they cook sausage links in a big way.

Once home, I enjoyed some brie and crackers for dinner and washed them down with a glass of red wine.

Yes, life is good.

-bjd

RIDING THE BUS

Ever since I've been back in San Antonio I've been car-less.  My car is in Panama, rented out for a few months to some friends who need a second car for a while. San Antonio is a big city, the seventh largest in the US. Too big to cover on foot.


So by necessity I've become a regular bus rider.  As an environmentalist, I've been wanting to do this for some time but didn't have the incentive until now.  Perhaps it was class-ism or snob-ism that prevented me from riding with "the common people".  But now I am one of them.  And in reality, have been one of them always, whether I realized it or not.  Now, with no other choice for the time being, I'm riding the  bus.


Fortunately San Antonio has the best public transportation system in Texas, and probably one of the best in the US.  Its buses are new and clean, its drivers courteous and competent.  Most buses are equipped with hydraulic lifts that lower and raise the entire bus to make it easier for the mobility-impaired.  Every bus has devices to strap wheelchairs into place securely.  Besides the regular buses, VIA also has downtown "streetcars" (old-fashioned looking quasi-streetcars but with regular wheels) that run on tourist routes:

San Antonio Downtown Trolley
(Credit:  http://www.san-antonio-daily.com/4208.html)

Many of the bus stops are clean and shiny, covered and with lights:

Some of the older ones are quite picturesque, such as this "Tropical Theme" stop in Alamo Heights:

Alamo Heights Bus Stop - All Concrete

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/espinos/3713407561/

In case you don't know how to ride a bus, VIA has video instructions, broken down into four parts for those of us who are simple-minded.  At first I was quite intimidated by the whole process, but now am getting comfortable with it. 

Here's another good thing.  Because I'm a senior citizen, I am eligible for a Senior Discount Bus Pass.  One of the first things I did after arriving here was to visit one of the VIA Customer Service Centers to get my pass.  This entitles me to ride during non-peak hours (9:00 am - 3:00 pm) for $.25 plus $.07 if I need a transfer.  Peak fares are half off.  And it's totally free on the weekends:

VIA Senior Bus Pass - Now I've Arrived.

To help plan your trip, VIA has an interactive trip planner based on Google Maps on their website.  And if you zoom in enough in Google Maps, you can see little bus icons showing where bus stops are.  Clicking on one of these icons triggers a pop-up window that lists all the bus routes at that stop:

Google Maps Bus Stop Icons
Colors on route numbers have meanings.
You can get to them directly in Google Maps.

I don't know whether or not these bus icons are available for every city that has buses, but I suspect they are.  I just checked my old neighborhood in Baltimore, and the icons are there.  I had never paid any attention to them before they became a necessity.


And here's the best part.  The Alamo Area Council of Governments sponsors an on-line program called NuRide to encourage people to use more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation.  It seems to have been designed to establish car pools for commuting employees and has various corporate sponsors for this, but anyone can use the program.  Many restaurants and shops are sponsors and offer rewards for participating.


If you take the time to record trips you make by walking, car-pooling, bicycling, and of course bus-riding.  It awards different levels of points for each kind of trip.  You can save frequent trips so you don't have to re-enter them from scratch every time.  It also calculates the pounds of carbon dioxide emissions saved in comparison to driving cars with no passengers.  And if you want to find a car-pool partner for regular trips, it can help you do that too.


So far, in the short time I've been here, I've received three coupons for $5.00 off grocery purchases at the largest grocery store in town.  I'm also getting a coupon for a free burrito at Chipotle.  And I have many points left to cash in.


I love NuRide because it provides material incentives for people to be more friendly to the environment. It is one of the most creative programs I've seen in a long time.  NuRide is also available in other regions of the country, including the metropolitan New York City and Washington DC areas. DC-area friends, please take note!  


And NuRide is making a difference.  Here are some summary statistics on their impact:

NuRide Stats

If I'm still in San Antonio and eventually get a car, I'll still take the bus for trips that are not time-sensitive.  And the extra walking back and forth to the bus stop is good for me too.


It's by changing that we grow.  Riding the bus has been a new and rewarding experience for me, and it can be for you too.


-bjd
PS:  Rode the Express bus today up to the UTSA campus.  Still $.25 during the off-peak hours.  Fancy-schmancy upholstered seats and free WiFi.  What's not to like?

MORE REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK

So I went to Fuddrucker's today and had the first burger since returning to the States.  I believe it was only the third burger I've had this year.  Yes, it was excellent - cooked rare with bacon and blue cheese and mayo, and sweet potato fries on the side.  I don't remember Fudd's having sweet potato fries, but have to confess that I didn't visit them very often when living in the States previously.


You must try sweet potato fries if you haven't yet.  When properly made, they are just a bit crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, so naturally sweet they don't need ketchup.  A light dusting of salt perfectly complements the sweetness. And they need to be cooked to order and served really, really hot.  Yum.


But that's not what I want to talk about.


Instead, I want to bring you, my dear readers, up to speed on the new Coca-Cola dispenser.  I was fascinated by the two dispensers sitting side-by-side in the restaurant.  Truly I felt like a country bumpkin going to town for the first time.


These new dispensers have a bit of a "Retro" shape, but are ultra modern and computer-controlled.  The customer touches the screen for the drink selection.  At first I didn't know what to do after getting the ice, but after a few seconds figured out to touch the screen.  There were 18 different kinds of drinks to choose from.   I selected "Diet Coke", my usual.  This was also the first Diet Coke I've had since returning to the US about three weeks ago.


But wait - instead of pouring out Diet Coke, the machine took me to ANOTHER screen, where I had a choice of different flavors of Diet Coke:  Cherry, Vanilla, Lime, and I've forgotten what else.  I think there were about six different choices of flavors.


I went with plain Diet Coke, and the machine automatically knew how much to pour in my glass.


Golly Gee Whiz!


I was so excited I tried to take a picture of the machine with my cell phone, but couldn't figure out how to do this.  There were no other customers there at this odd time of day, so I didn't make a total fool of myself.


Later I looked it up on-line:

The New Coke Dispenser -
Coming Soon to a Restaurant Near You

It turns out this was still experimental as late as 2009, so I haven't been that much out of touch after all.  And - get this - when Coke wants to test market new flavors, they can program the machine to create them.  Customer selections are also uploaded to a central server, to keep tabs on the ever-changing market. 


Yes, I thought this was a bit too much like Big Brother too.


If you want to know more, here's a link to an article with technical information.


And here's a YouTube video of the machine in action.


OK, there you have it:  consumerism at its finest.


-bjd

REMEMBERING TEACHERS

Yesterday we attended the funeral of Mr. Pierce Grisham, who taught us Texas History in junior high.  Mr. Grisham died at the age of 92.  After a long teaching career he became one of the most popular docents at The Alamo.  Here he is in his "Alamo costume" about ten years ago at the age of 83:

It was good to be reminded of our past and of some of the people who had a big influence on us.  I was doing OK until my junior-high homeroom teacher's widow went up to the front to speak at the service.  I didn't know that Mr. Brehm, my teacher, and Mr. Grisham were friends.  Mr. Brehm also taught me typing, a skill I use every day.

When Mr. Brehm's widow mentioned that he had died, I choked up.  I had been hoping to see him at the funeral.  I wanted to go up to her after the service and say something, but I was still too emotional to speak.

Later, at the graveside service in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetary, I did approach her.  I was doing OK at that point until his daughter came to me to introduce herself.  I could see Mr. Brehm in her.  We hugged each other and had a nice talk.

I never knew that Mr. Brehm had married, had children, and died.  I'm so sorry that I didn't see him again after I was all grown up.

Somehow we think of our teachers as being immortal, not mere humans like the rest of us.

Rest in peace, Mr. Grisham and Mr. Brehm.  

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams

-bjd

REDISCOVERING SAN ANTONIO

Its thrilling to see the changes that have occurred in San Antonio during my twenty-year absence.


The arts are even more prominent now than before.  They have always been important here, because of the rich Spanish and Mexican heritage, but now the arts seem to be everywhere.  This may be due in part to my increased awareness, but there is no doubt that San Antonio is a mecca for the arts.


Run-down neighborhoods are being revitalized around the arts:

• SoFlo (South Flores street near downtown) now features loft condos and restored and remodeled houses.
• The King William Historical District just south of downtown is almost totally restored, and what a jewel it is.
• The South Side, where I grew up, used to be considered "The Other Side of the Tracks" but is now known as Southtown and is becoming more and more upscale.
• The Deco District on the West Side features original Art Deco storefronts in its mainstreet section along Fredericksburg Road.

And the traditional tourist attractions have continued to be developed into a unique, pedestrian-friendly destination centered around the famous San Antonio Riverwalk.  The Riverwalk has been expanded to the north and south.  It now connects Downtown with the San Antonio Museum of Art and will go all the way down to the Spanish missions in the near future.


All in all, San Antonio is a unique blend of history, art, great food and wonderful people.  I encourage you to visit San Antonio and see for yourself.


Here is the first image I took in San Antonio after my return.  It is of the Central Library.  It was designed by the renowned Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta, I've tweaked the image to make it look more "Mexican". It is my gift to the city that I love. I hope that you will discover San Antonio and love it as much as I do.

San Antonio Central Library

-bjd