Sotol

Jim's

So it was the next to last day of kindergarten and my daughter wanted to eat at Jim's. It's diner food, and that's OK, except in the last twenty years I've had way too many club sandwiches and breakfast tacos there! Nobody MAKES me eat there. But mostly for Hallie they have a crane game filled with stuffed animals! And a place mat that, even after four years of coloring it, still gets her complete attention, even if daddy is taking pictures.

Again Isamu

This stream winds its way through all of the garden. Sometimes as a large pool, or over a waterfall, or in this case down a shallow stone channel shaped by Isamu Tanaguchi. It is the patterns and soft sounds formed by the rushing water that fascinate me. Not as photographs for I have never made a photograph of them that begins to capture their beauty.... but the wonder of not really knowing if Isamu formed each one knowing the pattern and sound he was creating. Kind of the same question I hope to have God answer someday. Just don't ask me why.

Another from Isamu's Garden

Isamu Taniguchi

I believe the sign on the gate says Zilker Botanical gardens, and certainly they've grown in the last thirty or so years, but they will always be the " Taniguchi Gardens" to me. Mr. Isamu Taniguchi, a Japanese immigrant who with all? the other persons of Japanese descent, was placed in "re-location camps" ( they were concentration camps. period) during WWII decided he owed a debt to Austin after rebuilding his life and proceeded to build single-handedly a three acre Oriental garden on a hillside in Zilker Park.It took him eighteen months. He worked every day of that year and a half. He was seventy-two.

It is wonderful. It is alive. And for the thirty years I've been walking through it, sharing it with others, and sitting on its stones and benches it has only grown more beautiful.My wife and I have made many decisions there. We have had our spirits revived so many times, our peace and conviction restored again and again in its shelter and sounds of gentle water.

It used to be that you could see the few tall buildings that made up downtown Austin from pretty much anywhere in it. Now there are a lot of tall buildings forming our skyline but the trees block them all. And as Austin has grown up around it, it has grown only more peaceful.

I believe Isamu Taniguchi would be pleased.

Jazz Fest 2004

We've been camping at the Guadalupe River this weekend, the humidity was the closest thing to New Orleans and the Jazz Fest which ended today. These are from our last trip there in 2004. The last day of that years fest. You can see that setting sun lighting Hallie and mine faces. It was the Radiators closing the festival on the stage behind us. We were just about to hit the racetrack and kick up some dust as we danced around the track to close the fest. For our family.