Skip to main content

Las Colinas

Over near Dallas is a suburb called Las Colinas, planned and built by a guy called Ben Carpenter on his family's ranch. Despite concreting over swathes of prairie (which it could be argued was going to happen sooner or later anyway) he obviously had an eye for beauty, and commissioned an African sculptor by the name of Robert Glen to create a sculpture for the centre of the community.


The subject chosen was mustangs, wild descendants of the horses brought over to America by the Spaniards, who used to roam free on the Texas plains. At 1 1/2 lifesize, they are really impressive.


There's a small museum run by a very friendly lady who showered us with advice on where else to go while we're in the country. We followed her promptings on a couple of local things, and went to see some marble cows (not half as impressive as the mustangs) and a statue of Ben Carpenter telling Graham off.


We got some lunch at Joe's Cafe, one of those home-cooking establishments that I can't think of an equivalent to in the UK. Graham had chicken and dumplings, mashed potato with white sauce (why do they do that?) and red beans; I had meatloaf with potatoes and peas, and we rounded it off with hot fudge pudding, the banana pudding having run out.

The local art center was showing an interesting exhibition of photos by black artists, and a collection of amazing quilts. I don't like to think how many hours went into them, but the end result was certainly worth it.




After a stroll by the river and a short snooze on the bank, we started driving home. On the way we passed an Indian supermarket, and just had to pop inside. It was the real thing - 2 lb bags of chili powder, sacks of rice, weird Indian snacks with indecipherable ingredients, and even Birds custard powder, Smarties and PG Tips! We browsed around in a state of bliss for a while, and came out with some naan bread and some strange spiral rice snacks. Given that two more chillis have ripened on our little plant, this is a cue for a curry, methinks.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mr White Watson of Bakewell

Once upon a time, back in 1795 or so, lived a man who was always asking questions.  The kind of questions like, "Why is glass transparent?" or "Why do fruit trees grow better in that place than in this place?" or "What does the earth look like underneath the surface?"  This last question was one that he was particularly interested in, and he went so far as to work out what the rock layers looked like where he lived, and draw little pictures of them.  Now he was a marble sculptor by trade (as well as fossil hunter, mineral seller, and a few other things) so he thought it would be even better to make his little pictures in stone.  That way he could represent the layers using the actual rocks they were composed of.  Over the course of his lifetime he made almost 100 of these tablets, as he called them. Then he died.  And no one else was quite as interested in all those rocks and minerals as he was.  His collection was sold off, bit by bit, and the table...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Imitation of Christ: Spiritual Formation Book 2

"This is my hope, my only consolation, to flee unto thee in every tribulation, to trust in thee, to call upon thee from my heart, and to wait patiently for thy consolation." The second of my  four books for spiritual formation  is The Imitation of Christ  by Thomas à Kempis.  The introduction to my copy starts off by saying that 21st century readers may wonder why they are bothering, which hardly seems like a recommendation!  I have to admit I finished it with a certain sense of relief, but there were some hidden gems along the way.  It's rather like reading the book of Proverbs.  There's no story or explanation of a theme, but there are astute observations, honest prayers, the occasional flash of humour, and quite a lot of repetition. Thomas à Kempis was a priest in an Augustinian monastery in the 1400s.  Presumably his life conditions favoured the silence and solitude that he advocates for in  The Imitation of Christ , but also gave him opp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pirate Party

Ahoy there, me hearties!  All hands on deck, we have some partying to do!  Arrrr! Now, hats on, and don't forget - no self-respecting pirate admits to having two working eyes.  Eyepatches it is, mateys!  (What scurvy dog cut the elastic too short?  They should be thrown into Davy Jones' locker.) Hats ready for assembly.  From Yellow Moon but the elastic really was too short. All of ye who can wield a pen, get drawing a treasure map.  We wouldn't want to mislay our loot, would we now? Toby wrote his name backwards and Blogger uploaded this sideways, just to confuse you. Shiver me timbers!  Where did those gems and spyglasses go?  Get hunting, me hearties, and the last one back with the swag is a scurvy dog. Each pirate had to find these in the treasure hunt. Now, this is a strange parcel, methinks.  Let's pass it round, and when the shanty stops, why, 'tis your turn to unwrap a layer. One of his real presents, act...
Post a Comment
Read more