Tag: Gruene

You can probably tell that I have my notebook from when I was in Austin – unlike Houston where I was going strictly from memory. Lots more details thanks to past Ms. Haps who remembered to write things down. Every mile is a memory, but only if I put pen to paper before I forget.

One of the shows that I watched while I was on the road was “The Great Pottery Throwdown” – think Great British Bake-Off meets clay. It was a fantastic series, but HBO didn’t renew it after five seasons. It also inspired me to try my hand at hand-throwing pottery. I’ve been to those shops where you paint something that has come out of a slip mold, but this was my first time learning about the process to throw pottery by hand. I signed up for a class at Rosa Pottery while I was in Austin. The class was informative and entertaining, and I really enjoyed just feeling the clay shape under my fingers. I was terrible at it, but I had a lot of fun, and I hope to try it again when I’m a little more settled. Thanks to Hillary for shipping my pieces to me in Minnesota since I left Austin before they were fired.

Speaking of art, I had a lovely day to visit the Blanton Art Museum. Here are some of my favorites.

The museum had these modern, flower-like sculptures that provided shade, which was needed on the sunny day I visited. The second image was one of a series by Tavares Strachan which focuses on depicting Black men from history who were violently silenced, held by their own mothers. This one depicts Alice Nokuzola Biko and the body of her son, Bantu Stephen Biko, an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. The set of landscapes are by French artists – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Frederic Emile Jean-Baptist Ragot.

The Blanton is across the mall from the State Capitol of Texas, so I walked over to take the tour.

The area around the capitol was undergoing some renovation, but you can see its dome to the right of the crane in the first picture. The second picture is the interior of the dome. It was a Saturday when I visited, and the place was very busy.

My friends from Houston came to town for a visit as well while I was in Austin. We had brunch at Pheobe’s Diner and then went to throw axes at Urban Axes. Probably not a shock to most people I know, but I was much better at throwing an axe than I was at throwing pottery. We also had a great instructor who was from Minnesota, and I hit some bonus thing (no idea what it was called) and got to sign the wall.

For this first picture, our instructor had prompted us to pretend we were facing a horde of zombies (from L to R: Gonna smile those zombies to death, Ready to take ’em down, and Already in the battle). Second picture is when I hit that spot that I can’t remember what it’s called, and the third is us with our instructor. We ate dinner at P. Terry’s Burger Stand, which was fantastic. I wish I had stopped there sooner because my time in TX was just about over.

Just a couple more highlights from my time in Austin. This beautiful mural was outside of a very prolific tortilla maker in Austin that I cannot remember the name of, but the tortillas were as delicious as the mural. I also met some friends in Gruene, TX, at Gristmill River Restaurant for a really nice lunch on the patio that overlooks the river.

One last glamour shot of Arthur before we start to make our way out of Texas. I don’t think he’ll miss HEB as much as I will, but I think he really enjoyed four months of very little travel. The trek back to Minnesota might be a rough one.