Manipulated Mexico...

It was an absolutely beautiful day in South Texas today...no humidity and temps around 80. What a wonderful relief from the 100s. I didn't feel like sitting at home, so I decided to head out to Wimberley just to get out and enjoy the weather. Even though it was Market Days in Wimberley, I passed on that because I've been there a couple times and didn't feel traipsing through all those booths. I just went to the main downtown area and went through some of the shops. I brought my camera but ended up taking only one picture because I didn't feel like taking the same ol' photos.

Two of the shops I went into were jewelry stores. I'm not really in the market for any jewelry, but I was just killing time. The first one was run by a young Mexican woman. The reason I went in was because I saw a ring in the window that was identical to mine, only smaller.

I love fire opal because it reminds me of all the different hues of the water in Mexico. I actually liked the size of the ring I saw today better than mine, so I thought I'd ask how much it was out of curiosity. $175.00. Whoa! I bought mine on Isla Mujeres several years ago and paid $100.00 from a new shop that I had never been to before. Of course, the original price the salesman there quoted me was $400.00 US dollars, but you know you're never supposed to pay the first price. I'm a terrible bargainer, but I kept saying, "That's too high" (because it wasn't in my budget), and would start walking out the door and he would pull me back and offer less. Finally, it got down to $100.00, and I caved because it fit perfectly and I really wanted a fire opal ring. Anyway, I think I got a pretty good deal on it.

So, the Mexican lady at the jewelry store and I started to chat and, of course, we talked about Mexico. She has a relative who lives on Isla Mujeres...go figure...small world. I honestly felt like I had walked into a jewelry store somewhere south of the border.

Since I was going into almost every shop, I stopped in another jewelry store that also had fire opals. I think they're becoming more popular in the states. A woman about my age showed me what they had and, again, I started talking about Mexico and she told me that she used to live in Aruba and St. Thomas, and had been to Mexico many times in her BC (before children) years. She was a single lady who pretty much raised her kids on her own...just like me. Well, we ended up chatting for about a half hour about Mexico and how the lifestyle is so different down there and how much we miss it.

So, with my intention of taking pictures of Wimberley today, I ended up feeling nostalgic for Mexico and ended up coming home and playing with Photoshop with some of my Mexico photos. Photoshop has the ability to manipulate photos to look like works of art, so I just had some fun with it. In no particular order, I will just mention the technique used to achieve the effect...they're pretty interesting. Remember that you can click on them to enlarge them and get a better look.

Accented Edges...

Crosshatch...

Cutout...

Glass...

Ink Outlines...

Mosaic Tiles... (Recognize Qubano?)

Paint Daubs...

Plastic Wrap...

Rough Pastels...

Sponge...

Stamp...

Here's the original of that one...

And Watercolor...

Kind of interesting techniques, right? It would be fun to print them off to see what they would look like as frameable pictures.

So what's that one picture I took today in Wimberley? Here it is. Just having fun in a costume store. And, of course, they yelled at me for taking pictures. *sigh* Sometimes you just can't win.

Fish Tacos

I had the urge for fish tacos yesterday, so I was surfing the net trying to find a recipe that sounded good. I finally decided on Guy Fieri's "Tex Wasabi's Koi Fish Tacos" which he featured on his show Guy's Big Bite on The Food Network. Here are the ingredients...

The recipe also included making pico de gallo. It has been so long since I've made pico de gallo that I forgot how good it is...

As well as a tequila limi aioli sauce. This was kind of strange...sour cream, cilantro, tequila, cumin, garlic and lime. I had fish tacos at a place called "Chimy's" a couple months ago and they had a kind of spicy Russian dressing sauce with them which I REALLY liked. I'll have to look for a sauce like that next time I make them.

So here's the finished product. They were really good but, again, I was a little disappointed with the sauce. This is the first time I've worked with tempura, and I was really impressed. That's definitely a keeper as far as fried foods...it really made them crispy. The Panko bread crumbs help in that aspect, as well. And I always like fish tacos better with slaw as opposed to lettuce. They're kind of a lot of work for just a taco, but it was worth it. I learned a little tip when I was watching The Food Network the other day. Never use both hands to put something in a batter first, then bread crumbs. Use one for the batter and the other for the bread crumbs to avoid the lumpy mess on your fingers. It worked.

One last note. Our Mexican professor frequently drives to his home in Monterrey through the year and last time he went, he brought me this reusable bag for groceries. How cool is this? Now I be grocery shopping in style!

Guess what?

It's finally raining here in South Texas. Yay!

Wildfires in Texas...

I'm sure everyone has been hearing about all the wildfires in Texas these days. Yes...it is a pretty big deal down here...especially when you consider that all the land that has been consumed by these fires has been equivalent to the size of Connecticut so far. That's a lot of fire. The biggest one so far has been just outside of Bastrop, a small town about 25 miles east of Austin. I've been there several times and like it...they've had some nice little festivals that I've been to.

This fire has consumed about 34,000 acres and at least 1,400 homes so far. That's pretty incredible. It seems like the news always changes, but I think it's about 45% contained so far. I decided to head up that way today to find out if there was anything to see. See the brown grass underneath the highway sign?

That's pretty much how it looks all over Texas these days. Brown, brown and more brown...

As are the fields. Unless you've been watering your grass, it will crunch under your feet. No walking barefoot in grass these days...which is pretty much a rule in Texas, anyway, because of the fire ants.

So, this is what it looks like as I'm driving into Bastrop. (By the way, Bastrop is about 45 miles from San Marcos.) I was expecting more dark clouds, but just saw a kind of haziness above the horizon...and definitely smelled smoke.

I had expected to see skies more like this (a photo I nabbed off the net), but that was probably when it first got started.

I had to drive all the way through Bastrop to the eastern side to see what damage had been done. Lots of brown ground and stripped trees.

By the way, I took almost all these pictures as I was driving by at about 60 miles an hour, so some of them are kind of fuzzy, but you'll get the point. By looking at the pictures, you don't really know what was destroyed. Along these Texas roads, you'll pass by nice homes, then some businesses, along with some trailer homes and deserted buildings. So, I can't tell you what "used to be" in the photos.


Looks like all that's left of this place is the fireplace/chimney...



See how all the grass is burned up in the median between the two lanes? It's crazy how fire can "jump" like that. But, then again, when you think how hot it must be when there are roaring flames on the other side of the road, it would only take a spark to light a dry blade of grass.

Notice that there are pines in some of these pictures. South Central Texas doesn't have a lot of pines and I can remember that the first time I drove through this area about four years ago, I was so impressed with these pines because I could smell them...a fond reminder of the pines of the Black Hills where I used to live. There was no smell of pines today...and there probably won't be one for quite some time.

Some areas had heavy machinery that were obviously doing some kind of repair work.

There were lots of police cars out and many of them were posted at side roads preventing people from passing. I did manage to go down one, though, and saw this sad scene of home owners sifting through the burnt rubble of their house...

I panned back and took this picture which included the house next to it. It totally amazes me that one house can be burnt to the ground, and the one next to it won't even have a char mark. I guess those fire fighters really know what they're doing.

There were lots of little stations set up with free supplies for victims. I went into the grocery store to pick up a few items and passed by many people who were talking with friends and acquaintances about their experiences...very sad.


As I was driving home, I passed through Lockhart...a very small town in between Bastrop and San Marcos. The court houses in some of these little towns are so impressive. I remember seeing some when I did my Route 66 tour through Missouri back in 2004. I hope the fire doesn't consume this.

Apparently, Obama has finally agreed to give federal aid to the wildfire disasters in Texas. If we don't get rain soon (which isn't in the forecast), it's only going to get worse. At least the temperatures are slowly starting to dip. We just seriously need some rain.