Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

If you want a home close to the Texas Capitol building, here are a few possibilities.

The Texas Governor’s Mansion, across the street from the Texas Capitol on the south side.

Texas Governor's Mansion

Texas Governor’s Mansion


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And across the street from the Texas Capitol on the west side is the Westgate Tower condo building. Built in 1966, it was the first residential high-rise building in Austin. It was controversial then and still a little bit controversial today, as it’s been designated as an historic landmark.

A condo building across the street from the Texas Capitol

Westgate Tower


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Across the street from the Capitol grounds on the north side is this small apartment building, right in the middle of the state office complex. It’s probably more affordable than the Westgate Tower condos, but that’s just a guess on my part.

a small apartment building in the Austin state office complex

Conveniently located


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want a home on the Texas Capitol grounds, you could live in a squirrel nest.

A squirrel nest

It’s all about location, location, location

This is the tree with the squirrel nest. Talk about a high-rise.

A tall tree with a squirrel's nest

A squirrel’s eye view of the Texas Capitol

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

A Burr Oak tree with a few leaves in the late autumn

Just a few brown leaves left

We have mostly two seasons in central Texas: a long, hot summer and then some winter. There are a few nice days in the autumn and spring thrown in, but usually we are at work inside an office building when that happens so we miss most of those two seasons.

The leaves don’t change colors gradually, they mostly turn brown all of a sudden and with one big twist and shake, they drop, much like the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter stories.

We do have some true winter signs, like winter berries. (I don’t know the name of this bush.)

A bush full of red berries for the winter

Winter berries, for the birds

An iPhone weather app showing temperatures

A drastic change coming on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the hard-to-get-used-to things here is the change in temperatures. One day the low is in the 70s and the next day the low is in the 20s.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons