Rain and Local Treasure

Finally the rain has begun! Summer in Austin has been brutal, although I only caught the tail end, so the relief has been a long time coming. Rain here means four things this time of year: a replenished aquifer (ensuring we have clean, fresh water), cooler weather (83 degrees!), the promise of beautiful wildflowers this Spring (bluebonnets need good, deep October showers in order to dazzle in May) and hair that goes from shiny and straight to a frizzy, wavy mess!

I suppose I shouldn't complain and, while posting this picture, I think my hair might just look like that on a regular basis. Hmmmm. Regardless, I know this swampy weather can only mean good things for our green slice of Texas.

Unwittingly, Susan and I had planned the perfect celebration of rainy weather with a prearranged trip to Boggy Creek Farm this past Wednesday morning. It is one

of the Nation's few urban farms, just a couple miles east of downtown Austin. Boggy Creek offers beautiful, organic produce and eggs harvested there, as well as local meats and dairy products. Each Wednesday and Saturday they set up market in a little covered area with their latest triumphs proudly displayed.

Susan stocked up on gorgeous yellow squash and green beans that were so sweet you hardly needed to cook them. I grabbed a wonderfully gnarled sweet potato and some petite yellow onions that were deliciously fragrant and smelled like they'd already been sauteed in butter. We then explored the

grounds, checking out the clucking hens and admiring the rain-swept beauty of our newly discovered Austin gem. While walking around the rain started up again and, as we ducked into the car, the sky opened up and poured and poured and poured. . .

Texas-y Things

Being since I don't have a job yet (I think I'm in denial that I've come back to Austin as an adult, not a college student) I have been filling my time with all things Texas, Austin and yoga. For starters, Stephanie (who I nannied during college and who now ATTENDS college) went with me to see the wonderful documentary The Unforseen. The film is about conservation of water here in Austin - particularly of the Edwards Aquifer, where our city gets all its water, and Barton Springs, a natural wonder where I grew up swimming and that is my zen place. Austin is so gorgeous that people keep trying to build here, but developing sensitive areas will pollute the water and ultimately destroy something we humans have no right to obliterate: Barton Springs. Time and again the community here has spoken out against these developers, and The Unforeseen exposes that struggle against big corporations and deep wallets. It has been critically acclaimed and hopefully its message will not only inspire more Austinites to protect their community and public space rights, but it will also help the conservation movement nation wide. It is a wonderful, touching movie made all the more meaningful by being shown at the springs! So, Steph and I brought oversized towels and sat out under the stars with fellow movie/Austin nerds watching a film in the very place it focused on. Ahhh. . . so satisfying.

Alright - enough about my pet causes. Now, it's time for ice cream! Texas has an ice cream company called Blue Bell Creameries and they make the yummiest, creamiest treats! If you grew up in Texas, this stuff is like mother's, uh, frozen milk. Susan and I made a little day trip to their headquarters and learned the following: although Blue Bell is only offered in about 13% of the US, it is the number 3 ice cream nation wide! Also, it takes the milk of 50,000 cows to produce one day's worth of ice cream - and all of that milk comes from independent, Texas dairies. Oh, and my favorite piece of trivia about Blue Bell is that Bush, Sr. used to have it shipped to the White House while he was president. Hooray for ice cream!

Susan with the sculpture of the little girl and cow that are always on Blue Bell products.

That cow looks pretty content, right? Surely this ice cream comes from "happy cows."

Me with Blue Bell's first refrigerated truck, purchased in the 30s. Its a Ford, naturally!