I'm now in Bastrop, well... 4 miles outside of Bastrop spending a few days here on my friend's Tubby and Belinda's farm relaxing.  Well, as best I can do anyway.  It doesn't have the stress of the city, but there are hundreds of insects here that I've never seen before.  Grasshoppers for example.  Everywhere.  Not the cute ones with little tuxedos on, these are huge fuck off grasshoppers that fly.  Snakes that are taller than me in the trees.  And spiders the size of my hand.  I washed one unlucky one down the shower this morning.  Other than that it's really lovely.  6 acres of farm is all theirs to populate with goats, chicken, ducks, geese (to kill the snakes), kittens, one dog and two children (ella and maggie).  The neighbors down the street occasionally stop by to drop of eggs from their chicken ranch.  The neighbors across the road are about seven or eight cows.  All this is the same price as living in central Austin.  Tubby and Belinda are great people and really deserve a nice place after what they've been through with houses in Austin.  The last place they lived in they had condemned, and the place before that they were suing the landlord!

This morning for breakfast we stopped by a place called "Maxine's 'home cookin'' Cafe" in old town Bastrop.  It looked like the set of a movie.  A few Texan stereotypes sat and ate a plate of eggs and bacon.  The waitress was very non chalant (miss bastrop 1974?) and let us serve ourselves coffee.  I'm still getting used to the idea of free refills.  I felt guilty pouring myself cup after cup of coffee considering it only cost a dollar.   This place was great.  There was a sign on the wall that read, "If you like what you get here tell others, if you don't, tell me and let me make it right. Owner, Denise".  I wonder what the sign would read in England.  There was also a fajita pan on the wall that had the words 'additude adjuster' on.  Ah, old school southern humor.  Instead of regular planters for their hanging plants, they used cowboy hats.  Chocolate milk was served in mason jars.  Pancakes were thicker than I'd remembered, otherwise I'd have ordered one pancake instead of two.

pictures from my vaio picturebook will have to do for now

Then we went to Wal-Mart.  I despise the place and everything it stands for, but it was a good place to get cheap prezzies to take back to Nigel.  And I thought I might find a fourth of July aisle there, but I didn't.  Ho hum.  So back to the farm to play with chickens.

ella holds a wee chicken

listening to:  tubby's new album, hundreds of crickets, and a woodpecker pecking away at a utility pole