Through My Eyes

2010-08-12T10:24:00.000-05:00

If you are a regular reader of all my blogs, you'll notice there are some changes going on! During the last year several of the readers have suggested I combined the news, photos and video into one blog. During the next few weeks all the photo postings usually on THROUGH MY EYES along with all video postings usually seen on LAYWELL TV will be migrated to a new format on LAYWELL FRONT PAGE. I'll still have a separate blog for my Friday morning commentary, LAYWELL'S LAMP and you'll be able to find it at it's usual place. I hope the changes will make it easier for the reader and I will try to update Laywell Front page with news, video and photos several times a day. The new format for LAYWELL FRONT PAGE is still a work in progress so expect a few changes in the months to come.

2010-08-11T18:49:00.002-05:00

Each year in August, high powered boats start arriving at Lake Marble Falls. Race preparation began early in the week as the 18 wheelers of race teams and sponsors showed up at the race site.

2010-08-09T06:57:00.000-05:00

The University of Texas Gregory Gymnasium is the site of todays speech by President Obama. The invitation only event is for UT students only. Usually summer school is a drag but this time the students attending the summer secession got an unexpected pleasure by being on campus at the right time and were able to get a free ticket to hear the President. I walk pass Gregory Gym all the time and will be in the building in about a week to attend the opening of UT's volleyball season. The UT ladies will play LSU.

2010-08-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

Although the Texas Governor's Mansion burned, most of the contents survived because they were in storage while the mansion was in a renovation process. From boots to beds and even a motorcycle are all owned by present or former Governors.

2010-08-07T12:28:00.000-05:00

Jimmie Vaughan and his band played for an hour at the bands album release party.

2010-08-06T08:12:00.000-05:00

We have lots of ants and other insects in Texas but I hope I don't run into any of these giants on my next picnic.

2010-08-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

K-9 team from the State Fire Marshal's office.

2010-08-04T15:13:00.001-05:00

Workers have almost completed setting up scaffolding to the very top of the doom of the Texas State Capital. By the end of the week they will have surrounded the Goddess of Liberty which rest on the highest point of the structure.

2010-08-03T10:29:00.000-05:00

Lakeside park Marble Falls TX

2010-08-01T19:23:00.000-05:00

The Memorial service for former Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe was held in the Texas Senate. Both Governor Perry and former Governor White spoke while the UT Cowboys Alumni association served as were ushers. UT's trombone choir played music for the service. The present Texas Governor's wife sat with the Briscoe family. Mrs. Perry is far left on front row.

2010-08-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

Up until 1967 this building was an Austin middle school. Built during the depression it sets on the UT campus. It reminds me of the school I attended as a kid, both built about the same time. Back then the gym also served as the school auditorium and had large double doors which were usual 30-40 feet off the ground. The doors were the only way to get a piano or other large objects onto the stage of the auditorium. Most schools in the era used boilers to heat the buildings and had huge smoke stacks made of brick. Today the school play ground is still in use by the UT child development department and the school building is used by the university's School of Public Works.

2010-07-31T19:19:00.000-05:00

Setting under the Texas flag on a Friday night at the Texas State History Museum. Everyone ate free BBQ and Blue Bell ice cream while listening to Omar belt out the Blues.

2010-07-31T12:56:00.000-05:00

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

2010-07-31T09:21:00.000-05:00

There are 4823 trees on the UT campus. This tree is one of the largest and sets on the large St Augustine lawn of the UT School of Public Works.

2010-07-30T18:37:00.000-05:00

Things that fly

2010-07-29T19:29:00.002-05:00

I arrived at the same time as the musicians and entered the concert venue with them.
Austin Chamber Music Festival.

2010-07-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Being that Friday's Laywell's Lamp article will be about the first amendment rights of the press, I thought the LBJ School of Public Affairs would be a fitting place to write the blog. It was kind of ironic but the video I shot only a short distance from the LBJ school also had something to do with former president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

2010-07-29T08:33:00.000-05:00

About a week ago I took a class in close up photography. I tried to use a little of what I learned when I took these photos at the Wildflower center.

2010-07-27T12:41:00.000-05:00

I learned my lesson paying less than $20 for a coffee maker. Now I'll send 5 times that amount for a coffee maker. Watch me take out my frustration on an appliance that almost everybody has on their kitchen counter. It's made the last pot of coffee.

2010-07-26T20:33:00.000-05:00

4.1 inches of rain in less than an hour caused lots of flooding in our neighborhood. One of the neighbors braved the thunderstorm and shot these pictures. I was able to get home just as the downpour started or I probably would been stranded on the Hwy somewhere.

2010-07-26T15:07:00.001-05:00

Sunrise Lake Marble Falls

2010-07-26T10:13:00.000-05:00

The sculptor sculpted a clay bust of Lady Bird Johnson on the day that her name sake Wildflower Center honored her.

2010-07-25T17:12:00.000-05:00

I will travel far and wide to look at art but this stretches the limits of my imagination. At first I saw transportation: bicycles,large metal hoops, hubcaps, wheels, shopping carts. Then I saw the turbine on the top and the large fan in the front and changed my interpretation to Movement. I had a hard time tying the large mirror to everything else in the piece but came to the conclusion that mirror was there to try to get you to look deep inside yourself and see things you never thought were there. What do you see?

2010-07-24T11:33:00.000-05:00

Morning's first light shines on the diving board at Barton Springs Pool in Austin TX

2010-07-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

The trees along the Hike & Bike Trail are in full bloom. This is the prettiest I ever seen the trail look.