San Antonio Sunday

San Antonio is ‘the home’ of the Alamo.

The sun poured in through the main doors, everyone was ready for God.

The wonderful thing about travelling to Texas, well one of them, is that getting up in the morning is effortless, rising at 4am a bagatelle.  I was in San Antonio for five delightful days of blue skies and a pleasant twenty-two degrees.

Stepping out of the hotel at 8am, and a short walk enabled me to join the beginning of Mass in San Fernando Cathedral round the corner. The place was packed and the clergy and their entourage flounced up the aisle to the music of a Mexican marching band!  The sun poured in through the main doors, everyone was ready for God.

And sun was a feature of each day as was the warmth of the people. This is city is actually the seventh largest in the USA, by population, however it has a wholesome small town feel.

San Antonio is ‘the home’ of the Alamo. The Battle of the Alamo raged from February 23 to March 6, 1836. Mexican forces defeated the outnumbered Texian force, including Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie. (Davy was never overpowered in his TV series, where his star status was rebooted in a 1950s TV show by Walt Disney.

However the Battle of Alamo ignited greater numbers around the Texian cause. People from across the eastern states in North America, England, Scotland and Ireland all bundled in for some action. Thus after much more fighting Texas became independent from the Mexico.

Soon you appreciate how very Spanish/Mexican this whole part of America really was. From the 1600’s the then super powers, Britain, France and Spain were jostling for poll position. Spain were league leaders down here.

The site of the Alamo is now a very popular tourist spot, and nicely done, complete with men dressed up as Texian rebels and providing displays of how to fire a musket.

The San Antonio river has been cleverly turned into a River Walk which meanders through the city, decorated with bridges and crossing and places to sit, eat, drink and soak up the atmosphere of tall buildings and lots of green bits.

San Antonio is nice place, lovely people and a must-go-back-again feel to it.  I barely scratched the surface - there are museums, gardens and so much to explore.

Double Art

It was very busy day in the world of art yesterday.

the Acid Tower, Crossen Paper Mill, Zwickau, Germany

All morning with the Oil Painting Class (as student) buildings that have a solemn and romantic air about them.

Afternoon saw me back in Beaconsfield library, facilitating another session as Artist in Residence. Everyone turned up early, mostly with their own kit and painters up and at over the Tulips before you could say Cadmium Red!  

Fast and furious 

Loving every minute

A remarkable piece by Ritti

Next stop surely Burlington House.

Rummaging in Drawers

Going through draws of drawings a few hours back I came across this, no date or occasion detailed.
It must of been summer last year.  Those times of the year when you can roll up your sleeves and wear sun glasses.

What a relief (road)

What a relief!

New relief road between the A355/Maxwell Road and Wilton Park on land to the east of Beaconsfield*

See map at bottom of this Post.

(Ground where people currently roam, walk and enjoy the countryside)

The shock of the new

The road is proposed to be single carriageway, 10-15m wide, designed to Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) standards for 40mph roads. The development includes a 3m wide shared cycleway/pedestrian path on the western side of the new road and a crossing for pedestrians and cyclists where the new road meets the existing Public Right of Way*

Construction is due to commence in 2018 with an approximate 8-month construction period. The new road is proposed to be open in 2019.

[Yay!]

Lots of lights: 

A total of 19 new LED lighting columns are proposed for the new roundabout junction at the northern end of the road, with amendments to the existing lighting columns along the A355 Amersham Road in proximity to the new roundabout. *

Lots of noise:

During the operational phase of the development there would be significant residual effects on landscape and visual receptors, i.e. users of the Public Rights of Way and residual noise effects on properties on Maxwell Road and A40/Burnham Avenue. *

Reasons to be grateful:

This will:

Provide high quality transport improvements required to support and facilitate sustainable housing and employment growth in Beaconsfield as identified in the South Bucks Core Strategy

Manage identified congestion hotspots and maintain or improve the reliability of journey times on the A355; and

Iimprove [sic] connectivity and access between key centres and the strategic road network. *

Italics denotes * from Buckinghamshire County Council Application Number: CC/65/16

The white line is where the 'Relief' road is going 

Unmasked at Pitt Rivers

I saw this wonderful mask portraying Balabhadra in the Pitt Rivers Museum. It is lovely piece and one of over 600 masks in their collection. https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk

Not a great deal can be discovered about Balabhadra. I did find out that in Jainism, an ancient Indian religion Balabhadra is among the noted sixty-three illustrious beings, beings whose life stories are said to be most inspiring.