Of Hats and Tombs

Oh, lots of pictures this time! (Guess that makes up for not having blogged in the last couple of days, huh?)

Let me first take a minute to say THANK YOU! to all the people who comment on the blog. It makes me so happy. :) (And that book sounds awesome, you guys. heh. Take pictures.)

Alright. Now to picturama. Yesterday was COLD here. Now, granted, we didn't get inches and inches of snow like some folks in the country (5 at my mom's, 9 at Rachel's) but it was cold! Really! It's been below freezing for several nights in a row. (yes, we remembered to run some water at night - learned that lesson the hard, frozen way.)

So yesterday was cold. We decided to take a walk around the neighborhood, and had to really bundle up to do so. See?



In the area around our campground, lots of people have horses. Yay! We saw a sweet little foal standing near mama:



And...wait for it...SHETLAND PONIES. I LOVE THEM.



OMG so cute. I could've squeezed them if I weren't afraid of getting shot for trespassing.

Today, we opted to check out the downtown of Livingston. I realized that we hadn't taken any pictures of the downtown yet, so we went for a jaunt down there.

Isn't this a really cute little downtown?



Here's a detail shot of an antique and stained glass store (I took this one for you, Shirley!)



One thing that's really neat about Livingston is that it hasn't been totally taken over yet by chains (restaurants, stores, etc.) They have some fast food places, of course, but the sit-down restaurants around here are local restaurants, and even the movie theater is a locally owned place. How fun and retro is this?



We hit a few antique/junk shops and found some absolute treasures! We found this awesome quilting pattern book. I've never seen one like this - it actually has the little plastic quilting templates for every quilt in the book! This is my favorite quilt, Drunkard's Path (Yes, I see the irony. ha)



Noel bought me some fun jewelry, including 2 vintage brooches and an amethyst ring:



And this FAB retro/vintage hat from what I imagine was either the 1940's or 50's. How darling is this?



Check out the back of it - it kinda clinches your head. Looks like a horseshoe crab, huh? I can't wait to wear it out somewhere. So fun!





They have a really old cemetery right in the middle of the downtown area. We both love cemeteries. Such interesting and poignant history smooshed into a tiny area! They had some surprisingly old stones - the first burials were the wife & son of the founder of Livingston, way back in 1840. Who was the founder of Livingston, you might be asking?



We found him! Now you might be noticing that his stone doesn't exactly seem old. It seems that the good people of Livingston like to add stones to the cemetery once the originals aren't legible. They leave the other stones in place (if they still exist), but just put up new ones. Here was an interesting example - this one had THREE stones, each with a different year of death.



The oldest said 1879, the middle one 1872, and the brass military one said 1870. (A zombie, perhaps?) In 1993, the sons of confederate veterans put new brass markers on all the confederate soldiers. Interesting that they still put so much effort into their local history! Good to see.

(Also, I just noticed that veteran's name is Shotwell. Note he didn't die in battle. Coincidence? I think NOT. Reminds me of a guy that I knew from a previous job who said something about when he was in the navy, and I laughed so hard because his last name was Sinkus. HA!)

There was an old iron fence that had, at some point, a tree growing through it:



This old tomb was still clinging together even with all the trees growing around it:



It seems I never can find someone who shares my birthday when I'm walking through cemeteries, but lo and behold....



Ta da! (Although no, I was not born in 1894. Although my knees sound like I was.)

Seeing stones like this is a bit sombering, isn't it? A reminder of the miracles of modern medicine (penicillin, simple antibiotics, surgeries). Noel has a hard time even looking at the children's graves, there are so many and they're just heartbreaking. It's incredible how many people didn't make it to adulthood, something we take for granted nowadays.

But...on a lighter note. This means my birthday is next week.

I loved this guy's name.



Thistle Nettles. hee hee.

And of course, we have the obligatory artsy shot:



Tragedy did strike though. I stepped in a mud puddle, in my brand new sneakers. Sigh.



After our cemetery tour, we drove back toward the campground, and saw a gorgeous sunset. They say Texas has a big sky. They aren't kidding! (Right, Andrea?)



Cue Mexican food....and....fade to black.