The Horizontals and the Verticals

“Small gestures get lost out here.” – Kornegay

That scene along US-90 says much with Torrey Yucca, Texas Beargrass, and dry, pre-monsoon season grama grasses.

This Alpine mural with local ranch brands says something similar.

.

From Alpine back to Marfa, colors and forms without one flower.

.

Of course a Volvo is parked at the building of this word mural!

.

“When no one else can, a Mexi(can)!” – many before me

I wonder where those tall and heavy South American cacti are headed?

Almost home, a quick drive-by detour.

Water Trough, Walls, and Wildflowers

My first evening was a scorcher, but the serene Capri courtyard by Ten Eyck’s office was perfect to stroll after a drink inside.

Christy says this was a nod to Donald Judd, but this also reminds me of a famous Luis Barragán garden with a horse by a water trough, only less spare.

I can’t help but see what many rehash out of catalogs was not rehashed here.

Instead, native and adapted plants, but natives emphasized including those some wrongly disdain. And bold or rugged with softer flowers, and axial lines instead of curves where not needed.

“Serenity now!” – Seinfeld

I would have just liked the budget for a gabion wall of this one’s scale.

If only they served breakfast and great coffee here, I’d arrive at 6:30 am. Though not sure I want to live in Marfa to do that.

Massive yet delicate. Yet another reason to move towards buying my own abode once again, for a garden to zone out in.

Bench and Tile

If you like tile, you’ll love the desert southwest and California.

I captured more views of a good-looking bench at a placita (small gathering place) in midtown Marfa, across from the Presidio County Courthouse.

Enter…

Shaded by my ecoregion’s ubiquitous Chilopsis linearis, with an assortment of other natives like Nolina lindheimeri, Nolina nelsonii, but a dying lawn that needs a change.

The bench, I first photographed years ago, but forgot to get any closeups of.

Some of the tiles are abstract, others are quite obvious.

Even in Marfa, people associate saguaros of the Sonoran Desert with their desert grassland. Some tiles tell stories, others about their spiky Opuntia and Agave.

So many handmade tiles together tell so much.