Crawford, Texas. We seem to hear about it all the time. You know it is in Texas and that is enough, but I live here and should know exactly where it is. So last year I pulled out a map and started looking. It took a while, because Texas is big and Crawford is not. I finally found it, it lies few kilometers northwest of Waco. And thanks to David Koresh and Janet Reno everyone knows where Waco is.

All things considered, it is not that far from Houston, but it did not seem exiting enough to undertake a trip just to see it. If it were on a way somewhere else, that would be a different story. That opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago when we went to Dallas for a couple of days. Rather than taking the same road back we decided on a short detour through Crawford. The setting is pretty and spring is probably the time to visit. Green was still the dominant color (as opposed to brown which probably takes over when it really gets hot in June). Roadsides and pastures were full of wild flowers, including abundant Texas blue bell, which we did not see around Houston.

(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) Crawford is a small town with 705 souls, two gas stations, one coffee shop and five gift stores. We were passing through just when prince Abdullah was visiting and so I have a Crawford summit T shirt with a Saudi motif. They still had some leftovers from the Russian visit and I imagine over time they will build quite a collection since each store has its own design. We asked for directions and headed over to the ranch. As they told us in the store, we will know we have reached it when we see a sign telling us not to stop. And since the president was in, secret service people were at all the gates and side roads.

I have not been to Dallas for two years and it has really changed. Light rail urban transport system they were working on for years is suddenly growing at an amazing speed. They build several new lines, one of them passes by the White Rock Lake, very close to where we used to live. I took the train just for fun (single ticket is only 50 cents) and was surprised to reach downtown in only 15 minutes. It is also possible to take the train to the airport. This only increases the contrast with Houston, where they are only now building a short line and obviously still do not have a clue about what it is supposed to be for, because the line goes from one side of downtown to the other, while the real problem is how to get to downtown without spending hours in the traffic. Maybe one day they will figure this out, in the beginning Dallas did not seem to have a clue either.

In other news, we are beginning to live off the land. Daily harvest of snow peas and green beans is enough to supply a vegetable dish with every meal. I supplement my lunches with kohlrabi and radishes and we had our five strawberries (even though we have to share them with slugs). Even though I did not get around to it until the season was almost over, I still picked a decent amount of blackberries on an empty lot behind the house. That may not be possible for much longer, though, because construction is quickly claiming many of the open areas around us.








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