Thursday, September 5, 2013

A Day Downtown

I had to go into town yesterday as I was called in for Jury Duty.
I brought my new Alexander McCall Smith book and a small piece of cross stitch to help pass the time.  It turned out to be the right thing to do.  I arrived at 8:30am and was released from serve at 11:30am after the three scheduled trials were all cancelled or settled without the need of a jury.  So just like that my service commitment for the next two years has been fulfilled. 

I decided to run a a couple of errands while I was down town.  The arts council commissioned the painting of several traffic signal boxes between 10th and 13th avenues.  Here are three examples of the work.

The other thing I noticed was how wonderfully well the planters and hanging baskets have faired this year.  

With our hotter than usual summer weather the sweet potato vines have come on strong.

I was impressed!

I decided to celebrate my civic service and purchase cupcakes for dessert.

This is the amazing selection available at Larry's Cupcake Cafe.
50 flavors! 

I got a chocolate mint, ultra-chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, and blackberry cupcake.

Though Voodoo Doughnuts and Crumb Together (cookies) both sang a sweet siren call, I was able to resist!

Instead I headed over to the library to pick up a book.
I passed by a statue of Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") reading to children. Rosa Parks held court at the down town bus station.  Poor old Eugene Skinner (hence Eugene, Oregon) with hat in hand looks vainly for a view of Skinner's Butte.  Since the completion of the new Lane Community College building, he can no longer see his old homestead.

11 comments:

Vickie said...

My sweet potatoe vines have never been punier!
ooOoo! Cupcakes! LOVE!
Poor Eugene is right! hmm Did no one think of the view before him except you?

Carol said...

Looks like you had a lovely jury-duty free afternoon, Beth. Oh, those flowers are stunning--they sure don't grow them like that around here! Love the statues, too. We have a sweet little girl reading a book outside of our library that is similar to them (in honor of a co-worker who passed away).

Enjoy your weekend!

Giovanna said...

Oh my goodness, those cupcakes look so wonderful! The statues are so nice too.

Margaret said...

Yay for that kind of jury duty! The best kind. lol! Love seeing the sites of the town. Very nice!

Chris said...

Looks like you made the best of Jury Duty :0)

Barb said...

What a very pretty town! The plants look wonderful and the cupcakes-well how do you choose!!??

Pam in IL said...

Looks like you had a nice day in town. Such beautiful flowers!

cucki said...

Aww so pretty flowers..I love them..very sweet town :)
Hugs x

Melanie said...

My jury duty was canceled last month too. Yay for being scheduled on a Friday in high summer! They keep that up (second time in a row) I might never have to go. (Not that I would mind - as small as my town is, I'm actually blessed to have the courthouse for my county about 3.2 miles from my house. I could walk there!)
The flowers are divine! Such great color at this time of year. Somebody really has been tending them quite lovingly.

Andrea said...

Yummy cupcakes and some lovely flower displays.

Maggee said...

Love those statues! Around here, Mermaids are all the rage--apparently they are representative of the area. My favorite statue is outside a townhome community--it is lifesize kids skating and running towards the street, in bronze! It makes me smile every time I go by it! In Durham, NC they have a whole bunch like that outside of a mall, around a fountain! Very cool! Hugs!