Bucket of Blood

I have finally traveled and returned to my start off point. What a long trip. Now back home in Sydney. Arrived home and had to jump right back into work, in other TimeZones no less ! That's ok, after the weekend I will feel more rested and getting back to a home routine again.

I have just downloaded my photos, hundreds of them taken while away. Now downloaded onto my home computer (missed my Mac while I was gone, traveled work's Thinkpad, not nearly as nice !). This past weekend, on my way home I stopped in western USA and visited a quaint old mining town in the Nevada mountains, near the border with California. Virginia City was a silver mining boom town in the 1800s. It still has a lot of character and one of my favorite signs there is the Bucket of Blood saloon. I can also tell you there is a nearby ATM and if you get $ dispensed from it, your bank receipt will say "Bucket of Blood" on it for the location. Which might be very amusing for someone reviewing a travel expense claim to see and wonder about ?!

Virginia City is full of old western things like saloons, and bars. A Suicide Table, where someone called his life over after losing money in a card game. Making a living or a fortune finding silver there must have been difficult, but maybe it was also exciting for the people who got lucky and found what they were seeking. Here is the Main street of the town. If you walk along the street shown here, you step on very uneven timber planked sidewalks. They are original and have a lot of character (but they are very wobbly, so watch your step !).

In the brilliant sunshine of a hot summer day, way up in the mountains I saw this old bucket of rust near an old building, maybe an old rail terminal with a lot of junk piled about and around it. This old truck was interesting though. I think I feel some paintings with rusty colors coming on here ! I know I have more rusty things in my photo library to add to this one. Experimenting with paint textures in the rusty bits could be fun.

More soon, with more paintings soon.