This weekend I finally made it out to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge to do some hiking and see what the place is all about. It’s a beautiful area along the river and adjacent to Lake Worth, so there are ample opportunities for wildlife viewing and canoeing, etc.

Here are a few pics from the trip…

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The new Best of 2008 Awards are out from the Fort Worth Weekly. I’m very, very proud to say that both West And Clear and sister site Fort Worthology found their way into the awards, thanks entirely to our readers. West And Clear won the Readers’ Choice award for Best Web Forum, and Fort Worthology won the Readers’ Choice award for Best Blog. I think I speak for everybody here at the shop when I give a very sincere and heartfelt “thank you” to all of you out there in Readerland. You’ve spoken and given us this honor, and we are very grateful to you for it. Really, guys and gals – thank you.

Now, I’d like to speak a bit about something that bugs me about the FW Weekly Best Of awards.

Amongst the various categories, the Weekly picks a “Sign of the Apocalypse” award. This time around, their staff chose the price of gasoline. Gas is expensive, costs a lot to drive now, and all that, right?

Seems curious, because the Weekly gave out countless awards to businesses that aren’t in Fort Worth, or even Tarrant County in some cases. It seems a bit of a mixed message – gas prices stink, so here’s a ton of places you should visit that require you to drive out of town to them! [Read more]

Photo: John MacFarlane

Chesapeake Energy announced Monday that they were reducing their spending on drilling and development due to recent drops in natural gas prices.

They’ll be spending $3.2 billion less through the end of 2010, according to this article in the S-T.

There’s not a lot of depth on what this means for the Barnett, aside from a mention that they’re only scaling back for now in other areas of the country.

Yes, we reported about this quite a while ago. But, the rumored opening date has been confirmed: it actually opens this Saturday, August 23.

I think I may have to go get that iPhone I’ve had my eye on for some time now.

Steve Watkins, of Panther City Coffee fame, wrote a story a couple of weeks ago for a blog called The Practical Environmentalist. The story features one of downtown’s newer presences: the Go Green Taxi pedicab service.

Downtown has been getting some press for “greening” their operations lately, with Sundance Square signing Green Mountain Energy as their electric provider and buying an electric car. For a small business guy like me, though, it’s nice to see some of the more grassroots efforts get some recognition, too. Next time you’re taking in the downtown nightlife and don’t feel like walking several blocks to your next destination, try Go Green Taxi.

He plans to find out this September.

Our friend Ben over at Texas Tailwind has found a new challenge for himself: he plans to ride 112 miles on a bike with only one gear.

As a guy who enjoys pushing my own bicycle rides to new extremes, I can appreciate Ben’s desire to tackle a ride most people would call nuts. Sometimes, you’re compelled to try something crazy just to see if you can do it.

Ben’s not doing this for the hell of it, though. He also happens to be working on raising money for a good cause. The TX TOUGH Tour benefits The Childrens Medical Center in Dallas.

Go check out Ben’s fundraising page.

I’m always excited when I see Fort Worth products on the shelves of stores in far away places. This photo was taken at Key Food on Washington Ave. in beautiful Brooklyn, NY:

CLASP (Cowtown Loves Animal Shelter Pets) members from across Fort Worth will be attending the City Council meeting this Tuesday night to show their support for the construction of an adoption center at the Fort Worth animal shelter.

The original plans for the city Animal Shelter included an adoption center, but the adoption center was dropped due to cost overruns. Since then, the adoption center has never been re-addressed or even reconsidered.

As you may know, I adopted a dog from the animal shelter. He’s turned out to be a wonderful companion, and I can’t imagine my life without him. Shelter dogs and cats don’t choose to be there. They wind up there because of careless pet owners who either lose track of them or don’t have their pets spayed or neutered and allow them to be born in the first place. Every animal that winds up in the shelter deserves the best opportunity to find a new family that will take good care of them, and an adoption center is be the best way to meet that goal.

Please, come out to City Council chambers on Tuesday night at 7PM and show your support for this worthy cause.

I don’t think I’m going to be watching any Tommy Lee Jones movies any time soon. Instead, I think I’m going to go see a film that has a more positive local impact.

The Fort Worth Mountain Bikers’ Association is having a benefit screening of Seasons, an action-packed new mountain biking film from The Collective, Saturday June 7th (which I’m guessing technically means 12:00 a.m. Sunday morning, June 8 ) at Rave Motion Pictures in Hurst.

Seasons is a film that follows 7 of the world’s top mountain bikers through the course of 4 seasons of one year, exploring what it means to make a full-time job out of a sport you’re passionate about. Tickets are $10, and the proceeds will go directly into club activities including building and maintenance of new mountain biking trails. If you’ve enjoyed the new challenges of the trails at Marion Sansom Park, then FWMBA deserves your support.

It’s also a rare opportunity to see this film on the big screen, where I guarantee you the action sequences will have greater impact. This is the only screening in Texas, so don’t miss it. Don’t wait for your buddy to buy the DVD… it won’t be as good.