Spring wildflowers come and go quickly here in Central Texas. They arrive, elevate our senses, then get swallowed up by not-so-pretty weeds. With that in mind, here’s a couple I shot this last weekend while covering the Red Poppy Bike Ride. Wildflowers aren’t exclusive to Texas, but we seem to do them well. 
I wasn’t sure what Saturday morning’s weather would be for the Georgetown Sertoma Club’s 14th Annual Red Poppy Bike Ride, but all was good. It was cloudy, sometimes drizzly, but conditions were pretty much fine. Our Texas winds, which can play havoc on a bike, were calm. Temperatures at the 8a.m. start were upper 50s. Nobody was complaining that I could see. Cyclists could choose their ride lengths through the beautiful sections of East and North Williamson Counties: 100, 62, 40, 30 and 12. These photos also give out-of-area friends a sense of the land where we live. Or at least I hope so.
On a morning outing to get a Sunday paper, the clouds in the west looked particularly inviting. Normally, I’d not spend much time on a landscape in broad daylight, but it’s Earth Day. It seemed right to snap a photo. For this scene, presented in both black-and-white and color (my preference is b/w here), this windmill, and the field in front of it, are just over a mile from our Taylor home. I’ve photographed that windmill quite a few times, but not at this time of day, not in monotone, either. Just something to mark the date. Earth Day was created on this date in 1970, the Spring I graduated from high school. Be kind to our planet, friends.
Tonight’s post doesn’t really have a theme, except that the photos were made in and around the Georgetown area. The first couple were taken Thursday evening on the Georgetown square, an effort to stay busy (focused) while waiting for the start of dress rehearsal for “My Fair Lady” at the Georgetown Palace. The first photo is a variation of an earlier effort, that beautiful Masonic Lodge building, now home to Gumbo’s North, an area restaurant. In the time since I last photographed this regal structure, a tree has grown taller, making the original photo a thing of history. I do like the swarm of birds flying by. Another square photo presents an Austin Avenue structure, its second floor home to a barber, reflecting the Williamson County Courthouse, opened in 1911. The last photo, taken on this cloudy morning while on a paying assignment, is a nifty structure, adorned with our state flag. At first, I thought it was a barn, but a closer look leads me to consider it a residence, one of those hybrid things, part-barn, part house. Not many states display their state symbols in such interesting ways. This and that, friends. 
This little exercise, taking photos with my phone camera during those daily walks in Taylor, is still plodding along. At some point, I might back off on trying so hard. Either that, or get a small, more powerful camera, one capable of RAW formats and better telephoto capabilities. But it’s been good to have at least something on hand to record what’s around, like that white elephant atop a long-vacant building on Main Street. What’s up with that? You can, it seems, teach an old dog. The “old dog” is seen in the last photo, by the way.
Even though most of the photos from the Georgetown Palace are posted on social media, I try to include a few here, too. “My Fair Lady” begins its run tonight in Georgetown, Texas, continuing weekends through May 20. Like all their musicals, tickets go fast! Don’t miss it if you’re in the area. These photos were taken for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.
During the summer of 1982 one of the little life slices I found to share with our readers at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was a Cub Scout Day Camp, held in July, another one of those self-generated assignments. Times do change, don’t they? In the years since these photos were made, kids have embraced technology, but at what cost? How much exercise can today’s children get while watching the wide range of choices on hundreds of television channels, or playing video games? While the growth of electronic devices has their good points, are they making it less desirable to enjoy the outdoors? And get some exercise while they’re at it? In Taylor, thankfully, I see quite a few kids having a good time at area parks. While some aspects of our earlier days weren’t so good, staying active was a fine thing. Get outside, kids. You adults might set good examples by doing likewise. 
Since I wander, or ramble, along these country roads often, it’s pretty unusual for yours truly to get lost, but tonight, while searching out other specific things (which I found, thankfully), this old boy got really turned around. Since being a human GPS is the norm, it was with regret when I finally put the phone’s search mechanism to work. You know, folks, if one’s to be lost, what better place than on the Blackland Prairie, watching cows settle in at their tank (stock pond), and seeing that tiny sliver of Waxing Crescent moon, only 11.9% visible. It’s all just fine.
Last evening, well beyond sundown, I drove by Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Wuthrich Hill. Even though dark, I could see those little Texas Bluebonnets, making their presence known. Two favorite photographic subjects in one image is mighty fine. 
It was my honor once again this year to be able to photograph the 14th Powwow at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas for my friends at the Williamson County Sun. While many of these photos have a similar feel to past images, the opening two just made the day even better. That young woman is Sheri, a Georgetown resident who attended the Powwow with her caregiver, Shelley. Sheri’s lineage includes Apache blood coursing through her veins. Although she uses a wheelchair, the music and the dancing inspired her to get up and dance a little bit, too. It was awesome! The rest, as mentioned, are images I like, including two grandmas taking care of sleeping sisters. The blurred photos are meant to be that way.
