Often in this space I write about my feelings regarding  development and change  in my area, East Williamson County, Texas.   Tonight, my focus is on Norman’s Crossing, a pleasant farming community southwest of Taylor, east of Hutto.   The barn in the opening photo might be living its last days.   In the ten years we’ve been back in Texas, I’ve taken its photo a few times.   The image taken this week tells me the land may be reclaiming that venerable structure.  Perhaps that is natural, but I’ll miss seeing that barn when it finally goes.  The second image was made tonight at sunset along the FM 1660 corridor.  The road is being widened, reconfiguring whatever’s in its path for a few miles between Hutto and Rice’s Crossing.  Is the road project needed?   What do we give up?  What is gained?   I don’t have a good answer, but my feelings aren’t happy ones.  The barn?  I get that.  The road?  I just don’t know, friends.

As development continues where we live,  when time allows, I’ll cast that visual line a little further out into the ocean of land that is the Blackland Prairie.   This image was made last evening as the day’s final bits of light  galloped to their sweet conclusion in North Lee County, Texas.

Here’s something taken tonight, just before 9p.m.   This lovely church is Christ Lutheran Church, on F.M. 112 in Noack, Texas.   Sitting on a hill overlooking fields, it commands presence anytime, but it was particularly nice this evening.   The congregation formed in 1891.  This building, the church’s third, was completed in early-1916.   A few years ago I photographed it after a tornado damaged a small portion.  Thankfully, it’s looking good again, probably for at least another hundred years.

My ramblings continue to take me to less-traveled areas, thank goodness.  At times, when wandering some out-of -the-way dirt road,  a four-legged friend, a little lost, ambles into the scene.   This road was a nice drive.  She (he?) had obviously found her way over her fence.   Hopefully, she made her way back home.  These Texas back roads are just what I need.  And so does my calf friend.  I’m guessing she made it home okay.

Let’s keep the words to a minimum tonight.  These are photos taken Saturday night at the 70th Annual Taylor Rodeo in my current home, Taylor, Texas.   You’ll find action photos, but as mentioned in a recent rodeo post, there will also be slices of rodeo culture.   One really interesting entrant at this year’s rodeo was a young man from Japan, one of the bull riding contestants.   We had a good conversation.  His command of English is near-perfect.  He’s 25, still calling Japan home.   Since rodeo is pretty much non-existent there, I asked how he got interested.   The movie “8 Seconds” had made its way to his country.   He was enamored.   Now he’s completing a circuit at several rodeos before returning home.    The rest of the photos?  This and that, friends.  Rodeo is pretty much the only sport I document these days.  Finally, a reminder, steer wrestling, also called bulldogging, was the brainchild of Taylor native Bill Pickett. 

At times when I go wandering, it’s simply to relish in the light as it gathers up an impressive golden hue.   Last night was one of those.   The subject matter is to my liking, too.   Calvary Cemetery, just west of Granger,  is one.   The cornfield beyond, the flags billowing.   Hay, too.  If you look to the left of those bales, beyond the fencing, yet another cornfield.   And then this barn a little south of Granger, surrounded by corn.   Hmm.  Maybe there’s a theme after all.

“Forever Plaid,” the 1989 musical by Stuart Ross, begins its weekend run tonight at the Georgetown Palace in Georgetown, Texas.   The play is a tip of the hat to guy groups of the 1950s-60s and focuses on a fictional group called The Plaids.   Early their career, the group is driving to the Beatles first American appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show when their car is hit by a school bus, end their lives.    The show starts in present time, when the band comes briefly back to life.   It’s a  fine show with a cast that includes Billy Gilbert as Jinx, Buddy Novak as Smudge, Sonny Bushak as Sparky and Will Tabares as Francis.   Performances on the Springer Memorial Stage weekends through August 18th.

At mid-summer on the prairie we’re seeing multiple crops at various stages.  The youngest right now is cotton.   The fields have been adorned with greenery, but in recent days we’re beginning to see them with their dainty magenta blooms.  Soon the cotton bolls will take their place, but the blooms are nice. And our cornfields may appear parched, but they’re doing okay, too.   Just because it’s there, I toss in another sunset to end this post.  

In the ten years we’ve been back in Texas, I’ve passed this scene numerous times, but didn’t pay it much attention.  Then again, last week was the first time I saw it with the addition of four-legged friends.  It merited a photo this time.   Also, I always thought this was a barn, but barns don’t have chimneys.  So there it is, friends …. a very old house and its spooky friend.   Just another Texas oddity.

Since this evening is the actual full moon, I stayed out a little later for its appearance, which didn’t show up in my East Williamson County, Texas sky until just before 9pm.   Once again, a tip of the hat to those Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first humans to walk on the surface of the moon fifty years ago this week.