Nothing special, only another view of our Blackland Prairie tonight, my friends.   The windmill is decrepit, but holding on.   As is the prairie.

Georgetown’s Richarte High School held their commencement Thursday evening at the Klett Performing Art Center.   As an alternative high school, its student population is much smaller than the city’s other two public schools.   62 seniors received their diplomas.   By summer’s end, a few other students will complete their course work, for a total of 77 graduates.  Perhaps mentioned when covering Richarte in the past, but the term “alternative” can have negative connotations, but this student body is anything but negative!   Students have to be accepted to attend Richarte.   Reasons are varied, but you don’t attend school there because you’re a slacker.   The focus here is on academics, with a good dose of one-on-one interaction.   Kudos to  the Georgetown Independent School District for making this available to families.   A few scenes from last night, including families, teachers, graduates and a great principal, Rob Dyer (in hug photo), who is moving onto new challenges as CEO of the Georgetown Project.  He’ll be missed.

The fascination with barns continues.

A little story, told before, but another time can’t hurt.  My mama was raised on a farm in the Piney Woods of Northeast Texas.  After she and her siblings left the nest for adulthood, my grandfather, Carl Bradley, remained for a few years after my grandmother passed on before him.   When Carl died, his brother, my Great Uncle Harry, also a farmer, gathered family and friends to dismantle the little tin-roofed farmhouse, hauling the remains to his farm, just a few miles away.   Uncle Harry then commenced to rebuild that wood and tin into another barn on his farm.  Why let good wood go to waste when it can be recast?  Uncle Harry and his sister, my Great Aunt Addine “Bip” Bradley, lived for many years past my parents.   Both lived well into their 90s, never marrying.   When both were gone, their family farm was finally sold.   I wonder if the new owners kept both barns?    I miss that farm.

Perhaps too much information when all I’m really doing is presenting more barn photos.  The last, if I’m correct, was at one time a house.   I do admire barns.   They’re disappearing at a rapid pace.

It’s another Full Moon night, but in Central Texas this evening we’re getting stormy skies.   There’s a tornado watch out for our county.   When we get turbulent weather, it’s often abundant.   I’m hopeful friends will be okay.    The opening photo is Noack’s Christ Lutheran Church.

Three barns are presented tonight, with two versions of the first one.   These are all in North Williamson County, Texas, a little north of Walburg.   The first and second photos are of a barn photographed quite a lot.   It marks the entrance to a Texas Century Farm, a farm that has been  in the same family for over 100 years.    I’ve photographed the farm, too, but this post is just barns.   The other two are a couple of barns with immense character.  

Just something  leftover from about three weeks ago that didn’t make the cut at the time.   This is a place I pass by often, but the light wasn’t right.   Those gentle rays enveloped the landscape this time.  Or at least I think so.

A continuation of those daily walk photos, these from the past few days in Taylor, Texas.   Mentioned before, but photos made during the walks are, as an old boss used to say “quick and dirty.”   Subjects with good light most always catch my eye.    For now, these walk photos are made with my little Olympus mirrorless camera, as light as a phone.   The last photo includes a bee.  Apparently it’s World Bee Day. 

Most of us photographers spend copious amounts of time taking photos of the same areas.   Maybe we see something different on new visits, or perhaps not, but it’s always worth the time spent there.   Thorndale, Texas,  about twenty minutes east of our Taylor home, is among those places.  The latest census figures I can find (2022) indicate the town’s population is at 1344 souls.    Thorndale is a town mostly in Milam County, but with a snippet in Williamson.  When it was founded in 1878 it was three miles west, all the way into Williamson County.   The town moved to its current location in 1880.   “The Rookie,” a 2002 movie starring Dennis Quaid, was partially filmed here (and in Taylor, too).   Presented tonight are  photographs taken a few evenings ago.  

It was early when I arrived in Georgetown today, there to look for heat-related photos.   While I got those shots, the golden light that greeted me at Blue Hole Park was divine.   It’s the first time I’ve seen the waterfall at that time of day.  The glow coming off that water was inspiring.   The drought and lack of rain last year decimated the waterfall, but it’s grand right now.   While there I also spotted some herons canvassing the water for an early meal.   The glow at day’s beginning made the early start worthwhile.

Even though May isn’t finished with us,  we’re experiencing temperatures into the 90s in Central Texas.   Summer begins sooner here.  Calendars are fallible.   With that in mind I snapped some photos around Georgetown today, including Blue Hole Park, plus the splash pad at San Jose Park.  Both are places you can go without being charged an entry fee.   I like that.   The fellow wearing the very large straw hat was a Parks and Recreation staffer enjoying a shady lunch break.   I like that hat!