Near sunset tonight, east of Granger, Texas.    Shimmering prairie grass on the Blackland Prairie.

KidFish was another Saturday event I covered in Taylor.   Kids from 2-16, accompanied by parents and grandparents, made their way to Bull Branch Park for a morning of fishing around the pond.   I wish I could’ve stayed longer, but an appointment in Georgetown hurried  things along.   KidFish is sponsored by Taylor Parks & Recreation.   Some kids were proud to hold onto their catches, but the 3-year-old in the last photo was content to let someone else hold onto her catch.  Mom tossed it back in the water for her.   This was fun.

This morning I was out the door to cover the Texas Mamma Jamma Ride, a cycling event sponsored by Lone Star Circle of Care.   The event, starting and finishing at Taylor’s Heritage Square Park,  raises funds for Lone Star’s Big Pink Bus, a mobile mammography unit that travels the roads of Central Texas providing low-cost or free screenings to communities that may be underserved.   A number of the participants are breast cancer survivors, or family and friends of those who’ve dealt with the disease. Rides varied in length, from 15 to 70 miles.   Cancer survivors were given the lead starting positions for the ride.   Arriving before sunrise, I noticed a participant grabbing 40 winks before the start, nestled on a quiet hill.    A young man approached me to suggest a photo.   He put his hands together to make a heart, framing the name of his mother, who he lost to cancer in 2020.  He was riding 50 miles to honor her memory.  Tutus were a popular part of the riding attire today.   The tall fellow in a tutu got his bib adjusted by his wife, herself a cancer survivor.   And I met Debbie, riding with a group she named Debbie’s Dandelions.   She’s an 8-year cancer survivor who teaches education at Southwestern University in Georgetown.  Everyone on her team had flowers attached to their helmets.   Lots of good faces, raising money for a very worthy cause.

For a long time, I thought it was one fat tree on that hill south of Bartlett.   Upon closer inspection, I learned this is actually two trees!    They do pair well together though.   Just another sunset, friends.

Seen last evening on the way home from a bit of wandering.   A hectic day made better by its relaxing conclusion.

Sometimes, without planning a post, a theme emerges.    This time it’s tractors.   Vintage tractors.   These are some taken recently.   The opening photo shows an Oliver tractor nestled in a stand of woods near Beyersville.   The second image was made a few miles east of Taylor.  Oliver began in the mid-1850s as the Oliver Chilled Plow Company, later manufacturing their first tractor in 1929.   That  Indiana company is relegated to history.   International Harvester Company introduced their Farmall Regular in 1924.   In 1985, the company eliminated their agricultural division.  John Deere tractors continues to this day.   The Illinois-based company built the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.   Their first completed tractor came along in 1924.    I have no idea the age of any tractors shown here, but suffice it to say they’ve been around a while.   Several of these photos were made along the sidewalk at Granger’s Precision Ag Repair.  Maybe the ones out front are for sale, but they’re nice to see, a testament to our country’s agricultural roots. 

Here’s the thing, friends.  It’s my sense you likely can’t care less about the camera used.    You either care for a photo or you don’t.    Since I started taking a little Olympus camera on daily walks, however, sharing them has merit for me.    These are some from recent strolls, all in Taylor.   No image takes long to shoot.   Mentioned before, but it’s supposed to be exercise.   Just some snapshots, more to come later.

The days, thankfully, are getting shorter.   I know what you’re thinking, friends.   You prefer those days filled with sunlight.   There’s nothing wrong with the sun.  I photograph a version of it pretty often.    But the light that comes along after sunset has an elegance.   That’s just an opinion.   Grain elevators well past sunset last evening.  

Just another recent sunset photo near New Sweden Evangelical Lutheran Church, a few miles north of Manor, Texas.    Mentioned a few times before, but when moving back to Texas in 2009, I was taking a quieter road to Austin.  Looking to my left, I saw that spire, filling the sky with majesty.  That spire is a beacon.   We’d just got here from an area filled with traffic, overdevelopment and smoggy air.   Even now, thirteen years later, it’s still neat to see that spire.

Taylor held its Patriot Day observance this evening to remember those lost during the events of September 11, 2001.   A parade concluded with a program at Heritage Square Park.   Most photos are self-explanatory.   The ringing of the bell has become a tradition to honor first responders who have died.  The young lady holding a trumpet had just played Taps near the program’s conclusion.   A mom holds her 1-year-old during  the closing prayer.