The week’s walk photographs, all using an older model Olympus camera equipped with a Panasonic Lumix 45-150mm lens.  Nikon is still the number one choice, but these little cameras are pretty awesome.   All photos  are in Taylor.  This time let’s begin with some of the last photos made on Friday morning, moments when Spring arrives at 9:46a.m. Central Daylight Time.  If the online search is correct, the first couple, seen in Murphy Park, are Thalia, or Water Canna.  Spring in Texas is short-lived, with temperatures already in the 90s.   Spring is the prelude to a sizzling summer that won’t go away before late-October.  It is what it is.  As are these photographs.   Still deciding about continuing this series.  

Photographs from this afternoon at Jonah School, now the Jonah Community Center, during their Hamberger Hut and Market Days fundraiser.   The school opened in 1922, closing in the 1970s when the district folded into the Georgetown School District.  It’s a site  where many photos have been taken in the past dozen or so years.   The elementary school  I attended in Texarkana, Grim Elementary, was built in 1913.  My first year of school there was  1958.   Looking to modernize, Grim offered old school desks for twenty-five cents.  Since that was my weekly allowance, I bought one, toting it  a half block to my home.  Time passes.  Years ago, a road-widening project signaled the end of Grim Elementary.   The school is gone.  The desk purchased for a quarter in 1958 is right behind this desk.  It’s good to see communities like Jonah  keeping their history alive.

A few photographs from today’s Texas Photography Festival, held in downtown Georgetown, Texas.   The gent in the red cap is David Valdez, the festival’s founder.   David contributes a lot to our area.

Tonight’s sunset nears in Bell County, Texas on the first day of Spring.

If conditions are right, you’re apt to see repetition of recent subjects.  One that often lends itself to return visits is Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Wuthrich Hill.   This one is from early Wednesday evening.  The skies here can sometimes be inspiring.  Spring is here.

Spring brings us wildflowers, but another sign  are crops that flow over thousands of acres on the Blackland Prairie in Texas.   We’re mostly seeing   corn, but others will be here soon enough.  

Through the years the most abundant collection of Texas Bluebonnets have been in cemeteries.   Offered here are recent photographs taken at St. Peter Lutheran Church  Cemetery in Walburg.   Even without the wildflowers, the cemetery itself is quite beautiful.   Burials began here in the mid-late 1800s.  Walk among the burial sites, notice the stones, many with inscriptions s in German.   If you visit during  bluebonnet season, step lightly.   Some are still growing.  

A leftover from last night’s wandering.  Texas skies are visual treats.

Country roads around here are always  nice, but when our skies work their  magic overhead they’e even nicer.   Four photographs tonight.   The opening shot was from this evening,  others from Monday night.   The light was fading quickly on the one from tonight,  but it just made it more interesting.   That stretch of road truly did take on a blue cast in those minutes past sunset.  

Meandering around the area after moving back to Texas in 2009, a short drive south  to Coupland led to the discovery of a wonderful collection of sculptures, thus an introduction to the work of artist Jim Huntington.  Through the years Jim has created beautiful sculptures cast in metal and stone.   Periodically a visit to his sculpture garden at the Huntington Sculpture Foundation is in order.  Light adorns these massive works, a photographer’s inspiration.   There’s no good way to  convey their majesty.    Now 85, Jim is slowing down.     The massive pieces are there, but now he focuses on pen and ink drawing, less cumbersome. .  Last week we got to visit for a while.   No adequate way exists to visually display Jim’s art.    You need to see it in person.  The Sculpture Foundation is there for all to see and enjoy.    Like this photographer, Jim continues to be a voracious  reader.   It’s nice to have connected with him.