As I was paying for a soft drink at our neighborhood convenience store Thursday night, a customer asked the clerk “Have you seen the sky?”   That was cause enough for me to snap a photo.   It was a pretty colorful night in Taylor, Texas

In 1977 Shreveport Journal writer Marge Fischer and I teamed up to do a series on poverty in Caddo, Bossier and Red River Parishes.   Marge was a wonderful and compassionate writer.   The series advanced the annual Poor Man’s Supper, an annual fundraiser benefitting the Christian Service Project.   A Google search tells me the supper continues to this day.   That is such a good thing to know.  Today, as then, the country continues to have many struggling families.  Those struggles, despite what you might hear on talk radio, are real.  I’ve seen it up close.  

Mira is a beautiful 19-year-old Andalusian who lives with other horses and pets in Norman’s Crossing, Texas.   That photo posted last night of the boy?   It was here.  Mira’s human is Norman’s Crossing resident Adrian Lessner.   Adrian is a bit of a whisperer.  For a time she even had pet deer!   To say she’s gentle would be understatement.   Note that while I also  photographed Mira’s two pasture-mates, but for this offering I’m sticking with Mira and Adrian.  I met Adrian a few years ago when doing a story on a one-room schoolhouse and its caretaker, Adrian’s grandpa,  Jock Norman.   Jock’s family settled this area in the 1870s, moving west from Alabama.  Mira loves attention.   She’s head over heels in love with Adrian.   I hesitate to say that Adrian “owns” her horses.   They are family.   Adrian has been gracious to allow my continued access to her four-legged family members.  One day I’ll plan ahead enough to bring along some carrots.

This photo was taken last evening in Norman’s Crossing, Texas.   I was actually there for other photo opportunities, but this young fellow, relaxing in front of an old truck with a dog and laid-back cat called to mind simple times from long ago.  Note that the dog and cat aren’t his pets.   The little rode up on his bike, greeted us and sat down for a rest after a strenuous bit of pedaling.    The black-and-white is much-preferred, but am including the original color version.   As I’ve said many times before, color sometimes clutters the message.   Simple is best.

Driving along this serene country road in Bell County, Texas yesterday, I was gobsmacked by the early-evening light falling on the branches  in a stand of trees.   This kind of light most often occurs in the winter months, months for which I’m most thankful.   The time these warm rays spend with us is brief.  Last night that was maybe five minutes.   Maybe.   It was nice to see. You don’t need Photoshop manipulation when nature does the work. 

Sometimes these posts have no theme, like tonight’s.    The opening photo was taken on a recent evening at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, located in the community of Wuthrich Hill, east of Taylor.  I’ve photographed this church numerous times since 2009.   In the warmer months the trees take away the view of the church’s facade, but at this time of year, things are clearer.   This image was made well beyond sunset as the church lights came on to reveal its good bones.   Note that the church indeed rests at the crest of a hill.   The other photo was a scene by the railroad tracks in the Milam County community of Thorndale, about twenty minutes east of our Taylor home.   I just like the image.  So there you are.

An assignment in Georgetown this morning had me on the road a little ahead of dawn.  It’s not always easy to get moving so early, but the visual rewards are sometimes good.  These two photos, one loose, one tight, are morning mist at the San Gabriel River as I neared Georgetown.  This meandering body of water is always beautiful.  Even more so at certain times.   Like this morning.

A couple years before we left Georgia to come home, I recall my excitement at seeing a Texas Longhorn roaming a field about two hours north of Atlanta.   Longhorns, at least during my 29 years in Atlanta, were rare sights.   Back in Texas, there’s no shortage of these beautiful animals.   While I avoid continually photographing them for fear of wearing out a visual welcome, sometimes it’s best to give in.   Longhorns are like royalty to many of us UT-Austin alums.   These photos were made on two visits this week to Taylor friends Deby and Mike Lannen.  Over the years, they’ve been gracious in allowing me access to their bovine babies.  While you might be partial to the silhouettes, take a look at the others, including a three-week-old longhorn calf, a male.   He could be a future Bevo

In 1974 I worked on a personal project with a writer friend.  Our focus included the Peyton Colony, a freedmen’s community, and Mount Horeb Missionary Baptist Church, in Blanco, Texas.   Peyton Colony was established after the Civil War by Peyton Roberts, a freed slave.   He moved from Lockhart to Blanco County.   The area grew as other former slaves and their families moved there.   In 1874, Mt. Horeb was established, becoming a social gathering place for the community.    The original church meeting place was replaced by the present church in 1917.   These photos were made in October 1974 as the church marked its 100-year anniversary.   You may get a sense of time and place when observing the clothing and motor vehicles included.   To this day, the church survives.   A couple of years ago my wife and I took a drive to find it.  Thankfully, it hadn’t been overrun by Austin-area development.

Because I’m swamped with other things tonight, how about another one of those “this and that” posts?  As you might know, late-day and evening photography are a joy.   It’s one of the reasons for my distaste with Daylight Saving Time.   When it’s still daylight at 9p.m. my style is seriously cramped.   Anyway, here are three recent photos to consider this evening.   Those grain elevators are smack dab in the middle of Taylor, next to Fannie R. Robinson Park.   Careful viewers will note a darkened baseball field in the foreground.  The other two are just barn images, one in the very late-afternoon, the other well into the night.   That night barn was  made during a full moon.  The clouds obscured the moon, but there was still some good light in the night sky east of Granger, Texas.   This and that, friends.