A song by Sting, from his “Brand New Day” album, seems right for the post this evening.   Windmills are an integral part of this Blackland Prairie in East Williamson County, Texas.   They are photographed often.  Perhaps two years ago, a new friend, Gary,  was suggested on Facebook.  Most days you’ll find his photos of New York City on his timeline.   Beautiful images.   Gary continues to post resplendent photos.   While my time in that city is limited, Gary’s photos  make me smile.  Windmills, as often as I post them, are part of my prairie skyline. Presented here are four of them.  The second image includes a human.  Look for her.   Hopefully, the work doesn’t bore you. 

Pistons on the Bricks is  a car show held every fourth Friday in downtown Bartlett, Texas.   When they mention “bricks” in Bartlett, they are referring to the brick street that winds east to west through the downtown corridor.  These venerable cobblestone streets are a treasure.   Drive a few miles south and you’ll see Granger, also adorned with brick streets.  Bartlett is a community about 45 miles north of Austin, residing in both Williamson and Bell Counties.  The population is somewhere under 2000.   We’ll have to wait on the 2020 census to fill in that blank.  Normally I don’t post exclusively-local happenings, but Bartlett transcends.   Included here: a 1955 GMC Hydra-Glide truck, a 1941 Willys (the orange beauty), his and her Volkswagons, headlights of a 1958 Edsel.   The post finishes with one of the resident cats living downtown, plus a Bartlett resident, cowboy hat intact, enjoying an evening’s ambience.

Whenever possible, it’s a personal challenge to get up, and get going, before the sun begins to. shine.   As age takes its inevitable toll, it’s not always easy.  But this Saturday morning was okay.  Our four-legged alarm clock, Star, came knocking about 45 minutes ahead of sunrise.  This isn’t always a welcome tapping on our door, but she got yours truly moving on this fine day.   Photos tonight were taken this morning as dawn  made its appearance on the Blackland Prairie.  Photos include the pond at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Wuthrich Hill, also the church cemetery there; horses in the early warm light;  a dog taking liberties as she (he) moseyed down a county road, plus some barns.  Barns are a constant presence.  One image taken before sunrise isn’t included here because it didn’t have that “early” feeling.  The rest were all made at dawn, and 30 minutes beyond.   The beginning of a day, anywhere, can be sweet.  By the way, I worry about that dog.  

These are photos taken last night on a drive through Coupland, Texas, a community of around 300 a few miles south of our Taylor home.   Looking at the sky, one would assume a storm was coming, but it did not.  We could use the rain though.  The steeple in two of these photos is St. Peter’s Church of Coupland, a beautiful edifice.  This post opens with a black-and-white image. Stripping away the color can sometimes clarify and simplify.  

Even though cotton is sprouting throughout our area of the Blackland Prairie, many fields of corn remain.   Farmers are working hard to get their corn harvesting behind them. .  Many, if not most, will be harvesting cotton very soon.   Because we’ve not had as much rain as we’d like, cotton is  coming in a little slower.   In the opening photo, a farmer, raking cornstalks from a stripped field, gets off his tractor to manually clear some bits of stalk imbedded in the rake pulled by  his  tractor.   It’s interesting that he never seemed to notice the camera’s presence as he went about his task.   I know a lot of farmers, but this gentleman and I have yet to meet.  Hopefully we will someday.  Note that all the photos were made on a stretch of county road near Bartlett  I like a lot.  Not all on the same evening, either.   The green covering in a couple of photos is cotton.   The crops coexist quite well.

This old truss bridge crossing over the San Gabriel River  was already long-retired when we moved to East Williamson County, Texas in the  summer of 2009.   Replaced by a more modern conveyance, I was happy to see it running parallel to its replacement.   It returns us to an earlier time when things were simpler and bridges had character.   In recent years, it’s been a popular place for curiosity-seekers, most of them respectful of its history.   On this recent summer visit, I met a spider who seemed not one bit bothered by my presence, continuing to spin its web.   After a few minutes I prepared to head home, but not before taking a couple of shots of just the water as it meandered east, temporarily dammed at Granger Lake, but  eventually meeting up with the Brazos, then the  Gulf. 

Even as the sun went down tonight over the prairie, you could feel the heat.  Today was either our 16th or 17th straight day of triple-digit temperatures.  I love the sun, but not the heat.

Now we have another special day, World Photography Day.   Add it to the list of other “days,” i.e.  World Ice Cream Day, World Doughnut Day, etc, etc.   Here’s the thing, friends.   Every single day is photography day.    Tonight’s photos were taken in Granger, Texas, about 40-plus miles northeast of Austin, but only ten miles from our Taylor home.   I love Granger, a town of a little over 1400 (at least until the next census) in East Williamson County, Texas.   Granger has been a subject pretty often in the ten years we’ve been back in Texas.   Three of the photos here are of Granger’s S.P.J.S.T. Hall, on West Davilla Street downtown.  It’s been here, along this  brick-paved street, since 1909.   Granger is a community filled with Czech culture.  S.P.J.S.T. chapters are integral to that culture in Texas.   The letters, in Czech, are Slovanska Podporujici Jednota Statu Texas.  In English: Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas.  The first S.P.J.S.T. chapters came about in 1897.  Today, Texas has 104 active lodges.   Granger’s, No. 20, is one of those.   The last photo is a simple street scene made before I packed up my gear last night.   The steeple belongs to Saints Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church, a part of this community for quite a long time.   This is my World Photography Day offering to you.

Since a friend mentioned Mager Cemetery a couple of years ago, it’s become one of my favorite cemeteries to document.   Nestled under a grove of trees in Beyersville, in far southeastern Williamson County, Texas,  it personifies the beauty of the Blackland Prairie.   On recent visits I’ve discovered some living residents here …. chickens.   Right after getting out of my car last week, a squawking ensued from one of those pretty trees.  It took me a while to find her, but there she was, disturbed that I was there.  She wanted me to leave … so I obliged.   The final image was taken after driving west on F.M. 1466, a tank (stock pond) shining in the evening light as I drove toward Coupland, then home to Taylor.

Much of this day was spent at the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter, where free pet adoptions were the order of the day for the Clear the Shelter event.   Our shelter in Williamson County has had no-kill status for a few years, but the numbers for pets needing homes grows each day.  This is the 5th year for Clear the Shelter, with our shelter partnering with KXAN and NBC Universal  to make it happen.  Dogs, cats, and even rabbits were available free of charge.  That “free” included spaying and neutering, vaccinations and chips, in case your four-legged family member wanders away from home.   These are a few images made today for the Williamson County Sun.