The day began early this morning as I headed to Georgetown’s San Gabriel Park for the Georgetown Running Club’s annual River Relays event.   Most of the photos here were taken there, but as I got ready to return to Taylor, I happened on some paddle boarders enjoying the San Gabriel River.   The dog, Ellby, loves paddle boarding.  She and her human used to live in Hawaii where they would surf together.   Just a bit of this and that tonight, friends.   Community photojournalism.

Taylor, Texas, where we live, is enamored with ducks.   Our high school mascot?  Ducks.    Our city parks are adorned with them, but perhaps the most “ducky” area is the pond and creek at Bull Branch Park.   When my sinus issues take hold and driving into the countryside doesn’t seem appropriate, I often visit this beautiful park, about a half mile from home.  Tonight’s photos were taken there on a recent evening.   If you live in Taylor, it’s no surprise to see our ducks fan out into surrounding neighborhoods.  I’ve seen little herds of them on daily walks.   But home is the pond at the park.

Lexington, Texas is a community of a little less than 1300 in Northern Lee County, Texas, about 50 miles northeast of Austin.  It’s a quaint little town that includes two log cabins and a corncrib that comprise the Lexington Heritage Center.  Although I wasn’t able to determine if the cabins date back to 1850, they sure look authentic.   The downtown area includes an arts center and an actual bookstore!  None of these places were open on my recent visit, but I like that they’re part of the town.   In recent years the town has been known for its barbecue, smoked by the folks at Snow’s BBQ, named the best barbecue in the state by Texas Monthly in 2008.   Snow’s is only open on Saturday mornings.   Friends tell me it’s usually packed with people when it opens at 8a.m.   It remains open until they run out.  Right across the street from Snow’s is an old gin and two vine-covered grain elevators, now home to an antiques and collectibles business.  The vines on the grain elevators was cool!

Often in this space I write about my feelings regarding  development and change  in my area, East Williamson County, Texas.   Tonight, my focus is on Norman’s Crossing, a pleasant farming community southwest of Taylor, east of Hutto.   The barn in the opening photo might be living its last days.   In the ten years we’ve been back in Texas, I’ve taken its photo a few times.   The image taken this week tells me the land may be reclaiming that venerable structure.  Perhaps that is natural, but I’ll miss seeing that barn when it finally goes.  The second image was made tonight at sunset along the FM 1660 corridor.  The road is being widened, reconfiguring whatever’s in its path for a few miles between Hutto and Rice’s Crossing.  Is the road project needed?   What do we give up?  What is gained?   I don’t have a good answer, but my feelings aren’t happy ones.  The barn?  I get that.  The road?  I just don’t know, friends.

As development continues where we live,  when time allows, I’ll cast that visual line a little further out into the ocean of land that is the Blackland Prairie.   This image was made last evening as the day’s final bits of light  galloped to their sweet conclusion in North Lee County, Texas.

Here’s something taken tonight, just before 9p.m.   This lovely church is Christ Lutheran Church, on F.M. 112 in Noack, Texas.   Sitting on a hill overlooking fields, it commands presence anytime, but it was particularly nice this evening.   The congregation formed in 1891.  This building, the church’s third, was completed in early-1916.   A few years ago I photographed it after a tornado damaged a small portion.  Thankfully, it’s looking good again, probably for at least another hundred years.

My ramblings continue to take me to less-traveled areas, thank goodness.  At times, when wandering some out-of -the-way dirt road,  a four-legged friend, a little lost, ambles into the scene.   This road was a nice drive.  She (he?) had obviously found her way over her fence.   Hopefully, she made her way back home.  These Texas back roads are just what I need.  And so does my calf friend.  I’m guessing she made it home okay.

Let’s keep the words to a minimum tonight.  These are photos taken Saturday night at the 70th Annual Taylor Rodeo in my current home, Taylor, Texas.   You’ll find action photos, but as mentioned in a recent rodeo post, there will also be slices of rodeo culture.   One really interesting entrant at this year’s rodeo was a young man from Japan, one of the bull riding contestants.   We had a good conversation.  His command of English is near-perfect.  He’s 25, still calling Japan home.   Since rodeo is pretty much non-existent there, I asked how he got interested.   The movie “8 Seconds” had made its way to his country.   He was enamored.   Now he’s completing a circuit at several rodeos before returning home.    The rest of the photos?  This and that, friends.  Rodeo is pretty much the only sport I document these days.  Finally, a reminder, steer wrestling, also called bulldogging, was the brainchild of Taylor native Bill Pickett. 

At times when I go wandering, it’s simply to relish in the light as it gathers up an impressive golden hue.   Last night was one of those.   The subject matter is to my liking, too.   Calvary Cemetery, just west of Granger,  is one.   The cornfield beyond, the flags billowing.   Hay, too.  If you look to the left of those bales, beyond the fencing, yet another cornfield.   And then this barn a little south of Granger, surrounded by corn.   Hmm.  Maybe there’s a theme after all.

“Forever Plaid,” the 1989 musical by Stuart Ross, begins its weekend run tonight at the Georgetown Palace in Georgetown, Texas.   The play is a tip of the hat to guy groups of the 1950s-60s and focuses on a fictional group called The Plaids.   Early their career, the group is driving to the Beatles first American appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show when their car is hit by a school bus, end their lives.    The show starts in present time, when the band comes briefly back to life.   It’s a  fine show with a cast that includes Billy Gilbert as Jinx, Buddy Novak as Smudge, Sonny Bushak as Sparky and Will Tabares as Francis.   Performances on the Springer Memorial Stage weekends through August 18th.