Tonight, a continuation of wildflowers in my area of Central Texas.   The photos were made in North Williamson County, Texas.   It’s always nice when I’m able to post a photo that includes a Texas Longhorn.    I’ll work through these wildflower posts pretty soon, but not quite yet.

Each spring Georgetown, Texas pays homage to red poppies.   These beautiful flowers can be found in area public parks and at homes throughout the city just north of Austin.   Next weekend a celebration, the Red Poppy Festival, comes to the Georgetown town square.   My friends at the Williamson County Sun asked me to make a few poppy photos as a lead-in to next weekend’s events.  What you see here are those.   I won’t go into Georgetown’s specific poppy history.  Instead, I remember my elementary school classes in the early-1960s reciting the poem “In Flanders’ Fields,” penned in 1915 by Lt. Col. John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, after a friend died in battle.  At the conclusion of World War I the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance.    When I was growing up, I recall veterans groups passing out little red poppies.  Good memories they are.   These are photos made today of poppies in Georgetown, Texas.  The first and last images are indeed the same young lady as she enjoys an area park this morning. 

“Sister Act the Musical” opens tonight at the Georgetown Palace.   It’s my habit to post most of the images from theater productions on Facebook, but wanted to represent the play with an image here, too.   Kendra Christel is phenomenal in the title role as Deloris Van Cartier.  If you’re in Central Texas any weekend through May 19th, be sure to get tickets for this show.   It moves!

As mentioned, I’m doling out wildflowers in small batches.  It’s a good year for them, but expect them to be absorbed by prairie grasses pretty soon, especially the bluebonnets.   Photograph them while they’re here friends.   As spring progresses, the Texas heat will relegate these sightings to history.   I’m guessing that curious llama will be around for a while though.  

Perhaps it was two years ago, give or take a few months, when I posted some photos of the venerable Bartlett First Presbyterian Church.   At the time, it was long empty, as it is now, but it does have a state historical marker.   The sanctuary was built in 1899.  The historic marker was placed in 1970.   That tells me it’s been dormant for some while.  It has reams of character though.   When passing it earlier this week, I noticed some of those little pink wildflowers.   Some call them buttercups, but the proper name, or so I’m advised, are Pink Evening Primrose.   Whatever you call them, they’re easy to enjoy.  The flowers, however, are a small part of the images here.  I hope at some point someone will take on the task of reviving this fine structure.  It’s got good bones, enhanced this week by divine evening light.

As mentioned last evening, I’m spreading out these wildflower wanderings over a few nights. Cemeteries are wonderful places to see them come to life.  A couple here are from cemeteries in Granger, Texas.  One is a tightly-packed mix of Indian paintbrush and bluebonnets in Beyersville.  The vertical photo was from a drive south, into northeast Travis County.   The last photo just has a few yellow wildflowers blowing in the wind, but the main reason to post that one is because of the barn, one I photographed almost constantly for about two years.  The nice family who allowed me to photograph it now live in the farmhouse adjacent to it so I don’t want to pester them with my presence too much, but it’s such an iconic old barn.   So there.

For the past few weeks I’ve been trolling around my area for spring wildflower sightings.  These days I stay closer to home.  Photos, even wildflowers, are made nearby, always a few minutes from Taylor.  It’s limiting, of course, but finding richness anywhere on the Blackland Prairie is not a chore.  Originally the plan was to post quite a few in one night, but let’s pace ourselves, okay?   Three for tonight, more later.   As if you need a reminder, the flowers we love are weeds.   Nice ones.

Whenever I have the chance to document Southwestern University’s Southwestern SU-Native Spring Powwow in Georgetown, it’s always wonderful.   Granted, it’s a whole lot of work, but work that means something.   These are some of the photos I made Saturday for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.   While I could wax poetic, let’s allow the images to speak for themselves tonight.  

Every year, when autumn takes hold in Taylor, a part of me is glad that cooler weather is coming, but it also means the rookery goes a little quieter.  The cormorants, geese and ducks, a snake or two, and a few cattle egrets are there, but the egrets, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets to be specific, have moved on after bringing new life into the avian world.   Then comes spring.   The migrating birds come back.    If you were to stop by here during the day, it would still appear to be an empty place.  That’s because the parents are out foraging for food for their new family members.    If you go by in the early-morning hours, or the time around sunset, you’ll see them coming back to their nests in large numbers.   While I am compelled to document my Blackland Prairie area, the rookery, only a mile from our house, is a place I cherish.

These are some photos I’ve been sitting on for a while.  Tonight,  however, I’m seeing a tree theme.  And light.   It’s interesting to observe how light falls on trees at certain times of the day. Nothing but trees this evening, friends.