Spring planting is progressing nicely here on the Blackland Prairie.  This vista includes two thriving fields and a fine old farmhouse I’ve photographed before, but never from this point of view.  It’s good to see these thriving fields.   And that old house, too.  

It’s a fact you don’t want to be on one of our picturesque country roads after a heavy dose of rain, but on dry evenings in Central Texas these paths are genuinely wonderful.   Last evening, while looking for something else along this road, I looked in the rearview mirror, where road dust had kicked up its heels and found its way into nearby fields.    There are reasons not to like dirt roads, but there are reasons to embrace them, too.  As our area continues to grow, I don’t see these surviving many more years.   As an aside, note some of our state flowers at lower right!

Even though I grew up in Texas, these little bodies of water, most meant for hydration of cattle, have been ponds, not tanks.   Calling them tanks just doesn’t feel right.   It’s too mechanical.  The offerings tonight are just simple little bodies of water on the prairie  …. little golden ponds.

I’m juggling a few things this evening, friends so will limit photos to this one that keeps growing on me.   As you may know, anything with evening’s blue light is an attraction.   Although the need to go further into the countryside to find things I like, this scene is a stone’s throw from our home in Taylor, Texas.  

There’s been much hoopla this week about Special Olympics.   I think it’s important.   Thankfully, the current administration backtracked by week’s end.   If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google it.   This morning I was at Georgetown’s Wagner Middle School for the Georgetown Track Meet, a Special Olympics Texas event sponsored by the Georgetown Sertoma Club.   Included here are a few photos made for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.  Let’s let the images do the talking.  I’ll be quiet.   For now.

After an assignment in Georgetown this evening, I stopped by Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery and Prayer Gardens in search of wildflowers, and a chance to stop by the wonderful little pond that brings a sense of calm each time I’m there.   Arriving, I did see splashes of color, but something more.   Family and friends were gathered at the gravesite of someone who died less than a year ago.   Today would’ve been his 39th birthday.  Since my aim was wildflowers, a few photos were made, from a distance.  I didn’t want to interrupt.  A family member emerged from the group.  I introduced myself and he told me the family’s story.  This post gives you wildflowers and the little body of water, but a little more, too.   This was also the birthdate of my mother, who left this world in 1977 when I was 25.   She would’ve been 93 today.  

Tonight’s post focuses on barns not far from Granger, Texas.   I do love vintage barns, mainly because they have staying power, even when it looks like a strong wind will take them away.  But they remain.  The light shining on a wall of one barn comes from a farmer’s truck as he exits the pasture for the evening.   I figured that needed an explanation, but I like how it turned out.  The opening photo is on a little road well to the east of Granger, a road I drove down for the first time this week.   The late-afternoon/early-evening light falling on its surface was just the ticket.   Other images speak for themselves, but the last barn, a photo taken well into the night, had to share visual space with a nice old windmill.   Windmills, along with certain grain elevators, are our rural skyscrapers.

There’s a well-maintained cemetery, Calvary Cemetery, along a picturesque county road just west of Granger, Texas.  I have seen Calvary also spelled “Cavalry,” for what it’s worth.    Recently, on an early evening wonderfully lacking much traffic on this winding road, I pulled over for a while.   From the markers, and the words above the entrance, my guess is that this burial site is predominately Czech.   There are quite a few members of the Kaderka family.  A neighbor, who grew up in Granger, now in his 80s, is of Czech descent.   The  light was exceptional, even for Texas, where it’s always good.   I like seeing the photos on some of the gravestones.  One shows a young lady, Sabina, a lover of cameras and boots.  Texas, friends. 

Recently, looking to expand where I wander, I’ve been finding new country roads on the Blackland Prairie.   Sometimes I do a Google Maps search.   I love Google Maps, but it’s challenging to just get in the car and go.    My drives aren’t usually far from home.   That’s the idea, right?   Anyway, these three photos are on a couple of those rural pathways.    Thankfully, traffic is at a minimum there.  So far.

When we moved to Taylor in summer 2009, this old barn was an attraction I immediately loved. Just over a mile from our house, it’s situated at the confluence of two roads, one filled (for Taylor) with  a regular flow of vehicle traffic.    If I’m reading the real estate signs  correctly, the land on which this barn resides has been sold.    Does that mean its days on the planet are numbered?  Perhaps.    After a 29-year stint in Atlanta, my feelings about overdevelopment are well-honed, but I do understand that the useful life of some things come to an end.   The other evening when I stopped by, the structure was surrounded by an assortment of bright yellow weeds.  There’s a name for the weed, but it fails me right now.   If the barn goes away soon, at least I’ve made a few photos to remember it.