Berry Springs Park & Preserve, just outside Georgetown, is one of those places I find so very relaxing.   Adorned with old-growth pecan trees, it brings back memories of the three large pecan trees in the front yard of my family home in Texarkana.   Sadly, a rode-widening project led to the end of those beautiful trees, but Berry Spring’s grove remains.  The park, however, is full of abundant plant and water life.   These are some photos taken Wednesday evening before moseying on back to Taylor.   Those last couple of photos, slow-shutter speed images of a flowing stream, are mysterious.   When editing last evening, I saw a face in those small waves.   Am I off my nut?   These photos are for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

This is a windmill photographed a number of times.   These four images, however, were all taken this month.    I’ll leave it at that for tonight, friends.

Late this afternoon, while a father and son plumbing duo fixed a problem at our home, a UPS delivery fellow delivered  my recently-broken Nikon.   With the plumbing work done, I commenced to give a test drive to my baby.   Thanks to Berrie Smith, easily the best camera repairman in the world, all is good.   The first photo was taken a little before sunset along a farm-to-market road north of Norman’s Crossing, Texas as a farmer toted a hay bale behind his tractor.  The second image is similar to one of trains posted recently.  The main reason this was taken, however, is simple.   I was stopped at the tracks while the train moseyed by.  What better thing to do than take a photo, right?    

Horses are wonderful beings.   While I don’t always offer a themed post, tonight let’s go with horses.   These are photos taken at a few areas around our Blackland Prairie.   The opening photo was taken close to two weeks ago, the others more recent.   Here’s an idea.  I’ll shut up now and let the horses speak for themselves. 

Friday night and Saturday morning were a mess in Central Texas.  The area, actually much of Texas, was inundated with heavy rain.   That didn’t put a damper on the 2nd Annual Barbecue Cook-Off at Georgetown’s VFW Post 8587.   Yes, barbecue’s a part of many states throughout the south, southwest and midwest, but in Texas?   It’s a way of life.   One of the entrants who began preparing his brisket Friday night did mention it got a little dicey, but this VFW post sits high on a hill above the San Gabriel River.  All was good.   This post includes some entrants and judges, but mostly it’s about folks enjoying the food.   The 8-year-old boy in this post was in his element.   

After a day of mostly pursuing flood-related photos, tonight, nearing the conclusion of autumn, I found a field not far from home.   It’s on a county road I seldom travel, mainly because it’s bumpy, full of potholes.  But you know what?   It’s a quiet road, one where I can stop the car, put it in park, whip out the tripod and record what’s there with little disturbance from other motorists.   It doesn’t always work out like that, but it did this evening.  Here’s the thing, friends.  I feel compelled to document this tiny slice of the Blackland Prairie.   Although I grew up in Northeast Texas, with its Piney Woods (which I love), since leaving Atlanta, Georgia in 2009, I’ve become enamored with these spaces.    In the little over nine years we’ve been here, however, the. developers have begun to snatch up bits of this wonderful ocean of land.   There’s a compulsion, then, to document what’s here before it’s too late.   It’s only a small slice of Texas, but it’s one I love.  

It rained and rained Friday evening into Saturday morning around Williamson County, Texas.   Areas of flooding occurred throughout Georgetown and East Williamson County.    I’m not sure about the damage incurred, but hopefully our area residents are okay.    These photos were taken this morning for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

Since we’re in Central Texas, are we to believe our calendars?   Technically, this is the last night of summer, but one suspects we’ll have a few more weeks of warm weather.   Tonight, however, we have stormy weather, expected to follow us into Saturday.   These are my impressions of the area around Granger Lake tonight.  The skies were alive with lightning.  Alas, I didn’t get any streaks, but am okay with this outcome.   These are another reason a tripod comes in handy.  That bright spot of light in the opening photo is our wonderful moon.   Even with dissonant skies, it managed to make itself known. 

You know where this is, right?   As I’ve stated before, the rookery at Murphy Park in Taylor, Texas is among my favorite places to study with a camera.  It doesn’t hurt that it’s about a mile from our house.   This one was taken about 45 minutes or so after sunset last night, the clouds beginning to roll in.   The weather forecasters got it right this time.   We’ve had rain throughout the afternoon and evening, with more on the way.   Or so they say.   While the moisture is nice, what’s even nicer?  Our temperatures go down.    Fall officially begins Saturday.   We could use the cool, at least for a while.  Oh, and for you geeks:  camera exposure, ten seconds, f/7.1, ISO 250.  With tripod, of course.   Carry on.

After finishing some work in Bartlett, Texas late yesterday afternoon I drove around town a little.  You never know what you’ll see, right?  Driving east toward the town’s center, the sun’s warm but bright rays shone down on First United Methodist Church, giving its already-beautiful stained glass windows a new reason to get noticed.   Some youngsters in the scout troop meeting in the church basement saw this weird old dude snapping away and ran back inside to let their leader know.   The scoutmaster, recognizing me from previous get-togethers, let out a breath and smiled.   The rest of the photos are this and that.   The rusty-looking little structure is home to the town’s once-a-week newspaper, the Tribune-Progress.  One of the local folks mentioned the paper still circulates, but the publisher now mostly works from home.   I like that the building’s still there though.  That’s followed by the remnants of a big old house west of town, covered by trees.   And one last shot downtown,  the evening light filtering through the second-floor window of what was once a dentist’s office.  I’m pretty sure nobody’s getting their molars fixed there these days.   This and that, friends, from a town of about 1700 people on the Blackland Prairie.