Tonight’s photos were taken last night and earlier this evening.  It seems I’m still chasing the moon.  Must slow down, but not tonight.  Last night’s moon phase was Waxing Gibbous, almost full at 99.8% visibility.   It was considered “full,” 100%, well before dawn today.  Since Sunday was considered to be the big day, I trolled around tonight, stopping by Wuthrich Hill, Texas, where from the hill, at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, I could see the moon when it actually made an appearance.  Officially, its rise was at 8:26, but I only began to see it about 15 minutes later.  The last two images are from tonight, with yours truly on his stomach in the church cemetery.  Really, I need to slow down.  

Although I’ve mentioned it before, it’s not always a given that I’ll find suitable subjects for my camera, but sometimes I do.   Last night, for instance, there was a sweet Waxing Gibbous moon, close to full at 98.3% illumination.  If that weren’t enough, along comes this longhorn, adorned with one heck of a set of horns.  We visited for a few minutes while he came ever closer, curious he was.  Moments after leaving this fellow, there was a stock tank, that moon shining in the distance.  And because many of you expect a photo of the moon itself, one’s included here. 

Let’s continue with a bit more cotton, shall we?  And while we’re at it, let’s add a cow or two to the mix.  One cotton field in particular spreads out wonderfully across land as it rises toward the western horizon.   Also included tonight: another photo taken of a really cool-looking storm on the prairie.   

Not all area schools are back in session.  The community of Bartlett, a part of both Williamson and Bell Counties, begins classes on Monday.  Last week, elementary school kids and their families were able to pick out their own supplies-filled backpacks free of charge, thanks to Food For Friends and Bartlett’s First United Methodist Church.   Bartlett, with a little over 1600 people,  is a community where many families and individuals go without.   For the last ten years, Food For Friends, founded by Joyce White, 85, and her friend, Nellie Faage (now deceased), both members of FUMC Bartlett, began preparing hot meals every Friday and delivering them.  The program has now expanded where now Joyce and her many volunteers are preparing and delivering over 200 hot meals every Friday.  Since meeting Joyce in January, I’ve wanted to profile the group, but she remembers well the lessons her grandmother and great-aunt taught her:  you weren’t put on this earth to serve yourself.   So she’s humbly declined.  But when she invited me to document the backpack distribution, I reminded her that her group, and her church, were the sponsors.   These photos mostly show the happy kids, but there’s no way I was leaving out Joyce White.   These photos were taken for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

There’s some other things I photographed tonight, but it’s not often I get several elements coming together:  intense clouds, rich colors, lightning and a big old chicken.  This is along a favorite county road in East Williamson County, Texas, the heart of the Blackland Prairie. 

Among the places I like to wander with my cameras is the little community of Bartlett,  with a population, according to the most recent census, of a little over 1600, nestled in both Williamson and Bell Counties.   It has immense charm for these occasional ramblings on the Blackland Prairie.  

Last year, during a drive through the town, I noticed a for sale sign at a time-worn church on West Pietzsch Street.   It looked haggard, but elegant, too.   I wondered  about its future, or its fate.  

Recently, a friend mentioned that the church had been sold and it was now a restoration-in-progress.   Naturally, I had to investigate.  Stopping by in early-August, I met Georgetown contractor Shawn Brill hard at work, joined by Jay Shaw, also a Georgetown resident.    When I inquired about the new owner, Brill advised she’d be down the “next weekend.”  

So on a Saturday morning, I met Huntsville resident Kris Ruiz, the church’s new owner.   Ruiz has a “day job,” as Associate Vice-President of Marketing and Communications for Sam Houston State University.   Her passion these days, however, is preservation.   

“I try to save a little history for the community,” explained Ruiz, who’s enchanted by these small Texas places.  

Ruiz purchased the church, which I’ve come to learn was Bartlett’s First Christian Church, last November.  The regal structure was built in 1890 and appears to have good bones, but needed much love and care.   That’s where contractor Brill and his crew come in.   You can find them there, working right up to dark most days.   The sanctuary is massive, 1600 square feet.  The stained glass windows?  They’re original.   Ruiz uncovers what was once the baptistry, a solid-looking swath of concrete which she’s converting to a shower.  

This is Ruiz’s second historic preservation project.  The first was in Cumby, Texas, a community of less than a thousand in Northeast Texas.   There, she purchased the Cumby State Bank Building, transforming it into what is now a private residence.   While I haven’t seen it in person, what I saw on its Facebook page is remarkable.   You can see it at www.facebook.com/cumbystatebank.   

But back to Bartlett.   If all goes as hoped, Ruiz and her contractor will have this bit of Bartlett history up to speed by the end of the year.    Her goal, as it was in Cumby, is to place it on the market, offering it as a unique private home, or perhaps a community center.   Because of the large sanctuary area which will be kept open, she sees musicians and/or artists as good potential buyers.  

Ruiz stresses this restoration bug is a love of things worth saving, not so much about profit.   “My philosophy,” she says, “is not to make a big profit, but to be able to put money back in the kitty and do it again!”    Talking to her as we stroll around the now-dusty space, you can sense the passion, see it in her smiling eyes. 

When she can, every week or so, Ruiz makes the drive here from Huntsville to see how things are going.   She and Brill chat and share ideas,  a good give-and-take. 

In my many years on the planet, I’ve watched as places, because of development, or so-called progress, don’t make through another year.   We’ve lost quite a few, haven’t we?  You know some, I’m sure. 

It’s good, when possible, to keep some of the good parts of our history.   Kris Ruiz is on the right path. 

Year after year, the state of Texas has been the top cotton producer in the United States.  In 2017 farmers harvested 8,830,000 bales.  The next closest state was Georgia, with a little over 2,500,000 bales.   My Norman’s Crossing farming family, the Boehms’, including Troy, his wife Jeni, their sons Gage and Garet, and Troy’s sister, Dr. Dana Boehm, advise that even though it’s doing well here in Central Texas, the  harvests are more abundant in the southernmost part of the state.   I just know I enjoy seeing it each year.  The Boehm family began harvesting their cotton this week in what will be a two-week process, Troy estimates.   These photos were taken over a three-evening period.  The first two nights were before the actual harvesting, which began on Monday.   I do love our “snow.” 

As late-afternoon settled in over the prairie, storm clouds gathered.   A client asked that I keep an eye out for serious weather in East Williamson County.   A cow, oblivious to the air, foraged on.   A pair of donkeys sought shelter under a grove of trees.   We did encounter some ominous-looking cloud patterns, and an occasional burst of lightning, but in the end, the dissonance, what there was of it, moved to our southwest, leaving behind a beautiful early-evening.   Too warm, of course, but nice to see.

Perhaps I spend too much time expounding on the serene calming effect of blue, but I do embrace it when I can.  Thankfully, daytime hours are getting shorter, bringing back the sweetness of the night.  The opening photo is an unpaved road near Weir, Texas, the other image, taken tonight, is a Waxing Gibbous moon shining above Norman’s Crossing.    While all colors are good, I do embrace the blue.  

While rambling through North Williamson County recently, this little red barn came into view.   At times I wax poetic about something I see, but this is simply a nice little barn … and a nice setting, not far from Walburg, Texas.