This past weekend I visited the track at Georgetown’s Forbes Middle School for a Special Olympics-style event, the Georgetown Track Meet.    It’s a local event, but teams from Elgin’s Down Home Ranch and the Austin School for the Deaf joined the Cen-Tex Rockets and a team from Georgetown ISD.   I treasure covering these events, always have.   These are some of the photos I took for the Williamson County Sun.  In the opening photo, 14-year-old Alize Ramos, a member of the Georgetown ISD team, is encouraged by Jared Friemel, from the Cen-Tex Rockets, as she nears completion of her 25-meter event.   It’s all good.  Helping out were members of the Georgetown Sertoma Club, the Salvation Army of Williamson County and students from Southwestern University and area high schools.  

A friend recently mentioned the arrival of two baby donkeys born recently, in fact just a couple of days apart, with different mothers.  It only occurred to me tonight, getting ready to post these, that my friend, a longtime Democrat, may have donkeys for that reason.   But really, I think she just likes them, along with her cows, who all live happy lives on a swath of Blackland Prairie land in East Williamson County, Texas.   These photos of the babies were taken when both were  less than a week old.   They are cute!   I don’t like that word (cute),  but it fits here.

Photos in this post are from Taylor’s Fannie Robinson Park.   They’re not so much about people, just images from this park.  I haven’t posted much from here, but let’s remedy that tonight, okay?   Fannie Robinson Park is in the southeast part of our little community, an area with abundant charm.  It does not, however, get a lot of attention.   That’s unfortunate.   Bull Branch Creek, which courses through both Bull Branch and Murphy Parks, flows through here, too.   On the hill above the park are some mighty nice grain elevators, peeking down on basketball courts, a baseball field, a playground, a city swimming pool and a covered pavilion.  If you go north on the hike-and-bike trail just a little you come to the Dr. James Lee Dickey bridge, built over Bull Branch Creek in about 1940, at Dr. Dickey’s urging, to make it safer for children attending Blackshear School to get to class.  Dr. Dickey was a community activist, a physician, a man of color.  Blackshear School was where the town’s African-American kids went to school.    These  are “hats off”  photos to Fannie Robinson Park.   We are a small, but diverse community here in Taylor, Texas.  

Most of my day was spent in McDade, Texas, photographing the Sherwood Forest Faire for the Austin American-Statesman.   For that complete coverage, keep an eye on their website.   Sherwood Forest Faire is certainly interesting, but the birds of prey demonstrations presented by Kevin Gaines, with Wildlife Revealed, was really special.  During Kevin’s show, I was enthralled to observe these brilliant avian beauties.  Among them was Artemus, a Eurasian Eagle Owl, Binx, a shiny raven who collected donations for Wildlife Revealed, and Vegas, an aplomado falcon, still pretty young, but when fully-formed can reach speeds of well over 200-miles per hour.    That is simply  incredible.  Vegas is pictured in the last two photos.  It’s amazing I got him in focus.  

As you might know, the rookery at Murphy Park in Taylor, Texas is a place I go for therapy.   Recently, however, I was fascinated to see humans watching the action, too.   This brother and sister duo appeared to be geese whisperers.   You don’t often see geese being so people-friendly!   Anyway, I thought it was sweet moments to record.   After they left, I stayed around and took a few bird photos.   Therapy, friends.  Meditation. 

….is the one you have with you” is something I’ve heard my entire professional life.  Until recently, I’ve not been willing to consider a smartphone camera a part of that definition, but seeing things in new ways can be useful.   For years, I’ve taken long walks, mostly in Taylor, last usually about two hours, a little more.  And I see things worth documenting, but with no viable route.  My DSLRs are too heavy, defeating the purpose of walking as exercise.  I’ve considered some of the small point-and-shoot cameras, mirrorless cameras, anything to reduce the weight.   After all my complaints about phone cameras, recently I’ve started using my $125 Motorola phone during those strolls.   It, like more expensive phones, has limitations.   The zoom function on most of them is awful.  But it’s a tool I have with me.   Something that made me try this was recalling a time in the early 1970s, when Walker Evans, a photographer from the Farm Security Administration period who documented the Depression, came to my campus, University of Texas in Austin.  At the time he was well into his 70s … small in stature, wearing a sports coat that engulfed him.   As some of us students walked across campus with him, he stopped, pulling a Polaroid SX-70 camera out of his coat pocket, commencing to snap photos left and right.   So I change, a little.  I’m not giving up the “real” camera, but alternatives are good.   The young lady with 1965 model Nikon F camera is friend Amy Jasek, who happened to be visiting Taylor today to snap a few photos.   Check out Amy’s site here.   The last photo in this post is yours truly.  All images were taken this week … walking and shooting.

This is a holdover photo I took last week on the first day of Spring at Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery & Prayer Gardens in Georgetown, Texas.  This agave plant takes on many different forms throughout the year.  It’s in a colorful growth phase right now.   It’s been posted here for no other reason than I find it soothing and serene.

While I’ve posted Mr. Nix before, only recently did I happen on the original film, which allows a very good scan.   When this photo was taken in June 1982, Mr. Nix was sitting at the counter of his country store on the square in Dahlonega, Georgia, about 90 minutes north of Atlanta.   I was there for a story about the upcoming  Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about the 150th anniversary of the town, where gold was first discovered in the United States, in 1828.   97 when these photos were taken, he liked to sit quietly and read his large-print Holy Bible.   Mr. Nix was not a part of the story as I recall, be he could’ve been.  To this day his portrait is among my favorite images.

Not much needs to be said about these photos taken this evening outside Granger, Texas.   Spring has come to the Blackland Prairie.   It’s a time for wildflowers, of course, but also a time when the farming life ramps up even more. That tractor is dormant right now, but not for long.  While I don’t look forward to the coming warmer months, what we have right now is just fine, thank you.  In fact, it’s all fine.

These photographs were made possible by a new, but good friend whose name I will not mention here for fear of getting on her bad side.  Tonight’s photos are at Bartlett’s First United Methodist Church, a grand old structure, both inside and out.  The texture of the dark  wood in the sanctuary is joyful to see.  The pews are original.   A little history, perhaps?  The first part of the church, on the left side of this opening photo, was completed in 1896.   The rest came along in 1912.    In drives through Bartlett, I’ve wanted a closer look.  Thanks to my friend, that look came true.   Thank you.  And please don’t be mad, but I had to include you in one image.