This swath of land and sky in East Williamson County, Texas sums up nicely the reason I like it here so much.   Granted, there are many many places I yearn to visit: in Texas, in the United States, and in the world at large, but it’s so doggone pretty here on this ocean of land and endless sky, why live anywhere else?   This blue evening scene is from earlier this week.

On Monday evening, I traveled a little north, to St. Peter Lutheran Church in Walburg, Texas, for their annual free community soup supper.  Church members brought their slow cookers to the church activity and lined them up for all to enjoy.   If we did the right count, twenty-two different concoctions were available to sample, as well as other drink and dessert items.   Each January the soup supper invites everyone into the activity center for visiting, noshing and general fellowship, but, other than an opening prayer by church pastor Philip Daniels, it’s quite low-key.   Visitors took part in a silent auction for a beautiful handmade quilt created by members of the church.    Here’s a few images from the evening. 

Earlier this evening, while I was waiting on another thing to happen for the camera, I noticed a mass of back-lit brightness in trees across the road.   It turned out to be a large gathering of birds in flight.   Are they grackles?   I make no claims to be a bird authority.  Whatever these quick-winged creatures are, they were scurrying with an obvious mission, lending themselves to a certain visual dissonance. 

The clouds were swirling above Taylor’s Bull Branch Park last night. The cypress trees juxtaposed nicely with what was going on above them.  The other images are just impressions of a pretty night at the park.   Keeping it simple tonight, friends.

Central Texas-area Girl Scouts fanned out into their communities this weekend for their opening weekend of sales.  This marks the 101st year the Girl Scouts of America have sold their wonderful treats.    I spent my Saturday in Georgetown with a 9-year-old Girl Scout as she pulled her little red wagon-load of cookies around her neighborhood.    Mostly, she found people at home.   Sometimes, her greeters were only of the canine variety … and they couldn’t answer the door.   I also joined two Daisy Girl Scouts, both 5, as they worked a Georgetown neighborhood.   Daisies are the youngest Girl Scouts and only started selling cookies recently.  Their moms were right behind them to make sure everything went well, but these girls were smart!     Cookie sales will continue in our area through February 25th.   At $4 a box, they’re a bargain.   I could eat a whole box in one sitting!   

Friday evening, I was mentioning to a librarian friend at the Taylor Public Library that I had to go.  Darkness was near and I needed some photography meditation.   Or call it therapy.  Both work in my lexicon.   So I dashed over to Murphy Park to watch the birds at the rookery.   Alas, they weren’t getting the job done.   However, as I got ready to leave, the sky got my attention.   It was misty, somewhat cool night, but dang, that sky looked magnificent…magenta, then orange, a little of both.   The tripod came out of the trunk and I began to snap away.   The mist occasionally called for a lens cleaning, but it was delightful to see.   The light, I think, was coming from areas outside the park.  Whatever the source, I was hooked.  Finally, after wiping off the camera enough times, I headed on home.   In case you feel the need to ask (again), I don’t manipulate.  It’s there to see when you see it at the right time.  Therapy, friends.   Meditation. 

Last year, a friend offered me access to the Denson family cemetery, a very old cemetery on her family land.   Since it’s not generally accessible to the public, I was honored to have some time there.   The other day, with time on my hands, I took her up on the offer.   The land is northwest of Granger, in East Williamson County.   Since the unpaved road to get there was pretty rough, I managed to borrow a truck from a family member.   I’m sure glad I did since my Honda would not have fared well!  Some of those buried here were born in the early-1820s.  The most recent interment I could find was in 1951.   It is quite old.   I’m still trying to find out the purpose of the dove decoys hanging in a tree there, but it was kind of unsettling to see.  By well after dark, I decided it was time to return to Taylor, but I am thankful to a good friend for access to a slice of Texas history. 

Much of Texas and the South got blasted with cold and snow this week.  Shreveport got its share.    Tonight, I’m posting some photos taken there in the late 70s, when I worked at the Shreveport Journal.   The first four were taken in January 1979, the last two in late-January 1977, including intrepid fishermen on Cross Lake.    The opening photo is one of the Postal Service’s finest, hard at work on a snowy street.  

It was so dang cold last night, I kept the rambling to a minimum, but did manage a little north to the area around Granger, Texas.   The precipitation, thankfully, had moved on, but a smattering of cloud cover added a nice texture to these scenes.   I’m kind of fond of that little barn in the opening photo, a new one on which to focus as long as it continues to grace East Williamson County with its presence.    Grain elevators are presented in two photos, one taken from a distance where the clouds were an interesting blue, the other from Granger City Cemetery.   That Santa  photo?   It was odd, and kind of spooky … Santa Claus staring down at me from a window in the Granger National Bank building.   Christmas may have moseyed on, but Santa remains!

A few years ago I produced a story and photos on Painted Churches in Fayette County, Texas for our state travel magazine, Texas Highways.    Those churches were all Roman Catholic, with deep Czech and German roots.  They are quite beautiful, inside and out.   Since then, I learned  of another painted church, St. Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin, Texas, not far from Giddings, in Lee County.  This church and its roots are Wendish.   In late-1854 and early-1855 approximately  600  Wendish people, with Germanic and Slavic heritage  settled in this part of Lee County under the guidance of Reverend Johann Kilian.   The church you see in most of these photos was completed in 1872.   The sanctuary painting is more subtle than the Catholic churches documented a while back, but no less wonderful.  The pews are original.  Church custom held that men were to sit in separate pews from women and children, thus the balcony seating area, where the men once sat.  Now, of course, members and guests make themselves at home anywhere.  The ten columns in the sanctuary were painted using a feathering technique.  The pipe organ in the upper area was added in 1904.  Also  included in this post is a fine old cabin.   When Rev. Kilian’s group arrived in early 1855, they built a two-room cabin that served as a church, school and parsonage.  In 1859, a larger wooden church was completed.  Rev. Kilian continued to live in the cabin until his death in 1884.   Shortly after he died, a portion of the cabin was destroyed, but in 2004, St. Paul moved the remaining section of the cabin to St. Paul, where it was restored.   It’s really neat to see this kind of preservation, connecting past and present.  St. Paul continues to be an active church today and is quite a welcoming community.  Nearby is a Wendish Museum for those wanting to make a nice day trip and learn more about the Wendish culture.