At times I get hooked on a subject.   Country roads would qualify.   When you combine a country road in East Williamson County, Texas with gathering storm clouds, like the ones pictured tonight, it’s hard to change that visual focus.   The first photo is on one of our very fine dirt roads, with a nice field of black dirt on the left and a bit of hay on the right.   During my metro-Atlanta (Georgia, not Texas) years I was hard-pressed to find actual dirt roads.   There was one I loved to photograph on the border of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.  I wonder if it’s been paved?  As to the opening image, if forecasts are right, it will be a muddy mess on Wednesday!    The second photo is a paved road, but is nonetheless enthralling.   As many of you anticipate the coming of longer days, I am not.   Night photography enchants.   

On the way home recently, I was driving by Taylor’s St. James Episcopal Church, at the corner of 7th and Davis Streets.   While I’ve photographed this beautiful church, completed in 1893,  a few times, I don’t recall the sanctuary lights being on.   The light through the stained glass windows, the original installations?   Well, that merited a stop.  That’s all these are, friends.   Watching, and loving, the light.

On the way to an assignment in Georgetown this morning, the fog, ever-present lately, rolled in again.   Mind you, I am not complaining, friends.   I find fog, clouds and mist have a way of stripping down subjects to their essentials, almost in the way that black and white does.   With that on my mind, these are presented in monotone mode this evening.   The opening photo is one of those occasionally-documented places.  I’ve called it a shack.  What the local farm folks here on the Blackland Prairie in Texas call them are “hand houses,” which served as temporary residences for laborers working in the fields here.   This one, like other similar structures in fields around here, is long-abandoned.  It’s interesting that they remain in place … weathered, sure, but here.  The fields around here are getting ready to yield spring crops, but for now they are empty-looking, yielding much open space around that rich black soil.   The second image, also this morning, is a road mostly used by farmers to navigate their tractors and combines into these fields.    

These were taken earlier tonight, as the sun faded from the Blackland Prairie skies.  I don’t think they require much commentary, but you might want to know that is the Waxing Crescent moon, the first phase after a new moon.    We need uplifting things.   I need uplifting things.

As we enter a weekend, maybe it’s time to post something upbeat.   Earlier tonight, Nicky was upbeat as he enjoyed a tricycle ride around the park in Taylor, Texas.   Nothing more to say.

While documenting the flag is something I love to do,  the circumstances that led to the flag flying at Half Mast in Georgetown tonight is sad.  Flags across the United States have been lowered in memory of the 17 people who died Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.    Let’s hope for better days.

Although the sun finally peeked through the clouds late this afternoon, last evening, the mist and fog held sway over the Blackland Prairie landscape.    Along an often-traveled country road I happened on this scene, combining an old fence, delicate water drops on the trees,  a peaceful pond and my favorite shade of night blue.    As you may know, blue is cool, both literally and figuratively.   

There’s a group called Miniwonders of Texas,  a non-profit founded   by Wendi Threlkeld and friends in  Georgetown, Texas a few years ago.   Wendi and her friends oversee a group of adorable miniature horses that they share with the community here in Williamson County, visiting assisted living and memory care facilities, and sometimes area schools.   On Monday afternoon, in celebration of Valentines Day, Wendi and her crew stopped by The Legacy at Georgetown for a bit over an hour with Mercy, a beautiful 5-year-old mare who weighs a whopping 120 pounds!  Mercy’s other three little horse companions stayed close to home because of the cold.   I’ve been happy to sometimes be on hand when these four-legged gems are bringing smiles and incredible joy to those who might need a lift in their day.    Mercy was dressed in her best (pink, of course) Valentines finery, including booties.   This opening photo, my favorite, was one of the last ones taken.   This lovely lady, 92, had just come from a doctor’s appointment, certain she’d miss Mercy’s visit.    Thank goodness they got to meet.   These are photos I took for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

When we moved to Taylor in the summer of 2009, these twin windmills were a bit more visible, but the proliferation of too many limbs has taken its toll.  Nevertheless, I managed to record an image through the morass last evening.   I do like these windmills, which brings to mind that famous song, “The Windmills of Your Mind,” by French  composer Michel Legrand and lyrics by Americans Alan and Marilyn Bergman, created for the  1968 movie, “The Thomas Crown Affair,”  sung by Noel Harrison.    But these are just windmills, friends.  Let your minds go where they may.

When I arrived at  Georgetown’s  Williamson County Sheriff’s Posse Rodeo Arena Saturday morning for the Brushy Creek Saddle Club FunDay (that’s how it’s written), the fog had just lifted, leaving a morning that began in the mid-upper 50s.   Shortly after my arrival, however, a cold front barreled in.  Literally within a few short minutes, we found ourselves in low-40s territory, feeling colder with those Texas winds.   Horse folks, however, are not deterred.   As the name implies, these are “fun days,” held the second Saturday of every month, open to all who wish to come.  These sessions do seem dominated by young folks, and more women than men, but I did manage to find some fellows participating, too, one a spry 68-year-old from Copperas Cove who goes by “Sarge.”    One of my favorite images, the opening photo, bends my rule about folks peering into the camera.   This little 5-year-old, with her big old horse called Monty, was adorable.   The second photo shows her sitting high in the saddle, with dad there to watch after her.   The youngest cowpoke was her little brother, just 1, but doing just fine on a miniature horse called Wilma.   The rest are a little of this and that.   The last two photos are Goose, a handsome blue-eyed fellow.  I liked Goose.  These photos were taken for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.