If you follow this site, you know my feelings about photography as therapy, or meditation, or a little bit of both.   Occasionally, I actually depress the shutter.  The rookery at Taylor’s Murphy Park is among my favorite places to pursue a little serenity.   At this time of the year, I’m not seeing  many egrets, although there are a few.   Mostly, they arrive in spring, staying through the summer to bring new avian life into the world.   The birds mostly seen right now are cormorants.    There is one Great Egret included.  Maybe she decided she likes it here.   These photos were taken last evening, with clouds rolling in.   This post opens with one of the final shots taken, when night skies took over and the birds settled in for a fine Texas evening.

This group of three photos stay in touch with my recurring theme of windmills, plus a few utility poles thrown in for good measure.    That first windmill has obviously had a rough life, but it’s hanging in there.   I like the little light on that other one.  The Taylor Municipal Airport is not far from the lighted windmill.  My guess it’s there to warn approaching pilots.   In essence, these are just about good old prairie light.   We have an abundance.

On another of those evening forays around East Williamson County, Texas this week, I found myself on a county road seldom traveled.   Since coming home in 2009, this land of empty and open spaces has added quite a few humans.   It seems people are discovering what I’ve known for years.   So yes, even out in the boondocks, in farm country, there is “traffic.”   But I was happy to encounter a couple of donkeys sharing a field with a contented Texas Longhorn.   Coming to a stop for a few quick frames, I expected to be surrounded by cars and trucks bearing down on my Honda.   But things remained quiet, giving me a few good  minutes to spend with these sweet critters.   

012318 EAST WILLIAMSON

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.