This evening, I moseyed a little north of Taylor, coming to this scene at Granger Lake on a night filled with gathering clouds.  And yes, some mighty fine blue moodiness.  To reiterate, I am so glad that Daylight Saving Time is history, at least for a while.   This was a few minutes past 6pm.

Windmills, like barns, are subjects that never grow old for me.   Although they may all look similar, they’re all special.    I think part of that is being in a part of the country where I didn’t get to see them so much.  And if I did see them, the landscape was often too cluttered to do them any justice.   Not so around here, folks.  Here, on the prairie, we have space … good skies (great, really),  and flowing,  meandering  bits of earth.   Granted, you can get the same sense of them in other places .. Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma.   But I live here, in Texas.   So I see what I see.  Like this one from tonight.

Photos posted tonight were taken Sunday, and tonight, around Taylor’s Murphy Park.   Some include the rookery, some not.   A little color,  a little black and white.   Mostly, it’s therapy imagery.   When I need to take a few photos very close to home, this fits the bill.

111317 TAYLOR, TEXAS:

Friday night I was close to home, recording the final football game at Taylor’s Memorial Field, where the Taylor High Ducks took on Canyon Lake in a stadium that’s been on Davis Street, by Murphy Park, for a hundred years.  Dubbed the “Duck Pond” many years ago, the teams actually played their first game under the lights in 1933.   My photos, for the Austin American-Statesman, are not meant to be of the action.   Another photographer handled that job.   The task at hand for yours truly was to document the scene, something I prefer to game action these days.   The good news is that the Taylor Ducks will be moving into a brand-new stadium next year.  In fact, it’s almost finished.   But the Duck Pond is special to folks around here.  Among the photos:  several members of football squads (and a cheerleader) from the 1940s-era … parents and kids cheering on the team from the stands … halftime shows … moms of senior players with roses .. and finally, lights out after the game was over.   Unfortunately, the Ducks didn’t prevail, losing to Canyon 28-14.  Still, it was a grand finale.  Taylor High Class of 1962 graduate Irene Michna, was feeling the sadness as she made her way off the darkened field, among the last to leave.  Even though a new stadium awaits, I hope the city finds a way to keep the old one around.   It has presence in our town. 

For the 12th year in row, a Veterans Day observance was held at Sun City’s Georgetown-Williamson County Veterans Memorial Plaza.   After a week of cool, sometime wet weather, the morning was warm and dry, just a little cloudy.  Included here are some of the photos I took for the Williamson County Sun.  One of the more poignant moments happened in what you see in the opening image.  The guest speaker, Brigadier General Kenneth L. Kamper, seeking to point out veterans in attendance, asked for those that could do so to stand and be recognized.   In the back of the plaza, under a tree, was 99-year-old Douglas Smith, a World War II Army Air Corps veteran confined to a wheelchair. Not to be deterred, he moved to stand up.  Coming to his aid were not only his daughter, but two U.S. Army veterans as well.  He stood proud for several seconds before returning to his chair.  The final photo shows family members.  The older gent in the wheelchair, 87, is a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.   He’s been assisted by his 28-year-old nephew, currently an active duty Army Sergeant based at Fort Hood, Texas.  The younger fellow has had deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan.    It was a sweet conclusion to the day. 

111117 GEORGETOWN,

To kick off the weekend, how about something light and colorful?   These photos were taken recently at Taylor’s Liberty Garden, located at Murphy Park.   I’ll keep words to a minimum and let the butterflies (and a bee) do the hard work of communicating this time.

While on the way home from a Georgetown assignment this evening I stopped by the 1400 Field of Honor flags on display near San Gabriel Park.   The flags, each purchased in honor of a veteran, friend, or family member, will be on display through Sunday.   The gentleman shown was locating the flag he purchased in honor of his father, a Vietnam U.S. Navy veteran who died last year. 

While I did do an evening ramble here on the prairie last night, I made it a short jaunt.   After too many months of heat, it turned dang cold!   But these cows, curious creatures that they are, lined up for me in this field a little north of Taylor.   Maybe they were huddling together for warmth during the blue hour?  Y’all know this, but I admire bovine subject matter.

Thank goodness for the conclusion of Daylight Saving Time.   Otherwise, the evening photos around the smoking pits and fires at this year’s Wurstbraten would’ve been somewhat pedestrian.    Wurstbraten (think sausage in German) is the annual fundraiser at Zion Lutheran Church and School in Walburg, Texas.  Church members spend copious amounts of time each year making the sausage by hand, then smoking it on those wonderful pits loaded with coals made in the burn pit (that tall contraption in the first photo).  About 14000 pounds were smoked for this year’s event.   Patrons could get to-go plates in the drive-through lanes, or if they wanted to visit a little, they’d go inside and dine in the massive gymnasium.   Both grownups and kids volunteered, like the 7-year-old cleaning up after diners finished their meals.   Speaking of diners, the kids, as usual, were the most fun.  I like two red-headed brothers, ages 5 and 2,  making fast work of their plate.   And the young fellow in the final image was having a grand time with the marshmallows melted over his sweet potatoes.    Walburg is a very German community, something you figure out soon enough when attending Wurstbraten.

This is as close as you’ll get to a “news photo” from yours truly on election day in the United States.  As is often the case, I was trolling around tonight and wound up in Granger, Texas, population just over 1400.  Granger’s not far from our Taylor home, maybe ten minutes.   Each time I’ve been along Davilla Street, the main thoroughfare through downtown Granger, this building has been dark.  Tonight, however, the lights were on at the SPJST Hall, which turns out to be a polling place.  With my faithful tripod nearby, I snapped a few photos.   Granger is a throughly-Czech community.   The SPJST?  Here you go: Slovanska Podporujici Jednota Statu Texas, which translates to Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas.   There you go.  Admittedly, I look for excuses to document these towns.  Granger’s brick street is reason enough.   There you go.