Even though my Saturday was sixteen straight hours of work, I traveled a few miles north on Sunday morning, where Granger’s SS. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church was celebrating its 125th anniversary.   With the blessings of Father Hilario Guajardo, I attended their Sunday morning celebration mass.  The Knights of Columbus took part as well.   Several hundred people filled the beautiful sanctuary.   Since Granger is only a bit over 1400 people, this is exceptional.   Presented here are a few images from a beautiful occasion, including a 15 -month-old peering through a window leading to the church’s choir loft. 

There are grain elevators all through the countryside here on the Blackland Prairie, but right here in Taylor, Texas we have Williamson County Grain, in the heart of of little town of a little over 15,000 folks.   I like watching the light fall on these architectural gems, as I did a couple of weeks back when these photos were taken on a warm spring evening.   These are nothing more than just watching light as it falls.

While spring is with us, bear with me while I continue to post a few seasonal blooms.   One of my go-to places for Central Texas beauty is Georgetown’s Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery and Prayer Gardens.   Cactus blooms are pretty special.   And while the agave plant can stand on its own, it compliments other flowers quite well.   Enjoy the flowers, friends.

Georgetown, Texas has their Bark Park, one of the most popular places for dog lovers to take their special friends.  On Sunday, I spent the afternoon with a Vizsla meetup group at the park.    This space, full of spectacular pecan trees, attracts visitors from all over Central Texas.   It was  a grand afternoon.   The opening photo presents Bella, a 7-year-old vizsla intent on tracking a squirrel.  I watched Bella for quite a while.   She didn’t get the squirrel, but she was certainly focused on hope.   Austin may have a leash-free space, but it doesn’t compare with Georgetown’s.    These photos were taken for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

As the days grow longer, these Blackland Prairie sundowns won’t become fewer, but they’ll be later.   Bear with me while I can still these at a reasonable hour, friends.   This one’s from tonight, north of Taylor, Texas.

The horses pictured with this post are images taken several weeks ago.   For one reason or another, I’ve been sitting on them.   These beauties, whom I visited before, reside in a small pasture behind a one-room schoolhouse (now a community center and church)  in Norman’s Crossing, Texas.   The play of light and shadow as the late-afternoon sun faded left interesting patterns on their manes and tails.   On this visit, I probably stayed with my four-legged friends for close to an hour.   I was entranced.   These images accompanied one of my columns in the Williamson County Sun.

Even though it’s been an extremely busy and intense weekend,  I wanted to offer up these photos taken on Saturday night during the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of North Williamson County, held at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.   Included were cancer survivors, but also plenty of caregivers.  One young lady, from East View High School in Georgetown, managed to make it around the track while hula hooping.    Because this day began before dawn, I didn’t stay until midnight, when this event came to a close, but I think you get the idea. 

This Earth Day has been a very long one, but one that began sweetly at Blue Hole Lagoon in Georgetown, Texas.   A friend, acupuncturist and massage therapist Jagjit “JK” Khalsa, stepped into this cool and cloudy Saturday with Qi Gong, which she refers to as Chinese Yoga.  Qi Gong is a dance-like practice that connects with the universal life-force energy present in all of us .. chi.   It’s a practice my friend likes to do near water.   And Blue Hole is very nice water.  Since it’s such a pretty piece of the earth, I’m including some scenic images from there, where I got to visit with a duck and a grackle.

This is something I attempted to photograph Thursday evening, but my timing was off by a couple of minutes.  Tonight, I determined to get it right.   You will always find recurring themes in my photography……windmills, sunrises, sunsets, barns, land.   You get the idea.   Hopefully I won’t bore you as I document the area where we live.

With Earth Day approaching on Saturday, I thought it might be appropriate to present some of the abundant Blackland Prairie earth where we live.   The spring corn crops are little mighty fine this year.  Fields are full of various shades of green.   While we’ve had periods of heavy rain the last couple of months,  the farmers’  bounty is striking to see.   Mother Earth takes care of us when we, in turn, appreciate her gifts.   All is well on our ocean of land.