Occasionally, you’ll find me shooting actual news photos, but not often.   Very early this morning, a little after midnight, a storm system moved through Southeastern Williamson County, Texas, bringing trail derailments near Thrall, grain elevators wiped out, power lines down, barn roofs gone, etc.  But there’s a little church I like to photograph in Noack, Texas, Christ Lutheran, that sustained some damage, too.  Thankfully, it was an addition to the church added a few years back.  This church family is 125-years-old.  The structure itself has been going strong since 1902.    This first photo, where I managed to crawl into the rubble, shows a stained glass window framing the church.  For context, you have the second photo, but I like the first one.   The others?   They’re filler for this post.   Thankfully, only property was harmed after this series of tornadoes tore through the Blackland Prairie.  These were taken for my friend at the Williamson County Sun.

Saturday afternoon, after completing an assignment, I stepped out of the Georgetown Public Library, my away-from-home office, discovering that was it was actually quite warm, with temperatures in the mid-80s.  This is  South Central Texas after all.   Rather than head back to Taylor, I detoured by Blue Hole lagoon for a while, observing a dad and son, visiting Blue Hole for the first time, and Kirby, a half-Boston terrier/half-Boxer mix, working his way through  a tennis ball.   Then I just relaxed and watch the light fade a little, taking some scenic images.   The same photo is presented in color and black-and-white.    While my favorites are the deep blues of early-evening, the monotone shades  are a close second.

Today I took photos at the Gemboree, a gem and mineral show in Georgetown hosted by the Williamson County Gem and Mineral Society.   It was  fun event, with a lot of beautiful gems, but my favorite little gems were Boots, front, and his sidekick, Amber,  two chihuahua mixes attending the show with their people.   They were not only well-dressed, but well-behaved, too!

This is a photo I took in Taylor a while back.  It remained on my camera’s disc for about a week.   At one point, I was going to send it to the trash, but decided to let it be.   So here it is.   At times, simple is good.

A followup post to last night’s from “West Side Story,” playing at the Georgetown Palace Theatre through March 26.   There’s not much to say so I’ll the photos do the talking.   How’s that for brevity?

I attended the Thursday night dress rehearsal of the Georgetown Palace Theatre’s production of “West Side Story,” playing through March 26 on their Springer Memorial Stage.   Here’s just a few.   I anticipate a Part II a little later on, but this is it for now.

In late-1980, I left Shreveport for the big city of Atlanta, Georgia.   While covering plenty of newsy stories in Shreveport, and Tyler before that, I wasn’t prepared for what awaited in Atlanta.   For those of you who’ve been around a few decades, you’ll remember the Missing and Murdered Children cases, a nightmare that lasted far too long.   We stayed busy, covering searches for missing children, funerals for those found, and prayer services like this one, held in February 1981 at First Baptist Church, where a number of local ministers came together for a prayer service.   It was an extremely-sad time for Atlanta, and the world.

A wandering this week took me to North Williamson County.   Since much of this rambling is free-form, I don’t always know where I’ll end up, or what I’ll find.   Last night, in New Corn Hill,  it was a cemetery.   Now understand this, folks.   I like cemeteries, always have.  Even when it’s dark.  If a ghost appears, I’d welcome them.   Last night’s cemetery was atop a rise behind Holy Trinity Catholic Church.   The twin spires of the church, built in 1914, are always exceptional to see.  The first time I saw them a few years ago, it was from a long way off.   In this part of Texas you can do that … see far.   The spires have been before my cameras a few times, but not the cemetery.  I thought it would be cool to juxtapose these burial sites with the church.   As I got down on the ground, however, I discovered a drawback … cockleburs.   Dangit, those things hurt!   Since I was already on the ground I figured, why not go ahead and shoot?  So I did, watching the light start out sort of gray.  It had, after all, been been cloudy throughout the day.     If you know me by now, you know I like the soft, subtle blue that arrives with nightfall.  As I drove away, as an afterthought, I took a couple of last photos of the church itself.  It’s a grand structure on our wonderful prairie. 

A Central Texas day that began with rain, heavy clouds and falling temperatures ended nicely cool.   The dropping temperature also helped get some nasty allergens out of the air.   These photos, taken about six minutes apart, in slightly different locations along the same stretch, were taken almost a full hour past sundown.   The color shift is the result of  changing conditions.  My Taylor vantage point looks west.   The light (not the natural kind) in the distance:  that’s Georgetown, a good 18 miles away.   I do like being able to see into the far distance.

Since moving to this area in summer 2009, my fondness for the land and sky around here has continued to grow.   I grew up in Northeast Texas, and love the area we Texans call the Piney Woods.   But here’s the thing:  after living in metro-Atlanta Georgia for 29 years, it was time to have some space, like this scene in a field just west of Taylor … one old tree, cozy in a farmer’s field.   A phrase I’ve used to describe this area of the Blackland Prairie, northeast of Austin:  land ocean.    It’s apt.   And loved.