Since I’ve been on one of those big sky kicks recently, it seems appropriate to mix things up with some smaller landscapes.   Water, in all its forms is a source of immense interest.    These photos were taken this week while I was shooting photos of our trail system in Georgetown, Texas.   You can find some good scenery when you get off the beaten path.  Drops of water speckling the surface of the north fork of the San Gabriel River begins this post, followed by a little area along Booty’s Park trails.  I don’t really know what to call this area of water, plants and lichen, but a couple on a hike said it reminded them of Japanese gardens.   Whatever you call it, I find it refreshing to see. 

While some of this week has been about the manual labor of flooring work, I did manage to get out the door a little, but not too far from home.   The two photos posted this evening were taken a few minutes apart, both just west of Taylor.   For car admirers, that car sharing a field with some bovines is a Plymouth.  It’s been here a while, but this is the first occasion where she had four-legged company.  Those spots in the sky above the Plymouth aren’t digital dust, they’re avian.  And the horse?  Well,  I like horses … so there.  Both images were taken as sundown neared, the best time to have a camera.

These are some photos I took  Monday evening, when the skies held the promise of storms.   Actually, they never really came, but the cloud patterns?  I was impressed.   All, of course, are near my home on the Blackland Prairie.   Some are presented in both color and black and white, others, like this first one from Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Wuthrich Hill, Texas?  Just b/w there, folks.  I like it just like it is.

I could get complicated tonight, posting color and black and white versions of scenes taken Monday evening, but let’s just do this one, also taken last evening along Justin Lane, on the western perimeter of my little town, Taylor, Texas.   In an ideal world, power lines wouldn’t be in this image, but hopefully the other stuff going on makes up for things, at least a little. 

One of the fun activities for Georgetown’s annual Festival of the Arts was held Saturday evening at San Gabriel Park.  The festival’s focus is classical music, but each year, they offer up this free event in the park.  Folks bring their lawn chairs and blankets and listen to a bit of music.  Some wheel in on their tandem bikes.  This year, attendees listened to some bagpipes played by the Georgetown Fire Department’s Pipes & Drums, plus some delicate music performed by member of the Georgetown High School String Quartet.   One of the rules I’ve had, which I continue to break, are images of people staring into the camera.  Sometimes, however, it just works.  One young lady, 11-months-old, sort of makes the case for looking into the camera.  The night concluded with fireworks.  While I don’t care for fireworks, many people do.

The other night, when my destination was a church I like to document was the plan, this family of Blackland Prairie farmers got my attention.  They include  two brothers and a son, going about  harvesting their wheat crop.   Naturally, the plan changed for a while.  The family, from Thrall, Texas, has about 2700 acres planted right now, most of it corn.  But we plant many crops in our rich black soil in Central Texas. 

These sunflowers growing wild along Bill Pickett Trail in Taylor are not what I shot tonight, but they’re what’s being posted.    Bill Pickett, for those unversed, was an African-American (and Taylor native)  who brought the rodeo sport of bulldogging to the world.   A statue of Mr. Pickett is being dedicated this week in Taylor.   I am proud we named a road after him.

This week, I spent time at three good places to cool off in Georgetown as summer bears down on us.  Two are Parks Department city pools, the third a series of cool (really) splash pads at San Jose Park.   The first four  photos, beginning with a dad and his daughter,  were taken at the the splash pad, followed by three  shots from the splash pool at the Georgetown Recreation Center, a very kid-friendly place.  The rest of the photos are from the city’s venerable Williams Drive pool, which has been around a long time.  It’s still popular today.  Just ask the grandma and grandson in the final image.   These photos were taken for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

On Sunday evening I posted some storm photos from Milam County, Texas.  My goal had been to find an old structure photographed by Frank Armstrong, one of my  early-1970s professors at UT-Austin in 2004.   Sadly, the building fell victim to a fire in 2008.   Since I’d made the hour-long drive, I made a few images of what I saw, presented in both color and black and white.   My preference on all is b/w, but each to his/her own.  The first couple,  from Burlington, Texas,  shows what remains of their fire department, an International Harvester with grass growing around its base.   The second photos are of a Burlington resident cycling back home with his very nice dog.  He was the one who gave me the news of the 2008 fire.   Note that I normally don’t cotton to seeing folks on bikes without helmets, but folks, this town is tiny, a few hundred folks at most.   I’m pretty sure they fared well.  Burlington is about eleven miles north of Cameron, the county seat.   The last photos, as the storms began to brew, are from Ben Arnold,  7 miles north of Cameron.  These days, the most active spot in Ben Arnold is a bar.  This, however, is not the bar.  The latest census pegs this dot on the map at around 148 residents.  The community began in 1890, as a stop on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway.  The town was named for 3-year-old Bennie Arnold, the daughter of B.I. Arnold.   Bennie was the mascot for the first train to pull into the station.   I may be wrong, but I think Ben Arnold will remain a sleepy Texas town.  It bears repeating:  b/w is my preference. 

Until I was looking for the name of someone I photographed a few years back on Memorial Day, I didn’t realize this was the first Sun City Memorial Day  to be held outdoors since 2014.   Rain threatened in the intervening years, taking activities indoors.  After recent storms in the area, this morning was quite humid, but thankfully it was outdoors once again, at Veterans Memorial Plaza.   There was quite a turnout despite the humidity.  One couple I admired, you see them holding hands, are both veterans.  He’s 97, a World War II Navy veteran.  His bride, 92, was a WAVE during that same war.  They’ve been married for 70 years.    As if you need a reminder, Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn occasion, honoring those who’ve died in service to the country.   Unfortunately, speakers at these events are often elected office holders who feel the need to make this a partisan occasion.   That’s regrettable.  I’m thinking now about Howard Elder, a high school classmate and fellow marching band member.  For reasons unknown, Howard dropped out of school and joined the Army.  He didn’t come home from Vietnam.  He was a good guy.   This is not about politics, friends.  If you choose to make it so, you’re missing the point of the day.