Our waxing gibbous moon, just about full, looked mighty nice here in Taylor tonight.   Last evening, while on the Georgetown square photographing the moon, I mentioned to friends that while I loved the architecture in Georgetown, the landscapes ruled along Taylor’s Blackland Prairie areas.   This evening, looking at glistening grain elevators close to Robinson Park, it came to me that we have architectural beauty, too.   More rural, yes, but just as fine.  

One of the most beautiful stretches of the North Georgia mountains is the Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway.   Depending on which end you start, it’s about 2-3 hours north of Atlanta.   These are photos I took in January 1982.   One is a lovely little church, Baptist if memory serves, nestled in the mountains.    The other photo, taken on the same drive, is just a little bit north of Helen.   I’d be willing to bet that little car is still sitting right where it was so many years ago!  Black and white photography is glorious.

I spent a warm afternoon in Georgetown today, but as I was getting ready to head home to Taylor,  a waxing gibbous moon presented itself above the town square.   Among the buildings highlighted:  the Masonic Lodge, now Gumbo’s North, and the M.B. Lockett building, where Burger University currently resides.   The last couple of photos, without the moon, are the same structures as in the moon images.  It was a pretty night to stay a little longer.   And cooler, too.

When this photo was taken this afternoon in Old Town Georgetown our temperature was 88 degrees!   Personally, I’d prefer it a little cooler, but it was quite a good day for a dad and his 5-year-old to enjoy a good time together.  

This is a tree that recently caught my eye while on one of my daily strolls in Taylor.   While I’m no expert on these things, I’m pretty sure its a cedar.    The lines and curves of its lower section was intriguing.    It’ presented at two different perspectives.  The first version adds the context of a ballfield in the distance at Bull Branch Park.  The second concentrates the subject.   Also, each is also offered in black and white.   Of the batch, I think the monotone version of the tighter closeup.    What the heck.  It’s something to do, right?

Okay, I know many of you were glued to your televisions this weekend, watching a football game played in the beautiful city of Houston, but you know what?  There were some big doings in the Austin area, too:  the state’s  2017 Special Olympics Winter Games.   My incredibly-busy and rewarding weekend was spent hopping from Mel’s Lone Star Lanes, the bowling venue, to the Round Rock Sports Center, for volleyball, and Round Rock High School, for powerlifting.    The level of determination and joy expressed on the faces of the athletes, and their coaches and families, was (insert understatement here) awe-inspiring.   A couple to point out:  the 9th photo shows brothers Brennan O’Donnell, left, a powerlifting athlete with the Hill Country Stars, getting ready for competition with his brother, John.  They are what is known as a unified team, where someone not developmentally-disabled (John) is teamed with a Special Olympics athlete.   John, an Austin police officer, is quite close to Brennan.   Another image, number 15 down, shows Georgetown’s Jared Friemel getting a kiss from his mom, Charlotte, after finishing his three games in bowling.  Jared (and mom) are well-known  in Georgetown and Williamson County, Texas.   I’m posting quite a few images from two days of coverage for the Williamson County Sun.   This post, you see, is loosely-edited.  I want to share this as much as this site will allow.  

It’s the middle of an extremely-busy weekend, but I’m stopping from post-production work just briefly to post a few photos from Taylor’s Bull Branch Park.   I post quite a bit from there.   Some of it might be repetitive, too, but what the heck, I like the place.   And so do the ducks.    Future ducks were in evidence the other evening when I was there, eggs nicely nestled in the cypress knobs.    It’s good to think about the new ducklings-to-be. 

These are a few photos taken last evening in Georgetown.   In Taylor, where we live, there’s a rookery at Murphy Park, where ducks, geese and egrets roost, building nests to harbor their newborns.   Georgetown’s San Gabriel Park has a place, too.   Lately, I’ve noticed the egrets gathering at the last part of their days in a few cozy trees.   If one looks closely, you’ll see nests there.   While these may seem like black and white images, they aren’t.   A cloudy day provided the muted tones.  The last  photo, taken well past sundown?   That’s the night’s blueness taking over, with a slice of the moon included. This might not be an official rookery, but the egrets call it home, at least for a while.

A word that sometimes rankles me is “cute.”   Sometimes my subjects are cute.  But consider that there may be more to it than that.   In these February 1983 photos taken on a cold day in Marietta, Georgia, grandparents spend time with two children they obviously love.    They’re simple images, straightforward and to the point.   Maybe, just maybe, that’s all that’s needed for readers and viewers to relate ….tidbits of life’s journeys, friends.   Technology has changed much since these photos were taken, but not the messages.

Before you get your hopes up in anticipation of windmills and tulips, it’s not that Holland.   Texas has one, too.  Ours is in Bell County, Texas, about a 25 minute drive due north of my home in Taylor.   According to the latest census figures, this Holland, home of the annual Corn Festival, held in June, is a bit over 1100 folks.  Holland was established in 1881, but it was around during the time of the Civil War, too.  Back then it was called Mountain Home.   From what I’ve read it got that name from a “mountain” south of town.   The mountain was actually a hill.   The town got its current name from James Reuben Holland, born in 1847 in Clairborne County, Tennessee.   Mr. Holland arrived in Texas in the 1870s with his family.    It’s a quiet place.   I enjoyed strolling around there this week.   The second photo in this post is probably my favorite.  That’s the First National Bank building, at the corner of Travis and Austin Street.   It was built in 1905.  It’s still a bank today, now a part of the Horizon Bank family.  I’m glad they’re still keeping it nice.  The deer heads mounted in the lobby are just about perfect.   There’s some street scenes, too, including something from the Holland Volunteer Fire Department.   Their crews had just returned from battling grass fires near Granger.   As i continue to explore my part of Texas, it’s good to include Holland.