Some subjects I will likely just pound into your consciousness, for better or worse.   The moon, in all its forms, is one of these.   In recent years, the phrase “Super Moon” comes up more and more.    Let’s be clear, folks:  I consider all forms of the moon “super.”   While I like it when I get those tight shots of full moons with a bird flying past, what inspires me most is working it into the prevailing  landscape, including the skies and clouds that embrace  it.   These photos were taken this week, when it’s described as waxing gibbous.  Essentially, it’s a full moon.   If you want to get precise, it’s 99.6% full.  My concern was not being able to see it due to clouds and predicted rain.   The first three photos in this post are from Wednesday night, when the skies were still clear.   The little pond reflecting the moon is at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, in Wuthrich Hill, Texas.  Note that I do NOT call this a tank.   There’s not a cow to be seen.  It’s strictly, and sweetly, a pond.   The last three images were taken Thursday night in East Williamson County.   The clouds were so prevalent, I hadn’t expected to see the moon at all, but when leaving the grocery store, there it was, fading and reappearing.  I watched it for several minutes.   It’s just pretty enough to almost make me howl.  Almost.

While wandering around Georgetown Thursday evening I briefly stopped on a bridge overlooking the San Gabriel River, on the north side of San Gabriel Park.   In the far distance there was a heron relaxing on its perch.  Joining her were two ducks, although barely visible.   Looking below, into the blue water, made so by the lateness of the hour (it was approaching 6:30), a red shirt-clad fisherman was still at it.  He caught a few perch, but seemed to have had a good time just enjoying this unseasonably warm January night.   A technical note:  that last photo’s exposure was 1/5 of a second.  Normally I won’t mention this stuff, but was happy to see my fisherman just sharp enough keep!

A few weeks ago there was a story on National Public Radio about family heirlooms, specifically this:  what happens to something you cherish, but your children don’t feel the same about it after you’re gone?   It brought to mind this very old family rocking chair, now at least 100-years-old, but I think it actually dates to the late 1800s.   I took some photos of it today, but also include a photo taken of me, in either 1953, or early 1954, when Maw Mathison, our next-door-neighbor in Texarkana, was babysitting me while mama and daddy were at work.  Somewhere in the 60s, mama had it reupholstered.    Since my parents died in the 1970s, I’ve transported this chair from Texas, to Louisiana, Georgia and now back to Texas.   What will happen to the chair when my wife and I are gone?  Will either of my grown children feel the need to keep it in the family?   It’s something I think about a lot.  I love this old rocker.

This is a followup to last night’s post from the 71st annual Williamson County Livestock Show in Taylor, Texas.   I’m not certain there will be more visits to the show this year, but you never know.   These photos were taken on Tuesday, the day set aside for the judging of goats and lambs, or, if you prefer, sheep.   I call them sheep.   Something I’ve noticed about these shows:  they appear to be filled with more female competitors than their male counterparts.   Parents I talked to notice this, too.   One mom, whose daughters raised sheep, commented “Boys don’t like to do all the frilly things we do to them.”   That may be true!  At any rate, this batch of images were taken for my friends at the Austin American-Statesman.

It’s been an extremely busy two days documenting the drama, and the fun, at the annual Willliamson County Livestock Show.   This year, the event has moved from the old show barn in Georgetown to the newly-remodeled and expanded Williamson County Expo Center in Taylor.   It’s only two miles from my house, too!   The photos posted tonight are from Monday,  when poultry and rabbits were judged.   These kids (and sometimes parents and grandparents)  take this stuff seriously.  And it gives them focus.   As one of two teen sisters from Hutto said with a laugh “It keeps us out of trouble.”   You can’t argue with that.  The last two photos show a mom watching as her 14-year-old daughter (last photo) goes on to win Grand Champion in her rabbits class.   It was nice to watch this unfold.

Tonight, I have some paying work that needs to be cleared so I decided to stay even closer to home than usual, paying a visit to Taylor’s Murphy Park, just over a mile from home.   Once there, I watched ducks, then turned my camera to a waxing gibbous moon.   This moon phase is over 50% of full, but the longer, tripod-mounted camera exposure blows out the highlights, giving it the appearance of a full moon.   That moon is a few days away, but I kind of like how this one looks, too.

Perhaps you’ve figured out that I’m a workaholic?   Remember, folks, this photography thing is therapy and meditation.   I do what I do.   Take this morning, for instance.   If you saw the previous post, you know that I covered a memorial run in Georgetown this morning.   Since it got off to an early start, I left my Taylor home well before sunrise, a little after 6:30.   This afternoon, upon completing the memorial run photos, it seemed like a good idea to look at evening light as well.   The first two photos are from the morning,  the final four from tonight, all past sundown, with some sweet, low and ambient light to make things right.  The reflection of trees in a body of water?  That’s on a road I’ve not traveled, but I’m glad I did.   For fun, I tossed in a photo of Brushy Creek Bar, also on that new road.   That’s followed with a barn I’ve photographed a couple of times before, but the night light, combined with a bit of subtle green pastureland, made it seem right.   As I cross the tracks before heading home, I stopped briefly, too.   Now I’m a wee bit tired, but in a good way.

While on a run from her Georgetown home in January 2002, 19-year-old Rachel Cooke disappeared.  To this day what happened to her remains an unsolved mystery.   To keep Rachel’s memory going, members of the Georgetown Running Club, with assistance from Rachel’s mother, Janet Cooke, held the Rachel Cooke Memorial Run at Georgetown’s San Gabriel Park  on a very cold Saturday morning.  At race start time, the temperature was 18-degrees, but it  didn’t deter 200 hearty folks from showing up to either walk or run for a good cause.  After race expenses, funds collected from the run go to the Central Texas chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.   Some advice from someone who ran regularly for 33 years:  don’t run alone if you can help it.

As temperatures are expected to dip to about 20 degrees by early-Saturday, I wasn’t initially keen on wandering along the Blackland Prairie tonight, but then again, it’s a meditation.   The first photo works better in black and white, the rest seem to need their color palette, like the plane making its approach to Taylor Regional Airport, the clouds full of density and awe.    The horse foraging in the field?  It’s another of those surprise images.  The donkeys at left weren’t even on my radar when taking the photo, but there they are.    The last photo is our Friday night traffic jam along Chandler Road, so much better than my Atlanta, Georgia experience.    Be well, friends.

On a wandering Wednesday night, I found myself in Walburg, a lovely community just a few miles northeast of Georgetown.  I’d had St. Peter Lutheran Church on the visual radar for a while, but the light wasn’t always conducive to a desired result.  Last evening, however, the church lights were on inside, giving the beautiful stained glass windows quite a glow.  As it happens, Wednesday was choir practice night.  I’m glad it was.   Before practice began I stepped inside the sanctuary, but from there, the windows didn’t have the pizazz I wanted.  At some point, I’ll return in the daytime to check that out.  The congregation was formed here in 1889 by German settlers.  The current structure replaced the original one in 1930.  Some of the windows and other treatments were carried over from the first church. Presented here are a few photos from last night.  The warm light on some of these is cast from a nearby light source.   I live in a very sweet area of Texas.