These photos were taken Friday evening on the stunning Blackland Prairie in Central Texas.    They fit well into the name of this site … they are ramblings.   Sunsets,  skies, barns, farm houses, lone trees.   Happy Christmas, or whatever makes you happy at this time of year.  

On this Christmas Eve 2016, I dug through old files, finding two visits from the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission.   The first two photos were taken on Christmas Eve 1978, the first a service, the other a checkers game to pass the night.   The second two were also taken at the mission, in December 1975.   The last photo, a young girl keeping her doll close in a room at the mission, always catches my attention, reminding me that there are any number of less fortunate souls out there.    While I like to say that my left-leaning political views were formed early in life, well before college and newspaper work, when I see children going without,  through no fault of their own,  it bothers me.   The thing about this work I do is this  … I’ve seen things up close and personal for years, not via the spin of television news, or talk radio, but right in front of me.   It can’t help but color how I feel about the world.

Most of the day on Friday was foggy, cloudy and just generally misty, a good day to visit Taylor’s Bull Branch Park.   This kind of weather simplifies the landscapes.  Normally, I prefer to stay away from making photos in the middle of the day, but not when days like this come along.   One I particularly like in black and white is here twice.   It’s presented in color as well, but the monotone grows on me.

Each year since returning to Texas, I vow to take a photo of the City of Round Rock’s iconic water tower in full holiday lights mode.  Alas, each time Christmas rolls around I forget.  Tonight, en route to somewhere else, it came into view.  So I stopped this time.   That’s one heck of a lighting job.

Winter began today, but came in quietly, and warm.   Highs Central Texas made it to 70 degrees.    It was apparently suitable for fetching and water diving at Georgetown’s Blue Hole Lagoon though.    Back in Taylor tonight, the evening was made complete with beautiful skies above St. James Episcopal Church, and a lovely sundown.  

The photo posted of the Lampasas River last evening was taken from this  abandoned, but (somewhat) intact bridge built in 1914, commonly referred to as  the Maxdale Bridge.   The location is northwest Bell County, Texas, a little over ten miles south of Killeen. I’d tried to find it a few months ago, but on this slow Saturday, luck was with me.   It’s a popular destination for those like me, who love old truss bridges, but apparently it’s a hit for those who crave ghost stories, too.   One story about the bridge says that if you park your car near it’s entrance and honk your horn, you’ll see breathing on your windows, from the outside.   These “breaths” are the ghost of children who were said to have perished in a school bus accident on the bridge.   Another story tells of a man, despondent after his girlfriend perished in the Lampasas River, hung himself from the bridge.   He’s another ghost presence … or so the story goes.   For the record, I didn’t honk my horn, or see anything unusual, but by dark, I was well away from it!   Also included in this post, not far from the bridge, is a vintage church, Maxdale Baptist Church, now home to Maxdale Cowboy Church.   Compared to some of the impressive churches I’ve documented, this one’s simplicity was nice.   There’s a large structure adjacent to it.  My assumption, if correct, is that it’s the fellowship hall.    It’s actually much larger than the church itself.  Before leaving, I watched the sun go down behind a nice tree on the church property.   Wandering, or rambling, is fun at times.

This is a photo I took of the Lampasas River late Saturday in Bell County, Texas, just south of Killeen.  A future post will give you more details about the visit there,  but for tonight, it seemed like a good image to close out the evening.

These first four photos were taken on Saturday, near the Lampasas River, in Bell County, Texas.  They were late on a day where temperatures soared to 78 degrees.   What’s happening here, with those skies, is the transition …. a cold front literally moving in before your eyes.  By late Saturday, into early Sunday, temperatures had plummeted into the low-mid 20s in Central Texas.   The last photos were taken today in the Georgetown area, Salvation Army volunteer staying on task despite a windy day, with temperatures well below freezing.  Then onto Berry Springs Park $ Preserve, where Ena and Shawn Bichsel were walking their dogs, including Boomer, an Australian Cattle Dog, and Woodrow, a Husky.   Boomer is quite amazing.  Born both blind and deaf, he responds wonderfully to both scent and touch.  Ena and Shawn are members of Texas Differently Abled Working Group, dedicated to helping make lives better for disabled pets.   I love people, like Ena and Shawn, who care so very much for their four-legged friends.   We need more like them.

A few years ago, I became acquainted with a Georgetown, Texas-based group, Miniwonders, founded by Wendi Threlkeld.   Miniwonders is a non-profit that brings the world of miniature horses to us through their outreach.  They make appearances at churches, schools, nursing homes, or anywhere their special type of therapy might help.    On Thursday, Wendi, along with her staff, brought two of her little ladies, Mercy and Treasure, to The Worship Place, in Sun City, where they paid a holiday visit to the church’s Special Friends group, a part of the church outreach for memory care.   Treasure, the white horse pictured, is an American Miniature, while her Thursday companion, Mercy, is a Falabella miniature horse.   This was Treasure’s first public appearance, but she was a hit!   She didn’t however, cotton to the booties.   That will come in time, I think. These are a few photos I made for the Williamson County Sun.

Between assignments on Thursday, I decided to stop by the San Gabriel River for a look.   The stay was not long, but sweet.  We’ve had a couple of days of cloudy weather, but the sun’s rays managed to peek through before the last light of day faded away.   The first photo in this post is also presented in black and white, just because.