While no fan of the incoming hot weather, I do find our area’s prairie grasses pretty nice.  Occasionally those grasses will be joined by wildflowers.  These are from Sunday evening, right here in Taylor, Texas.

The daily walk photographs continue.   For newer connections, I take pretty long walks Monday through Friday, mostly in Taylor, but always with a camera.  So far, the stroll camera is a very inexpensive Olympus.   On almost every walk I encounter curious squirrels.   Sometimes they make it into these posts.  On average, I take from 200-500 photos on each walk.   That’s a lot of photos by week’s end.  Tonight’s offering includes fifteen photographs.   It’s really too many, but  it is what it is.

Saturday morning began with placement of American flags at Georgetown’s IOOF Cemetery, located on East 7th Street, near Southwestern University.   The cemetery was established in 1878.   The placement was overseen by VFW Post 8587, with help from a veterans and scouting groups.  Flags will remain there until the end of May.   The goal was to place flags on graves of veterans.   Most of the volunteers I followed had difficulty determining who were veterans.   I wish this could be remedied.  My father, a World War II (Army) veteran, has a gravestone that lets the viewer know about his service.   Have those markers gone by the wayside?   Daddy died in 1971.  Back then, veterans’ graves were clearly marked.

A few interesting hours were spent today at Georgetown’s San Gabriel Park for the Annual Texas Tree Climbing Championship, hosted by the Texas Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture.  Participants each took a turn at making their way around a 65-foot Live Oak, with  a 32-minute time limit.  Each competitor is a professional arborist.    Today’s event was the Masters round, with nine participants, including six men and three women.  I asked an attendee, an arborist just here to observe, if he ever got nervous up there.  “Not at all,” he replied.   The oldest participant today was 54.  He’s included in the last three photos.   Top male and female arborists advance to the international competition, held in Christchurch, New Zealand in October.  

Dolly, a Nigerian Dwarf Goat, is 10-days-old today, weighing in at 4.4 pounds.  Named after Dolly Parton, Dolly has been tagging along with her owner, Melissa Meiske, where Melissa is Activity Director for Taylor’s SPJST Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation.  Photographs presented here were taken during a visit there today.   Dolly is cuddly and adorable.  She wears a diaper for occasional accidents.  Accompanying Dolly was Blue, a 2-year-old rabbit also owned by Meiske.   The residents here adore Dolly and Blue.   Those following these posts might recall a post here last year where the focus was on Bo, also a Nigerian Dwarf Goat.   Bo’s a little too large to cuddle right now, but Dolly is all in!   During our photo session Dolly enjoyed an 8-oz bottle of whole milk.   The last photo shows Meiske, holding Dolly as she contemplated a nap after finishing off that milk.   If you need a news peg, this is National Skilled Nursing Home Week.   These slice of life moments are the essence of community journalism.

This  tractor has been a subject for a few years.   In fact, so has that sun.  This was snapped while waiting for  that Texas Longhorn called Princess to be agreeable.  

With temperatures already approaching triple digits in Central Texas, area residents are finding places to cool off.   One popular one is Georgetown’s Blue Hole Park.  

Princess is a camera-shy Texas Longhorn I’ve visited for a few years.   She shares pastures with a few other cows, plus a few donkeys.  When seeing the camera, Princess usually turns away.   Her owner is my friend Joyce White.  Last week I stopped by Joyce’s home north of Granger to help celebrate her 92nd birthday.   While visiting, we talked about her reluctant longhorn.  I promised Joyce another effort would be made soon.   When wandering around Tuesday evening I noticed Princess, stopping to give it another go  at  photos.   This time Princess, when not warding off flies, allowed a camera’s presence. She was joined by a couple of rabbits.   Her human is one of the finest people I’ve been happy to know.   Princess is just divine.

A colleague on the Georgia/Tennessee border  takes the most amazing photographs of deer I’ve seen. My deer photos pale in comparison, but this deer near Granger Lake, quite the leaper,  merited attention this week.

Early evening light filters through thriving corn stalks.    This could’ve been another expansive landscape night, but this is my choice, another offering from the Blackland Prairie.