Sunflowers in Uvalde, White Fallow on Tularosa Road.

Saw these sunflowers on Hwy. 55 outside of Uvalde, Texas. Seems it's the thing to plant in Uvalde this season, maybe they've got a buyer already? Sale on sunflower seeds? Doing something for the soil? I don't know, but I've never seen fields of sunflowers driving through Uvalde before and I was delighted!

Click 'em big.







Jean and I went up to Tularosa Road again just to see what there was to see. We had just turned onto the road when we spied these White Fallow Deer yearlings. They didn't seem particularly frightened by us. And they were very cuddly with each other. It wasn't until we drove up parallel with them that they finally got spooked.




This cluster of ? was growing on an as yet unidentified tree.


There's a side road off Tularosa onto a private ranch where the water, according to Jean, is nearly always running over the road. I snapped this as we crossed it.


It started raining last night, yea!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was raning when I woke up this morning. Most excellent! The rain gauges tell us it's rained nearly an inch. YES! Oh how we need this rain. I can't wait for the farm to green up a bit, it's been looking more like desert than grass farm so far this season.

Brackettville in March

Nope, I haven't been around much. Not on your blogs nor mine. I forced myself out today, though, because it's MARCH! And, in Kinney County, Texas, March means that our landscape is turning gold and yellow as the Huisache and Blackbrush all break out in bloom.

The air smells sweet, almost like candy. That's the Blackbrush. I love it. It's gorgeous. I shot the Huisache and Blackbrush blossoms last year too (take a peek at those HERE) but it was different this year. The day I went out last year it was COLD and gray! Today it was 80 degrees with clear skies. I prefer the cold and gray. Our winters are too short for my liking. And this one has been far too dry!

I made the mistake of going out to Tularosa Road (one of my favorite spots) to shoot the blossoms. I knew they'd be blooming out there and assumed they'd be blooming out there as well as they are in other areas of the county. I was mistaken. Should have gone to where I KNEW they were going mad. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow if I feel like it.

It's something to see, I tell you. The Huisache trees are just solid gold along Hwy. 90 between Brackettville and the next town to the west. That's where I should have gone. On Tularosa Road the Huisache wasn't doing much at all.

Above: a first quarter moon(+) above Tularosa Road. That's Blackbrush in the foreground.

Above: Blackbrush is so very beautiful to me. It actually seems out of place in our landscape. It's something I'd expect to see in a park in Japan.

Above: The yellow and green on this Blackbrush was such a pretty contrast.

Above: This one is for Jean. She introduced me to Tularosa Road several years ago, but I never knew about this spot until our last trip out there together. I wish she'd been there today to see the colors--she's a painter and probably would have pointed out even more eye candy to me. She's got a nose for it. The water was almost turquoise right at this bend in the creek. The yellow grass, the blues of the water, the red, brown and green of the trees! Oh my! It's not the photo that I love, it's the contrasts and colors.


Above: The lichen (or whatever it is) growing on this tree was neon yellow. I swear it looked phosphorescent. And this tree was absolutely covered with lichen, plant parasites, and I don't know what all. The following three photos were all taken on this tree.


Above: This would have been my favorite shot of the day but it was just a tiny bit out of focus. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was under water. I don't know if this is a fungus or a parasite (mistletoe is an example of parasites that grow on trees) or what.

On a whim I did a panoramic shot out on Tularosa. I didn't pick the best view, I just needed the practice. So far, my panoramics have been pretty pathetic. This one wasn't too bad--but now I wish I'd taken the time to pick a slightly better view! Tularosa Panoramic. If you decide to click the link, be sure to click the photo to enlarge it.

Above: Huisache blossoms. They look like tiny little gold pom poms growing all over the crown of the tree.

Above: A Huisache tree. Just imagine this COATED with those little gold pom poms. That's what you'd see driving into Brackettville from the west.

Below: Just Because.

These were my two entries into this week's Facebook Amateur Photography Contest. The theme is common nouns that begin with the letter "a." I really wanted to enter something original but after nearly two weeks of looking, I couldn't find any good "a's." So, before I wound up my afternoon of shooting, I stuck the apple I was eating on the fence at the cemetery and spent 20 minutes trying to get the moon in the shot.

Fort Worth Botanic Garden

My little bro and his lovely wife took me to the Rainforest Conservatory at the
Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Woot! It's one of my favorite places in Texas!

I was absolutely fascinated by the mist in the conservatory. It makes the place seem downright magical. At least visually, but if you forget about the plants, it's exactly like being in a well-lit sauna. I kept having to wipe the fog from my camera lens and more than one pesky drop of water splatted smack into my eyeball when I looked up.

Reflections on the "river" inside the conservatory.

This is one of my favorite shots. She looked like a little ghost fish the way she dissolved into the murk and the algae growing on glass between us.

The Chenille Plant! A.K.A. Red-Hot Cattail.

See the rest of the Botanic Garden shoot here: The Whole Enchilada.

Here's the greeter at the vegan Spiral Diner in Fort Worth. Bry and Suez treated me to a lunch of garbanzo bean dip and corn chips and some grilled tofu. I desperately wanted to try their desserts, the cookies looked to die for, but my belly was full of garbanzoness and I couldn't eat another carb. However, I'd have happily made room for a rare rib-eye dripping in butter.


And for no particular reason at all, here's some shots of the view from the plane as I flew out of Dallas. The Houston shots came out too dark. And I didn't get a window seat on the Del Rio flight, le Sigh.

Flora, Fauna, and Fire in Tow,TX

Lisa's petunias--battered by a recent hail storm.

I tried and tried to catch them with their wings open but couldn't. I love the dirt in Tow. It's pink and full of tiny crystals. I miss that pink dirt. Driving through the residential area of Tow you see more pink, dirt roads than gray ones. And it's more like sand than dirt.

The North American Soft Shell Turtle, Apalone
(at least I think so). Someone tried to tell me they were leatherback something or others, but I think the leather backs are all sea turtles. And, it so happens, Lake Buchanan is far far far away from the sea. Either way, he was a very cool turtle and I took sick pleasure in my aunt's fear of him. I had scooped him up to look at him and she hid behind her car door and kept telling me I was close enough, she could see him fine. I have to hand it to her, though, she came around. Perhaps once she saw that he wasn't hurting me she decided he was safe enough? Whatever the reason, she ventured a finger to feel his "shell" and was as amazed by the texture as I was.

There wasn't a great deal of time for photography while I was in Tow this weekend and as you can see, these photos are nothing to get excited about. I did, however, get really excited about the turtle because I'd never seen a turtle that didn't have a hard shell. This guy had the coolest "shell." It was soft, pliable, and made for swimming. Made me think of dolphin fins. The last thing I wanted to share is the fire truck below. No, it's not a fab photo or anything, it's purely for nostalgia. My grandfather and father both were in the local volunteer fire department when I lived in Tow and it's possible that both of them rode this truck. I never paid attention to what they drove in the fire department when I was a kid. I just remember Dad's big, metal water can that he wore on his back to fight fires with. It was always in the back of his old, faded, chartreuse yellow Ford.

Blackbrush and Huisache on Tularosa Road

The orange is the huisache and the yellow is the blackbrush. I love when these two shrubs bloom, they are very fragrant. To me, they smell sweet. It was a nice, overcast day--my favorite kind of day to shoot so out I went to 277 south of town hoping to walk along Pinto or Val Verde creek (or whatever it's called) but, alas, they were fenced off and I couldn't. I've GOT to find out who own properties along creeks here and get permission to shoot out on their ranches! I turned back towards town and went north instead feeling confident that there would at least be something blooming on Tularosa.

A few more are here.

Spring!

Things are definitely blooming. It rained today, miracle of miracles. I'm hoping the area will be exploding with color in just a few days. And I hope I'm able to go out and shoot some of it!

Brackettville through my camera lens is much prettier than I ever realized before.

Brackettville Candied Cactus

Brackettville Candied Cactus