Italy oh Italy

So I've just returned from a wonderful two weeks touring Italy with some old friends and new. I'm in the midst of reviewing and editing images and already a pattern is emerging.  I'll share some of my favorites here but I don't want to wait until I get through them all to start sharing.  So what's the pattern?  People,the Italians themselves, full of life and stories that just beg to be captured.  So come meet some folks.

Spring Springing Sprung

  It is finally Spring here in South Texas.  If you are a local you know that means wildflowers.  Some years are better than others, for some magical rain, cold, two years ago heat wave, reason.  So when the winter chill starts to leave us it is like we all get a chance to play the wildflower lottery.  Our state wide scratch off game gets rolling and everybody wins.

  I took a drive east of San Antonio the other day looking to see what I cold see.  The Indian Paint Brush were out in force. Not many Bluebonnets out yet but they may still make an appearance. 

 

 

 

     I think one of my favorite aspects of the wildflowers in our area is the fact that they grow in inhospitable places.  Sandy fields full of stickers (yes, I'm still recovering from my weeble like wallow in them).  Neglected road sides that aren't tended other than by industrial mowers maybe once a year.  There isn't anyone out there watering the roads sides or babying these beauties along.  They are going about their business despite us and with a little help from Ladybird Johnson.

 



 

 

   It has seemed like a long winter here and yes I know I'm a total weather wimp and wouldn't last a week in the frozen North, despite spending formative years in Alaska.  But like Arizona has a dry heat, we tend to have a damp cold and I was ready for Spring to arrive.  These fields of color are our compensation for cold without the pretty snow and too hot summers that aren't met with the same joy that others seem to get out of it.  Spring and Fall seem to be the Goldilocks of weather for me. Not too hot, not too cold,  but just right.

 



 

     So if you are lucky enough to live here or be driving through here in the next few weeks or so.  Stop and enjoy the beauty.  Mind the stickers and for goodness sakes the snakes.  Do pull over and enjoy the view.  It won't be exactly the same next year and hardly ever in the same spot.  Let the Wildflower lottery commence!

Imagine

 

Imagine

 

Imagine: to think of or create (something that is not real) in your mind

to form a picture or idea in your mind of (something that is not real or present)

 

 

 

A frosty morning and a well trodden path.  The more prosaic out there would say "just a deer path".  Where is the fun in that?  What about the trolls and faerie and little folk that need to reach the river as well?  The enchanted ones that make their way by starlight and the liminal light of dawn and dusk?  See there tiny feet barely stirring the frozen blades?  Hear their work songs as they haul the steaming water back to hearth and home.  If you stay quiet and out of the way you can watch them work until the golden hour passes and the doors between our worlds ease shut once more.

 

Go ahead, imagine.





Cypress trees...I just love them.  Part of it has to do with where they hang out.  That would be all along the lovely river banks in the surrounding area.  They provide lovely color for us in the Fall, a handy roost for buzzards (see black spots at the top of this one),debris catchers for flash floods, jumping off points for imagination.   In the image below a fallen bit is suspended above the colored stones of the Comal river in New Braunfels.  The water was soon clear and beautiful it reminded of stained glass.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Bald Cypress that grows along fresh water rivers in my neck of the woods only grow in the United States now.  The Sabinal river takes its name from the Spanish word sabino which means cypress. 

This image The Cypress Sirens was captured along that river.

So you can see why these are some of my favorite subjects.  It doesn't matter if they are viewed from the bank, or a tube but they really shouldn't be viewed from a speeding car.  Next time you see them, stop and say Hello.  They'll have a story to tell if you listen. 

    


We lost a member of our family last night.  Ransom was a husband, father, friend and neighbor and will be sorely missed.  I can remember him more or less setting me on my photography path.  When I got my first digital camera I would take a photograph of a flower in my yard every Sunday and share it in an email with family and friends.  Ransom always had the most to say about them and how much he enjoyed them.  I began to work each week to capture an image I was sure he would think was great.  It helped train my eye and helped me look outside the box to try to keep it fresh each week.  I had never realized just how much that influenced me until now as I sit, trying to honor a friend who has passed. 

Here are some of those Sunday flowers for you Ransom. You will be missed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back road gem

 

Little Joshua Creek

I've been running the roads again and there is no better time than October to do that in my neck of the woods.  At this time of year we've gotten some rain.  The humidity has dropped.  I like nothing better than driving slow with my windows down listening to bird song and looking for what's around the next bend in the road.  This bend showed me a low water crossing at Little Joshua Creek in the Texas Hill Country.  I pulled off the road and just stood there with my camera.  Several farm and ranch trucks passed as I stood and each driver waved with a smile.  They knew they had it good out here.

Guardians

Rear Guard

Donkeys as a herd or flock guards are fairly common in my area.  Along with being incredibly picturesque they are diligent in keeping an eye on who is driving up and what they might be selling.  I was all set to catch some sheep doing, you know, sheep things when the three amigos here decided it was time to visit another field.

 

Here is a link to a little guy I know personally showing off- Buddy, my folks miniature donkey, doing his thang. -Cheryl captured this just the other day.  Go Buddy GO! Guarding the home place.