Gone Barefoot'n

Some things just lend themselves to a camera's lens.

 The nice thing about White Rock Lake is that there are many docks that give visitors a close-up look at wildlife, especially this time of year when little ducks are being hatched. The birds are also nesting and going out and coming in to feed their hatchlings.

The reeds grow in certain areas and not in others. Where there are reeds, not only are their some water moccasins but also red-wing blackbirds, various species of ducks besides mallards and turtles. In short, there are multiple examples of wildlife compressed into  small areas. Not only do the boardwalks give a clean view of the lake  off-shore, the boardwalks also provide a walk-way to observe nature close-up.

Here are a few shots with a little twist.

Shoes and socks at the edge of the lake. No owners in sight!

One of the boardwalks along a reed patch



A male Red-wing Black Bird in his courtship dance.



30/05/2014 updated

Iron Horse Rumbles

Rumble This On Down the Rails.


Even the run-of-the-mill box car can fool you sometimes. As a teen, I spent an afternoon helping to unload one shipped to AG Warehouse, a co-op owned grocer warehouse. Some will recognize the Shur Fine label. My grandfather had been a member and I remember hearing him talk to his customers about the good purpose AG was founded on. My mother was 3 years old when AG was founded. Today, the group has grown covering the Great Lakes to the Gulf. I will forever remember that rail car.

 Most every one knows what a standard box of Jell-O looks like. It's about 2 ounces in weight,3/4 x 3 x 3 inches in size. When packaged by the manufacturer, there were about 5 rows of single boxes. Each row was 20 boxes wrapped in brown craft paper. Nothing unusual about that. But, in a box car, usually, products are loaded on pallets. These were not on pallets, but had been hand loaded one package at a time and that meant that they had to be unloaded  by hand. At 60-tons, do you know how many of those little boxes it takes to fill a box car? That's why to this day, I do not like the smell of Raspberry Jell-O. That fine powder in the air in close quarters would be considered a health hazard today. Then, it was just an afternoon experience. Whenever I see a box car parked next to a warehouse-type building, I still smell Raspberry and think about that afternoon.

 

A Big Change and A New Discovery

Some of you will remember that when the "big boy" of Union Pacific was being readied to be pulled to Frisco and the rest of the collection of old cars and engines were being pulled out with little or very short notice, a trip to Fair Park was just about every weekend. Since the final move, there has been no need to go down to Fair Park. Yesterday, on my shoot list was a brief note that I should check out what was being done with the land were the "museum" of trains had previously occupied. It would also give me a chance to get my cardio-walk in with almost perfect weather. An old weatherman taught me years ago that when you add the temperature and the humidity together and the total is more than 130, you are going to  sweat like a rain storm. Below that and you feel comfortable. The humidity was dropping and the temps were about average for this time of year so that did make for a perfect weather day to be walking.

When  arriving at Fair Park, the valet parking was set up at a couple of entrances. Talking to the parking attendant, they waved me through to go on an park in the self parking area. If you have ever been to Fair Park, you know that it is 177-acres and from one end to the other. You could snake out about a mile and a half of distance; since there are three routes of museum buildings, you can triple that distance. Add midway and  Cotton Bowl stadium and the row of building from the old Women's Museum building to Music Hall and the former museum of Nature and Science to the Hall of State complex, to the aquarium and outdoor arena where they feed the manta rays in a Sea-World-like atmosphere, to the Discovery Gardens and the butterfly house and I know I have left out a few besides the exhibition halls in front of the musical dancing water shows. but that's just from the old train museum to the geographic center!

 Fair Park is one big place. I've long said that it could be Dallas' second jewel with White Rock Lake being the first jewel in the crown. Although, I have written before that in comparison, the old Elitch Gardens at 38th and Tennyson Street, in Denver, was 77 acres of mass, Fair Park is 100-acres more! It's Texas, folks!

The area where the trains once were displayed is now all landscaped with all the old fences and light poles gone. I had not realized until I saw what had been done, what an eye sore the "train museum" had been on Fair Park. Sometimes, the real beauty comes in other forms of new attractions and change. We are all creatures of habit and whether we like it or not, some times, change is a way to move us forward as a human being.

But, the surprise came from the other half of Fair Park. As I walked toward Pennsylvania Avenue and First Street, I discovered a historical marker in front of WRR-FM 101.1 studios. Yes, the city of Dallas also owns and  runs the classical radio station. Somehow, I had missed the marker over the years. It is in need of some up keep, too. But, it gives a history of the station (more than 102 years ago). WRR is not exactly like some of the other classical stations around the country but the format is much the same and in some ways, better. It's that Texas branding again, folks. Unique.

Another discovery appeared. While I have seen it in the past, I do not think I have actually seen it on the road before, but I think the WRR van is cool in a subtle way. A very subtle way. As, I crossed over to the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, I walked toward the former Starplex complex, an outdoor lawn of grass and seating where concerts are held. A music venue. In early 2000, it was  renamed the Smirnoff, and now it's under the Gexa Energy Pavilion name. The west entrance also has the Belk box office. I walked through the parking lot from First to Second street and down  Second along side the Texas Discovery Gardens to where I had parked. It was a good walk. There was also an education in the historical marker at WRR and while I have passed it a few times chasing trains, I had never seen the actual venue of the old Starplex. Remembering when it was announced that it would be built, Mom would tell me about the progress as it was being built. Those were the days when I was trying to save the world single-handily. Before someone sat me down and said to me," it takes a lot of drops of water to fill up the bucket. You can't fill a bucket with one drop. Change."

So, the cardio-walk was good. The educational experience was good. The weather was good. I'm knocking off  pounds with diet and exercise. I feel good, too. I'll warn you ahead of time. There is a bit of classic(al) humor in a couple of shots.



Ludwig's van on the side and the highly classical,"Dude, Bach off" on the rear doors. You might also remember that Bach was a pedaler. He played pipe organs and the pedal keyboard is played with the feet. Get it? Pedaler. And don't forget to click on an image so it opens up in a viewer.

The Historial Market for WRR

Under a new Name, the old Coca-Cola Starplex is alive and well.

So, cool. Also, check out the sticker on the lower left bumber:  Strauss Relief

Already It Is Late Spring

 

One day at a time--this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering
----unknown

Careless Whisper

George Michael's, "Careless Whisper," might be the "at bat" song for a major league baseball hero, but I can also tell ya that it was played a lot selling hot roll coils like these, long before it was the "at bat" favorite.

More Scenes from Mother's Day

On Saturday, my niece graduated from Texas A&M. Now, there is an Aggie in the family besides a few Hogs and  a Buckeye.  On Sundays, after editing  images, a portion of my images are submitted to the live news feed,  This Sunday, however, I withheld those images.

 Reaching for the traditional announcement card that my niece had sent me, my thoughts turned to how fortunate this family had been, although.... we have had our rough times like everyone else. The bottom of the announcement concluded with this:

 

God Almighty has brought me;

 

the love of family has supported me;

 

the joy of friendship has uplifted me,

 

and with the guidance given by Jesus Christ,

 

I have arrived!

 

 

 

 

A sample of those images withheld are shown here.

To Protect and to Serve

Another place to celebrate Mother's Day out. The many restaurants at Trinity Groves.

Dallas Fire and Rescue at work.

 



 

 



Trinity Groves Brings Mom's to West Dallas

For an old trucking terminal with both side dock plates to seven  amazing and quality restaurants with extremely nice outdoor patios, Trinity Groves has transformed the first couple of blocks west of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge into another Lower Greenville and West End. It's only been about 24-months since I started following the project. It was slow to begin, but the end results made up for the slowness in time.  Mom's were dining in a very lovely setting, families were enjoying the vendor's tents as they left the restaurants and self-park and valet worked together like a well-oiled machine. The re-development out Singleton Avenue is expanding like a chain reaction. Let's all hope that the end results at least equal Trinity Groves growing success.

This vendor has some of the most unique hand-crafted items that would make very special gifts!

Talk about atmosphere making a restaurant nice, these seven restaurants have all kinds of atmosphere indoors and out on a veranda patio that would run a close third-scale  to  the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan
link:

http://www.grandhotel.com/

Fresh Farm vegetables are also available on some Sunday's during the month.

 

Here I Go Again

Henry! Gas up the jet coffee mug by sam6372
Customize your own coffee mug at zazzle.com.

Update to Previous Post

Update to the post of March 28th:
Went out to check on the beehive along the trail. With the warmer weather and the pollen sources getting better by the day, the hive was thriving. In fact, it was a bit difficult to get my camera into a position that would produce a better shot. The bees were coming in and out in numbers. With the heavy rain the past couple of days, the hive is secure unless disturbed by someone, something or a natural disaster like straight line winds or a tornado.



The hive is thriving and doing very well.

I don't want to disclose where the hive is located because it would threaten the hives survival. Over the years, I have discovered that the very nature of people is not always well intended. I have seen a  hiker, runner, biker that did not want to have their activity threatened and I have observed people that have come back later and try to destroy an item such as the hive rather than have it interfere with their activity.

The Farmer's Market Remaking Itself

The Dallas Farmer's Market is remaking itself. Yesterday, was the first time that I had been down to the market in sometime. I love the Ruben sandwich at the Chicago Sausage Company. Since 2001 when I participated in a market study about downtown living, I got to know several of the "long term" vendors at the Farmer's Market and some of the other businesses. Lots has change in the time since.  There has been a lot of discussion about the Farmer's Market going private for management. When things like that begin to fill the air, there is usually something more going on in a QT kind of way. Change has never been a stumbling block for me. You learn to go with the flow over time. Patience also helps with change, too. Just as in the old days of my grandparents and parents, you run across people you once knew and lost contact with. There are others that still serve up friendship and a good sandwich or bottle of wine with a good cut of meat. Chicago Sausage Company and Jimmy's Italian Grocery not far from the Farmer's Market does that well. Dallas doesn't have the big import stores and shops like in Chicago, Detroit or New York but over time, by word of mouth or the stumble upon technique, you find that import and specialty store and meet old friends again and have good food.

Almost immediately it was easy to see that Shed 2 was under mass movements of concrete and dirt and that all the vendors were in the roadway of Shed 3 with the Shed 3 vendors still in place. The old fish market between Shed 1 and the old Casa Blanca Restaurant was gone and all that remained was the smooth dirt where it stood surrounded by concrete walkways.

Also missing are the Welcome signs in seven languages replaced by a square banner that simply says: Dallas Farmer's Market. The second of two garden vendors and the retail vendor shop in the Administrative Building where vendors could buy bags and tags and the like. I suppose that the city's new plastic bag law has something to do with it, although that could not be confirmed.

After talking to one of the vendors that I have know for more than 10 years, it soon came to the surface that the finished product would be Shed 1 standing, Shed 2 redone, Shed 3 and 4 demolished. In the space of Shed 3 and 4, there would be new construction of apartments and condos like the one that have been going up for the past several years with a noticeable increase in the past year. So, as always, the reconfiguration seems to be based in the Almighty Dollar. I know that the blackberries were at their highest price I have ever seen and the one I tasted was not sweet at all. By the time I got to Kroger's, the sweetness was back in the blackberries and the price was less than half what the Farmer's Market wanted for a full pint.

The old fish market is gone

Shed 2 is gutted and being redone

The flower market is now gone leaving only the one on Cadiz Street between Harwood and Cesar Chavez with hanging baskets, flats of flowers and potted displays.



edited for a flat finger flub: took out "dirty" and replaced with "dirt".