Blue Flowers

Nature has more blue colors that are showing up this spring. Blue flowers are regal.

Free Shred Day Was Impessive!

Saturday was the 9th annual free shred day at Iron Mountain's facility in Mercer Business Park (luckily, I knew where it was from shooting the complex when it was under construction). It was an impressive operation and I left completely satisfied that my documents were shredded right before my eyes.

The event was co-sponsored by Fox News and Comerica Bank. They, in turn had also supported their community food pantry, the North Texas Food Bank. I had medical, old tax records, old bills paid 15 years ago (before the days of electronic billing known as going paperless).

The lines went fast. It was a stay in your car type thing. The volunteers brought a bin-cart right to the car, dumped the paper into the cart and then pushed the cart to the the big truck that lifted it to the top and dumped it into the shredder. It was out to the road where the Farmers Branch police stopped the I-35E service road traffic and I was on my way!

I've already started a box for next year! And this time, I'll bring some food cans for the North Texas Food Bank.

The line, the big shredders.

The dumpster carts, the big shredders

Lake-a-Palooza! This Weekend

Spent the afternoon keeping an eye on the Hawks and watching the stage being built for the Lake-a-Palooza at the Cultural Bath House at White Rock. Also had a chance to talk to the ladies from the Dallas Master Gardeners as they put new markers on the plants in the water-wise garden about the new flowers in the Water Filtration Garden. They were as I had explained what they looked like. The women had gone over to the filtration building. Today, they had their report and I am so glad that they had and ID on the blooms. 

Peony Poppy

This Weekend at the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake

The stage is under construction. The fence is going up where beer sales will be available and the weather is going to be sunshine and 85!

Storms,Torrential Rains, 70 MPH Winds, Flooding,

Getting to the Dock Might Be  A Little Bit Of  A Problem.

Humor Situation

Last night was a nail biter. The rain came down in barrels,not buckets. Winds hit 70 MPH, power was off for over an hour and flooding was everywhere. I'll do a couple of post with the damage. Some of it was a bit funny (as there is always some humor in the worse of situations).

One of Several Big Trees Down

A Deck Fell Into The Street.

Fourth Largest Metropolitan Area In US

New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas. That's the official numbers released over the weekend. From 2017 to 2018, Dallas added 131,000 new residents;since 2010 the area added more than one million new residents.

Today, since it was Easter, the lake would be a nightmare just getting around so I decided to point the car toward Deep Ellum and take the south Dallas route over to Lamar and come in the back door to  Reunion Tower, downtown and made it over to Trinity Groves to Sylvan. The flood gate off the bridge was closed so made it down to Irving Blvd. and the Design District circuit and outbound again  to Mockingbird; made the southern loop around Love Field, out Marsh to Forest and back roaded it into the drive way. For the first time in a long time, every spoke of the wagon wheel circuit had something going on in major changes. Every single spoke. I've been doing this for 10 years and have never seen all the spokes having something major happening in all the spokes. So, today was a good day pretty much for building the storytelling of this blog.

While making the tour, there are some things that deserve mention but for one reason or another, an image can not be published. Almost twenty years ago, now, I worked the  Deep Ellum area and called on the sales department for the Dallas Mavericks. The project came through channels from the CEO of a Fortune One Hundred. As a result, a grant was secured from the Fortune One Hundred for the Deep Ellum Foundation.

While I go to Deep Ellum on a regular basis with one of the spokes, I don't usually go by the Mavs building there as it is a bit off the Elm Main Commerce Streets that flow from Deep Ellum into Downtown and through the tunnels at Dealey Plaza. But, today, I discovered that Dirk has officially made a wall in Deep Ellum. It was is considered street art officially, but the mural was signed and while people do use the image, my editors will not take murals like that any longer, even as editorial and by rights, it is an editorial image with Dirk.It's kind of like a catch-22 situation.

I-30 "the canyon" on the south side of downtown before it hits the I-35E horseshoe

The renaming was done in good taste (pardon the punk WP)Wolfgang operates the restaurant in Reunion Tower, just across the tracks, but you can use the tunnel here to get there..

This was built as the Belo Corportation HQ, the operators of WFAA-TV and Dallas Morning News. The Belo Mansion is cross town on Ross Avenue. It was also a funeral home and Clyde Barrows of famed Bonnie and Clyde lay in state there. It's now home to the Bar Association as in Lawyers.

A big crane is out side First Baptist, multi-block campus downtown. They just finished about $130 Million expansion and the crane is  a sure sign that another project is at hand for the mega church.
One of the near by 10-story open-.parking garage is getting new louvers in an architectural cover to reduce the 'eye sore' of an open 10-story garage with all the construction going on. Dallas Museum of Art had a massive tent on the Ross Avenue side. The Belo Building had the second architectural  awning not only on the ground floor around the building but also on the roof as well. There is a new mid rise building north of Fountain Plaza ( that's the building that has a pointed design), Union Station's been renamed for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.

For the first time, I got to see the new "small" houses that the city built to some of the homeless. Actually, I wouldn't mind having one of them, myself!! There is a company in Garland that builds them on trailers. I've been looking at them and actully think that I would even like one of those. 

Have A Great Easter

Happy Easter

Metroplex Parking Garages Are Full.

Blue Iris

One guy even said that it looked at Christmas at the Mall. The storms are due to hit between 10pm-2am. Baseball size based on the strength of the storm seems to have everyone freaking out. Just last month, the area received over $100million in damages, plus. The car dealerships spent the last couple of days moving their cars into garages and under hail tents.  There has been so much damage in the Metroplex of late from large hail storm that people seem to be in panic mode. It's a catch-22 situation, too. The weather guys want to warm people and rightly so, but it gets carried to far with the way the news cycles are rigged.

It was even funny during the afternoon news that starts at 4PM here. One guy had covered his car with pool noodles, all tied together neatly. One , had covered in blankets, pillows, even a purse hanging over the door handle. And, a Gardener covered his cars and windows with bags of mulch. Now that seems to be the winner in my book because you don't have to tie those down. The weight of the bags are held in place by gravity and it's gonna keep baseball-size hail from breaking windows and putting dents into the hoods and roof.

One line of thinking came from a guy that said that it was cheaper to pay the $9 parking fee at DFW airport garage than pay the deductible of his car insurance policy for glass and repairs. Several of the large public parking garages had filled up by noon. One family parked three cars in one garage and drove the worse car to collect everyone at the garage from their family and take them home. The garage only had enough space to park one car.

Winds are expected up to 70 MPH. All-in-all it's spring time in North Texas. This is our month before it moves north in May and farther north by June and ding ding ding as the hail will sound. The universities cancelled classes and activities beginning at 6 tonight.

The forecast for Easter is sun, sun, sun and warm 80 degrees. Did I mention clear skies? Don't laugh. It was overcast today and by three o'clock this afternoon the sun was breaking through the thick clouds.That only adds fuel to the instability of the atmosphere and makes the strong storms even stronger The squall line is coming together as I type this. The overall system slowed down and it does seem that the hail cores have reduced in size to nickle, dime and quarter size.

Iris on a Lake

A male wood duck

Thunder,Lightening,Wind,Hail,Flash Flooding

It was a jolt from sleep. Normally, I hear muffled rumbles of thunder and weak flashes of light if  I wake up at all. Last night was something else. The roars of thunder were astonishing as was the flashes of lightening that lit up my bedroom through blackout drapes. It was so unusual, I grabbed my phone and checked the NBC weather App to see a line of storms covering the Metroplex all the way back to Abilene. As it was, tornadoes hit Franklin, Texas south of Dallas.

 While it wasn't as bad sounding after the initial jolt, it still could be heard enough that I cap napped for another two hours before finally giving in to a return to sleep. I slept beyond my usual time to wake up by over an hour and that was interrupted with yet another round of rowdy thunder and lightening. Had that not happened, I might have slept to noon.

It was closer to two before I got out of the house with umbrella in hand. And a troublesome tire picked today to be the day to split at the shoulder and was nearly flat. So, my first stop was to the friendly tire shop to get a new tire. Some days are just filled with surprises and I deal with them as they come up. There is no need to worry about things that you cannot control.

There were still several weather hazards still active of which one was a flash flood warning for White Rock Creek. That is always one that will bring me to the lake even if I hadn't planned on going. The flow of White Rock Creek is like a river, not a creek, and  in the summer, the Trinity River is more like a creek than a river. It's one of those misnomers that is somewhat of a paradox. The flow of plastic bottles and debris is rather sickening. It comes from all the northern burbs and get picked up in the runoff flow of alleyways, ditches then into storm drains and into White Rock Creek.

As I made my way around the lake, the secondary spillway and White Rock Creek below the tidal pool from the main dam and spillway were level with each other. That's normally a 30 to 40 foot drop. The USGS gauges in the tidal pool were all under water. I didn't even check the website because the readings would not be posting or at flood stage or above. But, it was drawing a large number of  people to take photos and selfish with the roaring water behind them.

When I made my way down West Lawther, the parking areas and docks were all pretty much empty but alone the shoreline, the high winds had pushed the debris flow all the way across the lake from where White Rock Creek enters the lake to the west side of the lake's shorelines. The water didn't get as high as I had thought that I would find it and that is a good thing. The clean up of plastic will be confined to the shoreline in a about a two foot wide band of wood and plastic.

This is the tidal pool below the main dam and spillway. Where  you see a line between smooth surface and more rough water is where the secondary spillway steps down that 30 feet drop. White Rock Creek begins again right at the bridge line going south into south Dallas where it flows into the Trinity River. From there its a few hundred miles to the Gulf.

Here comes the water over the dam and down the long and wide spillway into the two channels on either side of the island into the tidal pool before it makes that left turn at the secondary spillway that is big blocks like steps that drops about 30 feet in height where it returns to White Rock Creek again 

The west side of the lake where the debris has collected for several hundred yards.

Found More Big Trees Down Today

The tree was somewhat diseased for sure but it's always amazing to me the directions that they fall. Not as expected and one of the reasons that I can't be found at the lake in super high wind days. If you have ever heard that sound of a cracking tree and then the quck and sudden plop and vibration on the ground, big trees and high winds don't mix. To see people parking their cars right under these monsters, it's only a matter of time before one drops on a car some where.

Even  Found one of the Kestrel Hawks Hanging Out

Although I got a late start today, I still made a shortened trip to the lake by mid afternoon. The sky had started to clear away from the clouds that came with the cold front that was pushing through dry. The wind did return, however. It blew Texas dust into South Dakota and Minnosota where it landed on top of the fresh snow as a brown coating. Imagine that!

I found more big trees that had been toppled by the strong winds of yesterday and discovered a few things as well. It appears that a pair of wood ducks were 15 feet up in a big tree right under our noses and when the branch cracked and fell, mother wood duck flew in and the chicks all bailed out of the tree, bouncing on the ground and waddling off with mom to the lake. Several people saw the event unfold and I think that I just had missed it by a few minutes according to my source that was only a few feet away when the limb cracked and dropped and then the ducks jumped out onto the ground 15 feet below. That's the thing with wood ducks and has always amazed me that the chicks do that as just a happening in nature. It's what they do!

Any now, that they survived, I have to watch and see where they will be swimming. It does concern me some as I had just witnessed the day before a big diamond-backed snake deliver what seemed to be dozens of little snakes that are now roaming for food in that same area. I know, that its part of natures way but I just hate to see cute little ducks disappear one by one until they are much larger. Also, area hospitals have reported their first snake bite of the season already. People, snakes are crawling. Don't go walking through the grass in flip flops.

Once again, the trees are on both sides of the lake. Some more prominent than others as far as being noticed. Parks will get them out of the way in due course. They have so many things going on right now including mowing and tree branch pick up.They do such a great job at keeping the lake in great condition for the size of it.

I'm back to gas rationing with the price of gas at $2.699. It means the number of spokes on the wagon wheel  will either be cut back, cut out or not be visited near as often. Right at the time when the summer shoot schedules are about to kick off, it just might have to be cancelled. And, once again, the threat of closing the website has some long shadows cast on it already.

Next to the Big Thicket Cottage

Deepak Chopra Made Me Go Back

Yes, this is not a blame game. Deepak didn't do anything like making me feel guilty or feel bad to bring on  an unusual action that I have not done in almost 10-years. He does not believe in stress or things that our minds can conger up. We do that our selves.  Not to get sidetracked here with Deepak, but as a result of seeing an interview with him this week, it struck a note that rang clear as a bell in my head.

If you are not an NBA fan, you might or might not know that last nights home game at the AAC was Dirk Nowitzki's final home game after 21 seasons. The big German came to the Mavs from Germany when he was 20 and was a class act on and off the court during those years. His sister and his father were here from Germany to see him score the 30 points in the final game at home. The Mavs had an amazing presentation for him and the emotions were heavy throughout the ACC and across the land and around the world as his fans said good bye. At the end of the game, the team packed up and took the  4 to 5 hour bus ride to San Antonio for tonights game, the last game of the season. Dirk will play that as his final game overall, and last night at the AAC was his final home game and the announcement that he would be retiring. Number 41 has made history many times and his jersey will be retired as well, not to be worn in a Mavs game ever again. While I am more of a basketball fan than I let on, I was set to watch the game tonight from San Antonio. But, something came over me and I really felt a type of anxiety come over me that is not normal for me. So, I dressed again for travel and, grabbed my water bottle and camera case and pointed the car toward the lake. Since this afternoons trip with the high winds, I like to listen to the wind sing on the cords that hoist the sails up on the sailboats; in Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, mermaids, who lured nearby sailors with their  Alkonost · Banshee · Circe to their death. The vibrating sounds are somewhat soothing to listen to. Often, I will park for a few extra minutes when high winds blow.

In the short drive to the Big Thicket,, I was stunned to see two big limbs (these limbs were the size of  most 60 year old tree trunks are round) down on the parking lots where the kayak rental sets up and a short distance on down the road. They had been twisted off. With high wind warnings, extended to 10 PM these limbs had been brought down since I left the lake earlier this afternoon and my return near sunset. 

So, Deepak had demostrated how to wash away any kind of  anxiety or stress. It was just what I needed and I'm glad that I  made the extra trip tonight. 

At sunset with the approach of the cold front and with contrails from high altitude flights in different vectors the view was stunning.

The colors were spectacular.

Gossomers Backlit by Sunlight, NTD and a Crow

In case anyone is wondering---I'll filling in areas where my portfolios are not balanced. The best time to get caught up on those things happen in spring and fall, Summer takes care of itself and winter is the area that has suffered the most. When we don't get any snow or ice storms and a major parade is sidelined after years and years of Christmas Parades that were syndicated to major TV markets around the country, the Christmas side of the portfolio has been filled  with Christmas displays, ornaments and tree toppers. While that is Holiday category for sure, it does have more holes  than any of the others.

It even seems to me that I am shooting the same thing every time  I go out. But, it's one of those things that falls into that clever saying that TXU uses on its website when they do maintenance when they post, "We've got to change the light bulbs sometime."

Gossomer in Sunlight

May 23rd is National Turtle Day 2019.

A Crow or a Raven?  It's a Crow. Ravens do everything in pairs and have a wedged tail. Crows are in large groups of 6 or more and have a fan tail.

April Is Our Month for Severe Weather

That's a bit of a misnomer in as much as here in North Texas, all 12 months can, and have had, severe weather. We are the mixing bowl of Gulf moisture, jets from the west and cold air from the north. However, this morning we had a good ole-fashioned thunder bumper with lightening, downpours, and rumbles that shook the walls. I can't remember the last time that we had one that I took note of more than the one this morning. As the line of storms marched off to the northeast, I got the heck out of the house for a couple of reasons. One, I can't stand to be closed up in a house and two, I wanted to get some images of that immediate after-the-rain-look where water droplets were still hanging from plants and spring flowers and the fresh green look from grassy areas. Plus, I can also judge how focus is doing on the camera when the air has been cleaned of all the particulant matter that causes focus to change on it own and I'll be the first to admit that I have screwed up the settings many times to where the focus was off more than I like. Finding a good target area to re calibrate is critical and I have used the skyline of downtown Dallas from White Rock to judge that.

But first and foremost, my de-stressing trick is getting out of  the house. When I am out shooting, my stress levels nearly bottom out and my blood pressure drops to there lowest levels. So, from a health standpoint, being out and about for me is as good as it gets and I'm able to function normally.

People have ask where downtown is in relationship to White Rock Lake and Park.This is one of those  picture that says a thousand words. The sign is at the northern most point of the lake. The point where White Rock Creek feeds the lake is at the Mockingbird bridge which is below this sign a few hundred feet.  The exit here is an old fashioned clover leaf type exit going down and under the bridge. West Lawther is the far lake shore side nearest downtown's view. East Lawther has four points of entry while West Lawther can be driven from the bridge here at Mockingbird around to Highway 78, Garland Road.The lake is a little over 9 miles around.

This is the shot and is taken from atop the escarpment at Dreyfuss Club. It is slightly lower than the highest point known as Winfrey Point which is just south and to the left of this image.

The green space is between Lake Highland Drive (where the two new homes sit) coming down to the Cultural Bath House Center on Northcliff from where this image was taken. The cultural center is were the cultural events, lectures, theater, music and the like are held. In front of the center is the Water-Wise Garden planted by the Dallas Master Gardeners, Texas A&M extension services here in Dallas.

Bluebonnets and Caution Alert

Every year people grab their babies and toddlers and plop them down in a patch of bluebonnets and then leave them as they focus their cameras. While the moment is not only precious for the memory book and that favorite picture of your cute pet, you need to be aware and exercise caution.The snakes are already crawling and I've seen some big ones like this guy, too!

Since the mid part of February, this is the third one that I have seen this year already. They are crawling folks. They love the bluebonnet patches and don't think for a second that where you are it's okay to sit baby down on the ground. A word to the wise. 

 

All six species of blue bonnets are included in the Legislation of 1901 that made the bluebonnet, Texas' sate flower. Every thing is bigger in Texas...that's why we have six state flowers and they are all Lupinus species.

They should be around about another two to three weeks depending on the weather.

12th-century French romances here in Dallas

The French people are like New Yorkers. You must get to know them to understand them. For me, I love them both and today I visited Camelot and all the lore of King Arthur's special world. It is just one of those things that have escaped me in the twenty years that I have been back in Dallas.

The romance of it is the streets that are jigsawed around a greenbelt that runs through the area. The area is a typical example of the Scottish highlands climbing some 100 plus feet from the greenbelt up to the ridge line. It's a neighborhood of modest and well kept homes. They also have a very unique feature that some would recognize and for others it would go unnoticed totally. That uniqueness is the perfect landscaping that is textbook in nature.

I've driven through the neighborhoods before and knew it was one of my favorite if I were in the house market again. But, today, all that splendid landscaping and architecture and physical lay of the land all came together in that uniqueness that you know somehow it is just a magical place to be.

One of the images will show the one-sided street that borders the greenbelt and the other will show how it blends two neighborhoods together. Since I grew up in a new house that mom and dad had built on a hill street like those I drove today, it gave me that feeling of comfort and attachment to the earth like I grew up in and around. Mom and Dad were  one lot away from the top of the hill but I have always loved being on a hillside.

I have long believed that my car goes where it is directed, but it's the Lord that is really driving, using me as the physical aspect of mechanics like braking, stopping, turning, etc.,etc.No, I"m not nuts by a long shot. I've just lived long enough to know that fate and a higher power control those that are loved and I thank God every night that He and the Grace that he sheds on me is well received as I offer thanks.

So, check out the images. While it was overcast today, it was comfortable. Another Gift from Above!

One home had 9 dogwoods in bloom at the corner of their lot. Others had more than one or two. This came from one of two trees that were between the sidewalk and the curb on a curve as the street wrapped around the greenbelt.

Actually, there are two species here. This image is of wild Jade Vine that if found hanging from high in a tree canopy over a creek that is part of the Trinity Greenbelt and Watershed District.

This one, is wild Wisteria and it too, hangs over the creek and has tree roots on the one side of the Greenbelt in the neighborhood. There is a footbridge that connects the two neighborhoods together and both the streets are one-sided lots, the other being part of the greenbelt.

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A Trifecta of Owls

Top-parent owl, middle below parent is crow, but just below crow on left is the  owl chick, The second partent is in the lower right hand corner.

 

 

Grackle showing his feather display to a potential mate in the next tree.

This mocking bird stopped singing and was watching the grackle's loud calls.

The crows told the story that they were unhappy in a grove of trees. That same grove has been the nesting site of Bard Owls and Red Shouldered Hawks in past seasons. The story board has changed this year with a family of Great Horned Owls taking over the grove.

A  couple of weeks or three, ago, I had seen, along with several others, the male, the female and the fluffy chick. Today was a trifecta of tickets with a parent on a top branch, the growing chick  in the middle and a parent on the bottom branch. It was a delight to see all three with another person that lives a few blocks away.

I'm glad he got to see all three together.