Spring Wild Flowers

Two Perfect Spring Days in Late Winter

It was 66 degrees officially at DFW this afternoon. The humidity was 19% (very dry) while the dew point was at 23 . Yesterday was just a tad warmer hitting the mark beyond the 70 degree mark. The sky was that deep blue color that comes with low humidity reading. Days like this are my favorite and my camera likes them too. It is also one of those days that really show me how off target my camera has become from daily wear and tear.

So, after coming in this afternoon, following dinner, it was time to break down the camera and do a bit of maintenance. Sometimes, I get it totally right on the one try. Other times, I have to break it own again and fix some little adjustment that I missed. Last night, a dear friend called and while talking, I mentioned to her that my images seemed a bit off. She had noticed the less than normal images that I shot.Telling her that my images had just not been where they should be and I didn't know if it was from the 5 and a half weeks in the hospital or something else. I'm thinking that it was both and is were the problem has been. I want to try to get some images from the Greenville Avenue St. Pat's Parade before my final upcoming surgery. So I want to get this mirror thing cleared up.

Today, the single seat tickets went on sale for the Texas Rangers home opener in the new roofed stadium in Arlington between the old Ball Park and AT&T Stadium.  I had wanted to be at the game, but opening day will find me fast asleep in the operating room again. Sometimes, lemons don't smell like lemons, but that's okay for me 'cause I like limes better, anyway.

It is my hope to get through the ordeal and recovery (not near as long as the previous one) and the rest of my year will be back to good 'ole bread and butter kind of days. Meanwhile, these are some of the signs of an early spring. While my trees on the porch are a bit slower showing buds and leaves this year, there are new green leaves showing up.

These images will be from both sides of the lake.

near the filtration building

W. Lawther near Westlake

Top of the hill on Dreyfuss Club on E. Lawther.

One The Way To The Doctors I Saw a Red Bud Tree in Full Bloom in Plano.

Blooming a 6 weeks early.

At first I thought that it was just some left over Christmas decorations and lights that had not been taken down. But on closer observation, this was the real McCoy. A mature Red Bud about 14-20 feet fall with a coverage of about 8 to10 feet on all sides. In fact, on the way home from the doctors, I came back the same way to make sure that I had really seen what I knew to be the real thing.

So,based on that-- and even with the cold weather coming next week, Spring in North Texas is gonna be the early bird delivery this year. So with that said---and even with a bit of cold snaps, Spring is in the air for sure and it is my hope that we get to enjoy spring in an elastic version this year.

It Was Eighty Degrees Today!!

We missed a record by two-degrees today. The sun was out. It was bright. Warm. Spring-Like and I saw the first red-bud tree up the street from me in full bloom. When that happens, it's time to make a cemetery run. A local cemetery has a very large section of flowering trees  that line a road that are just out of this world. So, before coming in today, I made a cemetery run. The trees have just started getting buds on the branches. With the cold weather coming in the next few days, it will slow down the process some, but they are hardy trees and the cold doesn't usually bother them once they start budding. With that fact under my hat, I'll not be going back for about a week to ten days. The low clouds return overnight and will be 'hanging around' into next week Sorry for the poor pun, but there was a piece on the news tonight about global warming and that Dallas, because we are in such a mixing bowl, is expected to join Phoenix and Louisville (don't get the Louisville connection) as the fastest warming cities in the US.

So here is a bit of images with captions. Enjoy..

This sign has been struck about  six times over as many months. It's down for the count again!!

Blue Sky with a bit of architecture trim.

Fall and Winter Embrace Spring. The landscape companies are already out cutting grass for this season.

Spring In Popping Out all Over

While out today shooting Capital Improvement Projects, I ran across a bit of hope. Now, true, this is on the cusp of an Arctic cold front due to hit tomorrow, but that doesn't matter.  Nature has the upper hand. Believe that! These shoots are hardy and will stout.

It was a bit of a surprise to see it at the end of January, but  I'll take it!

Here is a bit of supporting proof. (click on the image to open a larger view)

Moving 20Miles Per Day

Nature has an app that works pretty well year in and year out. Once in-a-while, it gets snarled up but hey, "that's life"---or as they say in midtown Manhattan, "You'll have that from time to time, yes you will." Already, I hear my mid-town and upper west side friends racing to get back to the steel pilings in South Hampton, Riverhead and Brentwood. Hello, Mike! Hello, Steve. Hello, Denis.  This could be very confusing, but there is a Steve in Riverhead and one in S. Hampton. Denis in Brentwood and another Mike in the Westbury area.

The white flowering trees are fully out as well as red buds like this.

The Daffodils

This is Winfrey Point, the highest point at White Rock Lake. During WWII Winfrey Point was wooden barricks that served as a prison camp for Rommel's North African Army. (The Desert Fox's men lived at Winfrey Point as prisoners.)

Red bud trees, flowering trees, new growth are showing up all over the Metroplex.  And--get this--there has not been a single day in February that has hit the freezing mark. Spring, my friends, has sprung!

When that happens, it even has an official measure. A measure that says that spring moves northward at a calculated rate of approximately 20 miles per day. Ironically, when the leaves begin to turn up north, the peak colors move south at a rate of approximately 20 miles per day. Now, that's an app that mother nature perfected eons ago. Amazing. It's truly amazing. But, you take the facts that the Tropic of Capricorn that is the southern most point that the sun reaches on that first day of winter; spring or fall occur when the sun crosses the equator and of course,when the sun hits that  most northern point that is know as the Tropic of Cancer, we have summer and the southern hemisphere has winter. In other words, the northern and southern hemisphere are in reverse. So the old Celtics, Mayans and other early cultures payed attention to those things in order to live. Now, we just take things for granted and don't even stop long enough to say thank you.

So, here's to spring 2017. May it be everything we anticipate. Anything more---well, that's just a gift don't you think?

Dos Equis, I need a Stay Thirsty Grant because.......

There are gadgets invented, created (not all equally) and sold every single day of the year. We hear about some of the most promising if not the most exciting. The information overload would be just out of the universe if all of it was paid attention to when it came out.

Once upon a time, I was invited to attend a motivational speaker's presentation because at that time, he ran the hottest direct mail advertising company in the US. For nearly a week I got to pick his brain about how he had made his company one of the most recognizable organizations in the country. I never forgot the pointers that he left with me.  Not that I have been interested of late. I have been running a test experiment for nearly five years now putting into play the new technology that wasn't there when Whitt  did his thing so successfully in the early 70s.

Yesterday, I got to see, talk and observe a demonstration that kept my brain going well into the wee hours of this morning thinking about the possibilities of what this device can and could do from here on out. The problem now is more bifurcated as to what end one would want to be involved. One, do you want to use the technology and device as it is currently and develop it to its fullest, or two, do you want to be on the horizon of where this thing is going?

So, Dos Equis , with a Stay Thirsty Grant,  I'll photograph the Dallas outdoor sidewalk patio's with  the Dos Equis interesting people and blog about them  on my blog, your blog and twitter!!

This is not a toy, it's a work horse for Photographers

Legally, it can fly at an altitude of 400 feet in open terrain.

 

Dos Equis, I need a Stay Thirsty Grant because.......

http://heinekenusa.com/tag/stay-thirsty-grant/

Edited to remove copy and add the copy below.
I just learned, there really is a Stay Thirsty Grant Contest by Heinekenusa and that doesn't change a thing.  I don't need 25k, I just need a video camera and a drone !  The creative juices are already generating a list of uses for photography.
 

Turn the Soil, Water and Spring! But Wait!

 The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes proclaims that there is a time and a season for everything under  heaven. It's a verse that I learned in early childhood. Each year about this time, I begin to look for the time when life springs forth for another year after a deep winter's sleep. This year, the sleep was a little colder and a little deeper than in the past 40 years. The yippee-dippy weather man said tonight that we would freeze again for the 51st time this season. It will warm up into the mid 70s and then we become cold again where the weatherman will have to count the freezes again. Our typical last freeze here in Dallas is 13th of March. It's like cheering on the ponies at the races....and here they come down the stretch.. Spring is pulling away from the pack......and it's Spring by a length!!

After checking on Fred at the bank today.....

 ( He's the surviving Beta fish. The three previous were Jack and Jill  who died. Then came Fred and his partner. One Monday morning about two months ago, Fred's partner was stung by a big spider and did not survive. Now, the bankers cover Fred's tank at night. It's the only bank that I can remember where a fish was the topic of discussion with almost every transaction. Fred and his partner were a gift from a customer after Jack and Jill departed )

......I set out to check on the progress of spring.  In less than a mile, I found Spring. However, tonight we are going to have a hard freeze again. The good thing is that the winds will be light but moving air, thank goodness.

First: turn a little soil.

Next: Spinkle with a little water

Voila! Spring!

The First True Sign of Spring

The first true signs of Spring

The basket is about 80 feet in the air

The renewal of life in a trees bloom.

The flowering trees are beginning to bloom. I saw several that were fully in bloom and then I came across this stand that is just now in the initial stages of budding. All in all it just felt good to have the warmth of the sum on my light jacket and to see the opening buds nearly a month early. The other shot is of two men replacing the lights in a medium rise office building's sign on the side of the building. One guy was on the roof handing the front facings to the guy in the basket that had to screw them into the side panels that seemed to have gaskets to keep out the elements.I'm not so sure how that works in Texas Heat, especially when the sun beats down on the metal all day as the sign faces West.The gaskets or caulking has to be able to withstand that heat! The basket was about 80 feet in the air.