Still Shooting Leaves

Although some of the trees are now devoid of leaves, it was a driving force to continued to shoot fall leaves with such amazing colors. The weather up until today has been awesome and perfect to be out walking with camera in-hand.

Thanksgiving, however was a day of rest and cooking. Yes, my chef skills still manage to cook a full Thanksgiving meal. Turkey, dressing and the sides. The cranberry sauce was passed on this year. It was more difficult to find fresh cranberries and cranberry from a can is a cardinal sin. So, with the dressing and turkey, the condiment was huckleberry preserves this year and it was just fine; might have re-kindled an old tradition again.

So, Wednesday, seems to be the very last day to shoot leaves this season. With the strong winds and soaking rains the leaves are pretty much coming down with this round of weather-induced  conditions. Over the past week alone, over a thousand images have been cataloged for this season of color in the Dallas area. The focus has been on sycamore trees until Wednesday when I found some oaks that were orange and red. And, there was a discovery of a totally new stand of sycamore trees that produced excellent results.

It is to be hoped that y'all all had a wonderful Thanksgiving in whatever way was meaningful to each of you. Here are a few of those images from Wednesday. It seems that there might be a second posting just to include the full range. Right now, it's all depends on who much time can be mustered away from editing to actually do the post.

Seldom seen in Texas. It reminds me of the Maples in the Great Lakes area. The reds have always been a favorite.

The textures and colors are amazing

The new stand of Sycamores found

Update,Currently and Finally

UPDATE:  The Solar Impulse flew an unexpected leg of its flight because of the weather conditions. After taking off from St. Louis' Lambert Field, it was scheduled to fly on to Dulles International in the Virginia countryside outside Washington,D.C. Instead, it landed in Cincinnati, Ohio for 16 hours and is en route to Dulles at this writing. There was a pilot change made also. It appears someone needed to eat a big steak on the ground in that 16-hours,too! Go to their website to find out who had the steak. https://www.solarimpulse.com. From Washington, they will make the last leg on to New York JFK before packing up and heading home to Switzerland. It was an adventure to meet Bertrand and Andre while they were at D.F.W.International.

CURRENTLY: I am doing some research on the difference between a muskrat and a nutria. Some seem to think what I have been seeing is a nutria. Others, agree, that I have seen a muskrat. Either way, whether it's a nutria or a muskrat, I've always called them muskrats. So, the only way to settle this in my mind is to research it completely and then report the findings. Stay tuned. The picture is of the beast in question. Some,most likely, will just call it a big rat. Again, stay tuned.

FINALLY: The picture of the three men has a rather interesting story that goes along. When it is hot, my appetite drops off drastically. Lunch is usually something very light and ever since I was a kid, I enjoyed sitting at a picnic table overlooking water. My errands usually end up either at Bachman Lake or White Rock Lake during the summer. If it's Bachman, then it's Whataburger. If it's White Rock, it's either Chili's to Go or McDonald's ( I know-there is a big difference in those two!)This past week, it was McDonald's. While sitting at the picnic table, I could see three men in a canoe and they were having one rough time paddling. The canoe was going one side and then the other and they were loosing ground for any forward motion rapidly.

Next, I noticed that not any of the three men were wearing a life vest or jacket. That is always a concern in any water activity. For nearly an hour, these guys were struggling. Then, as if by a guiding hand, they managed to get near enough the shore that one of the men got out. Shortly, there were two in the canoe and they were heading toward where I was sitting. There was a boat dock less than 100 yards away.

As it turns out, originally, three miles down the lake toward the dam, they had found the canoe sitting at a boat dock. On one of the seats under a rock, was a napkin that read: FREE CANOE. The guys said that they couldn't resist a ride on a hot afternoon. They climbed in and with only sticks of limbs that had washed up around the dock, they used those for paddles.

When, I had seen them near the shoreline, they had, indeed, let out one of the others who had realized how unsafe it was and decided to walk around the cove to the boat dock where he would rejoin the others. One of the guys had been to the Ukraine and Turkey and was sporting a shirt from Australia.

I did submit the images to a Live News Feed and they were posted later that evening.

The Adventurers at White Rock Lake

Some say,Muskrat.Some say, Nutria. Time to do some research.