Observing A Key Fall Indicator for the 18th Year And May Be The Last

One thing that I remember from my grandparents is their wisdom on everything from health solutions to nutrition to signs from animals and what the sky will tell you in advance before something happens. Some of those things I still observe today and without fail, they have produced results right on time and on the money.

With the latest heat wave increasing our total days of triple figure heat from one through all of July to 12 as of today, this most likely will be our last triple digit day this season. At any rate, even if one more were to sneak in somewhere down the road, the summer has not been as hot as our run of 42 straight days a few years back. It must be stated that the humidity has been the biggest problem with this latest wave of heat.  In fact, today was the hottest of the season with the official temp at DFW International Airport (the official reporting station for the National Weather Service) hit 102 degree F. and a heat index of 109---some places at 111-112 were measured.

Yellow Leaves Turn on this tree with a record of being the earliest and first to show that annual change. This is the 18th year running and it may be the last.

 

A mark for the chain saws and wood chippers.

Some blue marking mean the same thing as the red. Eitherway, it will be another loss for long-term  park goers over the years that will miss this beauty!

Shooting from the car is not always the best, yet, for hummingbirds and butterflies and other song birds, shooting from the car will get you closer than you would if you were on foot---even if you slow step your way closer. But, when the heat is as hot as it has been, I don't break the cycle of not shooting at all. Although, there are some blank days in my file logs which indicate I did not shoot that day. The other change is that during the summers, shooting very early in the day is another alternative, which I use. It gives practice with the light shifts and angles of the sun. It also gives one a whole different way that we/they perceive a subject. Some of my best feather shots on songbirds has come from that shift from time, angles and perceptions. 

While using one of those days in the early morning hours to check on my old buddy that has not failed me for all those years, a sign stood out in the morning sun and I got out of the car and started to eye the tree for more signs. They were there and not all were positive. So, here are my limit of shots for this post. Mother nature has that perfect time on her alarm clock and it's ringing like crazy.

This Sunday Was Repeat Of Last Sunday

Right down to another crane incident to wind damage and three tornadoes confirmed in the Metroplex, Oncor was back in the "restoring power to 30,000 customers business". One thing that I have noticed this year is that weather seems to be in a cycle of short waves right down to the day each week. There was also flooding and some of that flooding blocked removal of the down trees from last week. The good side of this if there can be a good side, is that the flooding wasn't as bad as last week and the damage was not good, but it was not as concentrated as last weeks, either.

The down is from the storm last Sunday. The water is from the storms of this Sunday.

The new Ranger Baseball Stadium, the one with the open/close roof, is in place as far as the main steel work structure for that movable roof. Two miles to the right of this image there was a tornado that hit Arlington yesterday, Sunday. 

 

This wild turkey, who seemed pretty domesticated for a wild turkey,  came out of a wooded area along a roadway. As I passed I could not believe what I was seeing so I turned around and came back. He was even more close to the roadway now than when I first had seen him. I love to find these off-the-wall things like this. I see a lot of stuff like this.

Two Trees That I Like---Alright. Three!

Within 60-feet of each other, two of my most interesting trees that I visit and practice shooting from various angles and light are like a magnet. It could be that they are on a hill top. It could be because they are unique in their own right, or it could be that they have some biblical reference---well, at least one that I know of. And since I went there, I might as well mention that the second tree with a biblical reference is ---you know already that I am going to say---Sycamore! and it is just another 60-odd feet away from the first two originally mentioned.  Now. What are the chances of that?  The sycamore's pure white bark makes it a perfect tree to shoot year round.

There are not many pine trees in the Metroplex but there are a few. Most of the pine trees in Texas are in the eastern piny woods along the Louisiana and Arkansas border. In fact, found one this very day, but will have to go back and shoot it when traffic is still. Hey, trees are interesting creatures. We take them for granted way to much for the good that they do on this planet. Respect them!

I'm still researching the DNA of this tree. It's pretty badly scared from  lightening strikes.

A real live Cedars of Lebanon. It is a beautiful tree.

Spring Is Inching Its Way North Already

About a week ago, when coming back from the pharmacy, I saw the first flowering tree in full bloom. It took me by surprise with all the cold weather that we have had, but this tree traditionally is one of the first each year in my galaxy to show its colors.

Yesterday, while getting some of the most gloomy images the weather could serve up I was drawn to a hanging danger, then, I found a tree covered in little shining crystal balls of rain drops. It was then, upon closer inspection that I discovered that the buds had already opened and new leaves were already out.

Usually, around the first of March each year, if you live in the Metroplex, you can find real signs that Spring is beginning to happen with tree buds and leaves and flowering trees of white and red and pink blooms along the streets and golf courses. It happened  a bit more earlier than I had anticipated and can't wait until things dry out and good sunshine returns. I need to start walking again (I don't do Mall walks--sorry.) I like being out around nature where birds are building nest and changes are happening in flora.

Rain drops

Leaves!

A Widow Maker

The only thing holding it up in the tree is the one branch (rotten) that can break off with any wind movement in the trees. The butt end of the branch hanging about 12 feet down is about 12-18-inches in diameter. The weight (water logged included) is estimated at about 125 pounds.

Wait! I'm Not Done With 2016 Yet!

Yes, we have all heard the old adage that, "time waits for no man"; brilliant statement since time always moves forward, but I get the jest of its  meaning. The problem with that also is that I don't always work at most efficient speeds and creating imagery tends to cause me to slow down even more.

The local weathermen had been advertising for nearly a week that the coldest weather of the past two years was about to invade north Texas on Saturday.The past week had already been a roller coaster of temperatures with one day in the 60s and one day in the 30s and so on and so on during the course of the week. But, Saturday was to be the cherry on the banana split, sprinkles on the ice cream, the marsh mellow floating in the hot cocoa. It was going to be in the upper 70s.

The thing about that was also the yippee dippie weatherman advertised a 52 degree drop in temperatures with an immediate shift in winds to the north as the cold front passed. No, it was not going to be one of those frontal passages and the next morning you feel a little chill. This one was going to strike and strike quickly. Within less than a couple of hours of the passage of the front. It did give cause to pause. Might want to think about this before you head out, I though. Take the jacket. Add the scarf. Run the errands before being creative with the camera. It was kind of fun to start to go into blizzard mode again (if you ever lived up north during a severe winter, you know that mode well).

It was amazing to see people in tank tops and shorts and sweating in mid December. Amazing because some of these would no doubt be surprised to be shivering before their chosen activity was over that day. People just do not listen or pay much attention to weather that is negative. They only listen and pay attention to weather that is favorable to their cause. In other words: people only half listen today (have you noticed all the white ear buds growing out of every ones ears?)  Just look at one of them in direct eye contact and just move your lips. The face look you get as they pop one ear bud out of their ear is how cartoon animators got that "look" in some of the best cartoons of the 50s. Sure, ear buds were not even an ideal then, but there were ways to produce that same look of being highly annoyed. There it is---that word that I was looking for. Annoyed. Yes. That is it for sure.

When I am not looking for birds, or trees with that special look of fall, I am usually looking to see what the City Park workers are doing. They do a super job at keeping the lake in amazing shape on a daily basis. Sometimes, they have extended projects that can or cannot turn into something special. But, to ignore them or blow by them like there is a 5-alarm blaze somewhere else is a great disservice to them as individuals, their jobs that go unappreciated with every bottle cap or plastic bottle that I see floating and bobbing in the water, or the crews that keep the grass cut as the seasons progress and the prairie grasses turn golden or wildflowers come up and they mow around the wildflowers. That is not to mention the loss of all the tree limbs from age, disease, rot, storms, wind, or what may come next.

When the city takes down one of those magnificent trees, the stumps get painted red. There is a crew that comes along and drills out those massive stumps into sawdust mulch. Saturday, I had stopped and gotten out of the car to look at a recent drilling. It wasn't that long ago that I had shot that tree because it was one of those top 25 trees with character that grow at the lake. Now, I'm looking at the place where it had stood watch over the north shore of the lake for years older than I am at this writing. What that tree witnessed over the years would be an amazing time capsule of humans on earth, most likely.

Any who, I stopped to talk to a man that walks the lake daily with his dog and holds a like interest in those amazing trees that grow around the lake. In fact, there are more people that hold an interest in the trees there than those that cut themselves off from everything around them but some birds. Don't get me wrong here. I like birds. I'm just not obsessed with them so much as to get somewhat hostile when a family comes along with a bag a bread to feed those birds under the sign that says, "don't feed the birds" and then explains why you should not feed the birds. In a way, to me that is...it is... karma at its finest! I have to chuckle and turn away. Imagine a grown man or woman with a three-thousand dollar camera and glass foiled by a young family, kids and a couple of loaves of bread and sees that family as an invading army. Share the lake, people. Life is to short!

The lake walker and I walked together to one of the new trail benches overlooking the lake and sat down and talked for nearly an hour. I could not help but notice that the sky was filling in with clouds and I also had in mind the ETA of the cold front. Long story short, Us 'ole

The astonishing color

The cold front nears and a 50-degree drop (after the fact) hit within two hours of this shot. 

 

 

 

 72 degrees at 12:53. At 23:53 it was 22-degrees.

The paved trail is to the left. The short cut path has long been here.

tree hugger  parted and went in opposite directions. There was still some time to get some great creations focused onto the mirror before the Polar Vortex struck.  But, time waits for no man.

Mother Nature's Fall Prunning

A line of severe thunderstorms stretching from Mexico to Canada moved through Dallas late yesterday afternoon. The squall line only lasted about 45-minutes but it was a long 45-minutes. Winds were at hurricane force when the bow-echo came through. Over 140,000 people were without power, even today. Roofs came off buildings in Arlington, brick walls collapsed in the stockyards in Ft. Worth. Trees in University Park fell across streets and in Lake Highland, trees fell on houses. Very large trees fell on houses, in fact.

The last time that I saw rain come down in a horizontal pattern was during Hurricane David when it struck the South Carolina coast in 1979 but, yesterday, it came down that way here in Dallas. Today, I went over to Whole Foods to get some pistachio. I had to go around the block because Dart Police had the crossing at Blackwell and Greenville closed. After getting the cholesterol-lowering tasty things, it was on to White Rock for the first time in several weeks. In June, I had posted a blog post on the Cremation of the Big Oaks at White Rock. I wanted to see how much damage had occurred. Into the short trip over to the lake  it didn't take long to see that the damage from the wind was more severe than I had thought. In the course of three miles, I came across three houses with big trees laying across  their roofs. At the lake on the west side, there was damage to two of the trees that I had written about. On the east side of the lake, the damage was even more severe. One tree at the Stone Tables had been completely uprooted with the cement post barriers still in the root system and sod.

I'm not a tree-hugger but I hate to see beautiful old trees with so much character taken out in such large numbers. It was only 90 days ago that another storm had take out a massive old oak on the curve just east of the stone tables. And the one taken out Thursday was not the only one at the stone tables. There are also some wooden tables south of the shelter house at the stone tables and a big tree branch covered at least three of those tables.

The parking lot at Winfrey Point was covered in leaves and twigs like carpet. Along the drive down toward the parking lot of the ball diamonds were a couple of big branches that were hit as well.

Take a look see.

House # 1 damage

House # 2 damage

Stone table area with another big tree at the road and behind here  that was felled by the storm.

The Character of Nature

On my way to the doctor my phone rang. My appointment was delayed for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful morning. It was a rare mornings look at some old friends that have stood guard over the lake for nearly a hundred years, or more.

The texture of the bark is amazing



One of the Twisted Sisters (Not the song)

See archive for past writings and pictures on this topic

The Story Tellers of White Rock Lake

If trees could talk, there are a few trees at White Rock that have probably seen it all from  their growth  stand. It occurred to me not long ago that another severe ice storm like we just dodged, or straight-line winds could bring these old story tellers down to the ground and reduce their massive, scared trunks to firewood.

There is a story about the old Pecan tree that stands on the Cole farm in Highland Park that is decorated every year. KERA has run the story as fillers many times over the course of its creation. But  people that live around the lake; regular visitors to the lake or even a one-time visitor visiting family here in Dallas looking for some place neat to sight see, also notice some of these old haunting trees with their rabbit-holed trunks. Their twisted, sometimes sawed off, even bent, and mangled branches have their own character that are just as old as the Cole pecan tree, if not older in some cases.

The project sprang up when I was looking for something of significance to shoot at White Rock Lake. First, one thinks of buildings. Some good, some bad, but they have been shot over and over and over .Eventually, the list came to be titled, "old trees"  The odd thing is that during the summer, when leafed out, it's easy to miss some of the character of the tree itself. But, in late fall and early winter when the leaves start to fall and branches are bare, one can see the real beauty of the tree from an age stand-point. The character just blossoms.
Here are just a few of what I found today.

The trunk is split from the base up the trunk for nearly 15-feet.I would guess that a lightening strike hit the tree more than just once.



The trunk is straight but it has been mutilated by weather, disease or lightening.

Another tree that has overcome lightening strikes, wind damage, and who knows what else.

These old trees have a ghostly character that only age can bestow on this old story-teller. The wood would be interesting to inspect. Old wood like this is filled with so much character, no wonder people search the planet for old trees like these for a variety of reasons. Many, just walk by the old tree and never notice its character at all.