Mother Nature Put The Breaks On Spring.

Spring is popping out all over. Trees are blooming, daffodils are blooming, flowers are blooming and tree buds are popping, some with full green leaves open already. Yesterday was in the 80s; today was in the mid 70s. A cold front finally decided which way it was going to have forward motion after it stalled then moved south a few miles then stalled. When I came in around mid afternoon, it was warm. By dinner time it was cold with nearly a thirty degree spread in temps.That kind of spring should be expected with the off-the-wall weather we have been having this year.


It's going to slow down spring for sure but it's not enough to stop it all together. There are more spring issues to deal with. For one, towns and cities around the metroplex are in their annual  rush to shoo-off the great white egrets before the big birds nest. If communities can't get rid of the birds before they do nest, then the birds are off limits completely while they nest and cover yards, sidewalks, rooftops and streets with their smelly droppings. You see, the big birds are Federally protected once they do settle into their nest. So neighborhoods are blowing horns, whistles, watering them down when they are in the trees ( I think that one is somewhat comical because the birds are "waterfowl" folks, they fish in water, waterfalls, stand on one leg and sleep in rain storms. A water hose isn't going to get the job done.). The pelicans will soon be getting ready to leave for their nesting sites from Salt Lake all across the northern states that border with Canada. It will be interesting to see when they leave this year because the snow pack on both sides of the Rockies is massive this year.

Today, I added another new item seen at White Rock. There is always something new at the lake. That just amplifies the mystic of the lake. This Hookah was being worked on by a man who have just  had the pipe come to him from a friend that was visiting family in Iran. The glass base is absolutely awesome in craftmanship as is the woodworking on the pieces that rise above the top of the glass base. I love both glass work and hand carvings of wood, so when I saw this, I had to have an image. The man was kind to afford me the opportunity to shoot the piece.

The Pelicans Dominate the Waterfowl at the lake for a variety of reasons, the least of which is that they have the second largest wing spand at 8 feet.

The ground cover in the wetlands were totally under water two weeks ago.

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

When the weatherman lets the cat out of the bag, you know there is something to the story. I am talking about the HARP  Project, the mysterious program that shoots laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) beams into the upper atmosphere to try to change the weather. Last night, during the weather, a local weather man  mentioned that  "maybe we can get them to change the weather". Most probably did not catch the subtle mention but there are many that have taken notice of the 5,000 mile cloud this year and a few other odd happening.

Today was another one of the most gloomy days that I have ever seen in Dallas, Texas. One of several cold fronts made it dark enough to keep the headlights on today. This isn't the first time this winter that that has happened, either.

 I can take the cold. Cold and sunshine are just fine for me. I would rather have sunshine and 65 but sunshine and 45 is just as well. Anything but this gloom.

Fun To See This Stuff

The Trees Are collecting fishing gear again!

The Rider Is Actually On A Trail Trough The Mid-Height Prairie Grass. I love this return to natural grasses the Park System reintroduced.

45 MPH Winds Yesterday. And Widow Makers Were Falling Left and Right.

Weather was a key factor yesterday, but I was still able to get out and around. It's not unusual but somewhat rare to see white caps this size on the lake. Some of these were hitting 1-2 feet in height. Down at the dam the white caps were crashing over the dam's spillway in waves oscillating from north to south.

The herons were having a bad feather day some birds were having a bit of a problem keeping their balance on utility wires. Couple that with the fast approaching Winter Solstice  due tomorrow and the lake took on a look seldom seen. Maybe the Celts were on to something  besides the Solstice just marking the agriculture cycles. You think? The earth's axis is tilted back as far as it can go during the Solstice. Ever wonder what it would be like if it got stuck and could not rotate back to normal seasons for us?

45 MPH Winds creating White Caps on the lake.

A bad feather day in the high winds.

The day before the Winter Solstice. Look at the low angle of light for mid afternoon.

There Is A Change In The Air

It might sound a bit premature to some, but for an old man like me who has observed the change of seasons for well more than 60 found many in the past week. These are not just a change in temps or things like that...they are age-old signs that Native Americans taught my grandfathers and they in-turn taught me as a young boy. And yes, they are most accurate for the long term.

Early last week, I was somewhat shocked to see the leaves flipped. Some of you have heard me talk about the flipping of leaves but it is one of the early signs that fall is just around the corner. There were a stand of sycamore trees that all had leaves flipped. Flipping of leaves is when the bottom of the leaf is on top and facing upwards and not in their traditional downward position. When I see leaves flipped like that big weather changes are not far away. This strong cold front that is hitting tonight was a taste of that this morning as recorded gust of over 50 MPH were the result of thunderstorms in Oklahoma last night that  sent that burst of cool refreshing air blowing over the porch early this morning as I sipped my first cup of morning coffee. It has not been in the 70s and 80s for a full morning and part of the afternoon since June 19th. And while we have had 17 days of 100 degrees plus this month, the 100s will return next week as the first two weeks of August are considered the  most hot of the season.

A couple of Mary Kay Seminar Participants ride one of the new electric scooter rentals.

The Statler Hotel Gets A Second Life. This hotel was famous for Sinatra and his crew that stayed here and played here any time that he was in Dallas. The grand old hotel lives once more, but like all things--it now has a combo of apartments, hotel rooms and offices, too.

This is the dream of Ross Perot as the family foundation donated millions to get it built in down town. It is the Perot Museuam of Nature and Science. For our Ohio readers, it's every bit as good as COSI. It truely is a hands on learning museum. The blue glass is the escalator! Fun! Plants and native grasses grow on the roofs.

With cool and comfortable temps and sprinkles falling, I took a walk through the compound today for the first time in many years. A tulip tree had already changed to some solid yellows and dropped a lot of those leaves onto the grass, sidewalk and parking lot. It is yet, another sign, that big changes are coming sooner than we think. In reality, it's been hot since early May, or a month early. Spring came early, too. It was popping out swelled buds and new tender grown  in February this year. So, while most will be looking for fall in this part of the country around October to November, they will be a bit surprised when September will spring a little surprise on them. Nature always has a way of balancing things out in the end. I have a strong feeling that this year will not be any different for her.

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.

Looking Back Over March

Sometimes, even with good intentions, things get missed. So, this serves as a sweep of things that did get missed. However, outside of the President and Air Force One being here (which are archived on the Live News Feed) the one central topic seemed to be the weather.

In cleaning up March-- as everyone already knows-- it was a windy little end to the first quarter of 2016 with storms, hail, tornadoes (again). Luckily, only about 20,000 were without power at any one given time in the Metroplex. The hail damage was bad--to say the least-- on cars and roofs. Some of those 12,000 new residents that arrive here every month got that old fashioned Texas Spring Hail Storm initiation. Welcome, to Texas!

At the end of the first ten days of the month, a young fisherman calls it quits as the wind and rain move in. A very wise young man, indeed.

Near the end of the month with about a week to go, the wind was still howling. The low-level stratus had lifted to clearing skies,however.

Yep! even the ducks were bobbing on the rolling waves and white caps.