Priority Post Here Tonight

It seems like it never fails. When it rains, it pours! So, like the Brits: Keep Calm and Carry On. So,
this post tonight is from Deep Ellum, but those images will be deferred on the blog for now. You can go to Alamy.com, in the search box there is a drop box that will fall down if you click the Image, then "Live News". There, you can see 53 images from today. In the mean while, usually, I stop by an old friend that has a booth and makes fantastic cloths and especially hats for women.  Each year I feature two of her latest materials. Over the course of the those years, I get a lot of questions about how can she be contacted directly. Up until today, I never had an email for her, surprisingly! So, today, I got a big ole hug when she had finished talking to her lineup of people amazed at her hats.I also remembered to ask her if she would be kind enough to provide me an email. She did and now, I can pass one on when someone has a legit need to contact her.

In  the meanwhile, I also had a chance to talk to her husband which I have known but never had a chance to find them working together at the booth. It was good to chat with him as well.

Here are this years two new colors and they are not patterns this year--they are solid colors.

This would be perfect if you are going to the Derby--the first Saturday in May. Louisville has a lot of daffodils up this time of year and every one will be wearing that beautiful egg yoke shade.

And, how about this subtle and soft blend of Gray and Blue/Green. 

Drum Roll, Please!

It Hurts So Bad, I Am Laughing.

Well, the last time that I did a stunt like this, the pain lasted for a full week. This time, it didn't start for three days after wards and got better, then made its returned. I walk like a zombie! And, of course, I am talking about my walk around the lake less 1.8 not 1.18 miles of  the 9.5 miles trek. Just getting up to  get a cup of coffee is something that would probably get a 6 figure count on YouTube if there was a video. And, we all know that will never happen--nope! The thing is, though, it hurts so much I laugh.

Tonight, I think late afternoon really, the annual Deep Ellum Festival began. The weather is perfect tonight. It will be perfect tomorrow. And Sunday, the last day, the clouds begin to come  in late afternoon with rain sometime after midnight. The big question is will there be enough strength to go down there and enjoy the music, the food and check out the art and the crafts that will line Main Street for several blocks and  in the Deep Ellum District. It's been a couple of years since I've missed one. It is the only Festival that I truly love to attend. The days of painting the tunnels is gone since DART put the Green Line right down Good Latimer with the Deep Ellum Station. White Deep Ellum has really changed in the past 15 years, It still has that eclectic taste, smell,and sound of bye gone days.

This will be the first year that there will be a new high rise right in the heart of Deep Ellum--it's first true high rise--and it is bound to have an impact on the scenery, if nothing more. I would like to be a part of that--seeing the various sound stages placements and how the sound will change. It's something that most certainly will reverberate sound waves in some form different than in the past.

Since I have not taken hardly a handful of pictures in this great weather since my walk, The next two days will be my last chance for the next week as spring storms are due to move in and linger all next week, with some severe Monday with wind and hail. That's our Texas usual in the Spring storms. The tornado threat is there always in any severe storm but it seems that we get more tornadoes in round two which is the fall storm season.

Time will sort out my post for the rest of the month, I suppose. At least until the strength comes back--if or when it decides to reappear! Until then, there are a couple of interesting shots.

Remember to click on one image to open up all in a larger format for better viewing.

 

Don't know the story about this plug in the middle of know where but it has been there for ages.

A wildflower at the edge of a road.

A coot (or mudhen) gets pulled over the dam. 

Coots can't fly that well. While I did see one manage--rather struggle- to get enough lift to get back up and over the dam, most of the other 17 that were pulled over the dam were still on the spill way a couple of days later. The spillway is a great place for waterfowl for water and food!

Just A Story In Pictures

 I was ready to post the story of my walk around White Rock Lake yesterday which took a total of 7 hours and 9-minutes. That was with me calling it quits 1.18 miles from my car. There were two reasons why that happened. I don't regret falling short that little distance. At least I am here to post the pictures today. The post that I worked on all morning while cooking a pot roast and cabbage was lost because I forgot to save the file. I'm not perfect. I don't want to be perfect. I can deal with not being perfect and I'm sick of those that think that the world should be perfect. So there! As Matt Damon said in his original screen play for Good Will Hunting, "How do you like those apples!"

The experience was very worth while. It took longer than I had planned. I only moved at a 1.333 Miles Per Hour pace, far to slow for starting out an hour into the afternoon. The park closes at 11 P.M. While I would have had enough time to complete the trek, it was unsafe to do so in the dark with the final section in an isolated woodlands section were there has been trouble in the past. Also, getting help in that section would not be easy. So, the good Lord provided an out and I took it from a couple that was at the right place at the right time and offered to help.

This is the parking lot below Winfrey Point. The tree was wiped out during the storm last week.I am 2 hours and 45 minutes into the walk at this point. What you see on the skyline will take another 2 hours and 15 minutes. That is right at  the midway point and a tad more.

This is my first up close look from the lake side of the new food patio pavilions at the Dallas Arboretum. It's closer to the lake from the old patio attached to the entry gate. And, it's the last segment before reaching Route78 Garland Road, the other end of the lake.

This is one of the most unusual Reliquary Shrines that I have ever run across, partly because of where it is located. Along the south end of the lake is a trail that connects the east side with the west side of the lake. It is along busy Route78 Garland Road. From the trail, it drops off down to the water. This is behind a rail below the trail in a built up area created by who ever curated the shine. The crystal cross is attached to a solar panel that shines a light up from the bottom of the cross. There are two other solar lights along side. The roses are like a wax rose and the Easter eggs and pumpkins are on sticks that are pushed into the dirt that is surrounded by 2x4s or 4x4s. Just getting to the shine is what is so amazing and you really would have to be looking for it or looking along the side of the trail to even see it. Amazing.

Along that same trail walk, the city build an amazing lookout at the dam and below the dam along the spillway and tidal pool. This is the view looking down the spillway as it steps down in various degrees before reaching the tidal pool below, which turns the rushing water into a calm tidal basin before dropping off again in a series of  big concrete steps down into White Rock Creek as it winds its way a few miles further south to the Trinity River, then on several hundred miles to the Gulf of Mexico. The watershed here is as amazing as any of the great rivers of the west, Midwestern or eastern watersheds. I love being near water. 

It's Never Good To Cry In Spilled Tree Sap

Well, as luck would have it this week, my magic 8 ball was in the shop for repairs. That's the only excuse that we mortal humans could use, anyway. There is nothing that can be equal to the force of Mother Nature. It would take my magic 8 ball and millions of others to repair the landscape change in the Metroplex after the storms on Monday. Less than a mile from my house rows of privacy fences in back yards, some attached to brick towers, were felled from the wind that came ahead of the dry line as it moved east from western Texas right on through Tarrant, Dallas and Rockwall counties.

My porch was covered in buds from the big trees around me. It takes a big wind to do that. As the storm passed, there is some faint remembering that thunder was heard about the 3 0'clock hour of the night. Sleeping that sound makes me feel good that my sleep was deep and good for body repair but not so good to sleep through a major spring storm.The hail came from the previous storm, but this one had the wind!

When I got to the lake later that morning, my stomach was sick at what was being seen. The mighty of the mighty old growth trees were down from one end to the other. In one place, five giants lay from roots to canopy tops on the ground. Uprooted,these are trees that are 60 feet tall and nearing 8 feet in radius only. That means there's another 8 feet to get fully around the tree. The root ball of at least 8 of these monsters were down on their sides. In fact, with the lens that I had on the camera, to get the full image put the length distance to much and the images have some light blur at full 100%. Some of the places that I had just shot images a couple of days beforehand were now bare. Today, I noticed just how my shade was gone from there areas which are now covered in afternoon sunshine where once it was cooling shade.

I am one of those that hate to see a tree lost, period, let alone the mighty tower landmarks that have seen 100 years or more of activity under them. Checking on the hawks nest and the owls were a top priority as I made my rounds, but I can tell you the destruction was the worse that I have seen in 15 plus years. The thought that this is natures spring pruning so to speak is some comfort, but now I know how some people were feeling when Oncor's contract tree trimmers arrived down back yard alleys whacking the heck out of trees to keep the 10-foot easement of branches away from the wires so storm damage didn't fell trees and knock out power! Imagine that! There were some 300,000 in the metroplex that lost power anyway.

Homes were damaged, Rockwall homes got hit again. One man woke up as he is sailing out of his bedroom into the front yard one story below with only the bedroom door and hallway walls still remaining to the rest of the house. Big box delivery trucks were left laying on their sides in parking lots. One company had all three of their trucks laid flat. The National Weather Service in Ft. Worth confirmed three tornadoes in the Metroplex. Most just west of DFW airport in Keller and going north to Lewisville. I believed that it was straight line winds at the lake until I found one monster tree facing 180-degrees opposite of the other trees felled in the same direction. And, further, there were a lot of trees that were not uprooted but everything above about 6 feet was twisted off. To me, that should seems like circulation rather than straight line. Winds were in the 90-95 MPH range on the NWS site and the reports from the TV meterologist.

The guys at Parks and Recreation were out the first morning picking up all the little branches blown here and there, putting them into piles that could picked up by the mechanical equipment later. Then came the chain saw crews that cut the large limbs into pieces that could be picked up easier. Today, things looks like they were getting back to normal but the lift bucket trucks were out clearing out the widow makers and the wood chippers were running all over the park. And here is the kicker. While today was well into the 80s with clear skies, the Gulf moisture is returning and the weekend is already being warned of  severe storms again.

I have been busy submitting pictures and have a large number approved and published already with some still awaiting approval in the hopper. The work flow has slowed down with the tour of the lake and things being a bit out of sync. But, that will pass and things will return to normal minus some beautiful old trees that I have enjoyed  over the years.

The storm damage was all over. There isn't much more to say other than while being a renewable resource, it will take another 100 years to get the new saplings to this size.

Finally, The Payoff!

It's taken more than three months, but finally, being rewarded by a very cautious owl was well worth the effort. The Bard owls were both outside the nest and sitting in two different trees about 20 yards apart. Then the female approached the nest tree looking in to the trunk but not going inside. It makes me wonder if the chicks have hatched.

Later, she flew back up into the tree that she was sitting in before approaching the nest. That was the start of her very cautious entry into her nest. She flew back down to the entry and started to poke her head inside, then she pulled her head out while keeping her body in the same position and looked down at the ground. Slowly, she looked into the tree trunk again and then did the same thing all over.
After about fifteen minutes, she looked back into the hole, then looked straight at me with her head swiveled backwards, then into the hole she went. The male never moved but was watching every move the female was making. Her tail feather could be seen indicating that she was once again back on the nest.

It was an amazing site that I have never observed before. I have seen hawks be careful going to the nest, but it's a whole different thing with an owl and to have seen it was a reward and rewarding.

A Perfect Day--Almost

Another awesome spring day. Somewhere down the line, we will pay for this. In fact, as I write this,  severe thunderstorms hit the DFW area tonight and an unconfirmed tornado got very close to home. But, as spring storms go in Texas, big hail pelted several areas tonight with baseball size hail and tennis ball size and golf ball size hailstones. It sounds a lot like a sporting event and it's never fun to loose at that game.

But, as yesterday went, it just was a delight to be outside. Several people that I see regularly were telling me that that have started to follow my blog. That set the tone for a continuation of  what I do as a hobby but also inspired me to find new and interesting things both at the lake and throughout my little wagon wheel circuit of the DFW area.

The one thing about White Rock that draws me there so much is the eclectic happenings from people to things, to wildlife, to the total absurd like hearing the steamboat whistle in the difference and knowing that it is a steamboat whistle and also knowing, there is no way a steamboat is on this lake and yet, there it was. One heading right at me. In fact, the Dallas Morning News did an article on the guy.

It was the 7th season for the White Rock Paddle Company appeared on the scene. I stopped by briefly to tell the guys, Happy Seventh! I still remember the day that Amy in here pink ball cap let me take her picture and I posted on my new blog about that. The business has really gone through the ceiling of success since those early days of  rentals.

So, I will post one from three different events that I saw through my viewfinder during the course of the day.

Meet Peanut. I had just complimented her about her dress.

A "SUP"  takes in a view of a sail boater with the sun hitting the water at that super angle this time of year.

This is the second accident at this intersection in two days. The second car wasn't as bad as this one's front end from the looks of what I saw.

A Little Bird Tugs Stong At My HeartSting

Most likely, people think of me as being nuts when they hear me talking to birds and squirrels, dogs, cats, or animals in general. A little bit later, I will return to this point and tie it all together. But, in the meanwhile, there is a back story, too.

Living in the Great Lakes for many years, low gray clouds called status were something you just excepted. It's like Tampa in that every afternoon a brief shower comes ashore from the Gulf. It's just how our weather system works. In previous post, this has been addresses but, regardless how many times it is discussed, it's really never the same.  And--I have come to want clear blue skies most of the time. A week of clouds gets me in that,"I am getting cabin fever" mode.

It's been unusually hot in Texas already, this first quarter of the year. On the first day of Spring we broke an existing record for the day. (92 degrees F). It's was the first day of Spring, folks. I didn't mix up the seasons. It was indeed the Equinox. The sun was just crossing the Equator on it's journey North toward the first day of S-U-M-M-E-R. That's June and not March we humans know. It is also storm time in Texas. That means tornadoes. We expect them. They are wicked. They destroy property, take lives sometimes, and most of all, destroy our lives of things. Things that we need--or think we do. Things we cannot get through the day without. We all have those "things". I'm trying to get rid of a bunch of things, but I move them from pile to pile and they end back where they started. But most of all, things we don't need are the things we dread about spring. HAIL. Hail beaks glass in cars, It puts dents all over that thing you drive and it can wipe out a perfectly good roof. Hail is a thing alright. And in Texas, you are going to take a hit sometime down the line. My re-initiation occurred the second year that I was back. New windshield. Hail dents removed. The car I had just gotten the year before. In fact, I have a dent or two in this car already.

So, today was going to be another warm day with sunshine, but a wind advisory was issued with sustained winds of 35 MPH with gust to 40. The Joint Naval Base in Ft. Worth had recorded gust to 53 MPH officially. With that said, it was my decision to head out looking for architectural elements today that make for good stock images.  And so, I set out. My camera did not come out of the bag. It sat on the passenger seat where it usually rides with me. Somewhere along the line, something interesting pops up and I unhook the clips and pull the camera out on the seat next to the bag so if I do see something interesting, it's ready to go. But, today, it was just a windy mundane day--the quiet before the storm--if you will.


Generally, I have a rule. If I head out in the opposite direction from the way to the lake, I don't make a trip around the lake that day. In fact, I don't go near the lake. As I watched the clock, ate my Fuji apple, it was fast becoming time to head in. I had in mind a trip to the grocery story to fill in the breakfast items. Twenty minutes later, I'm at my first observation point at the lake. Then came the next point, and the next and I am half way around the lake already with nothing going on of any interest except to me. I have been watching closely in high winds, just how much the swells rise and the wave action splash height. It won't be like the 20 feet splashes that hit the rocks in Maine, but I have seen some 2-feet splashes into the shore before. For an inland lake that's pretty good. As I rounded the corner of the last turn before hitting the Marina area, I noted the most advanced swells that I have ever seen on the lake swell after swell after swell. White caps were rolling, swells built and white caps broke all across the surface of the lake . My first reach for the camera of the day had the camera on the seat as I made my way to a spot where I could park and watch the waves. Plus, I like to listen to the Sirens sing on a windy day as wind does on sail rigging. But, we all know that sound is really the Sirens singing.

Then boom! A 6 to 7-foot splash hit the shoreline. It was spectacular and I was happy. Then, the wind shifted just a bit and the gust just didn't have that umph! After half an hour, while there, my rule already broken for the lake, I had to check on my owl buddy. With the high wind I was wondering if he would even be on a branch.

I walked up slowly looking for my buddy but he was just not in sight anywhere. Then, I heard a little soft hoot and heard the swooshing of wings beating air behind me. By the time I got half turned around, he flew past me and up into the tree he went. But, he wasn't as high as he usually sits. He wasn't in his regular spot and he bobbed his head and flashed those big glassy eyes at me. I started talking to him. He even started responding as I clicked my shutter time and time again. All the time, I was talking to my bud!

He entertained me for about 40-minutes and I heard his mate call from behind so I started looking in  the trees behind me for her and then I'd look back at him asking if he needed to go to her or if they were okay. He gave me that big head bob and stretched his wing away from his body that I have come to know was the signal he would take flight. And so, he did. But my story does not end there.
He showed me where his nest was located. He did this as plain as if he was talking back to me with his blessings. I could not believe my eyes. Then I focused my camera on the trees hollow and low and behold, I see two big eyes staring at me. After a couple of minutes, as if he was satisfied that I knew where to look for him again and also remembering that he had once before call out to me when I didn't see him, he called again until I saw him. He is comfortable with me being in his little clearing and he is comfortable with the click of the camera and most of all, he seems very comfortable with my voice calling out to him. Or, talking to him as he looks down then goes on about this business, checking from time to time to see if I am still there.

Unusual for the lake

This Bard is my bud. We have started to communicate. Today, he flew in to greet me and he revealed his nest site to me, which I will protect. Although, I have an image of him peeking out at me with those big glassy eyes.

He was content to have be directly below him clicking the shutters as I talked to him. He seems to like that and I think it is why he has made an effort to let me know where he is and trusted me enough to reveal his nest site to me, as well. I am truly honored at that.

With that, and it being much later than I normally stay, I forfeited my trip to Kroger's for the day, happy that my bud, Mr. Bard Owl saw me first and then greeting me on purpose. There is no doubt: that bird recognized me again, and made a point to reveal his nest to me. That's an honor that lifted this day to the top of the mountain.

Don't forget to click on an image to enlarge all three.