El Salvador at White Rock Lake

Three great people at White Rock were taking pictures today. They didn't speak much English, but I have always enjoyed talking with people who are learning our language because in addition to having the proper speech of any language, there is also a universal hand language that is like making a discovery. To see their faces light up when they understand what you are saying as well as the fun and respect that goes with understanding them has always been a treasure for me. The barrier of language isn't as wide as we think if you only listen, try learning some basics of most languages and patch quilting the phrases together.

These kids were super, fun and excited to have someone that could show them something about how to get a better picture than just a selfie! Thanks, guys! You were super!And the hand signs that I also checked out are "peach and love \,laPaz amours!".

I am inquisitive. I wanted the story about the white and the black socks.

The wind was gusting 20MPH and the pier was shaking.

He closed his eyes!!

Now, we got them all bright eyed and nearly all smiles. Oh! yeah, he just woke up!

More from Deep Ellum Arts Festival

Tired and knowing you're loved.

Makin the Art! Makin the Pretty Art!!

Where did all these people come from?

A jam session to out do the other! It was so cool!

Deep Ellum Arts Festival History For Another Year

On Saturday, my car made its way down to check out the annual Deep Ellum Arts Festival with me in it. Although it was already decided that I would come back on Sunday and make the run down Main Street one foot in front of the other. It was a good thing that I did check it out a day earlier because the festival had rearranged itself due to Deep Ellum's first fully certified high rise deep in the heart of Deep Ellum at Main and Hall. That pushed the stage down a few more blocks to the border of Fair Park and Deep Ellum. Instead of the start at Good Latimer, that too, had been moved down to Malcolm X.

My favorite and basically unknown parking spot was stacked with cars and seeing piles of metal wrapped around the Sons of Hermann building was another sign that parking was not going to be normal this year for me. So, I spent my time down there on Saturday scoping out possible parking spots for Sunday. It was warm, the sun was hot and bearing down making it more uncomfortable to walk the length of the festival and come back toward the car if I had taken in the Festival. I like meter parking more than Event parking because I don't have to leave my keys. Plus, I can park cheaper at the meter than in a lot. Every extra dollar that it cost me to shoot an event means I've got to sell more pictures just to break even. It's more of an economic thing than anything else.

Sunday came, I made my way to shoot a couple of things on the list and ended up on the heavy end of Deep Ellum. That's the end where the skyscrapers are anchored to the bed rock on the other side of the line drawn in the soil by US 75 Central Expressway separates downtown from the beginning of Deep Ellum on Main Street. Finding a metered space in which to park was quick and painless on Elm Street. Yep, that is the same Elm, Main, and Commerce that became so worldwide known with the Kennedy Era. The Festival to me was expanded. It ran 6-blocks for one. In another way, there was
cross walks of vendors  off the main drag (pardon the Main pun). All-in-all, again, to me it was a great improvement over past years. It's matured over the years. This year, it showed! I enjoyed the festival  and had fun at the same time.  Here are a few of the best shots and I'll try to made another posting of more afterwards.

The best seat in the house! The best gig ever!

The first high rise on this end of main.

Shooting into the mirror, mirror on the wall and the shots were amazing. This turned out to be the most fun of all day.

 

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.