Flycatchers Out In Large Numbers

Wildflowers Thrive After Record Rains and that lends itself to increase in insect population. Thus, flycatchers have ample food and numbers increase.

Flycatcher sits on top of sign with a large meadow down below. These birds can hover like a hummingbird. And that is when you see the color under the wings and side of the body with that orange and yellow brightness.

This Red Shoulder Hawk sits on the very top of a high-tension pole that is even higher as it sits on a hill where you can see downtown Dallas from near the High 5. Later, he was seen riding the thermals going into the cloud base  which was being reported at 1500 feet.

I WIll Not Pay $4 For A Stalk of Celery, Thank You.

The old law of economics' supply and demand is one of those laws that seem to work well all the time. Frankly, after all these years of understanding that fact tires me when the Mills, who don't eat cereal because they have to wash the bowl, are now driving up the cost of celery--that little green vegetable that is hardly any calories without the peanut butter. It seems that they liquefy that water-filled stalk in their Kitchen Aid and drink it for breakfast.

Corn Flower

Gay Feather In Bloom

The beauty is so delightful to watch progress.

I have eaten celery as a on-the-road snack for years. It's easy to pack. The 10-inch stalk contain about 6 calories. I cut them into 5-6 inch pieces for easier handling while driving. Up until a month ago, my favorite little market sold fresh,crisp stalks for $0.79 to $0.99 on a regular basis. Now, they are getting $2.39, which is about half of the so called organic stores where one had prices at $3.89.

So,  I'm already thinking that the dressing for the turkey this year will be without celery. I might have to go to cranberries. I bet grass clippings have some nutritional value and we know it will be green when you kitchen aid that!! Try it Mills! You might like it better than celery!

In Ten Short Years

In ten short years, the sheer popularity of [it] has ruined the ambiance of what it was and forever changed the character of the lake as I once knew it.The  two water-wise gardens  have been the saving grace. New construction;old anchors that are going up for sale in more numbers than seen beforehand. Massive old-grown tree loss has hit the park hard, too.The number of migratory birds that have been killed by cars and bikes, alike, Storms claimed a great horned owl when a nest was blown down. 

Dill is an attraction for Caterpillar larva of future butterflies.

Beautiful colores

First the flag pole at Flag Pole hill was replaced after a storm bent the pole. Now, for Memorial Day, the new flag is bright and sharp in color.

Thank You Bill Nye!!

Bill Nye, the science guy, was quoted as saying, "Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don't."

A Tall Corn Flower Is Ready to Bloom

With that, my brain then ask the question: How many people does a person meet in a lifetime?

There are sophisticated algorithm programs that for better or for worse can answer that question. Although, many of the engineers that input that information are the first to admit that it is almost impossible to come up with an answer that would be fairly close and accurate.Yet, the algorithm produced a number of 10,000.   

So, based on the original statement, the powers of rules and factors that guide algorithms, there are 10,000 more things that I would know today had Bill Nye produced that info in my Weekly Reader way back all to many years ago. A what? some of you are saying. Google it!

This afternoon was an absolute delight at the lake. I sat on a bench at one of the highest elevations  that faced a breeze that was like an early spring day although it was high humidity and dew points. The moisture was streaming up from the Gulf that could be cut with a knife, yet, I was completely comfortable. I'm guessing that there was an outflow boundary of rain cooled air somewhere south and it was coming across the full length of the lake also. Never-the-less, when I did get back into the car, it was an instant reach for the AC knob as I headed toward home. I have always liked lakes in the summer, especially where that cool sea breeze comes a blowing inland. 

The ducks were all sleeping on the grass at Sunset Bay. The three mallards that hang out together were taking flight from under the Mockingbird bridge as I went by. All-in-all, it was a rather light and quiet afternoon before the holiday. 

The fire wheels are bright and beautiful, especially in the areas where the Queen Ann's Lace is bordering the wildflowers plantings in acres of meadows and hillsides.

In Search Of A 2-Year Old Lead

It has now been just over two years since I got a lead on an outdoor activity that is tied to a couple of sports. However, confirming it has been something of a treasure hunt. Yesterday, was a day that could be spent on following up on where we left off  the last time. The end result was about the same, although, we did see a picture that the lead is more actual than rumor. So, although we didn't get a resolution on this trip, we feel like we are getting closer. We will keep you posted.

One thing we did notice yesterday was the fact that some of the mileage covered an area where we have shot some pretty interesting coverage before. So, overlap has occurred  But, the area has changed drastically with growth and expansion. Some of the scenic pastures have now become shopping centers, with nearby developments of  hundreds of new rooftops and even a hospital on one hillside. This much I know:  It ain't gonna stop there!  There were signs of future expansion all along the way.

At one time not so far in the past, driving from an urban area into the more rural and countryside was measured by not time or miles but in number of tracks on a CD. Now, it's measured in the number of CD before a traditional rural setting can be spotted.. However, keep in mind, I don't drive the tollways or expressways on the route circuit. If I did, all I would see is semi-trailers and McDonald signs! So it's surface streets and roadways and some county roads.

 With increasing traffic and  spotting  not one or two out of state license plates but 7 or 8 on an average trip, adds new meaning to the old car vacation game of calling out state's names. The number of new plates is,without doubt, growing. So, with camera riding shotgun, here is a couple of roadside pastures we passed.

A real live Texas Long Horn with a nice span of horn.

Even animals like to be close to the road

I Love Scenes Like This.

Shot Early Morning Before The Storms Hit

The storm blew over two of my four trees in pots that were on my porch. Two were undisturbed.

The English Have Arrived and the Architecture will be such a delight  when finished.

A Bloom That Simplicity Rewarded

Angel's Trumpet Blooms.Yesterday, it was a yellow tube.

As the Tuna says," the circus doesn't stay in town for ever."

Well, yesterday, we can say we saw that come to pass. It was an International Circus with a very big "Big Top". They have played Dallas in Mall parking lots to open fields, to any place that could handle the equipment and the cars and the crowds. This, venue, however, will not host them again, most likely as the entire mall is headed to the scrap dealers!

We will give you a moment to thing that one through. Well, you know what they say----- a picture is worth a thousand words. So, in following that template according to the blog rules, we can only post three images per post. So that,by sheer numbers is a three thousand word post eliminated---NOT. Words, whether they are wordy words or not, is what connects us all as human beings. And, I like to write about my day in the field of photography. Never mind if  all the rules are not observed. It is the thought that counts and I don't worry about what those with degrees in English might say. Years ago, usually on weekends, Milly Benson and I would hash those thoughts out in debate 101. Milly, of course, was one  of the books  ghostwriters of the Nancy Drew Series,  as others were part of that number of authors also. They were published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene.Milly worked for the Block family, owner of the The Toledo Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I had liked Milly and thought the world of her. There are times, when I miss the banter with her, too. She was good!



So, as this story goes on---I will not. I'll spare you that agony. As they say in the steel biz--- I'll give you a quarter this load, you give me the quarter back on the next one. That's twenty-five cents per hundred weight. A flat bed truck can haul 42, 000 pounds legally and with an aluminum trailer, you might be able to sneak a total load weight of 48,000 pounds. Get your pencils ready. Begin!

Tower Mast Rise 75 feet plus or minus a foot here or there.

Once upon a time, even the traffic signs were upscale like the mall.

Piles and piles of Iconic Upscale Retailers past stores are ready to ship out to the scappie.

It Was A Double Headed Kind Of Day

Seldom do I do two contrasting thing in one day, but today was an absolute kind of day to do such things. By nine this morning, I had turned off the computer after checking the mail; gave a quick check on my agent, checked on the coffee pot, then packed a sandwich and snack, drinks, cold packs for the cooler and was out the door by 9:30.

The trip was to make the Belt Line Road north segment of the east west beltway. It's one of Dallas' first beltways and makes a complete circle around the Dallas-Metroplex. It also runs tandem with the old Cotton Belt Train that will be running from Plano to the rail station at DFW--the third train to serve the terminals at DFW. There was so many changes to things that I include in the Urban scene that it was 11 before I landed at DFW's Founder Plaza. Actually, it's been a spell since I was last there. Even there, so much had changed. That's why those wagon wheel spokes are so important to circuit drive on a regular basis. But, it's not always that easy with Doctors, Dentist, Eye Doctor blah blah blah---blah blah blah. And, it does run up the mileage. With the cost of gas, it cuts into everything overall as prices are soaring almost faster than you can turn around. Even with all that, I still could not cover everything. I had wanted to make the cut at MacArthur and go by the old Cowboys Headquarters in Valley Ranch before they moved to the "Star" in Frisco. I heard that it has now been bulldozed. I had wanted to see yes or not,

While there, I also got a chance to shoot the new flowers that grace the grounds there at Founders. Spoke with a gentlemen who just signed on his new house in the Metroplex this morning. His wife was in the car and didn't get out. They are moving here from Boston. His one son lives on Grapevine Lake and his other son," is a pilot for United Airlines", he said. He mentioned that he had painting in the Pentagon. It was a bit funny that the two of us knew one person that we shared as a friend. I find that totally amazing. As they say in the land of Disney, "It's a small world after all."

I ate my snack first today and then headed out chomping down on home made ice chips that I had packed in the cooler. Lately, this chomping on ice has become a past time bigger than chewing gum for some people So, taking Airfield Drive around to the south entrance, I decided to take Valley View to Walnut Hill for most of the journey back into Dallas but instead of taking Walnut Hill into Los Colinas, I took Northgate that comes into Northwest Highway just west of Love Field. I had the sunroof open and I had been shadowed at DFW by a 787 landing on the 18s and I got shadowed by a Southwest at Love. When I say shadowed, I mean shadowed as the entire planes shadow come over you at the same speed that they are landing (somewhere around 137MPH plus or minus a few miles per hour). From there,  took Northwest east to Inwood to the Lover's Lane United Methodist Church on the corner as I wanted to then take Park Lane a bit farther west going east than I usually travel. Why? Well, if you have ever been to Ashville, North Carolina and visited the Biltmore, there are many homes like that there. Some of the lots have been filled with Ronnie Houses that try to look like the massive blocks of stone that form the walls of the estates that I mention. Frankly, architecturally, they don't come close.

Then, from there, it was a direct shot to Flag Pole Hill where I parked and found a picnic table under some big trees with lots of shade and being on the top of FPH, the breezes were gentle but felt so good on the skin. In short, it was a pleasant,perfect comfort kind of lunch as I overlooked the traffic coming and going through FPH. White Rock Creek flows toward the lake just west of where I was having my lunch. By 4:30, I was home. It did take me a bit to recoup my strength but all-in-all, it was a delightful day.

15 hours in the air ends with the "painting of the runway". That is the smoke coming up from the runway as the rubber is burned off the tire and deposited onto the runway as a black rubber stripe. It has to be cleaned off the runway by a night crew several times during the course of a specific time frame.

A very complex flower bloom, but one of utter beauty, too. 

One of the picnic table canopies at Flounders Plaza at DFW. The only clouds in the sky were there high-thing whisp right above the airfield.

Something Missing With Flood Flow in Lake

Yes, the weather has been pretty crappy this spring. Weekend after weekend was a washout. Then, we got a break only to have the rains come back every Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and Fridays. This is the fourth flooding at the lake this year. True, the past two has not been as bad as the first and that is the focus of this post. That hasn't stopped the big trees falling as the soaked soils will no longer hold the shallow roots and the massive trees topple. I saw one today by the Stone Tables that Parks  had cut as it lay on the ground. Crews will get the rest.

The one place to go if when flash flood warnings are issued, if you want to see a creek as wide as a river and currents as strong as any flooded river current flowing downstream, is under the Mockingbird Bridge. The plastic bottles, soccer balls, and big Tide laundry bottles (empty,of course) flow into White Rock Lake with these flash floods from bank to bank and the currents take it across the lake from east to west. The tide and egg cartons come down from the northern communities was trash containers are blown over in the alleys and the runoff carries it out into the storm drains that flow into White Rock Creek and its branches.

However, the past two floods were eeriely absent of debrit flow. Did the first two floods wash it all downstream? Did people start clearning up after themselves? Did people stop drinking water in plastic bottles?  The only big displays I see of water anymore are on TV when the Red Cross Disaster Relief is passing out water. Even worse, did some big limestone cravasse open up a mammoth cave somewhere upstream and it's now flowing into that. Maybe. Something happened to it because even today, the water was level with the banks of the lake but I only saw one styro foam cup. I did see two big chunks of a good size tree but outside of that, it was a clean flow into the lake.

Beautiful Lavender

Since tomorrow is Mother's Day, remember, if you see people wearing roses pinned to themselves, the red ones mean that their moms are living. If they wear white, then they have passed. And the images will be for the moms.

We wish all the mom's a Happy Mother's Day.

Look  how trim Mr. Squirrel is! He's been working out and not sitting in some tree getting all wet!

Beautiful Colors From All That Rain

Archie Has Arrived at the House of Windsor

It seems for many more reasons than we Americans can understand, the reign of the House of Windsor most likely will go down in the second thousand years of English history as one of the most interesting of all the regal houses (sorry Tudors). And that includes the surname change from the German ties to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor by King George V. Therefore making Queen Elizabeth II's father the first Windsor in the House of Windsor. But for what ever reason, Archie will be the one to pull the English throne into the 21st century without reservations and the world is signaling their approval already on social media.  

The Banner Version of the British Flag as seen at White Rock Lake for the All British Auto Show this past weekend. Timing is everything.

Some of the Characters That Surround Me Everyday.

I see this sign almost every time I visit the lake, but until today, I had never stopped to realize that one is a German Shepard and the other is a doberman. But, also, the sign is one of the best security positing that I have ever seen. My brother had a German Shepard that was trained to be a police  dog and Baron could cover ground!! Hats off to the property owners!!!  Well done. 

 

 

 

In the course of life, everyone meets a character here and there that sticks in their  memory for good or for bad. It's one of those things that make us all human, I suppose. But what about those characters

Blue Jays are Comical 365

that make us laugh and we can't communicate with them on a verbal plain? Well, for me, I tend to remember them as pretty special and I carry them in my memories and in my heart.

But this little guy which you can talk to, is so comical that I will always stop and talk to his kind.