Good Morning!

Good morning!

Just popping in to let those of you who only follow me here know I'm still alive. 

Just busy. 

(For details, check my other blog, Long Hollow.)

But I have managed a few morning walks with my camera and the puppies in the past couple of weeks 

and thought I'd share my favorite shots...

Flowers can come in green, too, 

but I always forget that until I peer in close 

for a good look at summer weeds.

(Thanks to Theresa aka TexWis Girl, I now know the top flower is called Snow-On-The-Prairie. Perfect! Thanks, Theresa!

The American Beautyberry is coming along. 

Can you see Belle turned back to look at me, 

looking at them through the flowers? 

They think I'm crazy. 

But they're very patient and love me anyway.

These little yellow flowers died back a few weeks ago but seemed to have gotten a second wind.

Yellow flowers of all kinds are springing up from the rocky ground in the Hollow.

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. 

~ Aaron Rose

Hope your August is full of color and light, even if it's speeding past like mine!

Walking along a dirt road in April

Just about every morning, rain or shine, I take a walk down my dirt road with my puppies. 

Unless it's raining, I have my camera and my eyes are constantly searching for something to shoot...a new flower, an interesting weed, or merely the play of light on a leaf.

When I find it - whatever "it" is - Belle and Max wait patiently while I examine the something from every angle through my lens. 

They are so good.

You can imagine how many photos I have, then, if every morning I take between two and twenty. 

During busy times, I might not even glance twice at the photos, much less edit them or post them on my blog. 

There just aren't enough minutes in the day for that.

But there are (almost) always enough minutes to take a walk on a dirt road before the day gets swept away. 

(By the way, I apologize for being AWOL from your blogs. My son's wedding is fast approaching and I've been focusing on those last to-do's for it. Thanks for popping by to see me anyway - I miss you all!)

(One more thing...my photos are a mess. How do you organize yours?)

Linking (for the last time!) with
Lissa's Walk and Click

Following a Trail of Lights

Almost every year since 1965

a section of Austin has come alive with

Christmas magic

in the form of

light.

In all the years I've lived here,

I had never seen the Trail of Lights with my own eyes

until Monday night

and then I wondered... 

why did I wait so long?

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.  

~Aaron Rose

Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby. ~Ruth E. Renkel

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.  

~Anthony J. D'Angelo

No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.  

~Terry Pratchett

  

I will love the light for it shows me the way.  

Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.  

~Og Mandino

See the moon hiding in the star?

Your path is illuminated by the light

Yet darkness lets the stars shine bright. 

~J.L.W. Brooks

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.  

~Blaise Pascal 

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.  

~Earl Nightingale

You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.  

~Arlo Guthrie

In the beginning there was nothing.  God said, "Let there be light!"  And there was light.  There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.  

~Ellen DeGeneres

The lights forming the tree below are strung from one of the original Moonlight Towers, constructed in 1894 after a Jack-the-Ripper type murderer terrorized the city. 
Actually, some think it really was Jack the Ripper who committed the crimes and then fled to London.

Ahem. 
Anyway... back to Christmas joy...

Moonlight is sculpture.  

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

(See the moon hiding in the tree now?)

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas, full of light and love! 

I'm grateful for each and every one of you!

From a Week in a Texas Autumn

There are times in your life when something's gotta give.

Unfortunately, 

that something for me recently

has been

my morning walk.

But this week, hallelujah, I slipped back into the old routine.

I love and need these morning walks.

It's been a week of beautiful skies, frisky dogs, frosty mornings, glorious light, hunting dogs, spring-like mornings, confused plants, creepy-crawlies, and splashes of autumn leaves.

I kinda went crazy with my camera.

I'll be nice and only share a few of my favorites...

Hope you had a great week! 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Linking up with

and the very last

New Love

Would you believe

my friends and family pitched in and bought me

a big, beautiful Mac computer?

I'm still in shock.

You can read about it here.

Mac and I are still in the 'getting acquainted' phase of our relationship... the past week has been crazy busy... but it was love at first sight.  I can't wait to play with some photos I took of a friend and her family last week, and get back to work on my book.

I hope you forgive me for neglecting you.

In the meantime, here are a few shots from a recent afternoon walk...

I loved the contrast of this yellow flower against the dead wood.

Tiny flowers.

Tossed by the wind.

Sunlight's touch, instant art.

Sunlight illuminating the petals.

The bugs are back!

Framed by purple.

Finally staying still long enough to say hello.

Which way did it go?


I hunt flowers and dragonflies.

They hunt lizards.

To each our own.