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

On Thanksgiving Eve Morning...

...I took a walk through the Hollow,

with Tom 

and goofy puppies.

(Daisy added for privacy!)

Old wooden steps led up, up, up to the frame of an abandoned deer blind.

Walking where others haven't in a long while...

...but discovering some who call it home. 

Beauty has many seasons.

A party of palms on the edge of a dry pond.

Spring and summer blooms are hanging on, grateful for the mild temperatures.

The colors of autumn, taking over.

An old dreamcatcher, perhaps?

Sunlight playing with the leaves.

  

We saw the web before we felt it, thank goodness!

While I focused on these leaves...

...Max decided to rest. 

He knows when I start snapping it could be awhile before we move on.

More pretty leaves.

...and steadfast blooms. 

 And then on toward home.

Hope you enjoyed the walk!

And I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies;

but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and,

as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour,

some heavenly blessings!

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Linking up with Lissa at

Thanks for the Post of the Week, Hilary!!

A Typical Morning Walk

We finally had some rain around here, but these photos are from the day before the rains came, when the corner pond had just enough water for Max's therapeutic swim. 

Just a typical morning walk with my puppies, when I have to search hard for something different and interesting to photograph in the same places, every day...

I snapped several shots of this tumbleweed. 

That's just what I do on morning walks, take photo after photo of the same thing...

I'm very fond of these feet. 

Oh, the places we've been together...

Max never passes up a chance to go swimming. 

It's a great way to take the weight off of his old, achy muscles - and also to cool down in the triple digits we were having.

Belle is happy to wait on the sidelines with me while Max swims. 

She prefers wallowing in the dirt on the walk back home. 

This heart-shaped leaf waited for me on the dry pond bed. 

A little country love. 

What the dry creek bed must have looked like to the porcupine last week.

This peeling bark just caught my eye.

It's pretty in its own way, isn't it?

Baby acorns. 

A sure sign autumn is right around the corner.

I'm not sure what these tiny purple-tinted flowers are called, but they're one of my favorites, just because they show up when everything else fades away, giving the Hollow a bit of color.

I'm spinning a lot of plates right now... writing my children's book, editing two photo shoots, learning PSE, searching for an anchor job, a book review... those are just a few I'm trying to keep from crashing to the ground. 

But I'm never (okay, I'm rarely) too busy for my morning walk. 

Where else would I find the oomph that keeps them all spinning?

Hope you're having a week full of oomph!

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. 

~ John Burroughs