Speke's Gazelle

Phoenix Zoo

Freckles

Fleas 'N Tiques

Seen in an Alleyway

Hillsboro, Texas

Linking to Lesley's Signs,Signs

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

One of my relatives has somewhere between 15 and 17 of these beautiful cats!  Her husband said 16 or 17, she says 15 or 16.  When you don't even know how many you have, that's too many!  They are beautiful cats.  All except one are primarily white with black markings.  The one oddball is primarily black with white markings.  He sticks out like a sore thumb.

They live out in the country and the cats are purely outdoor cats.  Thank goodness!

Just a note:  While composing this blog I got a message from Google saying that I had run out of storage in my Blogger account and I must pay to add more.  I figured that time was coming.  I clicked the proper buttons, filled in the proper info, and then I hit a snag, being told that my purchase could not be complete because Google was not responding and I needed to reload the information later.  I reloaded the page, picked up where I left off and it would not allow me to go back to where I was.  Grrrrr, these danged Internet pages (I've been trying to get on Walmart's website for almost 24 hours to order a Christmas gift that is not available in the store.  I keep getting an error and I'm asked to try again later.)  While I'm trying to figure out what to do next, I click on the button that says something about more information.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that if you resize your pictures to under 800 by 800 pixels you are not charged for storage for that picture.  Now mind you I've been resizing my pictures to under 600 by 600 for the past year, but I had forgotten to resize the two collages in this post before downloading them into Blogger and I guess it was just enough to trigger that buy more storage warning.  So all you bloggers out there, think about resizing those pictures to eventually save yourself some money.  Plus the smaller pictures upload waaaaay faster and if they're small enough it is a discouragement to others who may be thinking about copying and using your photos.  

Highlights from the Syrup Festival

Each November East Texans celebrate and remember the making of sorghum syrup by their ancestors with the Syrup Festival held in Henderson.  It is a fun day consisting of demonstrations of crafts done the way they were in the days of our grandparents and greatgrandparents, including the making of syrup from sugar cane with a mule team generating the power to operate the mill, a classic car show, classic tractors, native American dancers, Civil War reenactors, a street fair, and lots of good down-home food.  Following are some of my photos from last weekend's Syrup Festival.

The Blacksmith

The Broommaker

The Spinner

One of the food vendors

Rusk County Sheriff's Office mounted deputy

Even the Weinermobile was on hand in the classic car display

Orangutan - Man of the Forest

One of the highlights of this fall's trip to Phoenix was the opportunity to finally photograph an orangutan at the Phoenix Zoo.  They are generally behind a rather dirty, milky, scratched plexiglass window with dozens of children adding more fingerprints and a layer of grime to the window.  But this time I found this fellow having a snack in an open area behind a chain link fence.  I was pleased that the photo turned out so well since I was shooting through fencing.  There was only one somewhat blurry mark to remind me of the wire fence.  Just look at the intelligence in those eyes and the human-like hand.

Do you say orangutan or orangutang?  I hope you say orangutan!

Canton Hats

For those of you who visit this blog with regularity you know that frequently I visit what is purported to be the nation's largest flea market in Canton, Texas.  While there a few weeks ago I tired of shooting pictures of junk so I decided I needed a theme and I chose hats.  Following are the best of the bunch.

We met this charming lady while we were having breakfast on the flea market grounds.  

She and her best friend, although they live many miles apart, 

meet each other and enjoy the flea market almost every month.  

She says she always wears this hat when she goes to meet someone at the airport.  

They're always able to spot her even in a crowd.  

Good idea!

 A bucket hat is always a good choice for a sunny day.

This vendor has awfully cute freckles but she doesn't want any more so she chose a wide-brimmed straw.

The Mr. and Mrs.

I don't think he particularly likes to go shopping.

 

You can't go wrong with a feather in your cap.

Although they look familiar I can't place those wood strips.  

But I'm sure I didn't see them on a hat!

This guy is a regular vendor.  

He sells sorghum syrup and honey.  

He wears his straw hat rain or shine.

I guess this fellow carries some spare toothpicks in the weave of his straw hat.  

The one in his mouth seems to be chomped down to the nub.

And my favorite!

A black derby on a handsome dude!

Happy Thanksgiving

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey be plump,

May your potatoes and gravy

Have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off of your thighs!

                                                                                               Anonymous

Texas Longhorn

Relaxing by the pond on a warm autumn afternoon

Under a Black Cloud

Near Delray, Texas

See what other barn enthusiasts have to offer

at BARN CHARM

Hood County Courthouse - Texas No. 27

Hood County in Granbury is home to an 1890 Second Empire courthouse built of Brazos limestone.  The three-story structure has a lighted clock tower and three widow's walks.

The restoration of the interior of the courthouse came with a price tag in excess of $5 million.

Hood County has a population of 52,000 and is named for a Confederate general, John Bell Hood, who was commander of Hood's Texas Brigade.  Granbury, with 8,000 residents, has a thriving retail commerce with practically every storefront on the courthouse square being occupied by a boutique shop.  Forty miles southwest of Fort Worth and 70 miles from Dallas, every weekend on the square looks like shopping on the Friday Thursday after Thanksgiving.

Granbury Opera House - 1886

When Friends Say Goodbye

Proofreader Needed

Canton, Texas, First Monday Trade Days

Since I work as a proofreader 

(and I don't proofread my own work - only that of others!) 

I always get a big kick out of seeing signs which contained misspelled words.

If you love signs, join all of us

Silly Sign People

at Lesley's Signs Signs

Frolicking Flamingos

Just a little sprinkler fun!

Baby, shake a tail feather!

Images from the Phoenix Zoo

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

And tomorrow is rapidly approaching.

Joining with other barn enthusiasts at

TRICIA'S BARN CHARM

Barn near Wortham in North Central Texas

Just Hangin' Around Town

Gibbons at the Phoenix Zoo

What's All the Hoopla?

Bring on the bells, whistles, confetti!  Today is my one-thousandth post on this blog.  And for an encore, I guess I'll just have to do a thousand more.   Thanks to all my blogger friends for hanging in here with me!

The Last Dixie

The last known Dixie gas station in existence sits on Texas Highway 64 in the quiet little village of Joinerville between Henderson and Tyler.  These preengineered manufactured metal buildings were designed to be shipped to a site and erected with little effort during the East Texas oil boom of the 1930s.  There were originally 35 self-service stations which  remained in operation until 1942 when they were either sold, renamed, or vacated.  This one, in addition to Dixie, operated under the names of Texaco, Hancock, and Spunkey.

Reflections in Phoenix

Last month during my visit to Phoenix, I got together one day for an outing in downtown Phoenix with my good blogger buddies Magpie (In Over My Head) and Tracy (Life is a Road Trip).  You may remember my post of all those wacky folks we encountered on the scavenger hunt.  Well, downtown in big cities glass-fronted buildings always lend some camera fun dealing with reflections, and when we saw these nicely trimmed palms and the gorgeous blue desert sky reflected in the glass on the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism building on the ASU downtown campus we decided to post our interpretations on the same day and Magpie reached up in the air and pulled November 8 out of wispy clouds.  So today's the day.  The above shot is my original.

I played around for a while with a couple of my photos.  I have absolutely no editing skills whatsoever but must rely on what other creative minds have put together for us lazy people.  I use Topaz Adjust for a lot of my postprocessing and I usually stick to a couple of favorite presets but I decided to go out of my usual cardboard box for this project.  I stumbled across this preset called Ghost - Dark.  I wish I had found it in time for Halloween.  Knowing me, by the time next Halloween comes around I will have forgotten about it.

I'm usually not one for neon colors and stuff that couldn't or wouldn't readily appear in nature but I sorta liked this one called Glow in the Dark.  You might notice that Magpie says in her post that Tracy and I have warped interpretations so I guess this proves her innate ability to accurately describe my work.  But another reason I liked this is because purple is Magpie's favorite color and I immediately thought of her when I discovered this one.

Be sure to visit their blogs (highlighted above under the first photograph) to see what they've done with this scene.

Girls, I hope you're planning our  next outing!

A Truck Load of Happiness

Sumatran Tiger

Phoenix Zoo

Flea Market People

I hope she realizes that's not a real mink vest.

Friends

Wait a minute.

Is that a hospital gown under the sweater?

Nice boots.

Tall socks with boots?

Not so nice.

Hey, mister, were you in an episode of Swamp People?

Sleeping beauty