Happy Halloween

Center, Shelby County, Texas

Covered Parking

Near Crockett, Texas

The Last Rose

I've missed my blogging friends but I hope to be full-time once again soon.  My mother departed this life on October 14 when she failed to thrive after suffering a broken hip in September.  Did you know that the majority of deaths in the elderly is as a result of a fall?  The actual fall doesn't kill them; it's the complications they suffer during the recovery period.  Mother did not eat for 13 days after her fall and she was unable to participate in physical therapy.  I had hoped she would improve after going to a rehab center but she didn't.  Her condition just continued to deteriorate until one morning she just went back to sleep and didn't wake up.  I think she just got tired and decided it was time to go.  I will miss her dearly and it will take me a long time to dispose of her property so I can return to my former life.  Hopefully blogging will once again become important to me.  For now, I have many things to take up my time, getting back to my work, a farm property to sell, closing Mother's estate and her house.  Having grown up during the depression, she saved every single thing, because you just never know when you may have a use for it.  I've only scratched the surface of finding new homes for her many possessions.  I will be spending two weeks with my daughter and grandson in Arizona during the Thanksgiving holiday and after I return here I hope to take several road trips throughout the state.  After all, I need to finish my historic courthouse series and I haven't really even gotten started on the Post Office mural series.  Perhaps I'll finish them, perhaps not.  Time will tell.

In the meantime I'll try to be more frequent in my visits to you and I definitely plan to wipe the dust off the lenses and take my camera out once again.

Morning Glory

I hope you don't think I've died or given up blogging because I really haven't!  This was one of the last photos I've taken this past summer and here we are now with autumn fast approaching and I'm hoping we have a colorful fall.  My mom fell and broke her hip on September 22.  At her age (93) no injury or sickness is a simple one.  The hip was fixed the next day and the doctor was hoping to discharge her to a nursing home for rehab two days later, but she developed other problems and remained in the hospital until October 3 when a feeding tube was placed, which has actually saved her life.  She basically ate nothing for 13 days and she was going rapidly downhill.  She has lost quite a bit of muscle function in her esophagus and for now it has no ability to push food on down into the alimentary canal, and to be blunt, food was rotting in her esophagus.  She is still in very poor shape but I'm hoping she will improve as days go on.  I'm not sure she will ever return home.  If she can, I don't know that I can adequately care for her because I have had several medical issues develop of my own.  I hate to think about putting her permanently in a home but it may come to that.  In the meantime, I need to get back on my feet and try to improve my health.  Then I'm looking forward to a short trip back to Arizona to see my daughter and grandson and maybe a couple of short road trips here in Texas.  I hope to visit you soon and I've missed all your wonderful stories and photographs!

Follow the Leader

Far from a superior photo but I just had to share with you this group of deer I saw crossing our driveway earlier this week.  Naturally I didn't have my biggest lens on the camera so I just grabbed what I could put my hands on first.  There were at least five more behind this group but they were hidden by the magnolia tree on the right and immediately after this shot was snapped something frightened them and they bolted and ran and it was such a blue I couldn't count them all.  Someday I'll learn to keep that big lens always attached to one of the cameras.

Black Swallowtail on Turk's Cap

A Shimmer of Hummingbirds

Don't you just love the names that have been given to certain animals?  When I went online to see what to call a group of hummingbirds, I discovered the words to call hummingbirds can be a charm, a troubling, a glittering, a shimmer, a tune, a chattering, a drum, a bouquet or an archive.

We've had quite a few hummers in the past few weeks.  I suppose they're tanking up on nectar getting ready for their trip south.  Some people say you should stop feeding hummingbirds because it entices them to stay too long and they will get caught in the cold and freeze to death.  However, I have now learned that that is not the case.  Hummingbirds will leave your area when it's time.  And they know when it's time because they are smart little creatures.  They can remember every flower they have ever visited and how long it will take to flower to refill its nectar.  For some other fascinating hummingbird facts, visit THIS LINK.

Sorry for my lengthy absence.  My mother went out into one of our pastures a couple of weeks ago without telling me and - you guessed it! - fell and couldn't get up.  I didn't realize she was gone for an hour and a half and when I found her, she was dehydrated and covered with ants and grass, quite dirty and red-faced.  It's taken me about two weeks to get her back to status quo and she has resumed physical therapy at home to work on balance issues.  Although she injured one of her shoulders (probably a rotator cuff tear but it cannot be diagnosed without MRI and she is unable to undergo MRI testing because she has a pacemaker), the therapists do not believe the use of her arm will be improved by PT so they are concentrating on her balance to hopefully keep her upright and off the ground!  I hope to be able to visit you in the next day or so.

49/100 Dogs - Pug Mix

This sleepy little guy waited patiently for his human who was working at the petting zoo at last fall's Piney Woods Fair.

Pink

Grapeland, Texas

An old fence panel serves as a rustic backdrop for a pink bicycle.

Joining TexWis Girl's GOOD FENCES

Mourning Dove

The Joint Down by the River

Texas is one of those places that still has local option as far as the legality of sales of liquor, beer and wine.  Many counties which are dry are adjacent to wet counties, and many county borders within the state are designated by rivers. Therefore at one time there was an abundance of beer joints or honky-tonks on the river banks of wet counties.  This old joint on the banks of the Neches River between Houston and Nacogdoches Counties has a Texas flag theme, sporting the iconic lone star.

Giant Swallowtail

Cone Flowers

Summer in the Country

Community of Swift

Nacogdoches County, Texas

Zebra Swallowtail

The one that got away

Through the Fence

This young calf decided to scoot under the last strand of barbed wire on the fence and go for a stroll along our driveway.  When I decided to go out and open the gate to the back lot, hoping she would go through and rejoin the herd, she showed me how it's done.  She just stooped down really low and went through the last slat  in the gate!

48/100 Dogs - Pit Bull/Terrier Mix

I don't like taking photos of animals through a chain-link fence but I couldn't resist since this little guy was posing for me.  He has amazing eyes; they're even color-coded to match his coat!  I discovered him while on a walk through a residential district in Rusk, Texas.  He may be little but he looks like a tough cookie!

Oxalis

Lioness

Ellen Trout Zoo

Lufkin, Texas

Hitching Post

This iron hitching post remains near the street in front of one of Nacogdoches' historic houses.  Gone are the days when horse and buggy was the preferred method of transportation in this old town.  I think it's a fine decoration and I'm happy it was left there to remind us that things continually change.

Fantasizing

Deep East Texas where I live is a virtual jungle.  Anything that stays still long enough is quickly covered with vines.  Fence rows, old tree stumps, barn walls.  If it is immobile long enough, nature takes over.  This old tree which has been dead for many years, probably from a lightning strike, has gone through several transformations this summer.  In the early spring as the vines started their encroachment, I could see a traffic flagman, holding up his arm to stop traffic which has been routed to one-lane travel due to road construction.  But as the vine grew and started drooping over the flagman's arm, a new image emerged for me. Now I see a Southern belle, with wide hooped skirt standing on the veranda, with lace handkerchief in hand waving goodbye to her love as he rides off to war. And you're tossing around an idea in your mind, too, aren't you?  Has she lost her marbles?  Maybe so.  Some people see images in clouds; I see them in vines!

Cleopatra

Canna lilies are an old-fashioned flower.  They can be seen throughout the South, towering upwards of 6 feet tall, hiding flaking paint on the weathered sides of old houses, coming up each year alongside country roadways where homes once stood but are no more.

This variety is named Cleopatra.  How my mother got such a beautiful hybrid I have no clue, but it's two-toned leaves of red and yellow with speckles is an outstanding specimen.  No two flowers are alike.

Once called "flags" they indeed herald a special beauty.  If I ever leave here I can't forget to dig up some of these lovelies to take with me.

Shelby County Farmers Market

At least once a week I drive over to Center to visit the farmers market held on the courthouse square next to the historic 1885 Shelby County Courthouse (one of the most beautiful and unique in Texas).  It's open six days a week and the produce is delicious, usually harvested just that morning, and reasonably priced.  I'm a tomatoholic so I make sure I get my fill of fresh tomatoes while the crops are plentiful.  Here a local farmer, Royce Johnson, greets a customer.  Many elderly people simply drive up in their cars, roll down the window, and one or another member of the Johnson family will provide a drive-through service.  Royce's dad was a frequent visitor to my granddad's country store when I was a child.  One of the reasons I like this farmers market is because it is required that all produce be grown within the boundaries of the county.

This is watermelon country and there's always lots of these big fellows because so much of the soil in Shelby County is sandy, which is conducive to producing big fat juicy watermelons.  Don't you love that Texas emblem on the pickup tailgate?  I wish I had one for my truck!  The building with the bars on the windows to the left in the background is the old Shelby County Jail.  For a personal story concerning the jail, see this post from back in 2010.

What a spread!  Lots of green and red tomatoes, several varieties of peas and beans, either to shell yourself or already shelled and washed, squash and zucchini, several varieties of peppers, pickling cucumbers, potatoes, onions, cantaloupe, okra, and homemade salsas, relishes, chow-chows, pickles and jellies.

Foggy Morning

A young buck sporting velvet walked up out of the fog to graze in the pasture behind our house this morning shortly after daybreak.  I took this photo with a Canon 5D, which happened to have the best lens already attached to it and which also happens to have a rather noisy shutter.  One click and he is on high alert.

Several more clicks and he turns and hightails it (maybe this is where that word has its origins) back into the woods.

Foxglove

About a mile from our house is a dirt road which serves as a "back way" to leave our area.  It's a pretty good road, well-maintained by the county, but I prefer to go the paved route because the dirt road can either be wet and muddy or dry and dusty.  Either way I don't like what it does to my vehicle, but sometimes I find the need to travel that direction.  During the spring or summer there is usually some kind of wildflower growing by the roadside.  I spotted these one day when I didn't have my camera and it took a couple of days for me to get back and hunt them down.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were digitalis, or more commonly called foxglove.  They had already begun to lose their petals.  Within two more days they were gone.  I've learned if I see a wildflower I want to photograph, I'd better do it now or else it may have disappeared in no time at all.

Cardinal in Mimosa

Building a Nest

For three days I watched a Carolina Wren couple work tirelessly building a nest in a flower pot on our front porch.  I couldn't resist checking it out several times a day.  I even made plans to take daily pictures and hoped to eventually see the eggs and then babies and then fledglings.  I suppose I was too curious about the nest because as soon as they got it finished (or it looked finished to me) they abandoned it and never returned!  Next time I'll remember to keep my distance

Summer Roses

Pineapple Fountain

Ellen Trout Zoo

Lufkin, Texas

Sulphur Springs Mural

This mural on a brick wall in downtown Sulphur Springs, Texas, commemorates a longhorn cattle drive.  You might be able to tell this photo was taken last fall.

Shy Kitty

Rusk, Texas

Grapeland - Part 4 - A Gang of Camels

If two can comprise a gang, then the Grapeland Safari has a gang of camels.  When they are chasing you you feel like you're encountering a gang, that's for sure.  They are relentless.  Once they spot you, you're the bull's eye on a target.  You can get away from them but if you're in their sight distance, whenever you stop, they come running!

Shamir is the park's Bactrian camel.  Bactrians have two humps (which do not store water but instead store fat to be converted to water when necessary) and are endangered.  It is estimated that only about 1,000 still live in the wild in China and Mongolia.

I didn't catch this little gal's name but she sports a shedding coat much like Hedda Hopper made a statement with her hats.  I overheard her saying, "I love my rug.  I think it's soooo fashionable."

Here comes Shamir, ready or not.  They had me laughing during our whole encounter.  I simply could not get away from them.

When their store of fat is depleted, the humps become floppy.  These were the only two skinny animals I saw in the place.  The owner told me she had wormed them recently but they still hadn't picked up any weight.  Shamir reminded me of a little old man who is slowing drying up.

"Get outta my way.  I'm gonna kiss her first!"

What's not to love about a face like this?

My trip to Grapeland was one of the most fun times I've had in months.  I'm glad I could share it with you.  I'm thinking spring might be a good time to return when there probably will be baby deer in abundance!

Grapeland - Part 3 - Feeding the Animals

When I entered the park I bought an $8 bucket of some sort of animal chow.  Even though all the animals seemed very healthy and well-fed, they all liked the chow and expressed their appreciation for the snack in different ways.  One of the park rules is that you may not leave your vehicle.  It's obviously for your own safety.  I wouldn't want to be run over by a herd of zebras!

If you aren't careful they will practically crawl in the vehicle with you! 

This guy just grabbed the cup right out of my hand and that was the last I saw of it.  It's a good thing they gave me two cups before I started off through the park.

The deer are fairly skittish and not friendly like the zebras but if you simply toss out some chow they will come along behind you and clean it up.

The geese quickly came up from the pond to get their share.

This little llama was VERY friendly.  She had recently been sheared of her wool and I was surprised at how skinny she was.  Her tail had been brushed into a fuzzy ball, but I couldn't get her away from the window to be able to take a photo of it.
This is where she started talking to me.  (She's already drooling!)

"Okay, lady, stick 'em up.  This is a highway robbery."

"Gimme the grub and I won't spit in your face.  If not, it's all over but the spittin'!"

"Okay, I know you got it.  I can see it in there." 

"Now that's more like it!"

Tune in tomorrow for the last installment of the Grapeland Safari.  I have a very special animal to share with you.