Saddle Salesmen

First Monday Trade Days

Canton, Texas

Fence No. 20 - Glenrio Texas/New Mexico

Once a thriving small town, Glenrio straddled the Texas/New Mexico border on Route 66.  When Interstate 40 opened in 1973, Glenrio was almost forgotten.  A few buildings remain.  The old Route 66 is still visible although grass grows up through its cracks and it is filled with potholes and chunks of missing asphalt.  I'm not sure this fence would actually keep anyone out of the old cafe which it surrounds.

LINKING TO FRIDAY FENCES

Wildflowers and Butterflies

These photographs were taken yesterday on our farm on either side of our driveway and adjacent to our hay meadow.  The top photo is of what I believe to be a viceroy butterfly on scarlet clover.  Scarlet clover is very prolific here, growing along the roadsides.  Ours is almost two feet tall.

Beyond the clover are the Texas bluebonnets.  They are plentiful this year, due to our spring rains.  A two-inch rain a couple weeks ago caused the grass to grow so high it is practically hiding the bluebonnets.  The 'bonnets will be gone in another week or so.  I've enjoyed them so much this year.

This zebra swallowtail fluttered his wings so rapidly I had a hard time getting a good photo of him.  He allowed me to get very close however.  It was like he was saying, "Get as close as you want.  You still won't get a good picture. Ha, ha, ha!"  He was more interested in the dandelion blossoms than he was the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and scarlet clover, all only partially visible in the shallow depth of field.

Thanks to TexWis Girl we have Indian paintbrush this year for the first time ever.  She sent us seeds last fall when I mentioned I could not find any for sale on the Internet due to the drought.  We've been blessed with maybe up to 30 plants on either side of the driveway (even though we only sowed them on one side!).  Thank you, dear friend.  My mother is so proud of them.  She counts them every day!

For any of you who do not follow my OTHER BLOG (I'm one of those people who just need two!) there are some closeups of the bluebonnets you can see by clicking HERE.

In Search of a White Dogwood

I finally found two flowering dogwood trees at the Libby Cemetery, a small cemetery deep in the heart of Nacogdoches County.  Dogwood trees are difficult to photograph because you can't get much detail on the small blossoms at any distance.  This photo was just blah so I used the Topaz Adjust filter called Whisperly.

This photo and the one below were edited on ipiccy.com but using two completely different approaches.  Don't ask how I did either one!

That's all the dogwood pictures until next year.  It was a very short season, indeed!

In Search of a Pink Dogwood

 About ten days ago the dogwood trees started blooming here in East Texas.  I intended to get out and take some photos but then I got really busy for about five days and didn't get out when I should have.  With the early spring warmth, the dogwoods, much like the other flowering trees, leafed out much sooner than usual and the blossoms faded rapidly.  By Sunday it was difficult to find any trees blooming along country roads or in our nearby woods.  I ventured on into Nacogdoches on some errands and drove by a residential neighborhood which is known to have beautiful azaleas and dogwoods this time of year.  I've always wanted to take a picture of a pink dogwood but, not being found in the wild, they are always on personal property and people are pretty picky about trespassers here.  I passed one nice home that had a small still lovely pink dogwood right next to the street.  I went to the door and the homeowner gave me permission to photograph the beautiful pink dogwood.
 

I was a little disappointed in the closeups.  They show that the pink dogwood is really a white dogwood with dark pink or light red veins in the petals.  They therefore are much prettier from a distance than they are up close, at least in my opinion.

I put a slight sepia tone on this photo.  I like looking at the dogwood from the bottom up toward the sky.

So now that I've had the opportunity to see the pink dogwood up close and personal, I think I like the white ones better.  Tomorrow I'll show you some of the ones I managed to find.

Desert Monsoon

July 2011

Near Black Canyon City, Arizona

Looking for the Perfect Snack

Remember Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the beautiful twin roosters who live in our area?  

Well, I can never tell them apart, 

but here is one of them on a quest to find the perfect snack amongst the leaves. 

Early-Day Air Conditioning

Fence No. 19 - More Bluebonnets

Last week I showed you bluebonnets and red honeysuckle along our farm's fenceline.  This week I went to Nacogdoches for the weekly errands and saw this pretty patch of thick bluebonnets along a picket fence in a cottage-type house near downtown.  I actually found one pink bluebonnet (which is an occasional anomaly) and a few red bluebonnets which were hybridized in the late 1990s by Texas A&M University.  Some of their seeds occasionally get mixed in with blue seeds.  And yes, they are called red BLUEbonnets and pink BLUEbonnets!

LINKING TO FRIDAY FENCES

A Day at the Lake

This photo was snapped back in January before signs of spring started bursting out.  This lake almost dried up during last year's drought.  One of my cousins lives on the eastern end and they were unable to even launch a boat in it until last month.  With two more good drenching rains that we've received since then, it should be well on its way to recovery by now.  This photo was taken near the dam which is obviously the deepest part of the lake.  My relatives have once again been able to get their boat launched and enjoy some good bass fishing.  Also this particular lake was the alternate water supply for a town of about 5500 people.  Thank goodness their worries have now been somewhat diminished as to where their water would be supplied if their primary source evaporated!

Old Nacogdoches University

Located just north of what is now Main Street in the heart of town is the Old Nacogdoches University Building.  Chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, it opened its doors in 1859 as the first nonsectarian university in Texas.  Of Greek Revival architecture made popular in the US in the 1800s, it is one of three oldest school buildings in the state.  Today it is home to a museum dedicated to education in Texas during the 19th century and items from a Confederate hospital, which was housed in the structure during the Civil War. 

Note:  Nacogdoches is recognized as the oldest town in Texas and has historical markers on practically every corner, even some in between!

Tribute to the Confederate Soldier

Texas, as a slave state (sad to say), was aligned with the Confederacy and seceded from the United States in 1861. Thousands of Texans lost their lives in America's Civil War (ironically, almost twice as many Union and Confederate soldiers died from disease rather than battle during the war), and many Texas courthouses have erected monuments to military heroes, including those who died in that conflict.  Many soldiers served to preserve their homeland, not to preserve slavery.  This monument to the Texas Confederate soldier was erected in the Oakwood Cemetery in Tyler, Texas, in 1907.  I find it quite interesting that the soldier depicted seems to be a mature, if not middle-aged, gentleman.  Many of the courthouse statues I've seen portray boys the age of 14 or 15 years old!

In the past few months I have been reading John Jakes' trilogy regarding the Civil War:  North and South, Love and War, Heaven and Hell.  The three books combined are almost 3,000 pages and I am within 300 pages of finishing the last one.  Although a novel, the books are highly researched and provide a very good learning experience of what happened to America during the Civil War and its aftermath.  I highly recommend them for those who like historical novels.

LINKING TO TAPHOPHILE TRAGICS

More of Mercado de Uco

In yesterday's post I wrote about Mercado de Uco at the Phoenix Zoo.  This is one of several buildings in the South American village portrayed on one of the zoo trails.

 

Door Detail.  Sort of makes you want a purple door, doesn't it?

Metal Coke Sign in Spanish

 And maybe you're wondering where in the world did I find this wonderful old metal Coca-Cola sign in Spanish (or could it be Portugese? Tell me if you know).  And the answer is at the Mercado de Uco, a

reproduction of a South American mercado at the -- drum roll, please! -- Phoenix Zoo!  One of the many trails through the zoo is the Forest of Uco, a lush rainforest landscape that surrounds visitors along a one-mile walking trail and also includes reproduction of a South American scientific expedition and ruins and highlights several tropical animals, including the South American macaws and the Andean Bear -- which I unfortunately did not see, presumably because they were in their quarters taking a nap!



The Phoenix Zoo is the largest nonprofit zoo in the United States.  The zoo has been conservation-minded from its inception in 1962. Soon after it opened it hosted what was thought to be the last few Arabian oryx,  which formed the basis of the world herd created for Operation Oryx and eventually allowed the reintroduction of the species into the wild.

(What's with blogger throwing in all these extra line spaces?  I've corrected it three times and it continues to occur.  So I give up!)