Bursting Meteor

           The Milky Way impressed us last night, and to embellish our star-gazing, a large meteor burst overhead and left a long, wide, white trail. 

           Earlier, I caught sight of a Great Horned Owl perched on a lamp underneath a Purple Martin house. By the way, the Purple Martins have migrated.

One can almost see the "horns" on the owl perching on the post underneath the bird house.

As the owl took flight, I noticed thousands of dragonflies in the area.

This morning I found one summer flower standing tall and beautiful in the grass. 

On our way home, I couldn't help but feel "someone" was watching me. 

A windshield sprayer on the hood of this car seems easy to personify. 

Two little "eyes" "watched" me as we drove home. 

Cooper's Hawk

         Yum, thought the Cooper's Hawk, peering intently into one of the aviaries at Wild Bird Rescue. Songbirds! What a great breakfast!

          He is still there, not intimidated by Terry, or Steve, or Alicia as they wave their arms in the air, trying to shoo him away.

Ol' Red in Dallas

         The old county courthouse in Dallas, built in 1892 and saved from demolition recently, is now known as Ol' Red. The building, heavily restored, now hosts exhibits about the history of Dallas.

Thank you beautiful clouds enhancing my picture!

Inside, the Flying Philly seems to fly across the floor. 

Squint hard to see the wyvern atop the roof, behind the fourth floor turret. Beyond the wyvern, note the top of the mirrored skyscraper demonstrating the juxtaposition of the old and the new. The wyverns on the east side of Ol' Red are the originals from 1892; the two on the west are fairly recent.

The glass in the windows of the turrets show some distortion 

in the Dallas County Records Building across the street. 

Inside one of the renovated court rooms, my friend Ellen serves as judge.

Massive iron stair structures climb from the first to the fourth floor. 

Details of the stairs show rays emanating from a star that reflect light from each step. At the end of this flight we can glimpse a lunette protected from rustling feet by a brass bar. 

I found one of the original lunettes on display.

The exhibit, spanning a couple hundred years of history in Dallas, 

included a diary written by Martin Gauldin during the 1840s. 

Clouds, though, competed all day to steal the show. 

While Carrying a Camera

        

Airplanes sit on the ramp at midmorning waiting for their pilots.

A Cessna 340 needs an aircraft mechanic.

Flying at 18,000 feet we may see beautiful clouds.

Midland Airport runway 16 right.

Detail of Vic Payne's sculpture at Midland's fixed base operator, Avion.

Returning to Wichita Falls, we landed on Shepard's runway 15 center, 

while alongside a T-38 landed on runway 15 right.

If you squint, you can see at right a line up of T-38s waiting for us to land.

Once we passed the T-38s, they began to mosey on to the runway behind us.

Here I show a T-38 taxiing back to the hangar, the co-pilot waving at us. 

In the background, Shepard's tower.

One Reason to Appreciate Cellphone Imaging Technology

        Cellphones document images by scanning, and so this is what they do when presented with a fast moving airplane propeller. For fun, hover your hand over a printer as you scan. It makes for funky imaging. Cellphones do the same. Here I show images I took with my iPhone as MyMrMallory flew Papa Charlie's King Air to Midland.

From the right seat, I captured the effect of the cellphone imaging technology on the blades of the propeller. As usual, I appreciate the gorgeous puffy clouds in the background. 

Over the dash I took a picture of the left engine and props with gorgeous clouds in the background. 

Hold the cellphone vertically to create a different look.

Yes, those are actually UFOs speeding ahead of us (smirk).

Peaking Over the Post at Me

As I approached him slowly, the grasshopper stepped back 

until I could see only his eyes eyes eyes and antennae.

Taken with the Gentle Giant's D2h and Nikon 105 mm lens. 

Bugs Uncropped

Bye!

Final on One Seven

Green Groan Growl

            And how green are you? Trucks with more than eighteen wheels transport the blades for each wind turbine, each turbine needing three. Carbon emissions from the trucks pollute the air. Massive and permanent concrete foundations hold each turbine. Gravel roads extend for miles from one turbine to the other.

Take this test: How Green Am I?

1. I love these trucks they look gorgeous. Yes (Ten points) No (Zero points).
2. I love to build things destroying grasslands and other natural environments, particularly if the construction requires massive amounts of rubber tires on highways, diesel pollutants from truck engines, huge concrete blocks that remain on the land until the Big Bang proves itself more than a theory, and kills birds and bats. Yes (Ten points.) No (Zero points.)
3. I love wind energy because my electric bills decrease a little bit. Yes (Ten points.) No (Zero points.)

Scoring: Zero points: You are a different color, whatever color, white, black, yellow, red, but not green. Ten to thirty points: You ARE green!

Dropping Off and Picking Up, Airplanes that is

           Task: Fly one airplane to the mechanic shop, return in another. I tagged along with MyMrMallory as he flew Tom's plane to Bone's and Jim's aircraft shop; then return to Kickapoo Airport in my Scissortail.

Shepard Air Force Base tower control gave us a seven-mile straight approach to 33 Center, which I show at extreme right of the photo. A T-38 lands on the wide runway, 33 Left, as I snap this shot. The fighter looks like a tiny speck just off the taxi way.

We held short at 33 L for this fella to land. 

Sometimes they wave as they boom past us along the taxi ways.

 

Landing the Scissortail on 35 at Kickapoo Airport with the skyline of Wichita Falls in the background seems a welcome sight every time I arrive there. 

Just as soon as MyMrMallory hopped out of my airplane, he hopped in the Jet Ranger, his third aircraft of the day. Gotta be fun. 

Victor pulls planes in and out of hangars for most of the day. 

Render Me Speechless, Will Ya?

What to Eat

Eat veggies. Roots. Shoots. Green. Purple. Red. 

Season with herbs from all over the world.

And some cheeses will benefit you, too, such as mozzarella. Moooo!