Rain Headed Our Way

The weatherman predicts heavy rainfall in our neck of the woods.

Update: 3.95 inches at our house.

Finally, Camera in Hand, Clubs Put Away

      I volunteered to take pictures during the Women's Tournament and wound up substituting for a player, adding to my load at the golf club (and to my body, ouch). The third day, though, I did not have to play, so I spent some time driving around taking pictures and observing nature. I spotted a few Mallard Ducks and a Widgeon, several Robins, a load of goldfinches, and a couple of mockingbirds. I thought I saw a Red-tailed Hawk. In terms of birdwatching, I expected to see more, but the drought has changed the patterns. I saw several species of the smaller wild flowers that no doubt thrive under the golf course's sprinkler systems. It was beautiful out there.

The top contenders hard at work at play. 

The crew watered by hand all the greens all summer long. The added TLC shows. 

I especially appreciate the added TLC to the grand trees.

The Mesquite Plant hasn't noticed we are suffering through a drought, hardy fellow!

Many Mistletoe plants have withered and dried up while the Mesquite continues to grow seed pods.

Maybe in Ten Years

         Maybe in ten years I might walk across the golf course as often as I did this week. I completely changed my mind since yesterday when three times I exclaimed, "I will chuck it all to become a full time golfer." In spite of not having swung at a golf ball in many months, nay, years, I happened to play only because the organizers of the tournament asked me to substitute for a player. While at first I felt enthralled to find myself surrounded by the lovely landscaping and old trees, once the game began, I realized that the activity I really felt any interest in engaging was photography. Time and again I wanted to stop the golf cart to take a picture, but, you know, that's obnoxious to do during the game. So whenever my opponent occupied herself with her shot, I surreptitiously slipped out my iPhone and clicked away at some of the magnificent old trees. And if I could have shot macro with the iPhone, I would have crawled on my knees to capture the beauty of a flower, a stone, a fallen leaf, a damselfly . . . 

First Tournament in Ten Years

TLG: [Breathes deeply the cool air. Looks around at beautiful trees and golf course.] I'm going to chuck it all to become a full-time golfer.
Michael: Yeah. That flyin's gotta be fun, though.
TLG: [Ponders comment. Ponders chucking flying.] Yeah, you're right. I might just keep flyin'.

iPhone Images.

Nature, How Long Thou Art Dry?

Three dry ponds.

Yellow substance in the murky waters of a drying pond.

Hardy plants survive in a pond's bottom.

Lillies have turned an eerie color.

Dry trees surrounded by crisp dry grass.

Burnt trees from above provide another gut-striking abstract of Nature's drought art. 

How muddy and boggy the cattle crossing may have become after a rain.

The windmill might have filled the tank if it had water to siphon from beneath the surface. 

Cows have to drink water from algae-ridden waters. 

An island emerges in the middle of a pond.

Nature, Thy Drought Art

         MyMrMallory and I flew around in the helicopter today. From above one can see the effect of the drought.

The crops did not grow in the drought.

An abandoned veggie garden.

Dead Trees.

A dry creek lined by dead trees.

Dry grasses.

Dry reeds in a pond.

Bone dry.

A bush manages to survive in the bottom of a dry pond.

Colorful plants grow on a pond bottom.

Hoof prints along the bottom of a dry pond.

A stone ridge emerges along the dry grasslands.

Dead or alive.

After the fire.

Plowed earth.

Ryan's Explanation on the QR Code

Click here to visit Ryan's blog. 

Below I show one of his creations.

Quanah in Cache

   After Quanah Parker's death in the 1911, his daughter Mrs. Birdsong, bought his home and moved it away from the grounds of Fort Sill to Eagle Park in Cache, Oklahoma, thus saving it from demolition by the US Army. 

     Note the stars (fourteen in total) that Quanah painted on his roof, all with one tip pointed downward, his own version of showing a leader lived there, fashioned after a general's stars at his quarters in Fort Sill.

Back porch of the Star House. My foot almost went through the rotten floor boards. 

Quanah's (supposedly) table. George sits in (purportedly) Quanah's chair.

      Upon the dust-covered stove a sign lists some of the people who sat with Quanah at his table: Lord Brice, Geronimo, cattle ranchers of note, such as his friends Burk Burnett and Tom Waggoner, and several chiefs from the Comanche, Kiowa, Sioux, and Cheyenne nations, and generals from the US Army.

     Eventually, Herbert Woesner, Jr., the man who assisted Mrs. Birdsong, relocated several other buildings to Eagle Park. The park became a sight for tourists to visit, and surrounding its main attraction, the Star House, the could skate in a rink or ride a roller-coster. 

Eagle Park closed in the 1950s. 

     A railway, bifurcated now by trees, shows some of the path of a little train running through Eagle Park during its day. 

Farm machinery sits abandoned and strewn about Eagle Park. 

Trailer full of scrap metal, or an antique shop's inventory?

      A bust of Quanah Parker at the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Would someone renovate his Star House, please? 

When Coco Naps

       My cat, born ten years ago in an old barn underneath an antique tractor that belonged in a museum, has the charming habit of covering her face during her naps.