Winter Has Arrived!

Original Edit

Fun With Filters, Above and Below

Texas Hill Country 2019

In April of 2019 my wife and I took a driving trip through Texas Hill Country so see the blue bonnets in bloom. March and April are the prime months for the countryside to explode into blue carpets of flowers and people come from near and far to observe and photograph the display.

I was going through some old photos and came upon these images and decided to share them with you. A couple of them were a part of a post I did soon after we returned home and a couple of them were created very recently. Sometimes you find a photo within a photo or an image just needs a little more tweeking. Have a blessed week.

The image above is from a park in Johnson City, TX. The original image was cropped to 8×10. I re-edited the original image in PhotoShop Elements 2026 and On1 Effects, then cropped it for the possibility of posting as my spring header image.

The original posted image included several more blooms. I decided to use the photo technique called, “Fill the Frame” and isolate one bloom. I like this one.

This image was cleaned up and cropped to 8×10, then I decided to have some fun with filters in PhotoShop Elements. Here ya go.

One more example, the image below is straight out of the camera.

This was a fabulous vacation and I would recommend a Texas Hill Country road trip to anyone.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

The theme this week is whatever music moves you. I can live with that. The other day I was driving around town shooting a few image in one of my favorite flea markets. I had my radio on Sirus – Chris Stapleton station. This song came on and it moved me. I had to share it with you. If the sound seems a little familiar to you, these two are long time members of the Allman Brothers band. The second video features The Brothers which is basically the current version of the Allman Brothers Band. Buckle up, this is real music.

Let’s wrap this concert up with the Truck Band featuring Leon Russell on piano!

Flea Market Photos

Aww…some Monday

I’ve been photographing some of my collection of University of Oklahoma caps for possible blog header image. The one currently on the blog is more of a practice run than a real contender for a place on the blog. Here are a few of the finalists.

First up, I was born and raised in Oklahoma and graduated from OU. There is a company called The OKIE Company that markets caps, t-shirts and hoodies with the OKIE logo. “Okie” comes from the dust bowl days. Much of the 1930’s saw Oklahoma experience drought conditions. Poor crop management turned the soil into dust and it was unbelievable. Couple the dust bowl with the depression and many residents moved to other states with California being among the most popular destinations. All of these new people moving into California did not set well with many locals and they began calling the displaced Sooners, “Okies”. It was not originally an endearing term but more like a racial slur. Today, many Oklahomans proudly refer to themselves as Okies because they believe themselves to be an independent, hardy breed of Americans that settled a portion of the wild, wild west. All that to say, I have several of these OKIE hats.

The University of Oklahoma is simply known as OU by everyone in the state. The logo on the cup above is the current version of OU found on most merchandise. However, the logo on the cap below comes from the early days of the university and I still think it’s a very good look.

Combine the University of Oklahoma with OKIE and you get OKIE University

The theme this week at 4M is…Learn something about this first month of the new year and build your playlist around that for your music inspiration.

If birds begin to whistle in January, frosts to come.

Birds are usually around and active in the northern states during the heart of winter only when temperatures are unusually mild, which means that the steering winds high aloft have a large north–south component. The southerly component is what brought the warm weather, but, as those steering winds move, they will become northerly, bringing along very cold air.

So what do I do with this bit of trivia. We have birds around the house in January. There are a few cardinal, sparrows, and starlings. The occasional hawk will perch on the back fence, looking for anything moving in the easement behind our back fence and there are a couple of species that are always trying to winter in the wreaths that my wife makes and adorns our front door. There’s even the straggler robin that never quite makes it all the way south into Texas and Louisana. So, here’s to the birds that whistle…or not.

Originally recorded by Bobby Day in 1958 here is the Jackson 5 with Rockin’ Robin!

Beautiful song about a bird by the most influential band in rock n roll

Finally, a song by the Byrds. Have a blessed week.

What happens when you’re photographing Christmas lights and you accidentally take a longer exposure and move the camera?

Art Happens!

The holidays and 2025 are behind us while the opportunities of a new year lie ahead. Before I completely abandon the past I am posting an image of the great-grandsons.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

This week the theme at 4M is whatever music moves you. I’m going to start the year with a few songs you may not have heard. I was going through my vinyl collection and found songs that I am pretty sure never made onto the top 40 the past 50 years. The first number is a duet from the first collaboration between Robert Plant and Allison Krause. Enjoy.

Next up is the Marshall Tucker Band. This band came along in the early seventies when bands like Lynard Skynard were rocking the charts. The sound was called Southern Rock, even though there may, or may not have been a country indluence. Give a listen to “Try One More Time,”

Kacey Musgraves wonders, “Where did it all come from?” and asks, “Can I Speak to the Architect?”

The final offering is courtesy of one of the best male vocalists from 60’s country music, Don Williams. The song, “It Must Be Love”. Have a blessed week.

Christmas 2025…Looking Back

Christmas 2025 found the family gathering at our home on the 26th for dinner and gift exchange. We are actually missing two members of the clan. Our youngest grand daughter got married the Friday before Christmas so they are not in this image. There will be wedding photos at a later date, so stay tuned.

I captured a new image of the great grandsons.

Prior to the wedding, I captured a new image of my wife and me in our formal attire.

Since the middle grand daughter works or the MLB Athletics, I ordered a cap from her next minor league assignment in Lansing, MI. That is a Lansing Lugnut cap! She will be headed back to Phoenix in January to get ready for spring training. My wife and I are making plans to spend a few days at a major league baseball spring training facility.

One thing that our town does is light up the town square with an amazing display of lights that include a multitude of photo ops. Here, my wife, our daughter, our middle grand daughter and the great grandsons are sitting in an oversized ornament.

Our daughter, middle grand daughter, great grandsons, grandson, and son-in-law are in one of the photo ops on the square.

As you can see, the square lighting was spectacular. And that’s what our Christmas looked like. Looking forward to the New Year.

And now for the final video of 2025. I have tried to convey the reason we celebrate Christmas with a few words and songs along the way. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of a Savior and the Good New of His coming. What are we supposed to do with good news? Go Tell it On The Mountain!!!

And that brings the 16th edition of my Christmas Music Marathon to a close. May you and your family have a very Merry Christmas. May the Light of the World shine brightly in your life and may the joy of Christmas follow you through a most blessed New Year.

I am going to take a little break, so I will post again in the new year.

We had a wedding!!! The youngest grand daughter got married. This image is the four grandkids in the courtyard of the wedding venue. It was a wonderful evening. More photos will be posted at a later date.

Seems like yesterday, it was 2007!

On a different note, the other day we decided to take a couple of photos in our wedding attire. Lucy decided she needed to be in the photo, so my wife picked her up and Lucy looked directly into the lens while I snapped the images. It made us both laugh out loud!

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Have a blessed Christmas celebration with those you love and may you have a memory making day.

We have been blessed with four wonderful grandchildren. In 2016 only the oldest grand daughter (far right) had graduated high school and was in college. Each addition of a grandchild changed the family dynamic in some way. In 2019, the oldest grand daughter got married and in 2023 gave birth to the first great-grandson. There is truth in the song, “A Baby Changes Everything”.