This week I present to you some pictures I took last fall at my home on Quail Ridge in Parker County, Texas. Little did I know that that would be my last fall to spend there! This year for Thanksgiving I will soon be heading to my family’s new abode near Jefferson, Texas, in Marion County.
During the summer of 2010, there was a bullfrog living in our stock tank, the largest we had ever seen on our property (in Parker County, Texas):
I took these pictures at Copper Breaks State Park in Hardeman County, Texas last June. I have many other pictures to post, both from North America and Europe, but I’m putting them up little by little, and eventually they’ll all be posted.
Hope you like these pictures!
These are some pictures from a camping/kayaking trip I went on with some college friends in April 2010. Yes, that was more than a year ago, so long ago that I don’t even remember the name of the river we kayaked on! And although I may be behind on posting pictures, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking pictures. There are plenty that are just waiting to be blogged, so stay tuned!
From Ailenroc’s Book, by Cornelia Alexander
Within my hand lay a beautiful blossom. It was perfect in shape and delicately penciled with the most exquisite coloring, nestling amid the vivid green of its own leaves. With delight I gazed upon it, but how soon was my pleasure changed to disappointment when I found it yielded no perfume! No aroma of hidden sweets greeted my senses; no fragrant breath from its glowing heart perfumed the air. Scentless and valueless, it had grown up in riotous beauty, flaunting its lovely face and hiding in its heart its sweetness.
I wearied of the bright flower, and, mechanically closing my fingers upon it, it was crushed, when—lo!—up from the bruised petals floated an invisible cloud, so sweet, so subtle, that I was silent with astonishment. Then I chided myself for my haste, when I saw the blossom bruised and discolored; but a voice whispered: “Better so than to have lived its brief life and faded away with that ravishing sweetness hidden in its heart.”
It is thus with many a human flower. When friendship smooths the path, love beautifies the life, and health, wealth, and prosperity paint the earth with their rich coloring, the heart too often refuses the homage due the great Giver of all good; but misfortune comes and over the prismatic tints casts a sober, somber hue. Griefs that mar and trials that vex creep in, when—lo!—up from the bruised heart go prayers of penitence, and from the tried soul float songs of love and praise withheld in brighter days.