Category: Denison TX

13-08-27manpray_8444-Recovered

Oh how we say time flies, but then there are those days that just seem to stay frozen in time. It was just about two years ago that I had to put my good friend down. I still feel a little lost without him. I miss his fierce protection of all under my roof. I miss his smell. Probably only true dog folks can follow that, but every dog I have owned had their own distinctive smell along with their own pedigree of personality:

Samantha (the sweetest), Pork Chop (the happiest), Midnight (a troubled black lab I could never quite follow), Clovis (the only dog we ever paid for, unconditionally the smartest and who was so tight with his pack) and then comes Grace (our blue-eyed deaf rescue found abandoned at a West Texas railroad station and who is now my only four-legged shadow).

I have loved each of them greatly and differently. Each one has brought me their lifetime of joy and buckets of tears upon leaving. Clovis was my poser dog. Whenever I got out my Nikon, he was quick to notice and quicker to upstage anyone and anything.

Since I lost Clovis, I have not, with any degree of seriousness, picked up a camera. He just took that out of me. I have tried to shoot at some images, but every time I pick up a camera I hear his tags a jingle, a bump on the leg wanting to know where he should pose. My heart goes adrift and the camera back in the backpack.

I am a sentimental old coot and damn but I miss them all and can pull up many a tearful memory. I have to ask, how can a dog steal my vision? Hey, if they can steal your heart, vision is pretty much a simple task.

Get busy living or get busy dying!…”Red”…aka S. King

Peace Out,   jasL

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Red Rover Red Rover, let Butterfly come over. Year, I know pretty cheesy. Everyone around here gets kind of excited over this red clover that blooms for a short two weeks or so. I got to admit, it is a pretty plant with a real draw to the flying insects.

Enjoy the eye feast…...RESIST HATE……en theos †††……..jasL

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Growing up in West Texas I would be more inclined to find a Horned Toad (“Horny Toad”) playing the part of a road pancake. The road killed Horny Toad would always pull at my heart. I don’t so much find that feeling with the amphibians here in Northeast TX. Perhaps it is my age or the sheer quantity of them that breeds my indifference. Whereas my dog Grace loves to find and nose around the toads that sit under our backyard lights. Grace will take the time to actually search them out. Where the horny toads were avoided by dogs, the horned toad was an unavoidable attraction for little boys.

I found this frog/toad shortly after a recent rain. After being flattened several times by passing autos, the sun then worked on drying him out and into his fossil appearing state.

Peace out….monos en theos ††† jasL

 

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Crossing back to Texas

A late afternoon crossing of the Red River into Texas via Carpenters Bluff bridge.

Thought it very fitting to have and orange truck show up!

Sorry for the delay in posting. Same old fighting nagging health problems. Cross my fingers I am feeling better and am getting around a bit better. Last series of injections in my back were slow to provide relief, but the drugs seems to have finally found the right area.

Peace out, a special blessing to all our fighting men & women providing for our freedom. Not an advocate of war, but these folks are doing work I didn’t have to do and I thank them for my safe and warm sleep…….monos en theos†††jasL

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We watched them graze like cattle. They moved with such grace in the air. Once they left the earth they left their awkwardness behind. It was nothing but grace.

It never ceases to amaze me how a new happening becomes imprinted in the soul. I was not at all prepared when they turned and in mass headed my way, twenty feet off the ground. Directly over me. For just the time of one shortened breath I felt the brush of the soft stir of air as it flowed over and under their wings and through me.

One of those fleeting moments in life that leaves you with no way to replace the feeling of the moment into words. It became like the smell of a freshly washed baby. A smell you will always remember with that part of your heart that stores such things away for your use only.

monos en theos ††† jasL

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Since moving to Denison TX over a year ago, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church has been masked behind scaffolding while being restored to her former glory.

I drove by with a setting sun reflecting off the grand old building. She is a seemingly difficult subject when trying to expound the glorious complexity of the over one hundred year old structure.

I would have never thought that I would be trying on a black and white software treatment (NIK Silver Efex Pro 2), But the black and white just seemed to bring out the  resplendent structure.

Resting in His arms, waiting to become. ††† monos en theos ††† jasL

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We headed out to Hagerman once again yesterday. The ground was a flood of Snow Geese. They would at some unknown to me signal to take flight. They seemed to be doing practice flight patterns whereby they would fly in circles and sometimes a gaggle would form a loose “V” formation. Just as quickly they would break up and all slowly without any pattern or plan all land once again. Then repeat the process again in thirty minutes or so.

With the current degree of turmoil in the world, It was majestic and to say the least, peaceful to watch nature’s mystery.

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I was glad we took the dogs out for a long walk out at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge yesterday evening. Tonight we have a heavy overcast with showers about.

Had a nice sunset with the leftovers of a struggling Sunflower plant and the sky alive with Cranes and Geese.All that and a nice sunset to cap it off.

Manos en theos ††† jasL

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Rainy days are made for:

A. Read a book

B. Movies

C. Naps

D. Play with old images in Photoshop

As the weather cools and our rainy season is upon us, my body is healing and now I wish I had some flowers to photograph. So, the second best thing is to pull up a summer made image and play around in Photoshop. Rainy day friend and all that.

Peace out.††† jas L

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My deaf rescue dog Grace is such a good friend. She knows how to pick me up when I am down. Every morning she greets me like she has never seen me before.

She is totally deaf except when I let out a loud sneeze ( sorry, I learned it from my dad). That scares the hell out of her and she runs to mama when I do let one blow.

My digestive disorders are almost in check. I was diagnosed with microscopic colitis. A nasty little bug, but the steroids they put me on seem to be doing the trick. Hell, they should cure most anything at $1300.00 for a one month dosage. Luckily I only have to take them for two months.

Still working on my back and hip problems. Had a cortisone injection in the left hip on Wednesday. Felt so good I will go back next week for one in my right hip.

Ah, the pleasures of living to become an old fart. Keep looking in the rear view mirror to see what falls off next…….monos en theos ††† jas L