Mission Cube Challenge at the Capitol

The Texas State Capitol is a great place to spend an hour or so…with or without a camera.  And, it’s been too long since I spent some focused time photographing something other than dogs, wildflowers or baby calves.  So, when Precision Camera announced an upcoming "Mission Cube Challenge" in cooperation with Canon USA and “adventurers and photo takers the New Darlings,”  I was game to sign up. 

Precision Camera and Video is Austin's first-class, full-service, one-stop-shopping location for all things photographic.  Founded in 1976 by Jerry and Rosemary Sullivan, it grew from a spare-bedroom camera repair operation to the largest camera store in Texas.  Precision personnel, especially Sales Associate Robert Backman, have answered my questions (and taken my money!) on numerous occasions, and have given me outstanding service and photo products.   

A group of 40 or so of us arrived on Saturday morning, and were issued loaner Canon EOS M5 or M6 cameras with our choice of lenses.  The M6 I used is one of Canon’s new mirrorless cameras…this version had a viewfinder as well as an LED screen.  I prefer a viewfinder to the rear screen, which is the only option on the M5.  I chose the 14-150mm zoom lens (28-300 35mm equivalent), which is my go-to lens on the Olympus OM-D EM-1 I currently shoot.  The cameras are very similar, but the Canon is newer, and has more bells and whistles and a very intuitive menu system.  It was a pleasure to shoot.

We met our photo challenge leaders, and were issued “mission cubes” which contained the themes for the images we would shoot.  Our choices were:  “reflections,” “fine lines” and “green.”  We were told we could submit one image that represented one of the themes…or if we could manage it, an image that represented two, or even three of them.  Then the fun began.

We were bused downtown to the Capitol and fanned out like a swarm of bees in search of flowers.  I decided to focus on the “fine lines” theme, and shot a number of images outside on the Capitol grounds.  

The beautiful architectural details outside, including the impressive Texas Peace Officers' Memorial, provided lots of options.

The Capitol sits on four blocks designated as Capitol Square in 1839.  The first Capitol building on this site was completed in 1853, but burned in 1881.  The current Capitol building, constructed of sunset red granite, was completed in 1888.  Topped by the zinc Goddess of Liberty statue, it measured over 566 feet by 288 feet and cost more than $3.7 to build.  From the terrazzo floor to the star 281 feet above in the dome, which was installed in 1958, it is a beautiful structure.

After 45 minutes or so outside, I decided to cool off and explore the photo options inside the Capitol itself.  There are more beautiful architectural details inside, 

including a dizzying look up into the rotunda.  

There are also impressive views looking down from the three balconies the public can access.  

Unfortunately, for "accessibility and safety reasons," the dome is not open to the public.  That nice zoom lend did, however, give me a pretty good look at the spiral staircase accessing the very top.

Some of my favorite shots were of the frosted glass panels in the interior doors.  The light streaming through from outside made for some interesting effects.

The outing truly qualified as an adventure.  On the way back, the bus broke down and stranded us under Hwy I-35. 

(Turns out, even that isn't a bad place for a photo op.)

Learning that the bus being sent to rescue us was at least 30 minutes or more away, a dozen or so of us opted to walk the mile or so from the bus back to Precision Camera.  It was sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze, thank goodness.  We made it back before the replacement bus and had first pick of the yummy Schlotzsky’s sandwiches and cookies waiting for us.  While we munched our lunches, our chosen images (one per participant) were printed and judged. We even got to keep the SanDisk 16 GB SD cards with all our images!  Thank you, Canon!

This was my favorite image, and it was chosen for a fourth-place prize in the photo challenge.  I didn't get first place, which was a new Canon M5 kit, but that's OK.  I had a great time.

Thanks, Canon, Precision Camera and Video and New Darlings for a most enjoyable Saturday.

The East Jetty Ballet

Several weeks ago John’s mother moved from her home into a senior living center.  We spent most of last week in the Texas Coast community of Lake Jackson getting ready for an estate sale and preparing her house to go on the market.  While there, we got our exercise a couple of mornings walking the East Jetty, located in nearby Surfside at Surfside Jetty Park.  

On one side of the park are beach homes, but very little beach these days.  “Improvements” to the shoreline over the last 100+ years, including building the jetties and the rerouting of the Brazos River to a site several miles down the coast, have unfortunately resulted in less and less sand being deposited along the shoreline.  The result…an ever-shrinking beach.

Across the channel is the West Jetty, and in the distance cargo ships and chemical plants.

The park is located in Brazoria County near the mouth of the Brazos River along what was “the most important harborage during the time Texas was a republic.”  The settlement, which would later be known as Velasco or Old Velasco, was the site where the schooner Lively landed in 1821 with thirty-eight men who would become the first of Stephen F. Austin’s colonists.  In 1831, Mexico, fearing annexation of Texas by the United States, passed a law halting legal immigration by Americans and established Fort Velasco as a customs port of entry.  

Now known as Surfside or Surfside Beach, the area was the site of the Battle of Velasco in June of 1832, a prelude to the Texas Revolution, as well as the signing of the Treaties of Velasco in 1836.  It also served as a temporary capital of the Republic of Texas while David G. Burnet was interim president.

Just outside the park is the site of historic Fort Velasco, and the park area includes the site of the Velasco Town Battery, which dated to before the 1860s.  The battery, which included an emplacement with two brass cannon, was turned over to the Confederacy in 1861.  During the Civil War, the port of Velasco was fortified by Confederate troops and eight gun batteries.  Over the years, the fort was abandoned and later demolished so only the pages of history testify to its existence. 

The East and West Jetties were originally built in 1881, and have been extended and improved over the years.   The East Jetty is now some 6/10 of a mile long, and provides a great place for fishing, bird watching, getting in your morning miles, and especially people-watching.

I like to call what we saw The East Jetty Ballet.  Lining both sides of the jetty from end to end are the fishermen and fisherwomen…

their children and grandchildren…

parents and grandparents…

and all the accoutrements of serious, all-day fishing.

Many people were fishing with shrimp.

Several were gracefully (and occasionally not so gracefully) throwing cast nets to catch their own bait, possibly shrimp, or more likely the small mullet that were schooling along both sides of the jetty.

If you look closely, you can see their little fishy eyes.

As there is action along the jetty, the person with the fish on-line has the right-of-way.  Everyone moves out of the way, lifting their rods in unison to allow access as the big fish makes a run along the jetty with the fisherman struggling to keep up.  

And when the fish reverses course, the action continues...just in the opposite direction.

.

Until the fish is caught!

And when someone needs to reset a line, there is a three-steps-back, three-steps-forward routine, followed by a mighty heave of the heavy pole as adjacent fishermen move gracefully out of the way and passers-by dodge and weave to avoid the swinging bait.  You can’t choreograph something like that.

This fellow had a fish on his line, but had a "That's why they call it fishing instead of shopping" attitude when he lost it

Following our walk on the jetty, we stopped at the nearby Seahorse Restaurant and Bar for a glass of tea.  The big, shady deck has a nice view of the beach where seahorse and fish sculptures overlook the water.  

Brown pelicans sailed overhead in an aerial ballet.  

And from the deck, we watched another kind of ballet…

…it was entertaining, but not as graceful as the one on the jetty.

What a great way to spend the morning!

Adorables and Deplorables

This has been an eventful several days at the farm.  We arrived to find not one, but two new baby calves.  You won’t be surprised to hear we are calling them, along with their older sisters, The Adorables!  

Four Sisters

What are those?  They don't look like us.

Border Collies Keeping Watch

This is all really new and strange.

Do you have one of these?

Mmmm....Mmmm Good!

Mom Loves Me

Big Sis

Don't you wish you could do this!

We were pleased but surprised to find that both our remaining cows had calved.  B8 was due, but B4’s calf was not expected for at least another month because she calved late last year.  The gestation period for cattle is about nine months, and our cows usually don’t breed back for a couple of months after calving.  Over time, we have established an estimated due date for each cow eleven months after their previous calf was born.  B4 outdid herself this year, calving only ten months after her last calf was born.  This means that all four of our calves were born within a six-week period.  They are having a great time running and playing together.

So much for the Adorables, but what about the Deplorables, you ask?  I’m not talking about those proud supporters of Candidate Trump in last year’s election.  I’m talking about critters that really are deplorable.  

On Thursday the dogs were doing a lot of sniffing around a sheet of plywood behind the pump house.  When I lifted it, there were three fat rats underneath.  Unquestionably Deplorables!  Rue took off after Mama Rat, but she managed to escape into the bushes.  Colt grabbed one of the half-grown offspring, but wasn’t sure what to do so he dropped it.  Kota, however, is an experienced ratter and dispatched it quickly.  She was planning on having it as a mid-morning snack, but I managed to retrieve and dispose of it. 

 

In the meantime, Rue came back and made quick work of the other juvenile.  She was very proud!

Sometimes we spend an entire week and see no “critters” other than a few turkeys at the feeder.  Not so this week.  Rue spent most of Wednesday evening trying to dig our resident armadillo out of his den in the bushes outside the kitchen.  He continues to be safe, and comes out each evening late to aerate our yard.

Then, while I was working in the yard Thursday morning, Rue was sniffing about in the bushes a few yards away.  Suddenly, I heard the unmistakable sound of an angry rattlesnake.  I called just as Rue shot out of the bushes.  I think she was reacting due to her “rattlesnake avoidance” training rather than to my call since she came out so quickly.  I’m very glad we invested in that training for all our dogs.  I’m told that dogs can’t detect a rattlesnake by scent, but identify them by the sound of their rattles.  I’m glad this one issued a warning.  It definitely qualifies as a Deplorable!

I called John, and we cautiously parted the bushes and looked for the snake.  It had only rattled once, and then for only a second, but it hadn’t moved.  It was stretched out under the bushes, and John and the 12-gauge dispatched it with no trouble.  It was a beautiful 2-3 foot snake, but not something you want to share your front yard.

And if one snake wasn’t enough, Friday morning I took my coffee and Bible to the front porch to read.   Rue came out with me and trotted up the front walk toward the parking area.  As I sat down, I noticed a very straight “stick” lying across the walk…much too straight to be a tree branch…between me and Rue.  I told her to lie down and walked up the path to investigate.  Sure enough, the “stick” was a snake, but not a Deplorable.  This time, it was a handsome 3-foot rat snake.  He posed for a couple of pictures, then slithered away into the bushes.  We’re happy to have him as a resident, and hope that he will get busy and take care of the rat that got away from Rue on Thursday.  

But deplorables aren’t always living things.  Sometimes we encounter deplorable situations.  We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and by evening discovered that we had no hot water in the kitchen or our bathroom.  Fortunately the guest room shower was working just fine, so we were able to go to bed squeaky clean.  

On Thursday morning, John began trouble-shooting that deplorable situation.  Trouble-shooting is something we do here on a regular basis, since a couple of weeks often pass between our visits.  You would be surprised at what can go wrong in the interim!  This time, John noticed some suspicious material around the breaker that controls the hot water heater.  After disassembling the breaker box, he discovered that a couple of mice had managed to get inside and commit suicide, shorting out the circuits.  This time, we were fortunate.  The breaker wasn’t “fried” and after a thorough cleaning all was well.

All wasn’t well back in Volente, though.  Just before we left for the farm, Becky our good friend and next-door neighbor, had called to say that she had gone to pick up her mail and found all the mailbox doors open and no mail inside any of the 8 or so boxes.  John then began to wonder if a parcel that should have arrived last week might have been taken as well.  We are working with postal authorities and the sheriff’s office to try to recover our missing parcel and help to find the thieves.  So far, that is the only thing we know is missing, but there could be more.  The culprits took at least one credit card from our neighbor’s mailbox and tried to use it a number of times.  They were successful more than once, but Becky doesn’t know how they managed to use the card since it had not been activated.  Stay tuned on this one.

It’s good when we can end our visit on a happy note instead of the recitation of another deplorable.  This trip, we are happy to have our coastal pasture cut and ready to be baled to provide winter hay for the cattle.

And there was another special treat as well.  We have plenty of painted buntings here at the farm; we hear them almost constantly.  We seldom get a good look at one, though, because they are very small, fast and cautious.  We were excited Simdau morning to see this handsome male in his breeding finery peck-pecking in the grass just outside our kitchen window.  

He is definitely in the Adorables category.