Cow Creek Revisited

I've been wrestling recently (it seems like forever) with the results of my hard drive crash last month. I had been remiss in keeping things backed up and I had been remiss for quite some time. I'm now suffering the consequences. Needless to say, I lost a lot of work, photographic and genealogical mostly, but every day it seems I discover something else I'd been saving as a remembrance or a reference for when I finally write that book. You know, the one every blogger has inside.

Anyway, I finally left my cave Sunday afternoon and drove out to take pictures in the Hill Country. I didn't have any new place to go and didn't really feel like exploring, so I went back to survey Cow Creek Road, see whether there was any water flowing (there wasn't), and take a few pictures in the afternoon sun.

This shot is looking south along Cow Creek Road just a couple hundred yards from its start at FM-1431. The greenery belies our lack of rain here in the Hill Country as the drought continues.

This one is looking in the opposite direction from the creek side of the road. There's actually some standing water in the creek bed directly above the storm drains. I love the warmth of the late afternoon sun on the dry grass, but most of all - even though I know it's a lie - I love the promise of rain in the clouds.

These two pictures were shot from the same place; I just took the one shot and swiveled the camera on the tripod a frame or two to the right and took the other. I wanted to get a few back lit shots of the Central Texas Fall Color before Winter comes. The water disappeared around the next bend. I should have expected that since I was moving upstream. I always liked taking pictures along this road because the creek seemed so refreshing. I may have to go find a new favorite haunt for my cameras.

This picture surprised me when I got home and was able to work on it. Standing on the side of the road in the late afternoon it's very hard to see what I've got - especially when I'm looking at an LCD screen instead of a viewfinder. That means I've got to take a lot of pictures, trust my eye, my imagination, and finally, my luck. I seldom know just what I've got till I get home and download my pictures to the computer. The clouds here are not promising any rain, but at least they're promising a good sunset.