365/365

A House and Winter Grass

This is day 365 of 365.  It's the first time I've ever finished a photo-a-day for an entire year.  Other years I've almost done it, but I never managed to complete the year.  

A friend and I took a drive this afternoon to a town I've never been to before.  

It's name is Desdemona~~sounds like a girl's name, right?, but that's actually the name of the town.

We came across this abandoned house.  There are so many (abandoned houses).  I couldn't get any closer since there was a fence around the property.

So tomorrow begins a new year.  Wonder if I'll be able to post a photo-a-day for the year?

Happy New Year to y'all.

364/365

Sanditon

Jane Austen's last book, Sanditon.  Austen wrote 12 chapters when she allegedly fell ill, was unable to finish the book and "another lady" finished the book for her.  

This is my January bookgroup read.  I don't think I've ever read anything by Austen, so I wonder if I'll like it~~even if I don't, I'll read it to be able to participate in the discussion.

In all the years I've tried to post a photo-a-day, I think this is the first year that I'll have posted 365 images.  What an achievement!

363/365

Wooden Flag on Fence

I made this image a while ago as I was driving down a country road.  I love the color aqua and it was the fence that first caught my eye, then I noticed the weathered wooden flag and thought the two objects made a great image.

362/365

Downtown Abilene

Downtown Abilene on Christmas afternoon.  

The streets have been newly renovated but there was hardly any traffic to be seen.

361/365

Great Message

This is part of some wall art in downtown Abilene, Texas.  

It's a GREAT message!

360/365

Artwork in the Alley

As I got out of my car I glanced across the street and saw this scene.  I thought it really looked interesting, so I grabbed my camera and got an image of it.  

359/365

Banner in a Church

Today is CHRISTMAS. 

I attended the funeral of my friend's husband the other day.  He's with the Lord now. His death was quick, he didn't suffer much, but he was only about 70, which seems young to me.  The church sanctuary had 5 banners along the walls, but I just captured this one.  

It's so awesome that our salvation is not of our own doing, but is by God's choice.  Everyone has the information they need to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but not everyone will do it.

God is in control, Praise God.

358/365

Pink Flamingo and Glasses

I'm not sure what the pink flamingo with glasses has to do with the building behind it.  The building seems to be vacant but it's the T & P building which I'm guessing might have something to do with the railroad that runs through town.  

357/365

Looking up at a Building

Walking around downtown Abilene, there's not much left to take photos of since I've been to town many, many times and have taken many, many images.  It was late afternoon, a few days before Christmas, and when I looked up at this building, I thought the light was so pretty on the structure.  It isn't a super exciting image, but the blue sky behind the building with the yellow architecture just looked so nice.

356/365

Wings on a Wall

While walking through downtown the other day, I wandered through an alleyway and came across this artwork.  The wings are a little high up so I'm not sure if they're intended for people to pose in front of them, or if they're just art for art's sake. 

355/365

Yertle the Turtle

In downtown Abilene, TX there's a park called Everman Park that showcases several statues from 

Dr. Seuss books. (the park is often referred to as the storybook park)

This one is Yertle the Turtle.  It's just so adorable.  There's a sign to the right of the sculpture that has some text from the story.  I LOVE Dr. Seuss stories and I read a lot of them to my children when they were little.  I think they liked them too.

In the background there's some construction happening so, sadly, I couldn't get the statue without the clutter.  It was a beautiful day though, the temp was 85~~and we're only 3 days from Christmas.

354/365

Christmas Artwork

One of the downtown Abilene businesses has this adorable artwork  on its plate-glass window:  

two colorful gnomes riding in the back of a red pick-up decorated for Christmas.

It will be too bad when the Christmas season is over and all this artwork is gone.

It was an unbelievable 85 degrees today.  How awesome is that when the northern part of the country is being blanketed by snow?

I checked the temps in Fairbanks, AK today.  It was -30.  

353/365

Bookstore Graffiti

In downtown Abilene, there's a bookstore. Along the side of the building in the alleyway, there's an exit door.  On the wall outside the door is this graffiti.  

352/365

Lake Path

It was a beautiful day today, temp was 70, just a little warmer than usual in December in Texas. 

There's a lake near where I live called Kirby Lake.  A lot a people fish there.  This is a path at one end of the lake that curls around the upper part of the shore.  It's closed to traffic, but not to foot-traffic.  

It's almost Christmas so the grasses are brown.  The sky was really blue, but doesn't look like it in the photo.  

351/365

Row of Decorated Trees

Downtown Abilene~~a row of trees decorated with lights for the Christmas season.

I'm never downtown after dark, they probably look really nice once the sun goes down.

350/365

Ft. Chadbourne Hospital Remains

Ft. Chadbourne is located in Coke County, Texas with the intention of protecting the western frontier and the Butterfield Overland mail route.  Although many of the buildings on the site have been renovated and remodeled back to their original forms, this structure, which was once the hospital building, is still in its desecrated condition.

The hospital originally had 3 rooms, and the floor was dirt.  

There were supposed to be 5 barrack structures for the soldiers, but by the time the 2nd barrack was constructed, water ran out and it wasn't feasible to continue the construction.

349/365

Snowman Family~~downtown Abilene

There's a small park on one of the corners in downtown Abilene.  This snowman family decorates the park with greetings of happy smiles.  

This is a well-traveled area of the town, so more people can see the happy family.  Last year this display was in another park a few blocks away, but probably wasn't seen by as many people.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

348/365

Decor in a Coffee Shop

My fave coffee shop has a wall that separates one seating section from another and on the back side of the wall are these 4 portraits.  

No names, but the photos are retro and are so sweet to look at.  Young people today will never know the joy of looking back at old photos of their family and friends.

Very sad.

347/365

Church Choir performance

My church puts on a Christmas performance each year.  This is the first time I've been to one since I've been in Texas.  It was absolutely spectacular.  Their voices are wonderful and the director did a great job putting the production together.  

This is only a small portion of the adult choir that I was able to get without getting too much unimportant "stuff" if I tried to get the entire group.  There was a children's choir as well as a few living scenes of the Christmas story.

I'm so glad I attended this production this afternoon.

346/365

Motel Backyard in Eastland

My friend and I decided to take a ride to Eastland and we stopped in the coffee shop that's on the lower level of a motel.  There's this beautiful pool in the backyard along with a couple of BBQ grills, changing rooms and bathrooms.  There was a pool cleaner in the water doing its work and of course there wasn't anyone swimming at this point in the year, but it's still a great place.  

Almost makes me want to take a little vacation to this place in the warm weather just for a short get-away.  Probably won't happen, but it's a nice thought..

345/365

Back Alley Entrance

Walking down a back ally, there was this entrance to a business.  A guarded window, electric boxes and a locked set of doors.  Late day sun casting sideway shadows.

344/365

Grey Home

This is a second home on a piece of property in Putnam, Texas.  It looks pretty shabby right now, but I wonder if it was someone's forever home once upon a time.  The windows were boarded up on the inside so there was no looking in to see what it was like.  

So sad to see these structures go to wrack and ruin.

343/365

Abandoned Old Home

Another abandoned structure in Eastland, Texas.  The door was unlocked and I was able to get a few images of the inside of the structure~~part of the ceiling was ripped open, there was trash on the floor and there was even an upright vacuum cleaner in the rooms.

It looks like it must have been a nice home once upon a time.

342/365

Vacant Gas Station

This structure is located in Eastland, Texas.  It must have been a gas station once upon a time, but now it's just abandoned and unused.  The door was locked and the office inside was a mess. 

Who pays the taxes on these places?

341/365

Advent Candle

This past Sunday was the second week for the Advent Candle.  On the way out of the sanctuary I was able to get a photo of the arrangement with the two candles burning.

I love the Advent adventure.

Two more weeks and then Christmas Eve.  Praise God for His blessings.

340/365

Abandoned Mobil Home

This mobil home is located in a locked-fenced yard that's overgrown and appears to have been abandoned for a long time.  It looks like it might have been a nice home structure once upon a time, but it certainly isn't right now.  

339/365

Habitat for Humanity

While driving around I saw this house being renovated for Habitat for Humanity.  I knew the organization was in Abilene, but I never knew where any of the structures were located.  

I was able to go inside and see the layout.  It looked like there would be 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in addition to kitchen, laundry room, living room and other space.  There was also a nice big back yard.  

338/365

Wall Art on Abandoned Building

It was really nice today~~a little cool, but not bad if you're dressed for the coolness.  I took a drive along some roads I've never been on before and found this structure. The door to the left of the word "crown" (not in the photo) was locked tight and there were only some small windows that were covered over on the inside.  

What was this building?  How do people pay the taxes on a completely unused building? 

I'll probably never know.

337/365

Church Christmas Tree

My church has two of these trees, so beautifully decorated, on the stage at the front of the sanctuary.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of one today, but I only had my phone, so the quality isn't quite as good as I had hoped it would be.  

Beautiful just the same.

336/365

Cow Painting

When I was in Dublin, Texas last week, I saw these painted windows on an abandoned building.  

Looks like there's a sports team at the high school that needs some encouragement.

336/365

Abandoned bldg in Baird

I've had a cold for the past 4 days and it's wiped me out.  No energy so I'm behind posting pics.  I'll try to catch up before the end of the month.

Today the weather was beautiful, I think the high was 70, so I went for a drive.  I wound up in Baird and was walking down some of the side streets when I came upon this abandoned bldg.  I have no idea what the building was originally used for, but there it sits, empty.

335/365

West Texas Rodeo

I love taking photos at rodeos.  This pic is from the rodeo  a few months ago.  

334/365

Mom and her Mom

It was a cold 31 degrees this morning.  I still haven't exchanged my summer clothes for my winter clothes, so I just bit the bullet with what I had at my is disposal and was cold all day.

I also was completely uninspired about taking a photo today, so I found this image of my mother and her mother when they lived in the Bronx.   This might be the only photo I have of the two of them together so I really cherish it.

333/365

Dublin Sodas

I took a ride today  because the weather was beautiful and tomorrow is supposed to be much colder.  I went to Dublin, which is about 1.5 hours from here.  The population is a little less than 4,000, some of the streets were closed off for construction and many of the store fronts were abandoned.

But what's there and functioning is cute.  This picture advertising Dublin sodas was on one of the bill boards and I took a close-up of it.

332/365

Business Wall in Dublin

A business wall in Dublin, Texas.  The population of Dublin in 2020 was 3,359.  Dublin is the home of the world's largest Dr. Pepper bottling plant.

331/365

Vacant Structure

An abandoned building, maybe a store at one time, in a small town in central Texas.

 

330/365

Metal Tree against Business Wall

In Coleman, Texas there's a business with a long outside wall and this metal tree is set against the wall as decor.  It's really unique.  I couldn't help taking a photo of  it.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. SO MUCH to be thankful for!! but this is going to be one of the most quiet holidays for me that I've had in a long time.  My daughter's family went to their friend's house today for a meal and on Thursday they're doing nothing.  She's not cooking. She has a baby that's only a few months old plus 4 others under 7.5 years, so I know she needs the day to just chill and enjoy being with her husband.  

I'll have to figure out what to do with myself even though I'm actually looking forward to spending the day alone.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL.

329/365

Vines on Building

In downtown Abilene there's an old train station that's been for sale for as long as I've been in town.  It's a beautiful historic building but lately the windows and doors have been covered over with plywood, which diminishes the look of it quite a bit.  There's an old door and some vines still visible and I thought they looked really good in the late afternoon sun today.  I wish someone would purchase the building and refurbish it to its former glory. 

328/365

Loading Zone

One of the businesses in Coleman has this doorway and No Parking sign on the exterior wall.  

I think the business is closed, but the sign is still there.

327/365

Cartoons in Windows

In Coleman, Texas there's a building that has small windows up on the second floor and each of the windows has a cartoon of a farm animal in it.  There are probably 7 or 8 windows and it's really cute to see all the animals peeking out.

326/365

Abilene State Park Pond

I decided to take a ride to the state park this morning.  In all the times I've gone to the park, I've never seen the water in the pond this low.  It's a total surprise since we've had more rain this summer than in the past 5 summers, so what's the deal????

325/365

Cactus Mural

In Coleman, Texas there is a mural on the outside wall of a business that's all cactus and flowers.  It's really beautiful and it faces a large parking lot.  Everyone who parks there can see this beautiful artwork.

324/365

Abandoned Country Road House

My friend and I were taking a drive to Coleman, Texas and we saw this abandoned house on a back road.  There was a fence with a locked gate, so, sadly, we couldn't get any closer to it.

323/365

Monk's Fireplace

My fave coffee shop just underwent a slight remodel.  These flames were painted in the fireplace.  The photo was originally in color, but I tried it in bw and I liked it, so there you go.

322/365

Grinch Christmas

On my way to my fave coffee shop today, I noticed that someone was painting the windows of the shops across the street.  It isn't even Thanksgiving yet, and Christmas scenes are being painted on windows. 

The artist was painting, so I stopped to talk to her.  She was doing a great job so I had to get some photos of her work.

321/365

Round Window and Stump

There's a building in downtown Abilene that has some round windows instead of square or rectangular windows.  I saw this tree stump near the window and thought it would make a nice random image, so here it is. 

320/365

Looking Up

While walking around in downtown Abilene, I saw this fire escape and one of the prompts came to mind.  It was "looking up", so I tried it and I like the way it turned out.

319/365

Rocky zoo enclosure

The Cisco Zoo in Cisco, Texas is open to the public.  Some of the animal enclosures are still visible and it's easy to see how the animals were on display.  The Zoo was opened in 1920 and closed around 1930 when two animals were mysteriously poisoned.  

Now there is a walking trail that's about 1.25 miles through the old zoo area and it's a great place to go to spend some time outdoors, especially if there are children with lots of energy and curiosity.

318/365

Bricks

These bricks are seen within one of the old enclosures in the Cisco Zoo.  The Zoo was opened in 1920 and closed about 10 years later after two of the animals were mysteriously poisoned.

There's a walking trail around the old zoo grounds now and it's a great place to go for a day out especially if there are little kiddos who would love an adventure.

317/365

Cisco Zoo

This zoo opened in 1920 and was open for about 10 years.  It closed after two of the animals were mysteriously poisoned.  

Now there's a walking trail around the grounds and it's a great place to go to spend some time out doors.