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Shakelford County Courthouse 2

This beautiful building is the Shakelford County Courthouse located in Albany, Texas.  The photo was taken on a winter day, so the grass is brown and the trees are bare although there's a beautiful blue sky in the background. 

When the trees are in bloom it's much harder to see the structure.  There's a pretty gazebo in the yard at the corner of the courthouse building and off to the right side of the building near the sidewalk there are two stone tablets with the 10 Commandments on them.

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Rural Mailboxes

Hmmm, wonder how many of these mailboxes are in use.  They look kind of abandoned.  There is a number on one of them that I removed, but the others look not so good.

For some reason, I love these mailbox groups when I see them.

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Hiking Boot in Snow

While in Fairbanks, AK, I went to Pioneer Village one day.  I was adjusting my camera to see if it was focusing ok and I took this shot of my hiking boot.  For some crazy reason, I really like this shot. It might not say what venue I'm at, but it sure says I'm in winter weather.

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New York State Capitol Building

This incredibly beautiful building is the New York State Capitol Building in Albany, New York.  The city of Albany is the state capital.

Construction took 32 years and was completed in 1899.  It was constructed by hand and cost $25 million.  It is part of the Empire State Plaza and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

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Downtown Church

A high key winter image of a church in Abilene, Texas.  

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Concho County Courthouse

This beautiful courthouse is the Concho County Courthouse located in Paint Rock, Texas.  I'm glad I had the chance to photograph it today, since once the trees leaf out, this view of the building wouldn't be possible.  

The building was built in 1886 and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.  It was built of limestone in the Second Empire Style.

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Roadside Mailboxes

Barely hanging on.

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Bare Winter Trees

A tree line along a service road not far outside of Abilene, Texas.

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Headstone

On the way home from our photo journey today we stopped at a cemetery and spent some time there looking for military headstones.

It was quite a large cemetery. We only searched one corner of it for stones that were of military members.  Sadly we also saw some headstones of babies, some who died at birth, some who were months old, some who were around two.   The heartbreak that the parents endured must have been awful.

When I saw this stone I cried...and I honestly couldn't speak for a few minutes when I saw the others.

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Large Pond

Texas trivia: 

 There is only ONE natural lake in Texas but this is not it.

Although there are over 7,000 lakes in the state, only Caddo Lake in east Texas is natural.

In comparison, NY state has over 7,000 natural fresh water lakes.

Alaska has 3,197 named lakes and about 3 million un-named lakes.

A friend and I took a photo field trip today.  We were driving down a service road along one of the main highways looking for a photo op.  We stopped to photograph something else, but when I turned around I saw this partially frozen pond.  The temp was about 36 today, but in the previous days it had been in the teens and I guess it wasn't warm enough today to melt all the surface ice.

049/365

Structure at Pioneer Park

This log cabin structure is located within the gates of Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, Alaska. 

It's currently shuttered during the winter, but is still an imposing building.

I liked the red sign on the otherwise brown building.

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Lone Tree

My photo club assigned topic for Jan was Lone Tree.  It was difficult to find a "lone" tree that looked interesting, so I just scrapped the topic and entered other photos.

The Jan meeting was canceled for some reason that didn't make sense to me and rescheduled for another month, so I guess I have another chance to enter that topic.  While walking around downtown Fairbanks, I saw this tree, and others, that were separated enough from other foliage to fit the topic.  

I thought this tree looked beautiful, so I tried to capture it, but there are still buildings and cars showing.

Really......it's just a snow covered fir tree, nothing special so I'm not sure I'll enter it.

I just think it's pretty against the gorgeous blue sky on a cold winter day.

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Unknown First Family Sculpture

This beautiful sculpture of a native unknown first family is located in 

the Golden Heart Plaza park in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska.

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Museum of the North~~University of Alaska, Fairbanks

This beautiful building is the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.  It's a gorgeous building and I've taken many photos of it in various seasons.  The large bricks are intended to mimic bricks that an igloo is made of.  

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A Hand Up

This sculpture is located in a park in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska.  A Hand Up is a tribute to Walter Harper, a 20 year old Athabascan who was the first person to reach the peak of Denali, the highest peak in North America in 1913.

He's seen offering his hand to help others reach the peak.

The sculpture was created by Gary Lee Price.

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Mid-Afternoon on a Winter Day

A cold, crisp winter day.  The scene looks fake to me, but it's real.  Almost too pretty to be true.

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Snow on Dirty White Fence

The fence might be dirty white, but I think the scene is pretty.  

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Sauna in Snow

Winter scene of a portable sauna and an outhouse in a snowy back yard.

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Railroad Bridge

I took a side road the other day and came across this railroad bridge.  This isn't a common sight here where I live because everything is so flat so I couldn't resist making an image of it.  

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Damaged Mailbox 

This mailbox is on the street for a house that's been abandoned for as long as I've lived here (and probably for many years before I arrived).  

Apparently, from the little bit I know about it, the house was built by the husband for the wife, but then the marriage didn't work out for some reason. 

The last time I saw the mailbox, it was in better shape, but not so much now.