064/365

BW Abandoned Business

In a small town in Texas there's a single block where the business are abandoned and in bad disrepair.

This building had an upstairs but there's no evidence of the 2nd floor left except the indication on the wall.

63/365

Car Dealership?

I've seen this type of building in many towns, but they've all been abandoned or used for some other business.  Wonder what they were originally.  Kind of looks like a car dealership or car repair place.  In any event, they're interesting.

This building is located in Paint Rock, Texas, Concho County.

062/365

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.

061/365

Downtown Church

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

060/365

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.

059/365

Woman on Billboard

This billboard is located in north Abilene, Texas.  I can't remember what the billboard is advertising, but it probably is for some woman's cause.  I thought it was interesting and I really liked it when I cropped the words and the woman.

058/365

Painted Fish

This  painted fish is seen on an outside wall of an abandoned 

tackle shop in north Abilene, Texas.

057/365

Roadside Mailboxes

Barely hanging on.

056/365

Drinking Soda

I was wandering around a part of town I don't usually go to with a friend and we came upon a barely used Mexican restaurant.  It had this poster on one of the outside walls.  It's obviously old and worn, but I love the faded look of it.  

055/365

A Building Renovation

This might have been a school once upon a time.  Not sure, but it's been under renovation for many years.  It's seems like it's almost done and it's really beautiful but I don't know what the finished structure will be.  

I think it's really beautiful.

054/365

Gear Sculpture

This gear sculpture is just outside an electric company that has a beautiful mural on the wall on the south side of downtown Abilene.  

53/365

Retro mailboxes in a Retro Post Office

Small town Texas post office with these beautiful mailboxes inside the lobby area.

52/365

Bare Winter Trees

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

51/365

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.

50/365

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.

048/365

Grace Museum Advertisements

There's a museum in downtown Abilene, Texas called The Grace.  It's a wonderful little museum and there's a playroom for the littles on the top floor that's quite impressive.

Outside and behind the building is this wall of advertising and to the left there's a parking area for guests.

I just thought this was really good looking so one day I made several images.  I like the others I took, but this is the one you get to see.

047/365

Backyard Sauna

Seen in the backyard of a home in the hills just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska on a cold winter's day.

046/365

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.

045/365

Chasing Aurora

There was an incredible display of the Aurora lights last night.  My camera was acting funny so I missed some really good images, but I'm happy with what I got.

044/365

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.

043/365

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.  

042/365

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.

041/365

Full Moon

I noticed this full moon surrounded by snow covered tress and a bare birch tree.  I made this image with my phone camera.  It looks ok as a small image, but enlarging it shows that it was a substandard camera and not my SLR.  It's still a pretty scene.

040/365

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.

039/365

Snow on Dirty White Fence

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

038/365

Sauna in Snow

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

037/365

Trees and Snow

There are times when I think I should live in the north again and take advantage of snowy scenics.  Then I come to my senses.  

036/365

Broken Window Glass

A pane of glass seen on an abandoned building.

035/365

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.  

034/365

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.

033/365

Curbside

This is the ONLY good thing to have come out of the covid debacle.  If stores already didn't offer curbside shopping, they began during the alleged pandemic.  

I HATE to shop.  Always have and always will, so this curbside shopping is just the thing.

032/365

Abandoned School Library

Today is Feb 1 and I've managed to post a photo a day for the full month of January.

Now I just have to be as dedicated for the month of February.

This appears to be the library of the abandoned school building in Putnam, Texas.  

It almost seems that one day the kids were in school in this building and the next day they were elsewhere.  

I wish I could find the back-story about this place.

031/365

Abandoned High School Building

This is the old High School Building in Putnam, Texas.  Putnam is a very small town in Callahan County, Texas.  The 2023 population was 68.  Students now attend high school in Baird, Texas.

The author of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", Larry King, came from Putnam.  

In 1919 the graduating class consisted of 3 students. 

Looking in through the front door, you can still see folding chairs and portable tables stacked in the hallway along with a large bulletin board with the school logo and 

"Go Panthers" encouragements. 

A room that must have been the library still has bookshelves with books on them. 

Even though I searched the internet for a short while, I couldn't located information about when the school closed.

030/365

Sculpture at the Museum

When I was in the museum in Albany, Texas, one of the curators said it was ok to take photos as long as I didn't use flash.  Well, that worked fine for me since the room had a lot of light from the windows and my camera can shoot in a small amount of light anyway.

I saw this sculpture.  I'm not a fan of this type of art, but I made an image of it anyway.  I didn't read the description, but it looks like a scythe with a heart at the end of it.  hmmmm

Wonder what it's supposed to represent?

029/365

Shakelford County Courthouse

This beautiful structure is located in Albany, Texas and sits right along the Main Street of the town.  The trees are bare and the grass is brown since it's a winter photo of the courthouse.  The two stone tables to the right of the foreground of the image contain the 10 Commandments. 

028/365

100% Pure Love

Another alleyway scene.  Sweet graffiti on a red brick wall with one window showing.

027/365

Brick Wall and Palletes

Another scene from an alley in downtown Abilene, Texas.  

026/365

Kids Running Logo

I was walking around downtown Abilene yesterday in an area I don't usually walk in and I came across this sign for a Day Care Center. It's such a happy looking sign and I was able to photograph it without the words which were on the bottom of the sign.

It's been a very quiet day.  I went to church this morning, then home.  I read a little and am now watching TV as I write this blog.  It's 49 degrees right now (I should be outside doing something more constructive than just sitting in front of the TV-sigh) and it will be 72 by Sat. I'll have to figure out something interesting to do outside by the end of the week. 

025/365

Two Figurines

I went to Albany, Texas today and my friend and I went into the museum.  There was a room with Asian artifacts and I thought these figures were interesting.  

Surprisingly they said I could take pics as long as I didn't use flash. Great!!

I made several images and I'll scatter them through the coming days.

024/365

Abandoned Downtown Business

For as long as I've lived here, this place has looked exactly like this.  Abandoned and nothing has changed one bit.  I don't know what it was when it was an active business.  

There is little-to-no foot traffic in this location, but once upon a time there must have been.

Very curious.

023/365

Dining Room Decor

I was at a friend's house today for a meeting.  I needed a photo for today when I realized this display case would make the perfect image.  

How beautiful is this?

022/365

Circles and Diamonds

021/365

Railroad Crossing Sign

A close-up of a railroad crossing sign in downtown Abilene, Texas. The sign is on a corner in front of an abandoned building.

020/365

Oil Lantern

A friend of mine on the "prepare spectrum" gave me this oil lantern for Christmas.  

I've always loved these lanterns and I just love that he thought of this for me.  I got the oil and matches to go with it.  I might just use it some night for a night light while watching TV.  Otherwise, it sits on my mantle offering security in case the electric goes off for some reason.

I watched the inauguration of President Trump and Vice-President Vance this morning with my Republican Women group.  In my entire life I've never watched an inauguration.  This one was great~~a new and exciting chapter in American History.

Praise God!!!

019/365

Downtown Abstract

One of the buildings in downtown Abilene has this decor on one of its outside walls.  I'm not a fan of abstract, but for some reason I love this.  It looks good and it's a great place to do high school senior photos. 

There's actually a sign for handicapped parking which I removed for the sake of the image.

Went to church this morning, then back home.  I worked on a quilt for a little while. 

 It was about 19 degrees this morning and is only about 32 now. 

 It will be in the mid 50s by the middle of the week thankfully.

018/365

Graffiti Face on Wall

There's an area of downtown where there are a few businesses, some abandoned buildings and very little foot traffic.  This artwork is on the side of one of the empty buildings.  I've made images of it before, but never as a close-up. 

 "Close-up" is one of the prompts on my list, so this is what I got.  

Any closer and it might have turned into an abstract, which I didn't want.

January 18th is "National Winnie the Pooh Day"

017/365

Pink Famingos

As you first enter the Abilene, Texas zoo there's a location where there are pink flamingos.  They're so beautiful and it's fun to watch them in this environment.  

They were pretty active since the air temp was about 55 and it was near feeding time.  

016/365

Cheetah at the Zoo

Even though the holidays are over and all the decorations have been taken down at the local zoo, I decided to go there because the weather was so beautiful and I thought the animals might be a little more active because of the coolers temps.  

This Cheetah was walking around its enclosure and then it finally settled high up on the rock formation.  I was able to get an image that pretty much blurred out the bars.

Just gorgeous!

015/365

Circles of Wood

While walking downtown the other day I came across a pick-up truck with these cut pieces of tree trunk.  The perfect shot for the photo-prompt of "circles". 

I found some other "circle" photos, but they aren't half as interesting as this one.