James Edward Flanders online publication

Yesterday I completed the online publication version of the research on James Edward Flanders I've been engaged in off-and-on for the last 25 years or so. Acknowledgements and notes are not yet published. For those of you that don't know, he was an ancestor. He was my great-great-grandfather's brother. (Mom remembered him and used to call him uncle Jim.)

The picture above is a Flanders architectural drawing from about 1909. The subject is the Los Flanders Apartments on the corner of Jackson and Pearl streets in Dallas. The house to the left is his house.

Flanders can be called Dallas' first architect (click on the picture and read the page) and he was a prominent architect throughout the state. He is of interest to many people in the field of Texas history and many of them have encouraged me and helped me on the project.

I suggest that family members read the introduction and perhaps the brief chapter on the Texas State Fair to get an idea of who this man was. You may also want to take a look at Chapter Eight on churches. He designed over 125 of them and many are still around.

The Deck Addition

The main part of the construction is done. There's still quite a bit of finish work to do. It turned out to be a 55 sq. ft. addition. I found a good place for the big stained glass window that's been in the gazebo. (The striped floor is a combination of "old wood", "new wood".)

The Deck Gets Bigger - - Again

It's not a big addition but it does take the east side of the upper deck from an awkward, almost unusable, 6X10 to a much more comfortable 10X10. It may even go to 10X12 if I decide to cantilever a couple more feet onto it.

Youngest Willi at Wildernest

Caro and Lefty are buds. He follows wherever she calls. Even out to the gazebo and back.

Ren - patiently getting peach samples while waiting for the ice cream to freeze.

Ren and Caro at the turkey pen at the farm where we usually buy eggs.

One of the turkeys that lives in the turkey pen.

Picking blackberries. We got about six pounds in the bucket, two pounds in the mouths, and half a pound on Caro's shirt.

Walking back from the pond

We took a walk to the pond to check out the hog trap. It was empty. Then you always have to stand out on the pier.

This is Ren's target practice leaf. He's pretty good!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

A lot of hummer activity! They are emptying two feeders every other day. I was able to get six of them in this picture!

Why We Fight

This is a 2005 Sundance documentary winner. In 1961, outgoing President Eisenhower used his last address to the American people to warn them about the dangers of what he called the military-industrial complex. He explained why it was there in the first place - it was new then - and what it would likely become if it was allowed to. This film tells about the failure to acknowledge that warning and how it's changed our country forever. (John McCain is one of the people interviewed.)

Homegrown Tomatoes

Since you looked at the picture you have to listen to the song - Homegrown Tomatoes by Guy Clark! The You Tube file has no video so you'll just have to remember what my picture looks like as you listen. (Click on the title)

Surfside Beach (This is a link)

Glynda went to visit Aaron this week. He's now in Rosharon, south of Houston, after the visit we drove the 25-30 miles to the beach and got our feet wet.

After dinner (a great red snapper) we returned to the beach and walked out to the end of the jetty. It's a looong way to the end and a lot of sights along the way.

Did you see the movie "Winged Migration"? The great shots in that movie were the ones where it looked like the photographer was actually flying along with the birds. I made this shot from an elevated deck and there were a flock of gulls just hovering in the strong incoming wind. Some times we were actually close enough to touch them.

And I really like this picture! Double click to enlarge it and look at the waves in the background. The sun was setting and just hitting the tops of the waves as they broke.

Sunday - Picture #14

With "sprinkles"

Saturday - Picture #13

Friday - Picture #12

I totally blew the one-picture-a-day thing today! The macho squirrel came to the bird feeder this morning while we were still eating breakfast on the deck. He and I got very closely acquainted over the next 15-20 minutes and I got lots of good shots (57 total including the not-so-good ones). There are a wide variety of characteristics in them and the shot above kinda pulls together the best features of lighting, composition, and pose. It was shot #53. (There's a slideshow of some of the other shots over to the right.)

Thursday - Picture #11

Wednesday - Picture #10

Or - how to get a new lawn at half price. I'm not happy with this one but today's a day when the photograph is second priority - getting sod down came first but it was creating an interesting pattern. It's just too bad I didn't have some of those really big chess pieces!

Tuesday - Picture #9

I'm staging another one today. It's 4:00 and I don't have a good idea for another one and it's a bit hot for walking around trying to find one. This one serves a documentary purpose too. Homemade bread, homemade dewberry jelly, and homemade strawberry jam! Glynda's been busy.

Monday - Picture #8

You can't take just one shot of a hummer and plan on getting it right. Often they're gone before you can react. I did set-up the camera on a tripod for this and took several bursts of 3-5 shots each. He hasn't quite reached the feeder yet and the wings are almost stopped in the picture.

Sunday - Picture #7

This is Sunday so I'm taking the easy picture. But really none of these are easy. It's hard to say "This picture I'm about to take is the best picture of this that I can take". I'm usually not able to do that and I end up taking two or three and use the best one.