Turn the Other Way....

Back in early spring, we headed down to Bulverde, TX, for a soccer game.

Bulverde is a small rural town, north of San Antonio.

That city does seem to be creeping closer and closer, though.

There is still some country left, out where the soccer fields are.

We turned right, instead of left, leaving the fields, 

and came across this little old farmhouse.

The stacked stone fence just called out to be photographed.

But, this old stone building was what first caught my eye.

Was it a house?  Was it a barn?

And, look at that old buckboard wagon.

I'm not sure what it USED to be.

But, it's a keeper now.

Well taken care of...even the same turquoise shutters, as the farmhouse.

You just never know what you'll find, if you just turn the other way.

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I'm linking to Madge's

Thanks for dropping by...
~~Linda~~

Cross Over the Bridge...

On our drive up to 

Grand Teton National Park,

we passed under a few of these.

It's a 

Wildlife Bridge.

You see those fences along the sides of the road?

They're pretty tall.  And, they funnel the wildlife...

deer, elk, moose....whatever....

up to the bridge.

These make it safer for the wildlife to cross the road.

Saves many of their lives, and probably many humans' lives as well.

Pretty clever.

I'm linking to Madge's

Hop over and visit.
Thanks for dropping by... ~~Linda~~

Moulton Barn....

On Mormon Row, 

at Grand Teton National Park.

This was the last week in June.

Imagine living out here in winter, over a hundred years ago.

Now...that's Rural.

I'm linking with Madge, over at

Thanks for dropping by...
~~Linda~~

Barn in Colorado....

On a recent trip to Wyoming, we came back home through

Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

We passed this great barn, along the way.

I just had to have some fun with textures.

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Textures: 

 Kim Klassen 'touch of-2,

Nancy Claey 'Deanna'

Shadowhouse 'Raggedy And'

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I'm linking to:

Thanks for dropping by... ~~Linda~~

Sunset on the Mountain....

Recently, Mr P and I visited our daughter and her family in 

Pinedale, Wyoming.

It's a small town, in a beautiful place.

One evening, when heading back to our B&B,

we noticed the sun, putting on quite a show as it was leaving.

Of course, we had to go to watch the show.

As we drove down a lane, on the outskirts of town,  we noticed there was a storm up on the mountains, to the east.

It was dropping rain, or maybe even snow.

Whichever, the sun was turning it amazing colors.

The orange and gold of the western sky, was turned to pinks and purples,

to the east.

I'm so glad we were in this spot, at this moment.

"Nature is the art of God."

~Dante Alighieri

Thanks for dropping by...

~~Linda~~

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I'm linking to Madge's

Losing It....

Well...it's been busy around here.

Lots of outside work.

A little inside work.

We had a great Easter.

I hope you did, too.

And, we finally got some rain.  Still not enough.
But, we'll take what we can get.

We had hundreds of American Goldfinches come through last week.

Mr. P was lucky enough to get this shot.

***********

On Monday, I turned on my computer, and things were strange.

My desktop was all rearranged.

The wallpaper was set back to a default Toshiba one.

And,

ALL MY PHOTOS WERE GONE!!

GONE!!

To say I was unhappy about it, would be a VAST understatement.

Nobody seems to know what happened.

But, not all is lost

I blog.

In fact, I have THREE blogs.
 And, Blogger stores uploaded photos 

on Picasa Web Albums.

And, I also use a couple more online photo storage places.

Plus...

when we got the new laptop, we couldn't sync it with the old one.

So, I burned CDs, to transfer photos.

Whew....saved a lot of grief.  

We did lose a lot of photos taken since then, that weren't posted or stored somewhere.

Learned my lesson....again.

BACK UP YOUR FILES!!

***********

So, since I lost all my recent Rural photos,

I dug into some saved ones, and found something that might work.

This is a very rural area in southern Arizona.

I took it while we drove along, on our way back from California last fall.

Saguaro cactus is so cool.  They have to be quite old, to have so many arms.

This one looks quite lonely.

But, there was a lot of different greenery, keeping it company.

***********

Be sure to visit Madge's

Thanks for dropping by...
~~Linda~~

A Little Rusty....

It's a short trip from this house, to Rural.

Along the back roads, there are places that have been there for many years.

And then, you'll see some thing that was just put there, 

and left.  Maybe they just didn't know what else to do with it.

For instance, an old truck.

Sometimes, you see old trucks and equipment sitting out front, as a sort of decoration.

I'm pretty sure this one isn't for decoration.  Parked behind bales of hay,

and stuck behind bushes.

Maybe it still runs.  Some would say it needs a paint job.
I happen to like that rust.

We almost missed it, and had to turn around and go back for a photo.

Another International.

That must have been a popular truck brand, in it's day.

If we ever finish getting the weeding done around here,

we need to get out and search for more Rural Beauty.

In the mean time, be sure to check out Madge's

Thanks for dropping by...

~~Linda~~

Signs...Signs...

Another week.

Another chance to show off some of the rural areas around here,

and some interesting barns.

We recently took a ride on 

Fischer Store Road.

The name comes from just the way it sounds....

it goes to Fischer's store.

It's still a small community.

The store is still there, and there's Fischer Hall,

used as an event venue.

But first, we came upon this great building.

I'll call it a barn.  Not really sure if it is more than display area for some 

neat, old advertising signs.

It didn't hurt, that it had this great old

International truck.

What is it about old trucks, and people with cameras?

We do seem to like to take their portraits.

A little profile.

And, straight on.

That rust.

That lovely color of green.

Even without a bumper....she's a beauty.

You just never know what you'll find, driving along those back roads.

*******

I'm linking up with Tricia at

and Madge at

Be sure to visit them, for more rural fun.

Thanks for dropping by...

~~Linda~~

Showing It's Mettle.....

Well...in this case, it's more like

METAL.

In fact....TIN.

I'm not sure if this is a barn, or some kind of garage.

Most barns are closed on all sides.
This one was ready for driving equipment right in.

A bit overgrown.  So, I'm not sure it's still being used.

It served it's purpose for me....

it's barn-like and rural.

So, I'm linking up to
Tricia's

and Madge's

Be sure to visit them to see more.

Thanks for dropping by...
~~Linda~~

Texture Tuesday...Anything Goes...

This week, for 

Texture Tuesday,

Kim is letting us post any photo....textured or not.

I chose a photo of a Whitewing Dove, from last summer.

I added two of Kim's textures...

1402 Magic 

and, Yesteryear.

I wiped the Yesteryear texture off the dove.

Then, I applied a PSE effect...Old Paper.

Turned out pretty good.

Be sure to visit Kim for more

Thanks for dropping by...

~~Linda~~

The original... 

Limestone Country....

We have a lot of country roads around here.

Not much farming, on this side of the Interstate.

This is Hill Country.

There's a thin layer of clay, over LOTS of limestone.

There are some farms, though.

Several lavender farms have been doing pretty well around here.

Apparently, lavender does well on thin, arid soil.

And, vineyards.  Grapes like it here, too.

But, mostly you'll see ranches....cattle, goats....even Alpacas.

That's what this appears to be....a ranch of some sort.

There's a barn here.

See it peeking out back there?

But, this is why we turned around for a photo.

The old, falling down fence.

(We call these Coyote fences here...made from cedar limbs, wired together.)

The old cistern.

And, that great stone building.

Around here, you usually see a windmill beside a cistern.

But, looks like this is hooked up to power.

So, there must be a pump in there.

But, what was the building for?

The roof seems to be gone.  But, it looks like a nice size for something.

Wish I had it here.  I could certainly use it.

Oh, and that green at the top of the fence?
That's Prickly Pear Cactus.  They grow really well (too well?),
and really big here.

I'm linking up today with Tricia's 

And, Madge's

Be sure to visit them, for more rural beauties.

Thanks for dropping by... ~~Linda~~

Photo Art Friday....Vintage....

Photo Art Friday, 

again...already.

Is it just me?  Or, is time speeding by?

This week, Bonnie asked us to do something

Vintage.

This is my take on the subject.

This old mailbox, is in front of the old, deserted house, from my last post.

I cloned out the mail inside the box.

Wonder just how long it has been there?

Then, I added Bonnie's textures...

'Brown Rice Paper', and 'Yesteryear'.

And, I put a frame from Photoscape.

It looks pretty 

Vintage.

See more photo art at

Thanks for dropping by...
~~Linda~~

The original...