Coming home from Clifton on Hwy 6, I found a couple of interesting rural scenes. This was an old windmill in a field.
This was an old harvester and tractor in a field.
And, passing through Valley Mills, I saw this Blacksmith Shop.
I went back to Clifton on Sunday because I saw some things on Wednesday that I wanted to get pictures of. One of those was more of the details of the Bosque County Merchantile Building. This is the front of the building (actually,the building spans the block and there are entrances on both sides).
These are some of the doors that I thought looked interesting, and these are the others.
The last place I stopped in Clifton was the old Santa Fe Railroad depot.
I mentioned in my last post that we went to Clifton a couple days ago, and I saw some things that I wanted to go back to get pictures of. I went back yesterday, and driving through town found some really interesting old buildings and places that made some fine images. The first of those was the Dansby Feed Mill.
Walking around it, I found lots to shoot. These are the old doors on the main building.
There was another building there that appeared to be an office. The windows were boarded up, but it wasn’t with plywood, it was with sheet metal.
Across the street, there was an alley with a sign that said “Artist’s Alley” so I walked down it. This was a doorway in that alley.
I went to the Doctor on Tuesday for a checkup. While there, in the waiting room, I saw a magazine about Bosque County. There were all kinds of things in it, but I saw that there is a Bosque County Art Center in Clifton. So, I decided we needed to go see what it was like. Debbie and I drove up there yesterday and spent the morning there. The Art Center was quite nice. They had a large number of pieces of many different types of display for their permanent collection. They also had a room of photography. I found out that there is a Photography Guild associated with the Art Center. So, we joined the Art Center and the Guild.
After that, we drove around. I found a couple of interesting places for photographs. The first was two old stone buildings on the grounds of the fair and rodeo complex.
As we were driving through town, another building caught my eye. It is apparently actually the back of the Bosque County Mercantile.
As I was processing the images, I thought those green doors really look interesting. Also, on the way home, I saw some other things I want to get. So, I am planning another trip to Clifton real soon.
The final stop on the cruise was Aruba. Aruba is another Dutch island. Where Curacao was well developed for tourists, Aruba was more rugged, but had some spectacular resort beaches. We tok a tour of the island that took us from Oranjestad in the South to the Northern coast. There, we went to a “Natural Rock Bridge” that was a rugged, rocky coast.
This was not at all what I expected, as I have more or less thought, because of all the resorts that it would be mostly hotels and beaches
The third stop was Curacao. We docked in Willemstad. Curacao is a dutch island off the coast of Venezuela. The buildings were all inspired by Dutch tradition. Walking from the ship to town you are forced to walk through an old fort, and this was looking through an opening they used to fire canons from.
In that picture, you can see a bridge going over the inlet. This is a “Swinging” bridge, in that it actually pivots to allow boat traffic to pass by.
The second stop on our cruise was La Romana on the southern side of the Dominican Republic. The tour we took there went to Altos de Chavon, an village/compound of artists. 
This was an amphitheater. We were told that there were regular performances here. There were lots of flowering trees and plants, and there were more butterflies that I an have ever seen before. This is a Gulf Fritillary.
The buildings were all stone and adobe. I was struck by the contrast of materials – wood, stone, adobe, metal – and textures and lines in this wall.
We took a cruise last week. The ship sailed out of Fort Lauderdale, and the first stop was Grand Turk Island. This is a picture of ship from the dock.
It was a small island that didn’t have very much. We took a tour in an open truck-like vehicle. It took us through town and out to the North end of the island. There we visited a “beach.” It wasn’t a swimming beach so much as a rocky inlet. But, the shore was littered with sea shells, and everyone collected them. I got this pic.
From there, we visited a lighthouse.
The lighthouse overlooked a rocky shore. There was a zip line place there, but, I was able to remove most of the clutter in photoshop and ended up with a nice seascape.
My friend’s funeral in Snook was on Wednesday, but I had to drive to Huntsville for a meeting on Friday. I decided to take a different route than I normally do, and I found two places that were worth stopping and getting pictures of.
This was ahold gas station along the road. And, this was an old house in Kosse.
As I was coming into Caldwell in Burleson County, I saw this farm.
I was beginning to think I was on a real lucky streak with all these places, but, in Caldwell, I found this house.
That old oak tree was so spectacular, I had to include it in the picture, but the house itself had such character, I had to get it alone.
With that, I really thought I was done for the day. But, as I was driving through Cameron, I got this last shot.
