Woods along a dry creek in the shade of the late afternoon

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On December 5th I went walking in Great Hills Park. Because this neighborhood—which is mine—lies just inside the eastern boundary of the Texas Hill Country, the land is in fact hilly and there are places where higher ground soon blocks the declining sun from reaching lower areas. It was in that kind of afternoon shade that I came upon this autumn scene of rocks and dry leaves strewn across a waterless creek bed.

(It occurs to me that this is the third more or less traditional landscape I’ve presented in the past six weeks, the other two being cliffs along Bull Creek and a pond with ghostly Sesbania stalks in it. Today’s view leaves out any water, which is appropriate because Austin hasn’t had more than a few drops of rain in all that time. In fact this was the first completely dry November on record here since 1896.)

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman