The end of July is always hot and glaring. The grass has burnt to various shades of tan and gold and brown; the distant trees look almost black-green and cast deep shadows. Some of the native tallgrasses are still green, especially in protected areas, but not here.
Around noon, the horses come back to the barn to doze in the shade.
Midsummer to fall is the peak time for the Euphorbias, and here the first Snow-on-the-mountain is blooming in the Entrance Meadow, a bit of remnant prairie.	In the southwest meadow, Common Whitetails are still active.
Yellow-legged Meadowhawks spend their youth in the woods, and come to the pond in the fall to breed. I've never seen them out in the grassland, though their near-relatives, the Variegated (or Autumn) Meadowhawks are common there in the fall.	Couldn't resist including this silhouette of a Yellow-legged Meadowhawk.
Back at the pond, even a waterlily growing out of deep water wrinkles a bit under the onslaught of the Texas sun.
Male Kiowa Dancer damselflies can look like tiny blue jewels.	And in the evening light, the seedheads of silver bluestem glow, promising new grass when the rains come again.

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