Ninety triple digit days in Austin's 2011 summer. The worst single year drought year on record has left Bull Creek dry for longer and later in the year. An inch of rain that fell two weeks before these photogrpahs were made gave an all too brief awakening to the water course but all that remains now are a widely separated and shrinking pools. The prognosis going into 2012 is "more of the same." The creek looks like a collection of bleached bones and archeological remnants - the aftermath of an apocolypse.

And two weeks later, November 6, 2011: A return visit to the same location motivated by a brief shower of rain. The rain, of course, has made no difference to the state of the creek; to the contrary, the sparse pools of the earlier occasion are now gone. The cloud cover elminates the high contrast light of the first visit; the parching glare is replaced by more somber tones. The assualt of the dry sun has been replaced by a blank, expressionless, stare from the creek.

December 4, 2012: A third visit in the midst of a weekend of rain; few towns would celebrate a cold and wet weekend as Austin did this one. The creek now flows but just a little. The central channel contains running water, the rocks are flashed green with algae. The traffic rumbles overhead, oblivious. The purpose of the mysterious hole circle is revealed. The drought is far from over however; lake levels are at their lowest in history and won't recover without many wet months..

February 18, 2012: And a fourth visit the morning after heavy rain with the skys still dark. Water has run accross the road briefly overnight but the creek is back below flood level by daylight. How did Lazeras feel about his resurrection? But the creek is Dharmic rather than Abrahamic, condemed to a cycle of death and rebirth until the hills around it have worn away; long after men have ceased to trouble the climate. Questions remain about the hole circle: a drain 50 feet from a creek? Despite the new rain, lake levels will remain below 40% capacity and rice farmers downstream will see no release form the dams; there will be no rice crop this year.