Second Wave of Wildflowers

Trip buddy Pat Angeley arrived right on time. We were looking forward to the second wave of wildflowers in the Hill Country, myself having enjoyed the blue bonnets earlier. Bland overcast skies followed us, which kept me from wanting to stop every five minutes to take a picture of the yellow buttercups dotting the ditches. I have come to realize that clouds add so much interest to the photo composition, so a plain sky makes it easier to just keep on driving.

Which we did; kept driving, I mean, and this is what we saw:

 

Later we sort of cheated and found flowers at Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg.


We also came across these pink flowers and have no idea what they are. But they looked pretty.
 
Blue bonnets were still out, but the red gaillardias and various yellow flowers were coming into their own.

In Kingsland I have found a hidden place that is always good for a photo op, digging up an occasional cactus, and catching a glimpse of a white flag as white-tailed deer flee the scene.





Courthouses are always interesting, especially the older ones. We saw this one in Johnson City, county seat of Blanco County,

and then discovered this rather plain one in the city of Blanco, also in Blanco County. Turns out they moved the county seat from Blanco to Johnson City in 1890, and the original court house was forgotten. Sometime in the recent past, it has been turned into a visitor’s center, offices, and events venue. A few trees and a little landscaping would dress it up considerably.
 
As we left the Hill Country on the way home, we passed big patches of wine cups like we are used to seeing patches of blue bonnets. I had never seen this many together before and again was tempted to take a picture each time we passed yet another batch of them.


And then the closer we came to Muleshoe, the more yellow buttercups we saw again, our answer to blue bonnets.


These little purple flowers, which I have heard called Tahoka daisies, but which I think are a wild aster, could also be found close to home.
 
So if we look, we can enjoy wildflowers right here in West Texas.

But road trips are always seductive, and since the grass always seems greener elsewhere, or in this case, the wild flowers seem brighter in the Hill Country, I suspect wild flower trips will never go away.

And that’s not a bad thing. You can never see too many wild flowers.

Hunger Games vs. The Lucky One

Last Sunday while making the car happy again, 1010 miles this time, and making myself happy viewing and taking yet more wildflower pictures…

I had the chance to do something else I like to do but haven’t done much lately-go to the show. As in moving picture show. Or movies, as they are better known these days. I spent the day Sunday driving down to Lake LBJ and taking lots of pictures of red pastures between Brady and Llano, after which I decided to add another twenty or so miles to the car going to Marble Falls to see for myself the movie of the moment, The Hunger Games.

I had not read the novel, but had heard all the hype about the violent plot that sets kids against kids to the death in a government-created realty game. So what else is new? The sad reality is that kids kill kids every day, and we have read other books with the same basic plot. Did you not read Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, in high school? And as for government run amuck, what about 1984 and Brave New World? In Lord of the Flies, the boys are behaving like bad adults, whereas the Tributes in The Hunger Games are being forced into their deadly behavior by adults, but the end result is the same-death. I came away from the movie thinking Suzanne Collins must surely have read these novels for inspiration, but then I found out on the Internet that the Iraq war footage blending into reality shows on TV, along with a little Greek mythology, were her inspirations. I also read that she has been accused of stealing the plot from Battle Royale, which I have not read. Well, authors have been known to borrow from existing plots forever. Goodness, Shakespeare didn’t come up with the idea of Romeo and Juliet all by himself, you know. And look how many times that story theme has been borrowed since then.  I just wish I had enough imagination to come up with a new twist to an old story that would sell!

The movie and I got off to a rocky start with all the shaky, jumpy, MTV-style camera work at the beginning of the story that I really couldn’t see much point in and that I found tiring and confusing. Thank goodness that didn’t last through the whole movie. The action in the woods, filmed in North Carolina, provided a beautiful backdrop for the games. It was refreshing to see a female protagonist for a change, one who was athletic and strong and smart-and who wasn’t looking to latch onto the first cute boy that came along. The movie was thought-provoking and worth the price of the ticket, and the ending scene was a very effective set-up for the next installment, which will surely happen.

So then the next day after making the Kingsland to Llano to Mason to Llano to Enchanted Rock to Kingsland circle taking more wildflower pictures…

I wound up back at the movies to watch The Lucky One, taken from the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. I’ve not read any of his books nor seen movies of his books, but this guy is a romance novel writer deluxe. The story was set in Louisiana, I think filmed there, and very pleasant to watch. Zach Efron was easy on the eyes as well. But it was oh so predictable! The good guys were just right, the villain was nasty, everything fell right into place, and they lived happily ever after. If it were only that way in real life. I am not a romance genre fan, but I will have to admit this one made the evening  a very pleasant couple of hours.

I have decided to read the Hunger Games series-on page 247 right now- I doubt I will read a Nicholas Sparks book, although I am not sorry I saw the movie,  and I am still culling through all the wildflower pictures, 210 to be exact. So I think the trip was a success.

Sometimes taking off down the road by yourself is a good thing.

Nature’s First Green Really is Gold

Now don’t panic-I’m not putting you through an English lesson on poetry-and we could look at this one on several levels, but Robert Frost said it best when he wrote “Nature’s first green is gold/Her hardest hue to hold.” We drove down to the Texas Hill Country for our Spring Break respite and were rewarded with all shades of green to compliment the emerging wildflowers.

 

I love the bluebonnets and all the other colors of the rainbow that come out in the Spring, but I think it is the crisp, bright greens that I notice first. Up here the mesquite trees with their bright yellow green are what stand out against the brown of everything else as they leaf out. Down south the mesquites are joined by other trees and lush bright green grass as a backdrop for all the color of the flowers.

And it is all so seductive! The temptation is to take a picture as you cruise over the top of every hill, turn every corner, as it seems that every new patch of flowers is even better than the last. So, naturally, I take too many pictures and could bore you silly with all of them. But I have picked some of my favorites to share with you.

The weather was overcast for most of the visit, which sometimes wreaked havoc with the best light for optimum color, but sometimes it created a nice contrast, like I think it did for this picture.

How about Texas longhorns (not the orange kind, however-Whoop!) in Texas bluebonnets?

Most everyone who makes a bluebonnet trip feels compelled to plop the kids down in a good stand of blue for the obligatory bluebonnet picture. We didn’t have any kids to inflict this ritual on, so Mari got to pose for us. And let me tell you, posing a baby is a piece of cake compared to coaxing this dog into just the right spot, facing just the right way, standing just so for her portrait. After this shot, she wandered off to explore and took an unexpected swim when she slid down the bank into this stock tank trying to get a drink of water.

Note the white bluebonnet in the center. Texas A&M has developed a maroon bluebonnet, but I had not seen a white one before.

I didn’t really want the fire hydrant in the picture, but it blends in quite nicely since it is painted blue and red to match the flowers, and I have to think the color scheme was no accident.

Redbuds were also pretty on this trip. This one was in a yard, but the wild ones are equally colorful.

 

The yuccas were also in bloom. These are called Spanish bayonets, I think, and they are huge and add a nice contrast to the colors in the wildflowers.

Wisteria was blooming all over the place, too, like this one in Johnson City and this big one that had taken over the treetops.

Just as Frost reminds us at the end of the poem that “Nothing gold can stay,” be it the innocence and beauty of one’s youth or the bright green of Spring, savor the color while you can. Its gold is fleeting. Timing is everything.

 

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost, 1923