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

Bluebonnets, Paint Brushes, and Galardias,Oh My!

Every few years the stars align, the weather gods comply, and the wild flowers in the Hill Country just go crazy. This was one of those years. The Adrians joined us and we took off Friday to see the show. And it was spectacular.

We wandered around the Burnet/Llano area and were rewarded with tons of color. Bill would pull off the highway and Lonnie, Hellen, and I would tramp around in the ditch and stand in the middle of the road taking pictures, you know, doing the typical tourist-here-they-are-in-the-way-again thing and enjoyed every minute of it. It was obvious, however, that the bluebonnets had probably actually peaked last week because I would come across large areas where the flowers had already turned into seed pods. And that's okay-preparation for next year's show. We finally just had to quit stopping for the pictures or we would still be there because every bend in the road seemed better than the last. And really, pictures just don't do the flowers justice.

But if the flowers were on the downhill side for us, imagine what they were a week or so ago. Goodness, the hills were alive with color even now. And the scent! We were enveloped with a wonderful, sweet, can't be duplicated by anything man-made aroma as we ambled around in all that beauty.

Saturday we went in the direction of Austin and found that the flowers were mostly to the northwest of the city, so we headed back that direction, but not before making our way to the Pappadeaux's on I-35 for lunch. While I waited for everyone to finish their last minute chores, I watched a squirrel in a tree by the parking lot.  Apparently he felt his territory in jeopardy because he became very defensive, standing on a lower branch of the tree staring at me defiantly in a very aggressive posture, flipping and jerking his tail to let me know I should move on. When that didn't work, he sat up like a chipmunk, glared at me almost with a smirk on his face, and thrust his private parts at me, just to make sure I got the message. And he just kept flashing me! Dirty little squirrel-man. By the time everyone showed up at the car, the little pervert had scampered off to a higher limb, and no one believed me. Naturally the camera was locked in the car all this time so I didn't get a picture, but then, I was so taken aback by his actions I didn't even think about a photo op. I wished I had taken a picture of the little devil to prove it, but then I couldn't use it in this blog or I would be arrested for putting animal pornography on the Internet. Really. Beware of male squirrels in the spring.

We found many more wildflowers on Highway 71 and smaller county roads and again had to look both ways to keep from being a traffic fatality as we stood in the middle of the road for the best shots and panoramic views. But it was worth it. I offer just a few of the 150 shots I took to share the experience with you. I know there are emails of bluebonnets going around right now, so mine will just be more of the same. But they are so lovely, perhaps you won't find it difficult to look at yet one more picture.

If you have never made a wildflower run to the Hill Country and/or the Brenham area, mark your calendar and plan next year to see God's work in all its radiant splendor.