Nerve Endings Firing Away

The summer in Texas or at least in the parts which I call home, is basically divided into two distinct parts – summer and August. If you are planning on visiting these parts, August is probably not it. Winters aren’t that bad except for a brief spell of freezing temperature that brings life to a grinding halt the moment the mercury drops below freezing. But spring is a welcome time although it hardly lasts more than two weeks. It has its downsides too thanks to the numerous thunderstorm and tornado warnings.

The weather guys cut into the regular programming announcing dire threats of flash floods or put you on tornado watch. While Jack Bauer is trying to find the nukes, we are busy wishing the tornadoes don’t come anywhere near our frail wooden homes. Folks up in Kansas apparently aren’t so lucky.

But the best part of a Texan spring are the bluebonnets that literally paint the landscape a bright blue. Legend has it that a wife of a former governor handed the seeds to truckers and asked them to scatter them all across Texas. So with alarming regularity, come April the blue bonnets make their appearance alongside farm roads and highways announcing the arrival of a very brief spring season. This is probably the best time in Texas.

Unfortunately this year, the freeze lasted a while longer and the poor blue bonnets never had a chance. But instead this year, wild yellow flowers got a chance to bloom and dot the landscape whereever you go. On our last weekend trip, we stopped on the highway to take a few pictures. A bale of hay, a grazing cow, a rough hewn fence, and a rusted gate made for the perfect picture (alas, the light wasn’t that great). I just wish I had more time to stand and stare. You can enjoy the pictures though: