It’s hard to predict because of the seemingly endless droughts and freezes, but the Texas bluebonnets are blooming early and it looks like it will be a big wildflower year.
Monte has been grooming our front yard bluebonnet patch for years. Looking good! More photos to follow.
The sunlight from the first sunrise of Summer illuminates a bunch of Monte’s pretty zinnies.
Monte’s newest zinnia bed is going gangbusters.
I visited my family in Washington State last month. I had planned to get my first ever amazing pics of the tulip fields in Skagit Valley, but it was a tad too early.
Here’s a lovely field of daffodils in bloom instead. 💛
Happy Earth Day!
Wowza. I’m sad to acknowledge that I haven’t posted here on sheila365.com for THREE MONTHS. I’ve had this photoblog for over 12 years now, and this is by far my longest period of radio silence. I can only blame an extended creative funk that I’ve been in.
Ok. With that said, I won’t linger on a long-ish, nostalgic post, I’ll just leave a few views from my day that make me happy.
I’m baaaack. 🙂
Yesterday Monte and I drove out the Texas wine trail to our favorite wine-club vineyard to pick up our May box of wine. It’s a big deal for us. We’ve deferred picking up our wine boxes for over a year because of COVID. But the winery is now open by appointment, so I booked us for a pickup, a tasting, and some lovely charcuterie.
I’ve missed our drives out here. The visit to the winery was very nice. The wine was delicious, we saw the tail end of some lovely wildflowers, did a little antiquing, and grumbled about the return of traffic on the way home.
It’s been raining since the end of April in Central Texas. A weird happening. It’s so humid and WET outside. The plants are loving it though.
Life is good on the ranch.
My pollinator garden is in its 4th or 5th year, and though it takes work to keep ahead of all the weeds and Liveoak seedlings that grow as well as the perennial flowers in this patch, I truly enjoy it. The purple coneflower, which I originally grew from seed, is back for the third year, and it makes me so happy to see all its blooms.
I planted this impatiens last spring. I typically lose my annuals over the winter and just plant new ones in the spring. I babied this one through our warm winter and it has rewarded me with these beautiful late-winter blooms.
Susanne is visiting us in Austin this week. We’ve enjoyed catching up. Today we took a trip downtown to the Zilker Botanical Gardens. Pretty things:
And, I cannot go to Zilker Park without stopping by Sno-beach for my favorite!
It was a treat to get together yesterday with friends to help Ann with the todo list to prepare for her son’s rehearsal dinner. It’s going to be wonderful.
Monte is the Bluebonnet Whisperer. We have several patches in the yard, and they’ve started to bloom. It’s going to be a big year. This is the first one to be brought in to the house.
(photo manipulated with Brushstroke iPhone app)
We had a bit of a Wii frisbee golf-a-thon tonight. As I turned out the kitchen lights at the end of the night, the silhouetted tulips caught my eye. Keeto says, “night night go seepies.” So, off I go… 🙂
We brought our vulnerable outdoor plants in when the weather turned cold last week. Most of them are in the shop. I brought a few small ones into the house. I’m enjoying this one, a pretty pink impatiens.
Sheila365 