Sunday drive.

I am not one to complain about all the great rain we’ve gotten this week. God knows we need it. Yesterday was mostly overcast but dry. It was a good day for a drive in the hill country, and for a pickup party at Becker.

A brief appearance of blue sky.

Wildflowers.

During Noreen and David’s visit, we got out and about quite a bit to enjoy our beautiful Central Texas Spring weather.

I spied this interesting conjoined twin Texas Bluebonnet at the Wildflower Center. The stem was wide and flat.

Big year.

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.

Brand new wee baby blooms in a sea of bluebonnets

Flit & float.

This Common Buckeye moth paused just long enough for me to snap a picture.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Frequent your happy places.

Commons Ford Park is one of my happy places.   I haven’t been out here in a while, though.  The prairie is breaking out in color and teeming with songbirds.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A painted bunting singing atop a mesquite shrub:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

One scissor-tailed flycatcher posing in the foreground, and another flying away in the background:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A dickcissel pausing his constant singing to give me the once over:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Blue Monday.

A field of bluebonnets in the neighborhood.  And they’re only just getting started!

IMG_7260

First bluebonnet.

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)

Easter day trip.

With no commitments until Easter dinner with Julie later in the day, we headed out to visit Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.   It is a beautiful place to see in the spring, full of gardens teeming with wildflowers, and several miles of lovely trails to explore.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I don’t think the wildflowers have peaked yet in south Austin, based on what we saw here, so there’s still time to get out there and see them!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The view from the top of the cistern tower, overlooking the surrounding meadow trails.

There is a great-horned owl family roosting in a wall ledge just inside the entrance.  There are two owlets, but they are not sticking their heads up in this shot.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Feeling a little blue.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Big blooms already in our bluebonnet patch out back

Spring is in full gear in Austin!   Temps swing between the 40’s and 80’s every few days.  The wildflowers and trees are in bloom.   Trying to make sense of just how quickly the year seems to have flown by, I looked back over my calendar, only to realize that I have been out of town four of the first ten weeks of the year.  Yep, that’ll do it.

I’m looking forward to getting out and about to take in all the beautiful sights.  This is the prettiest time of the year.

Stop & go.

Black-chinned hummingbird stopping for a taste of Texas thistle…OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

…and then moving along…OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Painted poppy. 

Ok, it’s not really painted, but a photo that I morphed with an iPhone app called Brushstroke.   The poppies came back this year out back. I love their deep red. Hoping for even more next year!

Whitebonnet. 

One of the bluebonnets that bloomed in our front yard this spring is all white.  🙂

The poppies are popping.

Gorgeous, even though we only have a few.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Must be March.

The bluebonnets are beginning to pop in our back yard, and all over the hillcountry.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA