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.
A painted bunting singing atop a mesquite shrub:
One scissor-tailed flycatcher posing in the foreground, and another flying away in the background:
A dickcissel pausing his constant singing to give me the once over:
A field of bluebonnets in the neighborhood. And they’re only just getting started!
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)
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.
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!
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.
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.
Black-chinned hummingbird stopping for a taste of Texas thistle…
…and then moving along…
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!
One of the bluebonnets that bloomed in our front yard this spring is all white. 🙂
Gorgeous, even though we only have a few.
The bluebonnets are beginning to pop in our back yard, and all over the hillcountry.
We enjoyed a beautiful night on the lake. I came home early today to get some Work things done before tomorrow. Boooo!
The calendar says we are midway through March already. The late freezes haven’t killed everything though. The bluebonnet patch out back is coming along.
Only one more week of winter !
I took a walk through a nearby park today. Different scenery than the shaded, lush, tall forest paths up north. But nice to be here.
Lots of gaillardia (aka Indian blanket) around. Another one of my favorites.
We went to a BBQ at Rob and Jen’s house this afternoon. Many of the couples had babies under 18 months or so that weren’t here last time we saw these guys!! How. Time. Flies.
Rob’s blue bonnets were in rare form. Just beautiful.
And one last shot of the pascal sky as we stopped by the marina on the way home tonight.
Tonight was my third foray into painting at Painting with a Twist, this time with Jen. The shot above is the palette we used.
And…. VOILA!! I give you…. Wildflowers at the Park:
Please hold your applause.
The one the teacher guided us through didn’t have any bluebonnets (!). Well, i simply couldn’t paint a hill country scene without bluebonnets, so we improvised.
I’m just realizing that the clouds look a bit like hats. Oh well. I’m sure Picasso had to work at it a bit before he got the hang of it, too. 🙂
