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

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

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.

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!

Ides of March. 

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 !

Same hiker, different woods.

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.

20140616-070844-25724915.jpg
Lots of gaillardia (aka Indian blanket) around. Another one of my favorites.

20140616-070845-25725840.jpg

%d bloggers like this: