It's April in Texas and Yes, I've Been Chasing Bluebonnets Again This Year

I picked up my brother, Stephen, from the airport Saturday morning when his flight to California was cancelled, then took him back for his rescheduled flight later that afternoon. I was pleased on both occasions to confirm the arrival of Spring in the form of newgrowth foliage, bluebonnets, and other wildflowers. And the rain was of little concern because out of necessity we here in Texas we have come to celebrate precipitation in any form. We just work around it. Sunday was still wet, so I made my plans to take to the Bluebonnet Trail on Monday morning, leaving Austin to be at Buchanan Dam at sunrise. Well, it was just a plan. . . I ended up leaving home about 9:15 and quickly found out the weather couldn't be better and the wildflowers had not disappeared just because I started out three hours late.

I bought a new camera about six weeks ago but, busy with other things , I had spent virtually no time familiarizing myself with the new gear. I know, it's my own fault. So, these pictures aren't my best work, but by the end of the day I was pretty comfortable with the new Canon and the pictures will show you what a fine day I had to play outside. It was simply beautiful. This route was the same one I described after my 2012 bluebonnet trek and, in fact, the mesquite tree in the picture above is the very same as that in the third picture of the 11 April 2012 post. . . though it's apparently lost a few branches on the starboard side in the last three years.

If you're interested in my route, I described it in the 2012 posts, but I'm running on empty here so I won't repeat myself. I'll try to keep it short. Besides the flowers, I kept my eyes peeled for wildlife and, by the time I passed this scene, I'd spotted cattle, horses and goats on the hoof as well as a very lucky fox that darted across the road in front the Sierra, a less fortunate raccoon on the edge of the road and what used to be an armadillo that was nowhere near as fast as he thought he was. We used to see dead armadillos all over the place when we moved here in the '60s, but it's a little surprising to see them now.

Also surprising were the large numbers of  Indian Paintbrush on the roadside. I'm used to seeing them scattered among the bluebonnets or in much smaller patches than I saw Monday all along the route. But the Paintbrush didn't win the surprise prize. Passing an exotic ranch - extra high fences to keep the antelope and gazelles at home - I passed some cattle (black Angus?) milling smartly about their water tank and, off by himself/herself, a zebra - not a horse in a referee's shirt, a real zebra. Another clue that the ranch was for exotics.

Now, somewhere before getting to the creek at the bottom of this hill, I got a shock when a whitetail deer nearly committed suicide by running into the side of the truck. It seems we saw each other about the same time and he/she was able to come to a screeching halt before impacting my passenger door. I'm glad.

The surprise for the next segment was the creek itself, or I should say the amount of water flowing by, this being Texas and all. The weather guessers are saying we'll have two or three more days of perfection before a front arrives late Friday night. Texas or not, your creeks ought to have water in 'em. You heard it here first. Same shot, three years ago (top picture).

This vista is looking south towards Fredricksburg, but just a few miles down the road you can see the pink granite pluton batholiths (yeah, look it up) that make up Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

And, finally, There's TX-1323, a new road (for me) that I used to cut east from TX-16 to US-281. Along much of the road, the bluebonnets were generally darker blue, more dense and in much larger patches than I saw anywhere else during the drive. But this highlight is what Crayola would refer to as Red Violet. I couldn't tell what kind of flowers they are: they didn't appear to be lupines (like the bluebonnets), but they sure were pretty.