Driving home

April 2015

I drove to my hometown recently to say goodbye to an old friend.

The drive down was beautiful - a perfect day, fields of yellow wildflowers mostly. In places the yellow blurred with Indian paintbrushes creating orange swaths across the roadside. In other spots the fire wheels (gaillardia) were blooming in their own orange vistas. Still it was the Texas Prairie Star, sunflower, tickseed (coryopsis) and other yellow composites as well as the yellow-blooming prickly pear had taken the lead - I thought "streets of gold."

The route home is interstate and tollway followed by state highways. These small highways have been widened to address the "oil boom" in our part of the state. Along with widened roads the boom had resulted in an increase of heavy traffic - trucks and equipment. Potholes, repaired and bottomless create hazardous driving and there is no road damage free. I had to balance looking at the flowers with watching for road hazards.

I had planned to pick a bunch of wildflowers on the way down, but recent drenching rains softened the shoulders of the roads and there was never a convenient "turn-in" where I could stop without concern. I will be returning down this path in a few weeks, but I will bring the wildflowers with me.

So I counted the different flowers amid the gold. Here and there a few bluebonnets struggled to be seen. A tall blue sage could be found along fence lines and at some gates. I think it is mealy sage. The purple thistles were starting to bloom. Wine cups can still be found on this stretch of road and  there were a couple of patches of Queen Ann's lace just as I was getting close to home.

August 2015

I have been home to home twice more this summer. And I will be heading south once again today.

Today I will watch for the late summer wildflowers - sunflowers mostly, I expect. The cotton should be blooming in the fields. The cotton is late this year.

On each recent drive I have been fed by memories and comforted by the beauty of this landscape. The plants and birds and other wandering creatures have spoken to me. I was welcomed and farewelled, noticed and ignored.

The crops have grown up in the fields and are rapidly being harvested.

It is hot as the devil, but we have only to wait a few weeks and the heat will break.

And I will be glad to leave this summer behind.