Sunday morning mist

This is all about the bluebonnet, really.

 

I spent yesterday working in the yard. It still needs editing/grooming/lots of work, but the sweet and patient pups deserved to get out and run after putting up with two hours of growling mower invading their space.

The weather reports indicated we were clear - at least no precipitation - but they lied. We loaded up the car and then returned to the house for rain gear. The dogs were a little confused as we do not usually walk in even a hard mist, but they climbed into the car with a little encouragement (I think Paddy was worried about the seat belt, but we skipped it today. There is usually no issue when both front seats are occupied).

Remembering how cold my feet were during and after the walk in the fog a few weeks ago, I had suggested wearing waterproof boots. I did. DH wore "water resistant" boots. They weren't. He was a good sport and continued the full walk (if not totally positive - at least he wasn't whining about wet socks as I would have been).

It misted for most of the walk. Sometimes it was a fairly hard mist and sometimes just barely noticeable. Towards the end of the walk it was dry, although the cloud-cover continued.

Ah, but while people try to avoid wet feet, the dogs were happy to run through the fields and jump into the stream, now clear of surface scum.

Floppy eared dogs respond to a whistle. (Unusual for these dogs - they don't behave as well as they should.)

Scruffy snorts and coughs as he drinks the creek water.

We came to the meadow today not only to run the dogs. We came to take stock of the wildflowers as spring rushes in, warmer than normal. There was also a thought of ridding the creek banks of the few wild mustard/bastard cabbage plants I noted during our last walk.

First we saw patches of blooming bluebonnets, verbena, and buttercups well beyond what we had seen before. There are flowers coming up in the middle of the trails. Grasses too are seeming determined to hide our paths. Fortunately we use many deer trails in this wild area. But those the deer have not been using may disappear before we return.

In this part of the prairie park the path is clear.

More diversity - wildflowers (?) coming up along the path. The dusty grey color stands out.

Asters (?) or some other yellow flower.

A close-up will aid in identification. (Perhaps Texas Squaw-Weed)

Verbena starting to spread.

I love these purple blooms. It is sometimes had to get the purple color to show well in photos.

The dogs know where they are going and DH follows. On the left, the yellow dots are buttercups waiting to open.

There are many more buttercups than before. Most were closed, looking like rose buds.

They are lovely and delicate.

DH's idea of posing in the wildflowers.

Another verbena bloom.

Bagworm near the creek.

Yet another bagworm.

The yuccas are starting to send up their central flower stalks. We saw nothing of the sort last week. Yuccas are also favorites.* I spent a bit of time trying to capture these changes.

The yucca promises to bloom soon.

Moisture on the yucca bud.

Two buds

When we arrived at the creek I started pulling up the wild mustard that had multiplied from about 5 plants to, well, I don't know. I filled a trash bag with these invasive plants and mostly succeeded in getting wet and muddy.** I will try again on a dryer day.

The invader.

The yellow all along the bank marks the extent of the invasion, so far.

Our real target was the clearing where we expected the bluebonnets to have reached a zenith. We were not disappointed.

One of the clearings in the woods. We watched those tiny plants for months.

The dogs ran around the meadow first.

Clearly puppies do not understand photos in the bluebonnets. DH was a skeptic.

Wet Paddy dog in the bluebonnets.

Scruffy was not interesting in sitting.

The flowers were gorgeous.

Verbena lifted their blooms above the mass of blue, white, and green.

One of the brave competitors. The verbena will be blooming in the woods long after the bluebonnets are gone.

The flowers snuggled up to this cactus that is putting on its spring growth too.

So Texas.

Photos taken, DH looks for a trail out of the woods and towards the prairie. Now Paddy decides to pose.

One last look at the bluebonnets

DH waits just beyond one line of trees.

We hunted our path out of the woods and headed back towards the gate. We discussed the plum trees and when the fruit might be ready.  The trees are along a well traveled path near the gate. Even snake phobic hikers can probably get to them. We have reason to expect there will be some plums as the blooms (now all gone) were full of bees and other pollinators earlier. - plenty of opportunity.

The plums have leafed out now.

Dog kept sneaking into the woods and then running out when we called. I suppose they caught some movement or a scent and wanted to keep exploring.

Caught at the woods.

Paddy disappeared, but came running when we called.

The humans saw nothing. No birds were out. We saw no deer or other creatures until the mist stopped. Only then did DH noticed the flying insects as they began their nuisance fluttering in his face. It was time to head home.



NOTES:

*Dad regularly brought Mom a large bloom stalk from a yucca. I can see him now, dressed in his suit (having just come from court in one of his far-flung county seats), carefully picking his way through the scrub while carrying a razor-sharp pocketknife (One never messed with Daddy's pocketknife. It was always sharp and sometimes had "snake guts" on it.) and harvesting a yucca bloom to bring home.

** After seeing all the wild mustard plants at the creek and then along the highway (I point these things out to him, Yankee boy that he is.) DH commented, "Oh, so you are like that boy with the starfish. He cannot save them all, but he can save this one. You, on the other hand, can at least destroy this one plant." Well, yes. At least I could remove a bag of them from the creek.


More photos:

Feathery, fern-like leaves. I feel I should know this wildflower, but am so dependent on bloom.

Another - maybe coneflower.

All those spiky thorny bushes have leafed out a bright green.

Another bush.

Yet another yellow flower (Texas Yellow Star)

These were starting to bloom along the edge of the woods.

Multiple blooms on one plant. I should be able to id this one. (Texas Yellow Star)

Droplets.

As children we called these rain lilies. Now I find they are crow poison.

These blooms where white and lavender-pink.

Time to go dry out these boots.

DH and dogs almost to the gate.

Fields of wildflowers

My must do list (as opposed to the "to do" list) is long. I have been, of course, procrastinating. In aid of my procrastination, I somehow convinced the DH to drive out to the country and recover a little bit of clay* we saw in a dry creek bed a week or so ago. I had snagged a handful on that earlier trip and messed with it enough to know I wanted a little more to test.

On our way to the creek we passed fields of wildflowers - Indian paintbrushes, bluebonnets, wild verbena, coreopsis and such. We turned off the main road at a corner of bluebonnets and I was back in Daddy's Chevy,** fighting in the back seat with at least two of my siblings.

All along the way we saw small patches of flowers until we turned the corner to see this. It took our breath away. [Also show here are some verbena in the foreground and some bastard cabbage, yellow along the fence line.]

Daddy worked in a five county area of south Texas. He was gone a great deal as some days he was driving from one end of the district to another. I remember many times that he and Mom would load us all into the car for a surprise. We would head out to the countryside [for some reason I think we headed out past Odem or to Old San Patricio]. Then he would say, "Look!" And we would be presented with a field of blue and white - bluebonnets as far as we could see.***

Today, DH and I continued on to the creek, gathered about a pint of sandy clay and then headed back home. But the trip home was much slower than our trip out. DH stopped when I asked and patiently waited while I braved snake and farm dog to grab most of the photos here.

That was one huge tree, now dead at the top of the creek bank.

A bluebonnet growing from the dry creek bottom.

Drought-dead trees in the the creek.

Verbena and a coreopsis, maybe.

As I tried to take a "close up" the two bugs disappeared around the back of the blossom.

The wind was blowing so that sometimes I had to hold the subject, hence the many photos of my left hand.

Paintbrush

A country road with the requisite beer carton abandoned on the margin.

I headed the other direction to investigate these yellow flowers, but just grabbed a photo before heading to the car as I heard the farm dogs coming.

Miscellaneous flowers growing with paintbrushes in the ditch.

Such a pretty thing.

Very different seen sideways.

A sweet little purple flower. I took photos of some of the tiny ones (like the bitsy white asters, mebbe, in the two photos above) and will see if I can enlarge.

Well, time to get the wildflower books out...and I just put them back on the shelf.

The cardinals, somehow knowing I needed to see them after the loss of our neighborhood bird, were everywhere. But they could not compete with the flowers.

Parts of a country cemetery were covered in paintbrushes.  We drove past before realizing we had "missed it." Again, the patient one humored me and turned the car around so I could record just a little of what we saw today. I may have to keep that boy.

Mama loved the paintbrushes the most, I think.

NOTES:

* I had to put these photos in a footnote so the bluebonnets would be first.

A handful of raw clay yields zip.

As clay settles the water can be sponged off. This was maybe a pint of raw clay - but it is sandy, sandy, sandy.

A little bit of clay will be even less once I strain out roots and rocks, but it will be enough to test.

**I remember a couple of the sedans Daddy usually drove. They were as good as a ride at the fair...all we had to do was shout, "Faster, Daddy, faster!"

***Another time he took us out towards Rockport where the field was full of pink, but those flew off into the sunset - roseate spoonbills.