Blue Monday: The Obligatory Bluebonnet Post

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I'm back!  Betcha didn't know I'd been gone, huh?  Well, I haven't, really -- I've been right here all along, but it's been more than a month since I posted anything here at JOYSWEB.  Actually, I've been giving serious thought to just letting the blog die a natural death, since I never really have much time for it anymore -- keeping up with my book blog (A Little Reading) generally takes first priority, and even that's becoming harder to do.  Real life just keeps gettin' in the way, y'know?

OK -- enough of that.  Spring is here!  And that makes me soooo HAPPY!  I was really beginning to believe winter was here to stay.  Of course, we really don't have much spring here in central Texas -- we usually go seamlessly from deepest winter to the midst of summer's deadly heat and humidity.  But this year we're actually getting some really lovely springy days, and yesterday was one of the nicest so far.  In fact, it was so gorgeous, the hubby and I decided to take a little Sunday drive and get a peek at the bluebonnets that are blooming now.  (Yep, we were those old geezers in the SUV, slowing down traffic right up ahead.)

Bluebonnets have been the Texas state flower since 1901

I've always loved our state flower, and I really missed them all those years I lived out of state.  This year's crop is supposed to be less impressive than most years -- not enough rain at just the right point in their development.  At least here in the Hill Country, they're supposed to be less plentiful than usual, not as blue, and not as tall.  Well, we found plenty of bluebonnets during our drive -- in fact, there were masses of them along every road we traveled.  In some areas, there were bluebonnets as far as the eye could see.  Like a river of flowers.  Really lovely.

A carpet of bluebonnets somewhere near Bertram TX

Hard to get photos, of course, because the shoulder on a busy highway really isn't a great place to stop and explore.  But we did manage to find a couple of places to pull over and get a few snaps.

This display was seen on Hwy 281 near Marble Falls

At one stop, we found a little Texas flag someone had crumpled and abandoned.

So we shook it out and set it up.  Cute, huh?  (And for you eagle-eyed native Texans: Yes, I think it IS upside down -- the white stripe should be on top.  Probably not made in Texas.)

Not so cute -- someone also left another memento among the blooms.