Monday, March 31, 2014

Blue Monday: The Obligatory Bluebonnet Post

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

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. 



4 comments:

  1. Hey Joy,

    I sure missed you. (I love your sense of humor.)

    Now I KNOW the reason you had to move back to Texas. Those blue bonnets are just too wonderful! Thanks for sharing them.

    Re the flag and bottle. Hmm. I wonder if the same person drank from the bottle, realized the error in the flag and deposited both.

    Have a Happy Blue Monday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful flowers! Glad you are back to posting. I love reading too! It does seems like there is just not enough time in a day. Happy Blue Monday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I knew you were gone and yes, I missed you. I check all my blogs every day and you haven't been around. You aren't the only one thinking of abandoning a blog-- several of the ones I read have been closed. Sad but it is time consuming. That is why I only keep one and just chunk everything into it. The bluebonnets are pretty -- haven't been anywhere to see them yet this year. Remember when they used to come up in our back yards along with the buttercups? Anyway, glad to see you back and enjoyed the pics.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for introducing me to this flower, have a good week

    Much love...

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to Joysweb! And thanks for leaving me a comment. I love to hear from visitors. I do usually moderate comments on posts that are more than a few days old, and comments with suspicious links will not be approved.

Also, please note that while I appreciate blog awards, I never play award tag games. I think you all deserve awards!