Blue Monday: Bluebonnet Blues

Blue Monday was originally hosted by Smiling Sally.
Now that Sally has left us,
Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor is doing the honors.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Ever since we ended our exile in the North Country and moved back to Texas, the Hubby and I have been talking about planting some bluebonnets. I've always loved our state flower (well, it's blue!) and seeing masses of the lovely blooms popping up along the roadways every spring really helps boosts my spirits out of their winter doldrums. So having my own patch of lovelies has been a major dream.

We scattered wildflower seeds around our place right after we bought it, but nothing ever came of that. And they weren't bluebonnet seeds. But last fall, we pulled ourselves together, managed to find bluebonnet seeds at Home Depot ("guaranteed to bloom"), planted them, watered them, and crossed our fingers. Of course, we were pretty much convinced nothing would come of that attempt, either.

Then, lo and behold, a few weeks ago we started seeing tiny little green plants poking up among the weeds and wild grasses in the yard. Bluebonnets?

It took a while to be sure, and almost as soon as they started emerging, the new growth was gobbled up by the hungry deer that roam around our neighborhood. (Yes, I know -- deer aren't supposed to like bluebonnets; our deer are idiots.)

But one little patch of the flowers found a sheltered area on the side of a rocky hill -- where the deer don't generally wander -- and grew and grew

and grew...

until it looked exactly like a bluebonnet!

One definite blossom, and more on the way! We were so excited! Our own bluebonnet patch. We would take daily photos to show their progress. Maybe they would spread. Maybe we would have a whole field of lovely bluebonnets! And then....

We woke up Saturday morning to find that the dear little deer had eaten every last flower, leaf, and stem of bluebonnets in the yard. I suppose we were foolish to hope the adorable vermin wouldn't find the plants, even though they seemed well protected on their hillside. And I suppose the only reason they hadn't foraged them out up till then was the fact that we'd been having a LOT of rain lately. The rain kept the deer away and then when the rain stopped, the deer were really, really hungry. So even plants they don't ordinarily enjoy must have seemed tasty. And I guess deer gotta eat.

The hubby, however, is talking a lot about bows and arrows and thinning the herd. Even though, as far as I know, he's never actually killed a deer in his life -- he never had a private field of bluebonnets either.

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Just a (very sad) note: I almost didn't do a Blue Monday post this week, after I found out that Sally was gone. But I do think she'd want the meme and the fun to continue. So in honor of Sally of the Eternal Smile, let's just keep it going.

Saturday Snapshot: Bastrop Fires

If you don't live in Texas, you might not know about the fires that have been raging in Bastrop County, just east of Austin this last week. Around 4600 acres have been burned, and nearly 50 "home-like structures" destroyed. So far, it hasn't been as bad as the 2011 fire which lasted two months and destroyed over a thousand homes -- and I guess that's something to be thankful for. But it's still been a terrible time for the folks who live over there. The fire was extensive enough to send smoke billowing into Austin earlier this week, and we could see it in the distance, even though we live pretty far west of the city. This was the view from our front porch on Wednesday afternoon:

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Those aren't ordinary clouds on the horizon -- it's smoke over Austin in the distance. And it hung around all evening:

The fire-fighters say they think the fires are about 40% under control now, but a lot of people are still displaced and wondering if they'll have homes to return to. And with the extra-dry conditions we're having this fall, more fires are still a possibility.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but -- pray for rain.

Saturday Snapshot is now hosted by Melinda @ West Metro Mommy Reads.

To see more snaps or participate yourself, just head on over to her blog.

Blue Monday: 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.

When I was looking around for a subject for Blue Monday, it suddenly occurred to me that I never posted any bluebonnet photos this year. Heavens!!! And we had a really great crop this year, too. Well, it's never too late for bluebonnets, so here we go.

When we went out on our annual looking-for-bluebonnets drive back in April, we found a huge and amazing field of the flowers (plus a few Texas paintbrushes, wine cups, and Indian blankets) just outside Marble Falls.

There really were bluebonnets as far as the eye could see.

It not only looked gorgeous, it smelled absolutely wonderful! With my allergies and asthma getting ready to attack, I couldn't stick around very long. But it really was a beautiful sight.

Blue Monday: Winter Blues

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

I hate to have to say this, but ... it's winter. Words to send terror through my being. I may have mentioned (one or twice) how I hate winter. If I haven't -- well, I'm mentioning it now. And I apologize to all you cold weather enthusiasts -- I just really never have warmed to winter. (Hee-hee.)

We've been having an awful lot of rain here in central Texas this winter. (Yeah, rain is also not one of my favorite things.) Not enough to bring Lake Travis up to its normal levels, but much more than usual. It's also been much colder than normal all during January. But the last few days have been blissfully sunny and a little warmer -- although still too cold for my liking. I do love the intensely blue skies we get, this time of year, though. Don't get to spend as much time out in the sunshine as I'd like because of the red cedar that's going crazy all around us right now. Haven't had as much trouble with that this year, but I do remember what it did to my eyes a couple of winters ago:

Ah, yes! Alligator skin! Call me the lizard lady. OK -- I can't blame the wrinkles on the cedar. But it was definitely the cause of all the swelling, itching and redness -- which lasted for several months and nearly drove me out of my tiny mind. So when the cedar turns red, I retreat indoors and stay there until it starts turning green again. And that's only a month or so away. Well, at least I should get a lot of reading done. Assuming my eyes don't swell shut again.

Tarantula Hawk Wasp and Dinner

The tarantula hawk is a large wasp (about 2 inches long) that hunts tarantulas. The wasps don't actually eat the spiders, but they feed them to their larvae. Only the females hunt, so I'm supposing this is a mom.

We watched this one spend most of a day hunting down this fairly small tarantula -- well, it was small for a tarantula, but still bigger than the wasp, about three inches or so.  Once she got it and had it under control, she dragged it all the way across our yard, across the driveway, across the sidewalk, and out of view.

She didn't do a lot of flying, but then I guess her victim was a little heavy. The tarantula was still alive during all this, and struggling to get away, but apparently the tarantula hawk's sting is one of the most powerful stings around, so the spider didn't really have a chance. And although they're supposed to be pretty docile, the wasps have been known to sting humans when they think the human is threatening. Needless to say, THIS human stayed well away from the hawk and the spider, and used her telephoto to grab these shots.

(Click on photos to enlarge. Sorry that the lightbox feature doesn't seem to be working on these. Blogger moves in mysterious ways.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by 

Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer:

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. 

Our World: Must Be Winter!

It's VERY cold today here in the Texas Hill Country.  It was very cold yesterday, too; I'm pretty sure it didn't get much above freezing all day. And I believe it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow.  Brrrrrrr!!!!!

I know that the whole country is having a really bad winter this year, with blizzards in the north and out west, and frigid conditions along the eastern seaboard.  And, of course, it's nowhere near that bad here. But in this part of the world, we're ill prepared for this kind of cold lasting as long as it has this winter - December was colder than normal, too.  It's turning out to be the coldest winter we've had in 20 years.  When we were shopping at HEB the other day, the young man checking us out said he couldn't remember it ever being this cold this long, and I'm sure what he said was true. A whole generation of kids have grown up here, not knowing what a real winter is like.

The Austin area power companies have been issuing warnings about using too much energy at certain times of the day, and say we should turn the thermostat down to 68 or lower at night. We've been keeping ours around 70, so I guess we'll need to do some adjusting.  The hubs has taken to wearing woolly socks and the heavy sweaters he thought he'd never wear again, once we moved back to Texas.  And I've ordered some flannel nighties from LL Bean.  Flannel nighties!!!

Needless to say, I stayed in all day yesterday - well-known weather wimp that I am.  Except for about a minute during the evening when I wrapped up and ran outside to take some photos of the frozen water in our birdbath.  These were the best shots, but it's still a little hard to see - those bubbles are frozen under the ice.  (Oh, and those are decorative birdies - not frozen real ones!)

I do worry about the animals and birds in this kind of weather.  Fortunately, it's not likely to last too long - the sun will melt all that ice, and we'll all feel a lot better.

Don't Look At the Sun

Travis County TX

November 27, 2013

5 PM / Heading WEST

Gotcha!

OK, this is not specifically a holiday-related post.  But I took the photo while out Christmas shopping, so I think that should count for something. Right?

I'm sure these things are all over Texas, but this is the only one I've seen.  It's a mural of a cattle drive, and it resides under an overpass at the junction of 1431 West and 183 South, in Cedar Park TX.  I've been trying to get a photo of it ever since I first saw it last year.  It's a difficult subject because those are very busy roads, and really the only way to take a decent snap would be to get out of the car and stand in the middle of 1431 - not an option.  But during a recent shopping trip, I managed to be at a red light at just the right time, with the sun shining in just the right direction.  So there it is, in all its cowboy glory.

Yee-ha, ya'll!

Sky Watch Friday: Rain Check

Here in Central Texas, sky watching has become a constant obsession.  Watching the skies, checking for clouds, hoping for rain.  But lately, there just haven't been that many rain clouds around.  Mostly just intensely blue skies like this one.  Gorgeous, but worrisome.

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

If some of those puffy little white clouds would just gather together and open up with some moisture, we'd all be a lot happier.  Even moi, who really, really doesn't like rain.  I'm actually loving this weather, but I know it's not a good omen for the future.

We had a trace of rain yesterday -- just barely enough to measure in our rain gauge, but not the kind of rain that's going to keep our garden growing or put water back into Lake Travis.  What we really need is a wild hurricane down in the Gulf, but we don't want to wish that on the residents over in the eastern part of the state.  So we're hoping for a nice quiet downpour that lasts just long enough to keep things growing (and preferably a downpour that falls at night and then clears up with sun-up -- sort of like Camelot). 

To see more sky photos, or to post your own sky shots,
please visit:

SkyWatch Friday: Glorious 4th

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Gotta fly your flag on the 4th of July.  And in Texas you gotta have that Lone Star flag as well.

I always think of Independence Day as the official beginning of summer. Of course, here in central Texas we've been having summer-like temperatures for months already, but now that the fireworks displays are done and all the hotdogs eaten, I can sit back and relax.  Summertime is really here at last.

To see more sky photos, or to post your own sky shots,
please visit:

Our World Tuesday: Week 85

We've had quite a bit of rain in our part of the world recently.  Now when I say "quite a bit," remember that Texas, the southern part of it anyway, is going through a formidable drought (possibly historic, but we hope not) -- so two rainy days in a row is something we consider noteworthy.  And definitely justifies a few photos to commemorate it.  I took these from our front porch last week, during a rainstorm that was welcome but also just a little more violent than I'd like (well, we do everything in extremes here in the Lone Star state).

These are a couple of views of the storm's approach.  Our house is on a hill, so we get a nice panorama of the country for miles around.

(Click on images to enlarge.)

And here are another couple of shots, after the rain got started.  I didn't stay outside very long after this -- the thunder and lightning scared me indoors.  Like I said, Texas does extreme weather really well.

Unfortunately, that rainy spell, even though it dropped several inches of rain over a two-day period, wasn't enough to end the drought.  We need rain in something like Biblical proportions, I guess.  And that would bring different problems.  As my mother always said, if it's not one d--n thing, it's another.

Linking up with:

Blue Monday: Bluebonnets!

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

It's that time of year again in Texas -- springtime means the bluebonnets are blooming once again.  And here in the Hill Country, you see them along just about every road.  It's been almost thirty years since we were in Texas at this time of year, so it's really exciting to see the lovely blue blossoms again.  We live just a short drive from the Bluebonnet Trail, and I've been snapping shots every time we're out and about -- these are just a few (click on images to enlarge):

Blue Monday: Springtime Blues

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

Well, it seems to be springtime around here!  We're still having some cold spells, and a few cloudy days, but also lots of stuff blooming.  It's happening even sooner than I expected.  And I LOVE that.  Just look at that beautiful clear blue sky.

Also love the yellow flowers. Forsythia? Japonica?

But even though I love the gorgeous weather, I know the drought here in Central Texas is wreaking all kinds of havoc -- and we probably haven't seen all the effects yet.  And around the Hill Country it's very hard to ignore.  These are a couple of shots I took this weekend when we were out looking at Lake Travis.

Lake Travis from around the Point Venture area.

In ordinary times, most all that sandy beach area would be covered with blue water.  The lake is down almost fifty feet below normal levels, and not likely to come back anytime soon.

Looks like a construction site, but it's just "beach"!

It's still a great recreation area and wildlife habitat, but if the dry spell goes on much longer, water rationing is a real possibility.  Not looking forward to that.  Also, you can see how it's causing a lot of heartache for all those home owners with lakefront property.  If you enlarge the photos, you can see all the steps going down the hillside -- in better days, they would have ended at the waterline!