Local reader Katherine Bailey shared these photographs of bluebonnets she came upon on in the back fields of her farm, the Double J, just west of Buda. Bailey says she “saw a ton of them, and this is a few weeks earlier than we saw them last year.” (Photo by Katherine Bailey)
by BRENDA STEWART
When it comes to Texas weather, it’s either feast or famine. After a record-shattering, three-season-long drought that reduced rivers to dusty memories and killed trees two stories tall, the skies finally opened up and slaked our collective thirst. And remarkably, as brittle and parched as it was, Central Texas sprang back to life with a vengeance turning crunchy brown grass into soft green tufts and coaxing little buds to the tips of all the trees and bushes. Springtime in Texas is amazing and, every year, it rewards us for suffering through those hellish seven-month summers by blooming with a passion.
Although spring will not officially arrive this year until Tuesday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department reports that the Lone Star State boasts more than 5,000 wildflower species and this year they are predicting a color bonanza. And, as luck would have it, we are smack dab in the middle of all the blooming madness. So, make a plan to get out of the house and check out all the lushness just outside your window. Take a walk or go for a drive. Good grief, you can even smell the trees.
