Flower Hour

It's wildflower season in Texas again, and they are everywhere, on the side of every road. 

These are pictures of the wildflowers growing beside the drainage canal where I go for my walk each day.

The funny thing is that the pictures just don't do them justice. I find myself unable to capture the absolute riot of color growing around me. 

Notice all those tiny little specks of yellow or white or purple in the background of some of the pictures. Every one of those is another flower. It's simply amazing. 

This one below is probably my favorite pic of the bunch. I love the bee perched on the flower. I took two pictures at this moment, and the bee was at the best angle in this one.

It was interesting to see my old friends the thistles. I used to see a lot of those back when I lived in the desert, but I didn't expect to see them here with so much moisture around. They're a spiny, horrifying plant, but I still like the flower they produce.

Sadly, I am yet to be able to get a picture of the state flower, the bluebonnet. I've seen tons of them, but there aren't any growing where I go walking. I'd have to stop on the side of the freeway to get pictures, and if you've ever been on the side of a Houston freeway, you'd know why I do not dare.

It's a tradition among many folks in Texas to find a big meadow filled with bluebonnets to take family pictures and pictures of their kids etc. I guess I'm not a real Texan yet, because we still haven't done that yet. Though, I still have time. Maybe I should try to fit it in this month... 

 

 

PS- I had a typo the first time I wrote bluebonnets above. I accidentally spelled it bludbonnets. BLUDBONNETS! Now that is a good name! Sounds like the name of a great period horror piece. My mind is actually churning to come up with some kind of story to go with the name. If nothing else, it would be a good name for the red flowers I got pictures of, kind of the anti-bluebonnets.