I Go Out Walkin'

I had a very eventful walk tonight. I saw many wildflowers out and about in Lytton Springs, even a new flower I hadn't seen before and now must identify. There are bluebonnets blooming, but not along the stretch of road that I was walking. All of the blue that I saw was in the form of Bud Light cans. Somebody who drives home on 1854 each night LOVES a Bud Light for the drive home, and seeds the roadsides with their empties. Otherwise it was the usual suspects - vervain, broom, paintbrush, crow poison, dewberries, evening primrose. And a few I didn't expect - wild honey suckle and a small purple bell flower I have yet to identify. I even ran into an old friend- Scoop, the stray kitty who visited the farm late last year. She's filthy dirty, has ditched the undignified collar, and looked a bit thinner than before. But she was crazy for the love, as usual. She stayed in the field across the street where I found her. It was a beautiful evening, cool and gently breezy.I was careful to avoid ant mounds, but it was easy because most of the roadsides had been recently mowed. There were no loose country dogs to scare the bejesus out of me - only fenced barkers. Even a turkey! I stopped several times to admire the huge oak trees growing twisted and massive along my path. I saw a cardinal, and stopped to listen to it twitter. There were solemn cows and horses with their necks bent, intent on the freshly sprouting green food at their feet. I walked home as the sun set on the prairie.

Bon Voyage

Well, after a long hiatus of doing exactly who knows what, besides updating my blog, I have just a few notes. I saw my first patch of bluebonnets on Thursday, February 28th. I saw several more on Friday and Saturday. "That is too early for Bluebonnets!!" as my friend Vico said. We have had a mild end of winter, but little rain, albeit some lately. I do think that my interest in blogging reflects the observable life - greenery, flora, and critters - around the house and out here in the country. It has been fairly brown and quiet for quite some time now, with only a few crow poison flowers and some sow thistle here and there. The first thing I noticed, earlier in the month of Feb, were the proliferation of wild geranium leaves, but no blooms yet. Ah, and I did find some creeping charlie - a favorite weed from childhood that was always being eradicated from the strawberry patch and the yard, more persistent even then dandilions, it seemed to me. And the name cracks me up now, since my husband shares it, but he is not creepy or creeping in anyway.
I am headed off on a week long caribbean cruise tomorrow, and I am all kinds of excited about it, as you might imagine. We stop in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It all sounds very exotic and luxurious, something I can use a dose of. We're calling it our Babymoon, which is what you take when you never really took a honeymoon, and you are now having a baby. We are due at the end of July. You may have also noticed the floating baby at the top of the page, it mirrors the development of the peanut inside me. My tummy is sticking out and I have all of the glamourous symptoms of pregnancy at some point in recent history. I always knew that babies took over your life, but who knew that they did it at 9 weeks gestation? I do, now.
So we're off on one adventure after another, and it will all unfold over the spring and summer, along with the buzz of life out here on the farm. Don't expect to hear from me for a while, I'll be sipping (ironically called) Virgin Daquiries and lounging on white sugar sand beaches and dipping my toes in aqua clear waters.