We Brake for Wildflowers
April 7, 2013 by georgettesullins
Off to the farm on Saturday afternoon. There’s a lot of work to do before it gets blazing hot this summer. Here’s a little of what we saw on the trail to there.
Oh, there’s some. You fill up the tank and I think I will walk over…
…closer.
A river of yellow as far as we could see.
And then a sea of yellow!
There’s some bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush in front of the farm!
These are along the road.
Looking down the front fenceline.
A “snake’s” eye view.
Rick brakes for hawks.
Across the road from us – soft and pretty.
In the pasture prickly pear cactus from the side of the gator.
More pictures coming this week. Tomorrow I’ll post a little of what we got done on Saturday afternoon.
Beautiful! Is that primrose in the first picture? I have that in a flowerbed by our mailbox. It usually blooms around the end of April. Rick brakes for wildflowers and hawks: Motor Man brakes for barns and fences! 😉
I’m not sure. These have very delicate petals. When I look them up, I only see one that looks like these. There seems to be so many varieties. I do have one reader who is quite an expert who visits occasionally. He might just pop in and let us know. 🙂
Rick also brakes for deer. He and both daughters can spot deer right before dusk when they seem to come out.
It really was a beautiful day yesterday. I wore a jacket as there was a cool breeze, but as we worked it came off. 🙂
I was over at Anahuac last weekend and saw a few of the same varieties. (The top is evening primrose – the ones we most commonly see come in colors ranging from white to very deep pink, often in the same patch. There’s also a beach evening primrose that comes in yellow. They were everywhere along the Bolivar dunes, and very beautiful.
I saw greenthread, Indian paintbrush and thistle, but of course you have some that don’t like the coastal environment, like the bluebonnet. There was prickly pear, too. But I have to ask – you took that photo from the side of a gator? Was he friendly? 😉
haha…we couldn’t work without the gator. This gator is green and hauls. He hauls the trailer and with four wheel drive it will drive through wet pastures. Once the cactus takes root, it’s hard to get rid of. We’ll just watch this for awhile. There’s enough room for it, too, for now. Perhaps another project. If it gets out of hand, the gator can pull it out.
Oh I wish I knew the names of all these varieties. Thank you for confirming the first and second are primroses — these were so delicate and very light pink. That’s why I visit Steve Schwarzman’s blog to learn what I can. Thank you for recommending his site some months ago. His link is on the side. Greenthread? He just wrote about that this past week.
It’s the yellow ones that are so confusing — so many varieties!
Ah! I’d forgotten the name of that utility truck/tractor/hauler/whatever. And the yellow are confusing! Steve mentioned once that botanists have a funny name for the category of “yellow flowers that hardly can be distinguised from one another”, but I can’t remember what it is. What I know is that we’re not the only ones who have trouble with identification sometimes!
I’ll just keep following Steve in Texas and google images. Still we need to get a book — the kindle doesn’t serve us here — to help identify. 🙂
Lovely photos Georgette! I like the “soft and pretty” one best and of course the closeups that block out the human influence.along our busy roads. And then the field of yellow. Heck, I love them all. I love wild flowers even when they are not wild. I actually scatter wild flower seeds every spring hoping for more on the homefront. 🙂
There is a Wildflower Farm in Fredericksburg, on the other side of Austin and less than a half hour away from Lady Bird Johnson’s Wildflower Center. The Wildflower Center on the road to Kerrville is a lovely place to visit for tourists and botanists — a lasting legacy.
Just beautiful!! I felt like I was with you on your country drive =-= ahhh!
MJ
I’m glad you could ride along. 🙂 So many colors and textures.
So pretty. I’m glad you get to stop and see them up close. You know, taking time to smell the roses …
…and the huisache. Steve Schwarzman whose link is to the right posted about them today.
I think I will ask Rick if I can drive…so I can stop on a dime to take others…we took a lot of U-turns yesterday.:) Easy in the gator but harder in the truck.
We always loved to go to visit at the farm. Beautiful anytime of the year. Just a wonderful peaceful place. Blessings to y’all.
Thank you for visiting, Mary K. Rick will be thrilled. I have so many pictures of you, W and your girls around the porch, under the trees and in the yard. Grandma K always cherished your visits. You all are invited any time.
oh, love, love, love. our bluebonnets (and a very few paintbrushes) are starting to pop. haven’t come to full strength yet.
The slopes of the road and fields are coming alive. Aren’t they?
What wonderful pictures. I love wildflowers. So pleased that you and hubby stop and smell the wildflowers (and wild birds). We all need to do that more often.
It was very nice to make time to go out with him and help. There’s worlds to do as you can imagine. I’ll explain more in my next post.
So pretty! I think I love spring in Texas.
Isn’t it? So varied and pretty. Lady Bird knew what she was doing when she made it her platform.
I’d like my entire yard to be wildflowers. The daisies do a great job and I mow around them, but I feel the pressure to have the yard look respectfully tidy. Since this may be my own pressure, I may need to become (more) eccentric.
Check out the Wildflower Farm in Fredericksburg or the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Get a bag of cosmos (or Canadian similar) and throw it out in the yard to see what happens. [wink]
Great pictures of your journey out to the country … so different then the city, huh?!?!
It certainly is…big question now…city house or country house…city house or country house? We need to move on one or the other. Maintaining two is a bit much now.
That is the best kind of a drive. I confess, I would brake for the hawk too :-).
🙂
Beautiful new site you and your husband have. That bolt of lightening was a bit sobering and that cauldron of clouds, forboding to say the least. The blue effect was such a deep blue, too.
Thank you for providing a feast for my color-deficient eyes! Our color is slooooowly coming into view after this long winter. But today is warm and sunny and that will spur on the color! YAY!
And those bulbs you posted a week or so ago will be blooming soon! 🙂
NC has a great project for beautifying roadsides and has made the most gorgeous beds along ugly strips of asphalt. Isn’t it nice?
Such a contrast. The Wildflower Farm in Fredericksburg counts many neighborhoods and states it has helped with planting natural wildflowers. The Woodlands, beautiful neighborhood to the north of us, is one they serve. I don’t mind sitting at a traffic light when I have such a view there.
What beautiful wildflowers you have in Texas! And such an assortment and variety… lovely!
I remember picking up a book in Phoenix of the desert flowers. Every part of our country has some wonderful varieties, not just TX for sure.
Simply stunning, Georgette. I love the beauty of flowers!
Highways and country roads can be beautiful and beautified. I’m thinking you all have your gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway with the ocean views.
This is the first year I truly appreciated the wildflowers of Texas and so have lots of my friends. I guess, I just started seeing the things I missed from years past. Never too late to appreciate Nature and everything else around us.
You found some beautiful fields! Good job in making an adventure of it.