Windy Spring

It's so windy this glorious Spring! Windy days are not my favorite thing, but the wind creates waves of grass in the fields that are mesmerizing - transporting - might be somewhere else...

This year it seems like the Wisteria is the most heavily laden with flowers and scent that its ever been! In any case its scent is everywhere, at least where the wild wind blows it.

Wisteria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the spring wildflowers are mainly looking very good, bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, etc.

One of my favorite small flowers are bluets. For some reason they didn't do so well this year, showing up but sparsely.

Bluet Houstonia caerulea

 

 

Saint Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Recall the childhood mystery - who in the classroom sent the card and the little candy heart that said "Be Mine"? Well anyway, that was just the beginning of all the beauty and weirdness of "love". So now, considerably later, a bite of really good chocolate and a sip of vino will do. Ha Ha so funny and and a bit painful looking back - nowadays simple and easy would be the thing. Not too late is it?

Beep - Adios Leon

“I’m glad that beep's not wasted,” said Leon Hale. He would barely beep the horn of his blue truck as he went by on his daily mail check to town, and one time we told him we enjoyed hearing that.  “There goes Leon!” we always used to say. He was very much appreciated in our area and getting a little beep was special. When Leon was away from his country place we would miss that beep. It was part of the day. But today, Saturday, March 27, 2021, Leon headed down a lone dusty road, his last blue highway. He left behind many people that hated to see him go, like us here at the farm. But Leon also left behind some magic, and out there on the quiet road a little beep might yet arise someday, “There goes Leon!”

Twenty Years

Have been working off and on on a small painting. It has had many iterations, but now it seems just about time to finally move on - call it done enough. Have completed other paintings in the meantime, this one just never seemed right. Kept realizing basic things were wrong, and surely still are. But you know, it is an amazing thing to paint, hard to describe but might say there is a heightened sensibility and some kind of feedback loop gets established. When you get close to right, forever after, when you see what you've done, something strong comes back. Ha - even if no one else sees it.

 

Time And Space

As Daddy-o used to recite:
Time waits for no man,
it passes you by,
it rolls on forever,
like the clouds in the sky.
(by who?)

by Avey Shrum

And in an email from a dear friend:

"Death is a strangely irreconcilable moment (no matter if we are together to the end or not) …we rationalize and carry on but the heart still looks for the love lost."
and
Shakespeare’s Tempest…
Prospero:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest Act 4, scene 1, 148–158

Old Friend Avey and Staying Home

Time these days speeds by so fast. Changes happen, friends get sick or pass on, there are sad feelings. The pandemic is not helping the joy factor and have to say am somewhat worried, but so far am keeping the spirits high. No Travel plans for now, but beginning to have visions of being on the road somewhere, maybe New Mexico or Rome or a beautiful beach. But for now staying home is not that bad, there are many blessings to count.

Wisteria blooming here and filling the air with scent. And just noticed the first scent of honeysuckle. Also in a week will have confederate jasmine blooming.

Easter Flowers of the Fairest

As little kids in a Catholic elementary school we had a springtime ritual where for a few weeks in the mornings we would parade around the class room and bring any kind of flowers we could pick to the Virgin Mary the Queen of Peace and sing "Bring flowers of the fairest, bring flowers of the rarest...", can't remember the rest. Always sort of enjoyed doing that.

Hinckley's Columbine first flower opened this morning for Easter. Easter was very late this year so a lot of flowers have already peaked. But there are still a lot of pretty flowers around.

This beauty on road side. Some years never see an albino Bluebonnet.

St Josephs Lily, an amaryllis planted long ago by the old Muske House. These are common in the area and this was a really good year for them.

Penstemon Cobaea called Foxglove.

With good rains it has been a good year for flowers. Wildflowers like bluebonnets and indian paintbrush were very nice, as well as hugely fragrant flowers like narcissus, wisteria, honeysuckle, star jasmine. My osmanthus fragrans has been blooming since winter, its almost over now. What is missing are petunias but still have hope some may come up.

And a tribute to Momma, the bluebirds and silver-linings are everywhere you look. Just throw your troubles away.