Bluebonnets

Lupinus texensis. Texas Bluebonnets. The state flower of Texas.

Bluebonnets

You always know its Spring when the sides of Texas highways are lined in a beautiful blue, with specs of orange, white and blue. Wildflowers are as much a part of spring as tornadoes, warm weather, allergies and spring football practice in Texas.

In 5th grade, we had to do a flower collection. You had to display the flowers you’d gathered with their name, their “Binomial nomenclature” and where you picked the flower. I think I MIGHT have made a low “B” on the project. I pretty much gave up naming the flowers half-way through, though I did successfully find 50.

So every year, when I see the spring wildflowers blooming along Texas highways — especially bluebonnets — I think back to that project, and sometimes I try to remember the many names. I find myself smiling as I see families stop to take pictures in the beautiful colors. This, too, practically a state tradition.

On Easter, after rain had passed through my hometown and my husband, parents and I left my brother’s house, we went and found a patch of bluebonnets… and Dad snapped a shot of my husband and me in the pretty blue colors.

SONY DSC

I’m planning to get the photo printed in a large size to hang in our home in Nashville.

Bluebonnets. It’s a Texas thing… one of my favorite things.

When the bluebonnets bloom
I’ll think of you…

-Cross Canadian Ragweed, “Bluebonnets