Bountiful Bouquets in our Blackland Prairie

 The spring of 2023 is an outstanding one for Texas wildflowers. 

I returned to Texas in March and as I often do, I took time to wander out to the city's nearby Holford Nature Preserve, an undeveloped remnant of the blackland prairie, remaining wild along Spring Creek. Holford Preserve is a rarity in these parts, a variety of habitats tucked together with a spectacular flowering meadow developed on thin, black clay soil over Cretaceous limestone. 

The open, hardscrabble landscapes makes for a huge variety of wildflowers that appear in the parade of days from March through early summer.

I thought I'd share a few of my friends living out in the Holford Preserve...

Firewheel cluster

Flowering cactus

A family of Firewheels

Shy lavender forest-dweller

Sue suggests that I should take  photographs of a bunch of these Texas wildflowers and have them printed on cards and sell them on Etsy or somewhere.

I think it is a good idea. I just need to bring a tripod with me and get all of these vernal beauties in focus and find a print shop.

Some day...

 

Mother's Day Picnic in the Park

Our traditional cheesy Mother's Day Picnic

 

It's a good tradition. 

It's a cheesy tradition.

It's our tradition.

Mother's Day is noted on the calendar and we know we have to pick a picnic park place. We've done city parks, we've done rural grassland preserves, we picnicked by lakes and by creeks. We've driven far, we've stayed pretty close to home.

We always buy a fun and flavorful assortment of exotic cheeses to pack into the basket. Sometimes I surprise the Mother of our kiddos with my own cheese selections. More often these days we shop the cheese counter together.

To go along with the cheese, we always include ginger beer, a few samples of fruit and sometimes nuts and always gluten free crackers (unless we forget).

With the Mother's Day weather threatening thunderstorms, we elected the nearby Breckenridge City Park with a roofed pavilion. 

We enjoyed our six varieties of cheese, discussing our favorites. Tossing back strawberries and sipping ginger beer.

We repacked our picnic supplies and wandered down the sloping walks of Breckenridge to stroll among the wildflowers and under the large trees along Spring Creek.

Wildflowers in a plot of poppies and larkspur.

The skies grew gray, the storm front caught up to us and we began to skip quickly back to the car, dancing between large rain drops as the sky growled with thunder.

It was satisfying afternoon of cheese and walks among the flowers and trees with a worthy and beloved mother.

Here, I raise my fermented curd to all of those moms we do so dearly love! Fromage!

Sweet Magnolia

 Ah, Magnolia.

MAG-noh-lee-a. Just to pronounce her name, one's tongue has to saunter about in your mouth as your lips leisurely stroll about your face. One has to smile when merely mentioning her name. It's even more enigmatic and sensuous when the syllables are drawn out in a baritone. Mag NOOO lee ah!

The massive and fragrant citrus-scented blossoms are full, buxom beauties that open for my arrival back in springtime Texas. 

I greet her bold, unfurling petals with enthusiasm. I bend the supple boughs down to bring her audacious white blooms to my nose, I inhale and my being rises, enveloped in the scent of a southern spring while in the intimate presence of her petals; pure white appearing fresh in the humid morning air. She grows in confidence, spreading, opening her cool, succulent textured skin as she exposes herself to the smile of the sun.

 

Magnolia is a messy, big-boned gal. Her leaves broad, tough and waxy green with a furry, brassy underside. Her blossoms are not shy, halting in their purity and challenging for the world's attention in their enormity. 

I love a brassy, bold, large-leafed, bright blossomed girl with a sweet scent giving me a show in our backyard.

Like the pleasant spring weather in Texas, Magnolia does not terry long. 

She gives me an eye full, proudly displaying her attributes, then quickly tiring of the grandiosity of the adventure, and then it is over for us.

Her virgin white petals after a day or two, turn into the sensuous brown skin of a south seas island maiden before all the feminine, flowery pretense falls to the ground. Leaving a grenade formed of hard, prickly pods embedded with red seeds, bright and alluring.

My mulching mower makes her leaves, petals and pods all disappear as I tend to the green grass skirting her smooth trunk. I cut and trim around her in the Texas summer heat with but memories of Sweet Magnolia and our springtide fling.