Behind the Digital LensMusings of an Amateur Photographer

8th Apr, 2012 Texas Rite of Spring

It’s Spring in Texas, and so far, it has been a real Spring.  Oh, we have had a few days with unreal temperatures, and we have had a day filled with tornadoes – 12 to 15 of them – and a downpour of rain.  Rain.  It is something we have had quite a bit of this year, and it is much needed.  I don’t think anyone is complaining, either.  The tornadoes we can do without, however.

“April showers bring May flowers.”  For Texas, though, it’s more like “February and March showers bring out Texas bluebonnet flowers.”  And this year because of all of the rain, the bluebonnets are everywhere in great numbers.  A beautiful sight to see, given the drought and heat of the last few years, which made bluebonnets sparse.  And while they bloom, their fragrance is wonderful.

I always look forward to this time of year.  Sure, other flowers abound, but there is something about the bluebonnets that brings out a somewhat controlled “silliness” in people.  A small field or rather large clump of bluebonnets suddenly has a parking lot of cars surrounding it with children and adults, some with dogs, laughing giddily while squatting or sitting among the blooms while an equally giddy person with a face glued to the back of a camera snaps repeatedly away in hopes of capturing that “special” moment for all time.  Just as suddenly as they appeared the laughing dies as car doors slam and they zoom off in search of a new pristine clump to roll in while another group of equally silly and giddy adults, children and dogs take their place among the now trodden and flattened state flower.  In Texas, this is a statewide rite of Spring and quite anticipated.  As it should be, since this is the only time the bluebonnet blooms.

I, too, look forward to this time of year, attending the closest festival and driving the “Bluebonnet Trail” in Ennis County.  But, this year was different; gas prices have sky rocketed, and driving the Trail alone was not something I cared to do.  I thought for sure that I would not get any photos this year, but did manage to work some in without joining in the frenzy.  Far less than the two or three hundred photos that had become normal, I took only a handful.  I am glad that I was able to do so, however.  Somehow it would not be Spring unless I got the opportunity to see, smell, and photograph a few bluebonnets.

A solitary Texas bluebonnet

Texas bluebonnets