Sunday, May 3, 2009

Spring in South-Central Texas 2009


These photos were all taken along I-10 between El Paso and San Antonio, the last weekend in April. They appear in reverse order from when they were taken. I am very blessed to have a husband who caters to my fascination with wildflowers and desire to photograph them. On our way home we must have stopped half a dozen times along the road for photographs. And he was even looking out for the things he knew I wanted to identify. Every time we stopped for one flower, I found several others of interest. The flowers were mostly not too spectacular, especially going by at 80 mph, but they were plentiful and beautiful. Of course we saw blue bonnets, a fair number of them in good-sized patches. I think the most spectacular thing that caught our eyes was bright purple growing on the rocks, which turned out to be a cactus.

The drive home was quite an adventure beyond all the photo stops. Around mile 346 we encountered a severe thunderstorm, which lasted for about 30 miles. There was half inch diameter hail, which was incredibly loud when it hit the car, plus extremely heavy rain. Fortunately most of the people were driving safely, frequently using their flashers, which made them visible under difficult conditions. When we were just about out of the storm we saw a number of vehicles stopped, or stopping, under an overpass. We chose to keep going, and just beyond that overpass the storm pretty much abated.

The one non-floral photograph is one of my favorite sights along the way, which I have nicknamed "boob hill", a very distinctive landmark.


























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