I spent this glorious spring day with Tom and dear friends Shari and Robert driving through the hill country… ooh-ing and ah-ing at fields of bluebonnets, hiking up Enchanted Rock, and eating in Fredericksburg. I'm sunburned and dog-tired, but happily so. (Pictures to follow… you can probably imagine how many I took!)
I have to give Tom credit for spotting this single Bluebonnet growing right in front of our house. For some reason, bluebonnets are rare down in the Hollow. One year we tried to plant some, but as I told a friend, the birds must have eaten the seeds and pooped them out elsewhere.
Thank you to whatever bird planted this bluebonnet standing so tall and proud, like a true Texan…
I just love it!
…"Proud Texan" leads me to this next photo that some guy named Steve Redman posted on Facebook. It's spreading like wildfire… at least among my Texan friends. I have no idea where he got it, but I love it, too.
Yes, we do think like this. But we also laugh at ourselves for thinking like this. Does that help make us a little less obnoxious?
"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans." -John Steinbeck, 1962
"If a man’s from Texas, he’ll tell you. If he’s not, why embarrass him by asking?" – Travel writer John Gunther, The Best of Texas.
And now for more sweet! moments of the past week…
Saturday: your Mama's tuna fish salad; watching basketball with your Daddy; bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes on a hillside at sunset; the smiles on your puppies' faces when you arrive home after a road trip
Sunday: driving empty highways at 4am to retrieve your daughter from a 22-hour bus trip; a great sermon; a red-tailed hawk, soaring through the hollow; watching movies with your daughter before she heads back to college
Monday: a bluebonnet growing in the Hollow; ducks gliding across a pond; four-year-olds discovering patterns and pretending to be airplanes and kitty cats; walking familiar halls after years of absence
Tuesday: knowing your puppies are indoors, safe and sound, on a stormy morning; a glimpse of more ducks through the trees, even though they fly before you can snap their picture; a call from your father-in-law, letting you know he's out of the hospital
Wednesday: a walk before dawn, the Big Dipper ahead of you and a glimmer of sunrise behind; no line at the post office
Thursday: lunch with friends; coming up with a good excuse to drive downtown for a daughter hug; watching ducks fly away from you, even though you didn't have time to snap their photo (again!)
Friday: reading Othello aloud with high school seniors; a (mostly) clean house, just in time for the arrival of sweet friends; sitting around a bonfire with friends under a sky full of stars, talking and listening to a rushing creek
Saturday: fields of Texas wildflowers; sharing the view from the top of Enchanted Rock with friends; real German Reuben sandwiches
What were some sweet! moments of your week?
Long Hollow 
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