Beautiful Bluebonnets!

I talked my hubby into taking a drive yesterday to go check out a place we hadn't been to in years, that is known to have Bluebonnets in the Spring. I wanted to go see if there were any growing there this year and take some photos. For those of you who are 'not from around these parts', the Bluebonnet is the State Flower of Texas and they only bloom for a short time in the Spring, usually in April.

There is quite a bit of folklore in Texas about the Bluebonnets. Just to give you a little history...

Bluebonnets have been loved since man first trod the vast prairies of Texas. Indians wove fascinating folk tales around them. The early-day Spanish priests gathered the seeds and grew them around their missions. This practice gave rise to the myth that the padres had brought the plant from Spain, but this cannot be true since the two predominant species of bluebonnets are found growing naturally only in Texas and at no other location in the world.

As historian Jack Maguire so aptly wrote, "It's not only the state flower but also a kind of floral trademark almost as well known to outsiders as cowboy boots and the Stetson hat." He goes on to affirm that "The bluebonnet is to Texas what the shamrock is to Ireland, the cherry blossom to Japan, the lily to France, the rose to England and the tulip to Holland."

The ballad of our singing governor, the late W. Lee O'Daniel, goes, "you may be on the plains or the mountains or down where the sea breezes blow, but bluebonnets are one of the prime factors that make the state the most beautiful land that we know.

Ahhhh... Beautiful Bluebonnets! Just one of the many things I love about Texas!

Here are a few of the photos we took yesterday. Enjoy!