Blue Bonnets
05 April 2015 | Texas Hill Country
Marlane
The thing that saves Texas from being completely mind-numbing is the Hill Country. And the Hill Country in the spring is spectacular. The highway department apparently mows the sides of their highways in order to spare, or even encourage the spread of spring wild flowers. We apparently hit it at exactly the right time. The sides of the road were covered with blue bonnets and Indian paintbrush. The Red Buds were blooming, and the oaks were in full green. It was quite spectacular.
However I have to admit to having a small epiphany about half way across West Texas. In SF there is a total ban on grocery stores using white plastic shopping bags. I have bitched about this for years. I never, ever seem to have a damn bag in my car when I need one, and before the ban I always used to use those bags for our trash can on the boat. Since the ban I have had to buy new ones to use for trash. That strikes me as an environmental oxymoron. But after traveling through Texas I think I have to rethink my crankiness re: plastic bags. Everywhere we looked there were white plastic grocery bags littering the roadside (see at least 8 of them amongst the blue bonnets in the pic). They were stuck in the cactus, impaled on the barbed wire, and sailing on the breeze across the fields. Have to say it was bloody ugly, and certainly did nothing to improve the view. Very sad to see.