Do you ever feel like spring is just a bunch of exclamation marks?!
!!!!!!!!
Growing, growing, green. That unstoppable energy of spring is hard to keep up with. And March in particular is often the only “spring” we get in Austin–from here on out it rapidly turns to summer. So we get extra exclamation marks for that. I’m an avid gardener and it’s hard not to want to be outside digging in the dirt every chance I get. Here’s a bit of home for the “expat” Texans out there:
I have declared this the Year of the Bluebonnet. There are some years that they are smaller in crop than the others but between some perfectly timed rains in the fall and spring they are INSANE this year and I’m sure the Texas-dwellers out there have noticed the highways brimming with them. I dreamed for years of having a wildflower patch, something that simulated a meadow in a city garden kind of way. We have a pretty large yard for a city and even for central Austin–but it was entirely covered in shade and invasive plant-weeds. It took one fall of serious weeding, hacking down a few junk trees and bushes, and throwing out a few packets of seeds. Now my little patch of sunlight has taken on a life of its own. Some years the poppies show off, others the larkspur. Last year I had one lowly bluebonnet and all of this somehow came from THAT. (I never tire of the wonder that one plant can generate about 1000 more in just one season of seed-bearing.)
March is also a thick time because it’s also my man’s birthday month. Friends, birthdays are a really big, big deal around here. Sometimes wearily so. We usually take the day off (okay, sometimes more than one) and basically fill it with everything we love. It just so happens that Derek’s birthday is also St. Patrick’s Day. Yeah, he is part Irish and all heart so his bday always has this double-the-party energy. Add to all this SXSW, which seriously takes over Austin for about a week straight–the buzz, the traffic, the 10s of thousands of people crowding every square inch of this little town, the feeling that you are always missing some kind of huge convergent opportunity.
So we had a l’il party last night and now that things are calming down, from my quiet little porch in the universe, I can think about how much I adore this man and hope he had the bestest birthday:
{In this one, he’s wearing a vest I made him a couple of years ago from a vintage 1940s pattern. I’m going to do another one soon.}
Derek wears green velvet pants to breakfast and top hats to conferences. He collects circus paraphernalia and weeps in front of a Marc Chagall. He has the biggest heart and zest for life of anyone I know–and often loves people so much it hurts him. Darn Irish. I know it’s not easy being green.
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Thank you for sharing your bluebonnet pics. They sure are lovely. Hopefully a year from now I will be able to take my own.
thanks, Melizza. I love taking pictures of my flowers probably more than anything else!
Ah what a wonderful time! March is seriously a beautiful month here in TX. I love your bluebonnet, and your approach to gardening – when I get myself a little plot of land I plan on throwing some wildflower seeds at it as well!
Happy birthday to your man! As a fellow March baby I know how special we are 😉 Glad you guys could celebrate.
Oh, another March baby! Happy birthday month to you. So funny, because where I grew up, March is just peeking out, and there’s still some snow. But here, so lovely and breezy and full of life.
You had me at bluebonnet, but weeping at Marc Chagall might just make me weep for joy. Such a lovely post, Amy, and a very dapper husband. Happy birthday, Derek!!! I hope you’ve survived the crazy awesome beast of SXSW and are coping during the come down 🙂 I’ll have to take a drive north soon to see the lupines in my home state. When I first moved to Texas and saw bluebonnets passing by the car window, I thought they were tiny lupines!
They are really tiny lupines and so pretty up close, aren’t they? I’ve tried to grow the bigger ones from the NE but they won’t have it here. We were just in the Bay Area and all along the Golden Gate area there are these amazing golden CA poppies interlaced with baby lupines that look almost identical to bluebonnets. It’s almost hard to tell the difference… (Hee, can you tell I’m a wildflower fan. I have field guides!)
I wish there were top hats at my conferences! (Boring medievalists..) Happy birthday, Derek 🙂 You might enjoy the vintage circus posters at http://modernforkids.com. They had a booth at the Toronto paper show last spring. The owner had amazing stories about persuading retired clowns to part with their collections.
Amy, you’ve reminded me of my Grade 8 wildflower project (!) I’ll have to keep an eye out for the wildflowers hiding in Parkdale..
Oh, oh! Thank you so much for sharing that. I’ve bought him quite a few circus posters over the years and he will so love this. (And the idea of them coming from retired clowns… he loves all things vaudeville and old circus and meeting those with history in it.)
happy birthday big hearted derek! amy’s description of you is just glorious.
we do the same over the top bday celebrations here in kalkatroona… I hope you’re still celebrating at this very moment 🙂
ya know, I was trying to invent a green drink for him and just couldn’t come up with one that didn’t involve food coloring. I kept thinking of you cuz I’m sure you have one up your sleeve 😉
do i EVER. it’s called the ryumba, i’m having it at a bar in a week or so and i’m having ruggy document the mix. details to come.
Amy- thank you for these lovely bluebonnets! the last time I was in Texas was a terrible year for them, i felt so cheated. This is a lovely reminder of what spring looks like in my homeland. 😉
Thanks, Rebecca. Last year was one of those off years. It was so terribly dry fall through spring. This is such a treat after a horrible drought.
Be still my heart… When I opened this page and saw the bluebonnets, my eyes filled with tears. Thank you.
Love me some Austin in springtime…
hehe, I thought you’d like it. It’s a beautiful spring this year. Thank goodness for rain.