Spring is my absolute favorite time of year. The sun stays out longer (yes, I’m solar powered), the weather turns warmer but not miserable hot yet, and everything turns so green and lush. I am from Texas and believe me when I say Spring is fleeting here, so don’t blink or you’ll miss it, and take the time to enjoy every second.
For me what I most with a Texas spring is…Texas bluebonnets!
Starting in late March and going through April is bluebonnet season! If you’ve never seen bluebonnets, they are essentially a variety of lupin, but always this royal blue color. And each small blossom on a long stock of blossoms, looks like an old-fashioned bonnet. It is the state flower of Texas.
We don’t plant them. They are a perennial wildflower which lay dormant all year then bloom in spring like clockwork. In fact, that’s when you really know it’s spring. I also love all the different kinds of wildflowers the crop up among the bluebonnets with swaths of reds, pinks, purples, and yellows. While the other wildflowers do come out in abundance, it’s nothing like bluebonnets, which blanket the roadsides and fields all across Texas with gorgeous color. In the Northeast, there’s leaf peeping…in Texas there’s bluebonnet peeping. It is a yearly ritual, in fact, to get family and kiddo pictures taken among the bluebonnets (especially around Easter). Each year we eagerly wait to see if it’s going to be a “good bluebonnet season.”
For my family, one of our favorite things to do is drive into the Texas hill country (it starts around Austin and rolls west). We get to see the bluebonnets in all their glory as we travel beautiful curving backroads all the way to Fredericksburg where we treat ourselves to good food and fun shopping.
A little fact—not always known (even among Texans)—about bluebonnets… If you gently tug the top of a single bonnet back, it reveals an inner petal that is curved and colored like a cat’s claw. I also love to look out for the all-white versions that rarely pop up among all the blue. They’re unique and beautiful!
So…that is spring to me. Wildflowers! What is spring to you?
Award-winning paranormal romance author Abigail Owen grew up consuming books and exploring the world through her writing. She loves to write witty, feisty heroines, sexy heroes who deserve them, and a cast of lovable characters to surround them (and maybe get their own stories). She currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own personal hero, her husband, and their two children, who are growing up way too fast.
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