Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; / 5/
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: / 10/
Praise him.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1899)

Pollen!

I guess unless you live in a desert, you have pollen.  Have we got pollen!  The offender is the live oak tree--that magnificent twisty, gnarled tree that can survive for years and years in the Texas heat and drought.  Live oak trees, for all their beneficial shade, do have a couple of drawbacks:  first, millions of tiny leaves that fall not in the autumn, but the spring!  Just when you want to start cleaning up the yard for spring, there is a deluge of tiny leaves, quickly followed by new leaves on the trees.  The good thing is, there are leaves all winter.  The bad aspect is cleaning up all those leaves when you really want to be planting.

And then there is the pollen.  The pollen explosion this year is the worst in 25 years--and the volumes are off the charts.  The local television stations post the pollen counts.  4,000 is considered high; today the count was at 11,000; Sunday it was over 40,000!  Everything is coated in yellowish-green pollen.  My black car is no longer black; my gardening shoes look as if I had been mowing the yard (I have not).

Luckily, we do not have pollen allergies, as some people do--and they are miserable right now.  I did find that, after a day of working in the garden, I had to take out my contact lenses, however.  My eyes did react to the pollen explosion.  How long does it last?  Would you believe until the end of April?

A Wealth of Wildflowers

The wildflowers just keep coming in our corner of the Hill Country.  These images are from (of all places) the cement plant located between New Braunfels and San Marcos.  The meadow was seeded last fall, and our abundant fall and winter rains worked their magic.

Thank you, Texas Industries.  And thanks be to God!

Jerry Jeff Walker Birthday Bash

As usual, Jerry Jeff Walker returned to Gruene Hall to celebrate his birthday.  Just like last year, we had a table near the front of the hall for the great show.  For all those who wonder how we get such "preferential" treatment for these sold-out shows, the secret is to log onto the JJW website the minute that the virtual ticket window opens.  It's worked two years in a row.

The "man"  ambled into the hall just as I was checking out the tee shirt table, and I was able to get a close-up shot:

As I wrote last year, Gruene Hall is the perfect venue for Jerry Jeff's music: it is old, funky, and loaded with posters and pictures of performances over the years--not to mention neon beer signs of all the favorite Texas brews. Here are some of the satisfied patrons:

All eyes, of course, were on center stage, where there was great music--and two stepping in the aisles.

Yes, we will be back next year--and as long as Jerry Jeff chooses to celebrate his birthday at Gruene Hall.

Wildflowers

It is wildflower time in Texas--the state with more varieties of wildflowers and more miles of wildflower-strewn roads than any other state.  And this year--thanks to the abundant fall and winter rains, the wildflowers are putting on a show that is spectacular.

Last week we took our visitors from Connecticut and Kansas City to Wildseed Farm, a 200 acre farm that specializes in raising wildflowers and harvesting the seeds for resale.  Wildseed is located about 7 miles east of Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country.  The many varieties on the Wildseed plots were just beginning to come into bloom--promising many weeks of colorful displays.

We will be back--this show is too good to miss!

Meanwhile, here in New Braunfels, 70 miles south, the flowering has already begun--even in our own back yard.

Last year we bought three bluebonnet plants and placed them in the back of the yard where we have a rocky meadow.  Bluebonnets are an annual--not a perennial--so the spreading of bluebonnets comes from the seeds that fall from mature plants and lay fallow until the following year.  Our three bluebonnet plants have seeded themselves and we are enjoying these lovely flowers right out our windows.

More to come!

Spring

It's been a long winter--even in Central Texas.  We have had more rain than usual--thank goodness!  And, quite honestly, more cold than usual.  As March started, however, the temperatures gradually warmed, and spring seemed to be a reality.  The garden centers have been stocking their aisles with so many tempting plants, and even though I have lots of seeds started, I broke down and bought a tomato plant when I spotted the heirloom "Brandywine"  at a local nursery.  And as an appropriate companion, basil.  Mind you, there are tomato and basil seedlings growing in flats on the warm driveway pavement (and brought into the garage at night) but I thought I would take a chance with Brandywine and basil, and planted them on the last day of winter.

Spring began officially on Saturday, 20 March, and--we had frost!  I checked the thermometer when I got up in the morning, and it read 31 degrees--so I rushed back to the garden to check on those two plants that relish hot weather.  Here are the results:

Obviously, it was a little cooler in the garden than up close to the house, or it was below freezing for a period of time.  So much for trying to rush spring during this atypical winter!

I decided I ought to record the event as a reminder that, even if the garden centers stock summer flowers and vegetables, there is no guarantee that they will survive until spring truly arrives.

On the way back to the house, camera in hand, I came across this delicate buttercup growing fearlessly surrounded by the menacing thorns of a prickly pear cactus.  Surprised by nature once again!  Enjoy.

A Fascinating Evening

Last night our church hosted the Mwangaza Children's Choir as this group of Ugandan children stopped in New Braunfels for their "Hope for the Nations"  2010 Tour.  This group of 22 talented eight to thirteen year olds charmed the appreciative audience with their singing (and dancing) and infectious enthusiasm.

With the exception of "America the Beautiful,"  all of their numbers were original Ugandan praise songs, some sung in English, some in native languages, and all accompanied by enthusiastic drumming.  They even invited to audience to sing along with them in one number, which actually worked very well as a "new"  song began to sound familiar:

     Savior, he can move the mountains

     My God is mighty to save,

     He is mighty to save.

     Forever, author of salvation

     He rose and conquered the grave,

     Jesus conquered the grave.

          ("Mighty to Save")

Mwangaza (the Swahili word for "shining light")  is a missionary and fundraising branch of Africa Renewal Ministries, dedicated to raising a new generation of Christian leaders for Africa.

I have to admit, I did not know what to expect from a group from Uganda, the nation that has recently legislated (under the influence of a group of Americans) that homosexuality in Uganda is a capital offense.  As I watched the energetic and spirit-filled children singing, I wondered how many of them might at some point run afoul of such an oppressive law.  During a brief presentation about the work of Africa Renewal Ministries, I learned that 50% of the population of Uganda is under the age of 15!  Fifty percent!  Such is the effect of the AIDS epidemic in East Africa.  Surely as this young generation reaches maturity, such repressive legislation will be replaced by a more humane recognition of the spirit of God in all of God's children.

After the concert we hosted three of the girls and one of their chaperones for the night.  What joy these "young ladies"  (as their chaperone called them) brought to our home.

I don't imagine that "Shake Your Body"  will become a standard in American churches, but it certainly sounded right as the children sang--and danced:

     Shake your body to the Lord

     Hallelujah

     Shake your body,

     Shake, shake,

     Hallelujah

     Shake your body to the Lord

     Hallelujah

     Why don't you rise up and

     Dance to the Lord?

Amen.