ADVENTURES IN NATURE: WILDFLOWER TIME!

Hello blogging friends! I haven't posted anything in a really looong time (again), but this spring the wildflowers are so spectacular I just had to share...I don't know if anyone is even following my blog anymore, probably not, but just in case anyone IS browsing along and looking at the latest nature blog posts - here's some shots of our wildflowers here in Central Texas, along with some local wildlife too. I took a whole day out of my semi-busy schedule and dedicated it to collecting some wildflower pics for the 2012 spring archive file. Anything I happened upon that was pretty, blooming, or wild I tried to capture in a picture that day so here are the results for your enjoyment!

To start with, here's a neat little blue spiky plant (I think it is a member of the Larkspur family but not sure). These guys grow in profusion in the springtime and their striking deep blue color is a real standout.

Wildlife was hanging around here and there on my photo shoot day...I came upon a small group of wild Turkeys roaming around the woodlands and this is the only one I could snap a picture of. This hen was moving along a a good clip trying to stay clear of me and my camera (!) I don't know that these turkeys are really that wild. They don't seem to have a home, but I imagine the state wildlife agency has released them because they seem to know what a human is. And this week I had one in my tree up by the road near my house so I guess there's more than a few of them around right now. Anyway, it is neat to see them roaming around - maybe they will stay until next Thanksgiving....:)

Of course, no Central Texas wildflower post would be complete without some Bluebonnet pictures, and this year was a bumper crop for BB's. Just to be a little different, I thought I would share some pictures of these most unique Albino Bluebonnets - something you just don't see every spring around here. For some reason this spring we had quite a few of them, I think it is the first year I've ever seen any. They say only about 12% of the seed from an Albino BB will be white, but I don't know how true that is. Now you can say you've seen some too!

Here's a few more:

Wild Foxglove - one of our most spectacular spring flowers. You can see them dotting the hillsides and pastures with their lavender to whitish colored petals. The large blooms are unmistakable and really stand out from the other plants!

A group of (?) - not sure what these are, they look a little bit like Gayfeathers, but not really. I'm currently trying to figure out just what they are, but they were very impressive! (And it almost makes me sneeze just to look at them!:))