Roadtrip to the World’s Largest Working Wildflower Farm

Texas Bluebonnets at Wildflower Farms

Recently I visited Fredericksburg, TX, home to WildSeed Farm. This beautiful place is considered the world’s largest working wildflower farm, which means you’ll see tractors, workers harvesting seeds and much more amind acres of Texas bluebonnets, poppies, Indian paintbrush plants and more. Follow this link for a virtual visit: https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/wildseed-farms-texas-hill-country/

Hydrangeas!

My hydrangeas have really exploded with colorful blooms this year. It’s no thanks to me, really. I suspect the recent rains helped. Take a look!

 

 

 

 

 

Come Messy

Recently I’ve been working on our back deck. The deck is about 15 years old now, weather-battered and sun-worn, and I’ve gotten tired of looking at the bleached boards and popped-up nails. So I’ve been hammering, and I’ve put out lots of flowers that I hope will attract butterflies–and distract human visitors from seeing how bad the old deck really is.

I spent hours sanding the old paint and rust off a set of outdoor furniture we have, too, so I could re-paint the table and chairs, to give us a nice place to sit in the evenings. I bought fabric to make new seat cushions. It’s weather-resistant, and it’s really pretty, with a chocolate brown background, and  lemon yellow and cream-colored flowers.

The table has a glass top, which I scrubbed and cleaned, and I thought, when everything’s finished, I’ll put a nice candle or lantern on the tabletop.

 

And then —this happened:

Yep. I dropped the paint.  All over the already awful-looking deck. This is just one spot. Amazing, how far a half-empty bucket of paint can go!

It’s going to take a lot of—well, I don’t know what it takes to get oil-based paint off of wood. Whatever it is, I’m sure it won’t be easy.

Don’t you hate it when you’re trying hard, and things seem to be going okay, but everything winds up in a mess?

At least this reminded me that no matter how hard we try, we’re never going to be perfect. God loves us anyway.

So I’m thinking, it’s okay. The paint will come off. Or it won’t come off. Jesus says, Don’t worry about things. Rest in Me. Come to Me, even if you come messy.

“I will sing aloud of your steadfast love…” Psalm 88:13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June flowers

I knew my gardenia bush was blooming before I even saw it, because I could smell the perfume of the flowers from my porch last week.
I love June–that’s when my gardenias put on their best show.

Fortunately, these beautiful white flowers don’t seem to be bothered by pests or diseases, even in our hot, humid weather.

These purple petunias and orange blossoms are in a big pot on my front porch. The heat hasn’t slowed them down at all.  The picture on the right shows how they’re planted alongside scarlet red geraniums–love the “hot” color combination.

And this little turtle has been wandering around in my garden for several days; as you can see, he’s burrowed into some pine straw here. I wondered why he was hanging around, since we’ve been feeding some kittens in the yard–until we caught him eating the dry cat food one day.  Who knew?

“We give thanks to thee, O God; we give thanks; we call on thy name and recount thy wondrous deeds.” Psalm 75:1.

Springtime in the Smoky Mountains


Just a few pictures today from my trip last spring to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Makes me want to go back soon, to see the mountains coming back to life after the long winter.

“Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and all that move in them…” Psa. 69:34

Late summer flowers

By this time every summer, my hanging baskets look pretty tired. I guess they can’t take the heat, combined with the daily waterings that leach out all the fertilizer. It helps to cut back the petunias and other fast-growing annuals, because they’ll usually respond with another flush of blooms before fall. But they seldom look as perky as they did when they were newly planted in the spring.

Oh, well. At least I’ve got my pictures from my trip to Taos to look at. Aren’t these hanging baskets gorgeous? I like to make photos when I’m traveling, not just as a reminder of a trip, but to use as inspiration when I’m gardening next year. I’d always heard that the light in Taos was spectacular, and it’s true. You can see why so many artists and photographers did such great work there; the sunlight is bright and the skies are usually clear. Hope you can click on these images to enlarge them and see how really beautiful the flowers are!