Hope Springs Eternal

See that plant there?  That plant in the middle of the picture..the one with 5 leaflets.  That my dear friends is the Texas Bluebonnet "Lupins Texensis".  Doesn't look like much now, but come spring it will be beautiful with blue and white flowers.  It is also for those that do not know...the state flower of Texas.

But what I wanted to point out in these next pictures is for you to look closely at the ground from which it springs.  Notice anything???  Maybe a lack of soil for one.  This wonderful little flower springs from some really rough terraine and the worse looking the better for this beauty.  It also takes water, but not just water any time...no, water in the fall and winter around here will make for a beautiful show of flowers in the spring. 

So after a spring and summer last year literally from hell with 90+ days of 100+ temps and no rain to speak of...we've had some rain, not a lot mind you, but enough to make the bluebonnets appear.  So it gives me hope that we will have a wonderful spring with lots of wildflowers.

This is one hardy wildflower.  It doesn't transplant well, many have tired and few have succeeded.  It has a really tough seed coat that needs to scarafied with heat or water in order to make it germinate. 

This small hill on our property doesn't look like much, but come spring it will be covered with Bluebonnets.  You can't see them now but if you walked this hill you'd see that it was covered with Bluebonnet plants.

So with that in mind, I think about my mom.  She takes a licken but keeps on ticken.  She got some good news from her Dr. this past week.  The new meds that she is taking are working.  We know that we will lose her at some point but for right now...with the right meds, at the right time, she will continue to bloom. And that's enough for me to hope for. 

Happy Birthday Chickie!!!

Fifty two years ago, on my 5th birthday, my sister was born.  At first it was a novelty and I was pretty excited.  But when she came home from the hospital it wore off pretty quickly.  She cried and wanted attention all the time...or so it seemed to my 5 year old brain.

As the years went by it seemed like we were always at odds with one another.  She was still a baby at 5 and I was a pre-teen at 10.  She was a pre-teen at 10 and I was practically a High Schooler at 15.  It probably didn't help that we always had to share a room, so tastes and need for privacy tended to keep us at odds with one another. 

My mother would say to me at times, "you should be nicer to her, you're going to miss her someday".  I'd look at my mother like she was out of her mind.  But you know...she was right.  My first year in college was in Virginia and my family was in England.  And for some reason I began to miss hearing her voice and listening to her talk about her friends and her day.  I was surprized as anyone to realize that she was such a big part of my life and I couldn't just pick up the phone and call her like you can today.  At that time there were no cell phones and if you wanted to make an overseas call you had to wait for an overseas operator.  This was not easily done on a phone in the hallway of a dorm and that doesn't even include how much money it cost...and you'd have to have it in change.  Yes, I missed her big time. 

I think that we started to begin to see each other as equals when I began to talk of getting married.  She'd had a steady boyfriend for a while and although they were both finishing up college, they knew that they would be getting married as well.  We both had very strong ideas about our weddings.  I wanted something simple and no fuss and she wanted the church and the dress.  Both of us got exactly what we wanted and it was perfect. 

She and her husband have been married now for almost 30 years.  They have 2 wonderful daughters, one who is a second year Vet student studying at Texas A&M and the other who is finishing up her senior year at Sam Houston State majoring in communications.  Both wonderful women in their own right. 

But my sister is the rock that I lean on.  There is no one like her.  I love her so fiercely.  She's a great mother, wonderful friend and someone that I know will be there for me anytime or anywhere. 
We share a birthday now for many years gladly and  one of us will call the other sometime today and sing the Happy Birthday song.  It has been our habit for decades now. 

So Happy 52nd Birthday, my sister, my friend.   I love you truly.