Sharing My Home State

DD Kr has visitors from Germany this week, but she has to work. I have the distinct pleasure of introducing them to Texas. Yesterday, we spent the day at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This was my 4th visit and it was a complete bust as far as I was concerned. The first two times I went, it was great, but the last two have been devoid of much interest. The highlight of the trip there was seeing some empty chrysalises and talking to a nice volunteer who had been searching for caterpillars and/or eggs in the garden. There were more wildflowers on the roadsides than at the center.

There was, however, an exhibit of paper sculpture by Shou Ping. These examples give some inkling of how talented she is. They depict some of the wildflowers we should have seen.

We made a few small stops on our excursion. A special stop to see "Madison,"the Longhorn sculpture. A visit to some real Longhorns who graze in a field in front of a business on I-35. They were too lazy to even get up. My children always remind me that I told them many years ago that when cattle lie down in the pasture, that means it is going to rain. I don't recall telling them that , but I do think I read it somewhere. It did not rain yesterday, but there were a few sprinkles. We had a quick, light lunch at Wendy's, a real treat according to the visitors. We drove home on the roadways that had been cut through some of the hills that give "The Hill Country" its name. I always enjoy seeing the beautiful cuts that show the geologic formations of the area.

We are off today for a quick trip to San Antonio. The visitors are having a hard time with the heat, but they are troopers. She keeps telling me how "wide" everything is here. "In Germany, everything is so small," she says as he moves her hands from showing great expanse to compact area.