Texans in the Springtime

Texans in the springtime can be found along highway medians, on steep hillsides and in random fields as frequently as, say, bluebonnets, which is precisely the reason why they're found in such places. The Bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas and it blooms for about nineteen minutes right between the tricky Texas winter and the hot Texas summer. As the first sign of blue shows up over green grass (or burnt brown, as it were), friends call their friends who call their friends and the population of the entire state rushes out to photograph their children next to the single sign that springtime in Texas does indeed exist, regardless of its brevity.

We've been in Texas now for just shy of five years and I've not once (1) perched on a steep hillside, (2) taken a photo by a bluebonnet, or even (3) seen a bluebonnet up close. I have seen them and admired them, but only when I'm traveling 73 miles an hour down the highway from one place to the next. I've thought about stopping, it's true, but by the time I've taken the time to schedule a time to photograph my children next to a busy highway, the premature summer sun has come and fried my chances to a crisp.

This year, though, some friends of some of my friends found a field -- nay, a veritable sea -- of bluebonnets, and after word traveled through the grapevine to us, we made it over for some springtime photos.

Here are a few of my favorites: