Driving through the countryside looking for flowers

It is that time of year here in South Texas.

Leon Hale - Suggestion to city folks: If you have any interest whatever in roaming the Texas countryside, this is the month to do it.

I'll even crawl on out the limb and say this will be the best wildflower season we've had in 20 years. Maybe 25.

Monday, on the way up here from Houston, my partner and I saw some really nice fields of bluebonnets between Industry and Shelby, in Austin County. That doesn't mean wildflowers will be wonderful everywhere, but we've found over the years that those few miles of hills on FM 1457 are a pretty fair indicator.

You want to hear about my system of searching for wildflowers? The key words are: Get lost.

Every year, multitudes of Houstonians are told that they can take U.S. 290 west out of Brenham and see nice bluebonnets in April. Well, that's for sure, they'll be there, thanks to roadside seeding by our state highway department, and that's fine.

But it's more fun to get off the big highways and wind through the country. Go to Brenham, sure, or La Grange, or Fayetteville, or Bellville, or Navasota. And watch for country roads.

Earlier in March, Leon Hale announced there will be no more Primavera stories.
For over 20 years he and his friend Morgan would drive down to meet Spring, in Spanish Primavera, on the way up. Old Friend Morgan died last year after not taking the trip with him for a couple of years and Leon says it wasn't fun anymore. I can understand that.