Is it still bitterly cold where you are and are you anxiously awaiting Spring’s arrival? For real, not on the calendar next week?
After the coldest winter in several years and a 60+ hour stretch of below freezing weather, I was telling Dan this was the brownest I remembered seeing the landscape near the end of winter. Low and behold, a week later, Spring is busting out all over in Georgetown TX and Scurlock Farms!
My heart is full as I drive about Georgetown and the farm. If I could hear it, it would be singing a happy tune.
Guests have reported seeing Roadrunner activity on the farm. Once their eggs hatch, the parents will be up and down the drive all day, often with lizards hanging out of their mouth. Lucky guests will have them jump onto the windowsills as they check for insects there.
Baby Roadrunner
This little guy fell from a nest on Scurlock Farms last Spring. You can see the pinfeathers on his head and back. We could not reach the nest in a tall cedar tree. The mama bird led him into heavy underbrush.
Roadrunners can run up to 26 mph! They use their wings like a matador uses his cape when facing off with rattlesnakes. Youtube has several videos of roadrunners getting the best of a large rattlesnakes!
Bluebonnets, the State Flower of Texas, are popping out in bloom all over. My vegetable garden plot is full of them, and they are blooming. There are many drives in the area to see the beautiful wildflowers.
The Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom and are truly spectacular with a profusion of white blooms covering them.
This morning I noticed the Mountain Laurel on Scurlock Farms is absolutely covered with blooms. The honey bees have discovered it. It smells SO good!
Buttercups are one of my favorite wild flowers and yesterday as I carried off brush I noticed several of them blooming in the pecan orchard. Some years it is “the year” for them, and entire pastures will be covered in a pink cloud of buttercups.
The Purple Martin scouts have arrived in Central Texas and I saw the first scouts at Scurlock Farms a week ago. They were checking out the condo we put up for them, and chattering as they flitted about. They will return with their mates and raise their young. They are a noisy neighbor, but I love hearing their busy chatter as they come and go.
As I worked in the garden one week ago, a Canadian guest staying in Indian Bluff stopped by to visit. As we talked, literally hundreds of Sandhill Cranes flew overhead. They came in waves. I love hearing them as they fly over on their way to Granger Lake, about 10 miles from the farm.
While prepping the vegetable garden yesterday, I noticed many, many Ladybugs. They over winter in a large building near the garden. There will be hundreds of them between the paneling and around the breaker box.
And last but not least, the Elm and Ash trees are greening up! Some trees are covered with soft green leaves. The grass in the yards and the pastures have turned green, almost overnight.
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