the year as i think of it starts when the first wild flowers begin to bloom along the highways- late Feb. early March. early in the year the bluebonnets are out in force, so the hills are rolling blue waves. the live oaks, being the contrary trees they are, start to lose their dark green winter leaves now and are replaced with bright green tender leaves. flowering trees begin to blossom.

as the year progresses, the bluebonnets fade and indian paintbrush, daisies and buttercup takes over. for a period everything is lovely and the sun doesn't hurt.

then the long summer takes hold. the sky is bright blue, the cicadas sing all afternoon, green fades to brown and touching your car's steering wheel is painful. the heat is sometimes punctured by massive thunderstorms. but mostly it's just hot.

after six months of summer the first revival is when temperatures drop into the 60's at night. you can open your windows at night, such a luxury. fall rains fall and plants come back to life; about half of the flowering trees get confused and begin to bud again. silly trees.

as we near christmas, some trees halfheartedly lose their leaves, most everything else keeps trucking along. if we get a hard freeze the palm trees look quite sad for awhile.

post christmas is pollen season, wherein all things are dusted with a fine yellow powder. this is a very distressing time for some people.

then then next year starts when the flowers start coming up.

the year is a collection of that cycle.