Everything's Better with Bluebonnet on it...

The Legend of the Bluebonnet retells an old Texas tale about an unselfish young girl who loved the people of her Native American tribe so much that she sacrificed the most precious thing she had to help end the drought. Young She-Who-Is-Alone had lost her entire family to the drought that was plaguing the Comanche people. All she had to remember them by was a special doll that her parents had made for her. When the shaman said that the Great Spirits were angry with the selfishness of the people and would end the drought if the people would sacrifice their most valued possessions, the people hesitated. "I'm sure it's not my new bow that the Great Spirits want... Or my special blanket." Only little She-Who-Is- Alone was willing to make the sacrifice to help her people. She snuck away at night, built a small fire, sacrificed her doll, and sent the ashes off in the wind. When she woke up the next morning, the once parched countryside was covered with blue flowers and the rain began to fall. The people recognized her sacrifice and from then on, she was known as One-Who-Dearly-Loved-Her-People.

source: The Legend

This week, as I drove to a park in Calallen, Texas...along one section of the interstate, the sloping fields were blue. I pulled off exit 11 and found a safe place to park the car, grabbed my cellphone AND digital camera and walked among the blossoms and took pictures of course. Bluebonnets are native to Texas, spelled as one word [bluebonnet; not blue bonnet], and thrives in full sun from the reseeding each year. They are drought tolerant, needs little rain to bloom and was named the state of Texas state flower in 1901. In 1933, Bluebonnet music and lyrics were composed.

Today, TxDOT [texas department of transportation] still buys and sows about 30,000 pounds of wildflower seed along more than 800,000 miles each year.

source: A brief history