Spring in Austin and Central Texas is something to be seen. While it is warm enough to have wildflowers all year long, it is Spring that is just simply spectacular. The fields are filled with Indian paintbrush, primroses, phlox, winecups, poppies, Indian blankets, verbenas, Black eyed Susans, Mexican hat, and of course Texas bluebonnets.
There are fields of bluebonnet all around Central Texas and Hill Country and many people stopped along The Capital of Texas Highway, plopping their babies and children in the middle of the bluebonnets while they snapped away and the babies beamed. (well you hope they beam)
It seems like of right of passage, no doubt there is a picture of Austin and his sister Ashley doing the same thing when they were little. Now,would his mom send that snap ahead to make Austin bit embarrassed during an interview? I say yes she seems like she would get a kick out of showing her baby boy in field of bluebonnet. And the ladies in the audience just melting. Hilarie, could get a hold of it for the next Southern Gothic promotion and fundraiser.
Is it me or can you envision the fields in a Texas spring like paintings of the Impressionism movement. How inspiring would these vistas be. It must be another reason why Austin loves his Texas.
Texas bluebonnets and the hundreds of other Texas Wildflowers were so important to former First Lady and Texas native Lady Bird Johnson made sure that these flowers and their beauty would fill along the roadsides and highways of her home state for good.
Mrs. Johnson was an environmentalist, and she was an active worker on innumerable projects. During her husband's presidency, she enlisted the aid of friends to plant thousands of tulips and daffodils which still delight visitors to our nation's Capital. The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was the result of Mrs. Johnson's national campaign for beautification and conversation of native plants and wildflower. In 1999, she presented with the Native Plant Conservation Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award.
She chaired the Town Lake Beautification Project, a community effort to create a hike and bike trails and to plant flowering trees along the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. In 1969 Mrs. Johnson founded the Texas Highway Beautification Awards, and for the next twenty years, she hosted the annual awards ceremonies and presented her personal checks to the winners. She was a trustee of the American Conservation Association.
On her 70th birthday in 1982, Mrs. Johnson founded the National Wildflower Research Center, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation and re-establishment of native plants in natural and planned landscapes. She donated 60 acres of land and a sum of money to establish the Center which serves as a clearing house of information for people all over the country. She realized her long-held dream in 1995 when the Center moved into its new and larger facility and became a part of her alma mater University of Texas. In December, 1997, the Center was renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in honor of her 85th birthday.
