The Eyes Of Texas Are Upon You

All the live long day…
Texas is an interesting state. It’s the second largest state in the United States, next to Alaska. With a width of 773 miles and a length of 790 miles, traveling from West Texas (Crane) to Central Texas (Austin) is like passing through different states.

The Permian Basin is what the region where I live is called. According to Wikipedia it is so named because it has one of the world's thickest deposits of rocks from the Permian geologic period. As far as looks, it’s pretty much a desert I suppose. Contrary to popular belief, there are trees out here. We call them trees but in most places they are called Mesquite bushes! It’s an oil and natural gas producing area, basically flat.


If you fly to Austin from here it’s about 291 miles. If you drive it’s about 350 miles and takes at least six hours. Sometimes, because of flight schedules, it takes the same amount of time to fly as drive!

Driving to Austin goes from flat brown desserts to lush green hills and trees. It’s funny how you can see the actual changes the further east you go. The wild flowers this time of year are amazing. I’ll just say again how beautiful they are! This time, instead of so many blue bonnets there are yellow, red, orange and little white flowers. There are still blue bonnets too, and all together they are amazing! The colors remind me of the trees changing in Vermont.




I got to start the day listening to kindergarten students sing the songs of Texas. There’s nothing as refreshing as hearing sweet little voices, singing loudly, on or off key! They put all they had into their program. Of course, I had my eye on my oldest DGS, E, as they were singing. He practiced and he knew all of the songs. He was on the front row! I had my camera but forgot it in the car so I had to use my phone to take a picture. It’s not a great picture and I caught him sideways but he did a “bery good job!”


After the program I headed to Odessa to pick up a friend for the journey to Austin. We were on the way to WHIBSIB! It was a long but good trip and we got a royal welcome when we arrived!

It only seemed fitting for my knitayear to be red, white and blue today, like the Texas flag. I was in a proud mood today, proud this was my first month of knitayear, proud of E for singing his songs, proud to be a Texan and proud to be an American where I can say I’m proud to be a Texan! And…


The eyes of Texas are upon you, you cannot get away.
Do not think you can escape them, at night, or early in the morn'.
The eyes of Texas are upon you, till Gabriel blows his horn!

On The Road Again

When you live out here you find out quickly that anywhere you want to go requires a drive. I drive almost 100 miles a day just to go to work. School activities are, on a quick trip, at least 100 miles. The real grocery store is 40 miles away. It’s just a fact of life.

It’s interesting how people measure distance out here. For instance, instead of my 45 mile trip to work it’s 45 minutes to work. It takes four hours to get to San Antonio. It takes six hours to get to Austin. I’m not sure why it’s measured in time instead of distance. Distance is a lot more accurate.


The drive to San Antonio is a solitary drive. There’s not much to see but wide open spaces. When you get closer to the Hill Country there are green rolling hills. And the wildflowers are amazing. It’s pretty here this time of year.


Lady Bird Johnson is probably the reason we see wildflowers blooming along the highways. I don’t know if the wildflowers are a national thing but its fact here in Texas. The Beautification Act of 1965 was a result of Mrs. Johnson’s campaign. Known as “Lady Bird’s Bill” because of her active support, the legislation called for control of outdoor advertising and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development. When the wildflowers are blooming there is no mowing in the median or on the side of the highway. Wildflowers are probably just weeds. But they brighten up an otherwise somewhat boring drive.

On the knitting side, I’m keeping up with knit a year, as far as the knitting goes. I need to schedule my time so that I can write about it more often. I am keeping track though.

Monday was a frisky day. Strawberries, chocolate, champagne and leopard print. Enough said! The yarn is a novelty yarn from a magic ball exchange. It is leopard colors with gold and silver threads included. It’s fun. Tuesday was a generally bad day. Work related. Black eyelash yarn. Wednesday was the drive to San Antonio. Purple and green variegated for the wildflowers and green grass and trees. I enjoy the sight.

Today is a bright green handspun with touches of pink and yellow. It’s a Fiesta yarn and is so San Antonio. This trip has been fun so far and it’s definitely a fun yarn!

Tomorrow is the drive home. I’ll be…

Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again.