If You're Up North, DON'T READ THIS!

Because you're going to be green with envy. Green. The color of leaves. Remember what leaves look like?

But let me start by saying this: I don't like Texas summers. Way too long, way too hot, and the worst thing is that the blistering heat of the day is slow to go away. I've tuned into 10PM newscasts and they report that it's still 90 degrees out. If you're reading this in Phoenix you're thinking "so what??" But here in this part of Texas, it's a wet kind of heat, not a dry one.

So back to today and why you northerners--who shouldn't be reading this, but you did anyway, didn't you?--will be envious. After an ugly rainy day yesterday, this morning dawned blue. And as the sun came up, it came up warm. Temperatures climbed up to the mid-70's. There were robins all over the front yard, and after a dreary mostly rainy week, it was a splendidly beautiful early spring Texas day.

I put on a shorts and t-shirt, then went outside, turned the compost pile, transplanted a rose bush further away from the house, and just walked around looking at my trees. I'm big into trees. And I'm really big into big trees. The biggest trees in these parts are at the Cibolo Nature Center.

The Cibolo (SI bo lo) is 100 acres large, and quite a gem in my town's crown. There are 4 very different walks there, and my favorite is along the creek. The largest living creatures in this part of Texas straddle the creek, and they stand 100 feet tall. The Bald Cypress trees are that right now--bald--but in about a month they'll start coming out with the greatest-colored green needles. They're almost electric with color.

Right now with grasses all dead and the branches all bare, browns and greys predominate the color scheme along the Cibolo...except one place: the bright, emerald green of the mosses. And there are mosses on the cypress knees, mosses on the tamped-hard mud flats just off the creek, mosses on the north side trunks. The sun shone bright on the mosses and I don't think I'd ever noticed how green they were.

I was gazing in wonder up to the tallest of the cypress branches and I noticed an airliner, probably 30,000 feet up. It was heading almost due south to due north. Since the only cities of any real size south of here are in Mexico and points beyond, I got to thinking of all the people returning from vacation, or coming on a vacation to the states. I wondered at who the people were in that plane, where they were headed, what their stories were. And how they had not one clue that I was standing below a massive cypress tree wondering about their adventures.

It was a fine moment, on a fine day. A day that you northerners will have to wait a lot longer for. But that's okay. You're probably getting a snowstorm that I'd really enjoy playing in if I didn't have to suffer through another great day tomorrow. Weather man says it'll be 73 degrees and sunny!