It’s a Rain Party!

Texas was in a serious drought for over two years. Really serious. Ranchers had to sell off their cattle because there was no grass for them, and buying food was getting too expensive. Lake Travis, the source of most of Austin’s drinking water, was scarily low.

But it’s over, it seems. We’re not out of the woods yet, because Lake Travis still needs a lot more water to be at the normal level. But La Nina is over, anyway. We have been getting wonderful rains, sometimes lasting for hours. We had almost forgotten what that was like.

So had nature. The most obvious and immediate sign that she appreciates the rain is the sudden appearance everywhere of rain lilies.

Click here for more information about rain lilies in Texas.

Photo: Joseph A. Marcus

They pop up overnight after a good rain. And right now they’re all over the place. This picture is from the website mentioned above, because it was windy when I took my pictures, so I couldn’t get a good, sharp up-close photo of a single flower.

But here are my attempts, anyway, because the ground around them is beautiful, too.