It's late March all of a sudden...

Is it too late to be posting winter pictures from Saskatchewan? They're a month old now -- just slightly older than my new first cousin, once removed, or my cousin-child, as I've been calling her for the entire month of her out-of-body existence. I met her yesterday for the first time. She's very cute and very snuggly. But babies are on my list of things that I don't really need right now. Yeah.

So I've got all these winter shots. This isn't really surprising, is it? I always take tons more pictures than I post. Editing is a good thing, but I always wind up with lots of perfectly nice shots that never get printed, displayed, or even remembered.

In Austin, of course, it has been approaching 90°F, and bone-dry up until the last few days. That's not just Austin, though -- it's been incredibly dry all over the state, so when the wildfires started, they spread faster than they could be contained. Which is the way of wildfires, I suppose. Claudia heard somewhere that 2% of the land area of Texas has burned since the beginning of the year.

And then this weekend, the rain came, along with cooler weather. It's wildflower season, but most of the flowers aren't out yet, for all the dry weather. Perhaps the rain will jumpstart them now. I took a few shots of flowers and raindrops while I was out with my family, but I haven't looked at them yet. They're springy, though, and I still have winter shots to get out of my system.

The downside to the rain, much needed and much appreciated by me in general, is that it has made the roads dangerously slick. This morning, in the six minutes between the time I passed an intersection on Lamar once and then returned, there were cops blocking the intersection from traffic. When I passed the two traffic-keeping cop cars and saw the busted up cop car past the intersection, I had a cynical thought about how fast cops respond to cop accidents. And then I saw the other vehicle in the collision, an SUV that had rolled onto its side. There were several people helping with the accident already; a few were holding the drivers' side doors open, and another guy was taking stuff out of the back. I think they were all trying to get someone out of the wreck. It made me very thankful for my safety, and a little more careful with my driving on the slick roads.

I've been behind on updating, and on my Lenten donations, as well. My grandmother seems to have been reading my weblog lately, and she suggested a charity for my consideration: Rach, how about sending one of your small donations to Boles Children's Home, 7065 Love, Quinlan, TX 75474. In case you don't remember, it is the home where I, my sister and brothers lived in the 40's and 50's. Even the smallest amount would be of help to them in their effort to help children. Boles Children's Home has a website -- who knew? -- so I sent them a donation today, $100 in memory of my grandfather who died a couple of summers ago, to help catch up from the days I missed.

A chilly wind is blowing in through my open window. It makes me happy.