Igg Musd be Sprigtimb

Well, apparently Spring is in full swing here in Austin as my head feels like an anvil, my eyes are red, my nose is crazy itchy, and I sound like a cartoon character (Scooby Doo comes to mind) when I talk. The weather is so nice here in the spring...too bad the outside air is poison! I love the outdoors so much...but it does NOT love me. The allergens are inescapable here. In Winter it is Cedar pollen, in the Spring it is trees, in the Summer it is weeds and grass and well, year round -mold, mold, and more mold. Thank God for modern pharmaceuticals.

The Texas Red Oak tree in my backyard is belching pollen all over me:



This Oak tree is a Texas Red Oak adapted to the limestone earth in the hill country. I had to go to a local native nursery guy to purchase this tree. It simply does AMAZING (no oak wilt yet *crossing fingers*) in my limestone soil. The Southern Red Oak, on the other hand, does not. I have many neighbors who apparently bought this southern flavor of red oak, and every single one of these is chlorotic, sickly, and dying. It is so sad to see. I do wish the local Big Box stores would become knowledgable about this problem and quit selling Southern Red Oaks to people in the hill country. Most people would not know the difference. It is a good thing I read up on my trees before purchasing, or I too could easily have ended up with the same problem. This such a peeve of mine - one of the yards I can see from my back yard has two Southern Red Oaks that have been slowly dying over the last 4 years...I think the trees may have finally kicked the bucket this year. Good thing too - those poor trees have just sat and suffered for so long....aaand my little rant is finished. (I think I feel better now).

And so as not to end on a depressing, tree-suffering note, here is an image of some blossoms from one of my Anacacho Orchid trees - Bauhinia lunarioides (B. congesta). I figure the pollen from these flowers probably doesn't cause me too many problems since it seems to require bees to carry it from one place to the next - too heavy to float up my nose, I would think.: