Top Comments: Spring Flora and Fauna in Austin, TX

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It's springtime in Austin and that's pretty nice. It isn't hot yet and nights and mornings are still cool for the most part. We have had a ton of rain in the last 6 months, bringing much needed relief from this major drought. I see Austin is just outside the color lines and into normal territory and that means everything when the Edwards Aquifer and Lake Travis (52.5 feet below full), both sources of drinking water for the region, are still way, way low after years of parching, out-of-control impermeable development and wasteful usage . Fingers crossed, prayers, smudges, chants and meditations for a similar relief for our friends on the West Coast and everywhere rain is needed.

These last months of rain have made for a gorgeous opening to the year. While underground and in the waterways there remains a serious problem, wet soil up top promotes a lovely show of flora and fauna alike at the edge of the Hill Country. Bluebonnets abound and so do oxeyes, phlox and many others. Ladybird Johnson's legacy of highway beautification is really picking up steam and now is the time when sunny weekends have folks pulled over alongside vast stretches of flowers, sometimes in their fanciest clothes, to take family portraits and pictures of their kids or themselves or their partners sitting amongst the booming colors of a Central Texas Spring.

A few days ago I strolled through the Zilker Botanical Garden to see what I could see. I hadn't been there in a year or so and it remains a stunning lesser-known gem of Austin. Tonight I have assembled a sort of Zen offering to our friendly readers, a sampling of what I discovered on my hike through the gardens. My hope is that such pictures will bring light to those not yet in touch with their regional Springs, soothe the reader's and mind loosen our collective spirits in preparation for the week ahead.

As you read, please click to embiggen. I am noticing some of the pictures don't enlarge as fully as others even while they are exactly the same size and were batch processed. Regardless of whether this is an artifact of the recent upgrade or if I've somehow bolloxed it up, I do hope tonight's Top Comments serves to brighten your evening.

But before we do that, a major shout out and great big props to Jotter and elfling. They worked non-stop all day, all night, and into the wee hours of the morning today to resolve problems with our Picture Quilt, a definite artifact of the site upgrade.

It's easy to take stuff like this for granted and assume that Daily Kos has a magic picture spigot that spits out (mostly) cat pictures when you turn it on. While that is true it's only true when koseostasis is in effect. The upgrade disrupted koseostasis so Jotter and elfling broke out the hand crank and commenced to fix it. After many grueling hours of hand cranking (and they aren't allowed gloves apparently), the cats started to run on the conveyor again and here we are, freaking cats a'plenty and at full tilt. Thanks you two! We love you and hope you are getting that well deserved down time!

Also too, a huge thank you to mik for taking personal time out to resolve a secondary issue with Top Mojo, and also too for BeninSC who ran relay on communications. The spigot mik fixed doesn't spit out cats it spits out Kossacks and their highest rated comments for the previous 24 hours! Top Comments could never be be the same without it! Teamwork!

	Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and from moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there)and without breaking anything.         e.e.cummings