A Texas prairie, for some folks,

is nothing more than an eye sore, especially during severe drought,................

full of thorns from the cactus and the weathered mesquite trees,.......

 rock hard ground, dry drab grass, and venomous creatures, like the rattlesnake and scorpion...........

much of this natural prairie is being plowed under..............for cotton or maize or other crops............leaving nothing but dry dust...........

now.....hang on................

 this is not a post to bicker over what folks do with their land............

and I am not going to be chasing a tractor out in the field with a "Save The Land" sign...........

no, I won't be doing that..............

I will just take care and enjoy the small acreage I live on ...............which to me holds so much beauty..........one just has to look to see it all.  There is so much more to this prairie than the eye can see..........in the above photo is a bush that grows abundantly on the grounds. It is a Joint Fir.

In plant talk, the Latin name.........Ephedra antisyphilitica.

It is a shrubby, squat, conifer. During  a wet season, it has a blue green color.  It is more like a bush than anything.

However, the deer love to eat it..........we had a buck in our front yard last year.......which makes me glad that this bush is growing on our grounds.

Throughout the whole grounds are wildflower ..............and weeds.

However, some , even if they are weeds, hold such a beauty of their own.

I fell in love with this plant/weed pictured above. I have not found the name of it yet,but isn't it cute with the little pod that almost, (to me) looks like a miniature Chinese lantern?? 

This is what it's small bloom looks like.

There is also tall and strong weed- like prairie grass. The rabbits and mice love to hide in this.. Among it grows this plant/weed, with clusters of pale blue.

A look closer and one can see the soft petally flower that grows on it. Even though we are dry as over cooked toast, I still leave a large pan, about 3 ft wide and 2 ft deep of fresh water out where I feed the birds.

 We have quail, two types of dove, road runners and quite a few different type of birds come to bathe and drink daily. I know we also have the scary wild critters at night...........

But I love the fact, that in the middle of this dust bowl...........there is a prairie..........

a prairie,........ that when I am an old lady, asleep in my bed.........

, among the memories of the one I love and the babies that came and grew up............

 will remember and dream about.

That is the sweetest of dreams for me.............