Leander Texas Summer of 2010

This summer season of 2010 has been so nice. We have not been in the triple digits once, have had plenty of rain and the grass is still green. I love that! I just had some clients here from California and they loved it here, but what's not to love about this Summer? Conversely, last summer was oddly horrible- we had drought and heat. Very strange and not enjoyable. Then, I remember the summer of 2007, I call it the Monsoon Summer since it rained almost everyday for a month. This summer will go down as one of the best ever!

During the 2007 "Monsoon" Summer, one of my rosemary bushes, the upright, more woody type, said "enough already" and gave up life. She could not stand having wet feet for so long. The creeks, lakes and rivers rose and there was some flooding of low places along those areas. I remember the South San Gabriel River rose up to the Highway 183 bridge. They are fixing that this year with the new Toll Road 183A being higher. Of course I really liked the days of just the opposite- when we had more low water crossings. It just felt so in touch with the earth to drive slowly through the low water crossings and in times of heavy rainfall you knew you had to take an alternate route. One of my favorites was the old Parmer Lane or as it is now called Ronald Reagan Boulevard. Back n the day it was a small road and there was a low water crossing over the South San Gabriel River. Now, Ronald Reagan is a HUGE 4 lane divided highway going north all the way into Georgetown, Texas. You can't even see the San Gabriel river unless you are way up in a high truck or something. There are still a few of those low water crossings left around these parts of the Austin, Texas area. When it rains a lot here, we don't have mudslides like in California. This is because the Texas Hill Country is the Edward's Plateau Ecological Region. There is lots of limestone here in the area along with sandstone, shales and dolomites.

This summer, in 2010, we've had nice rainfall, not too much, nor too little. I started my summer season with apricots, then peaches and blackberries (made peach ice cream for July 4th), then figs, next will be apples then pomegranites. All from my little 60' wide city of Leander, TX lot and mostly all in my front yard. There is nothing like homegrown, organicly raised produce from your own yard! It is amazing how sweet and juicy they are compared to some storebought cardboard tasting ones. No matter children growing up these days don't like fruits and vegetables!

This 2010 year I have been going hiking at places like the Pickett Trail in Georgetown, Texas in the evening. I follow it with a swim in the South San Gabriel River's Blue Hole there. I also walk the wonderful Brushy Creek Regional Trail near Cedar Park, Texas in the early mornings, just after sunrise. That way you are there when it is as cool as possible.