Today, we are celebrating the arrival of signs of Spring here in the neighborhood. We are catered by Restaurant François of Austin. Our entertainment is Elvis.
Menu
Boneless Wagyu Short Ribs Bourguignon – Bacon lardons/pearl onions, mushroom/pomme mousseline
Duck 2 Ways – Roasted breast/confit leg, alsatian cabbage, tart cherry sauce
Roast Rack of Lamb – Tian of spinach and mushrooms, cassis sauce
Center Cut 10oz. Filet Mignon
Swordfish Steak au Poivre – Spinach/lobster sauce
King Salmon – Beluga lentils/dill white wine sauce
Gulf Red Snapper – Celeriac pomme puree / jumbo lump crab meat – capers / beurre blanc
Dover Sole “Grenobloise” – Capers / lemon / brioche croutons / beurre noisette
Let’s go.
The first bluebonnets.
The Carolina Jasmine is waking up.
The Mountain Laurels around the neighborhood are beautiful.
Nothing says Spring like a pot of annuals.
Our Cross Vine is in full bloom.
The patio area is looking like Spring
The roses are going to town.
Patunias look lovely.
What could be a better sign of Spring than a honey bee hovering over a crossvine bloom?
Time now to relax with food and entertainment. I hope you have a super week.
Fiction Favorites 
I haven’t been able to step outside myself yet, but I really want to, as something is flowering in our hedge. It was lovely to join you for a walkabout, John. Thanks for the invite…
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Always good to have you along, Jaye. 😊
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More than makes up for not being able to walk very far at the moment, John…
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A good thing for sure. Next week we’ll do art.
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Nice to see Spring bursting out!! Thanks for Elvis. Great memories. xo
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I agree. Thanks for coming along, Darlene. 😊
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Love the spring blooms, particularly the honey bee.
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He was very busy.
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It’s heartwarming to see spring at your location, John. 💖 It’s good to hear Elvis. We’re behind you up here, but Mother Nature is working on it.
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It won’t be too long, Tim
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I’m ready for spring. Thanks for cheerful colors, and the bee!
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My pleasure, Joy.
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All leading to the greatest sign of spring: dang hay fever. 🤧
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Yup. We have Oak pollen in the air now.
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I’m ready for it – we have forsythia out, along with cherry trees and Bradford pears (yuck). Lovely photos – the mountain laurel looks like wisteria.
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Those Bradford pears are a pain. They finally dropped their leaves and are now dropping buds.
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And they stink. They are now banned from new planting in NC. because their root systems are invasive.
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The limbs fall off, too.
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Beautiful! It’s always race here as to which comes first, tax day or Spring. My money is on the former. But our snow is 99% gone so that’s a plus all the flowers are beautiful and your roses will be plentiful. I’ll have the rack of lamb and Elvis has a song for everything, good choice.
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I remember living in the Midwest, and how long the winter was. Glad you enjoyed the post, Steve,
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I did, very much. And it’s even longer, now🥴
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😊
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Twiggy and Tempeste should have quite a lot to inspect in the backyard. The Mountain Laurel is beautiful!
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Thank you, Lois. I’ve been working on that tree fr five years. It is a volunteer and needed a lot of pruning help.
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Thank you for the cheery stroll. Looking good! 🪻
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I enjoyed having you come along, Michele. Thank you.
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😊🙏🏻
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First – wow !!! What a menu. I’ll start with the duck and then the rest in to-go boxes please. Your yard looks great. We have zip here. Still in the 30s at night. maybe a break in a day or two. Patience is a tough pill. Maybe Daylight Saving will help.
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Hoping daylight savings time will help is like hoping the government will help. It is great to have hope.
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Thanks for sharing real live signs of spring, John. I love seeing the colors. I think I’ll have the short ribs.
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I’ll bet those short ribs are delicious.
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How lovely. I love to see the spring flowers, especially daffodils and petunias.
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I like them too. We can’t grow daffodils since we don’t get enough cold for the bulbs to rest.
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Ah, interesting. We get plenty of cold here!
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😊
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WOW! Your patio area is really thriving!!
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It is. This month has been warm.
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Haha, well, I ended up with hay fever instead of spring fever, but I very much enjoyed that video, John. 😀 Everything in the neighborhood looks wonderful, particularly the plants at your place. Your cross vine (is that a kind of trumpet vine?) is absolutely splendid. Hugs to you and yours.
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I asked our friends at AI the question. Here is the answer. Yes, crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) is similar to trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) in that both are Texas-native, vigorous, climbing vines with tubular, hummingbird-attracting, trumpet-shaped flowers. However, crossvine is a much better-behaved, evergreen (or semi-evergreen) alternative that is less aggressive and does not spread by suckers like the true trumpet vine. 😀
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Hi. I have spring fever too. Winter begone!
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Ha ha ha. Thanks, Neil.
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Thank you, John, for these lovely Spring photos! They give me hope that eventually, we, too, will have some Spring. I think the return of color is especially uplifting, after seeing nothing but brown trees and white snow.
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Your time will come. Thanks, Debbie.
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I love the Mountain Laurels! Fantastic photos. Thank you for sharing all of these, including Elvis.
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Thank you for coming along.
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Beautiful! Plenty of spring right there in your own yard. Mesquites are putting out here.
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Sounds great.
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Beautiful flower photos. I have not seen any bluebonnets yet. I will keep my eyes open.
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These were the only two.
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love me some beautiful Spring colors!
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So glad you do, Annette. 😊
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I am SO JEALOUS!!! We haven’t yet seen the first sign of spring … not a bud on a tree nor a hovering bee! Enjoy your early spring … maybe by this time next month we’ll start to see some signs of life out there. Meanwhile … at least we were able to get outside without coats this weekend!
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No coat is something anyway. 😊
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Yup. There are daffodils in my neighborhood and I saw insects on my walk yesterday.
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I’ve seen daffodils blooming around here and a few Bradford pear trees, but we’re supposed to dip back into freezing temps again next week. So not fair. Your shrubs and flowers look great!
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I was wondering that myself this morning–is Winter over? I had to pull spring shirts out again so I wouldn’t be too hot.
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