It’s the middle of August and summer is more than half over. That’s only by the books though. In central Texas, the summer will last long into October. This summer has been pretty normal. Even the wet July was fairly typical. We got 5.2 inches of rain in July and in August, so far, we’ve only received 0.25.

A mild cool front came through this weekend and lowered the temperatures a bit. The highs are in the 90s rather than the 100s. I went for a hike this morning to take advantage of it.

There are not many things blooming this late in the summer. I saw a few scattered, small, purple flowers. I have no idea what the plant is, but the flower is pretty.

Purple Wildflower

One of the dead trees caught my eye with the intricate patterns on its bark. I don’t think the live tree has bark like this. This looks like the results of decomposing and weathering. It looks cool, no matter what the cause.

Dead Tree Bark

I saw a couple of funnel web spider webs. The opening to this one is about an inch in diameter. I looked for the spider but never saw it.

Funnel Web