That may not seem terribly interesting, but I offer it here as an example of the sort of guessing game one must do when dressing for Texas weather. See, we headed out today to Fredericksburg specifically to visit Wildseed Farms. I wanted herbs and native plants for one of my flowerbeds and they had the healthiest herbs around. It's an hour and a half drive from here, but the The Farms have expanded enough to become quite a destination by themselves. There's a butterfly exhibit and acres of poppies and bluebonnets etc. There's a restaurant, gift-shops (yes, more than one) and a large nursery.

I knew that the weather was supposed to be gray and rainy today, so I chose a light cotton, long-sleeve T-shirt and grabbed an umbrella. I figured we'd get rained on and that it'd be a touch warm and muggy outside, so we'd have the air conditioning on in the car and I might get cold. Hence the long-sleeves. I didn't hold out much hope for picture-taking weather, but I decided to bring the digital camera anyway, in case the clouds broke briefly enough for some sunny pictures.

It was a touch warm when I stepped out of the house and I briefly considered going back in for a short-sleeved T-shirt. I decided against it and off we went. The skies were gray, but the closer we got to our destination, the sunnier it got. By the time we got to the farms it was bright, blazing sunshine, probably close to 90 degrees (F) or at least in the upper 80's and I felt like I was going to have a heat stroke in my light shirt as we walked around snapping pictures.

But even as I sweated, I knew the weather was about to change. I just didn't realize how drastically it would change. There was a line of storms on the horizon, slow moving enough that we walked the length of the gardens, took dozens of pictures and sat in the shade of the outdoor cafe's arbor to eat peach ice cream before it had reached us.

While I loaded herbs onto a cart I could feel the sun disappear and the temperature drop. Suddenly gusts of wind blasted through, and farm employees scrambled to take down hanging baskets that were swinging wildly. In the space of a minute and a half it had probably dropped 15 degrees in temperature.

The rains came slowly. We were able to load up the purchased plants in the car and still tour the gift shop, and even drive further on into town before it started raining. We ate at a restaurant in town while it poured, left during a break and headed for another place - and herb farm and day spa to check out a few more plants before we left. This time, I walked among the plants clutching my umbrella, shivering at one point while I discussed lavender varieties with the owner.

It had dropped so much in temperature that we needed the heater a bit in the car on the drive back! The current temperature in our neighborhood is probably somewhere in the 60's, though it's expected to get down to 40 and then even down to 37 in a day or so. Wild. Just ... wild. I've lived here most of my life, know well enough to grab both the sunglasses AND the umbrella, the sweater AND the sunscreen and it STILL amazes me who quickly Mother Nature can change her mind around here.

So what did I buy? I got several different varieties of thyme, oregano, dill, catmint, tarragon and several other herbs. I also got some butterfly bush, red salvia and verbena. That, and some banksia rose (great pictures here of someone's garden with these), as well as a small tree will make that bed look rather nice.

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