Better than fish in a barrel

A little over a year ago I mentioned that the expression “like shooting fish in a barrel” has never appealed to me. I expect shooting those fish is supposed to be easy because they’re trapped in the barrel and can’t swim away, but wouldn’t the bullets smash the barrel to pieces and allow water (and fish) to spill out all over the place? Hmm. No, if I want to indicate that something is easy I’ll say it’s like shooting wildflowers in Texas. That’s how I felt on April 7th when I spent hours in the Texas Hill Country reveling in the abundant spring wildflowers I found along mile after mile of highway. Today’s post and the ones for the next week will show you some of that day’s flowery abundance.

Let’s begin with this view from TX 71 west of Austin, which records a colony of pink evening primroses, Oenothera speciosa. There’s that speciosa again, meaning ‘showy, look-worthy’ in Latin.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman