The wildflowers expired six or so weeks ago and thanks to no rain and triple-digit-days 99.9% of the flowering weeds also mailed it in. “It’s the brown season,” as my wife likes to say.

Now muted green mesquite plus dark green oaks frame the foreground of formerly green grasses. Formerly meaning dead.

Prickly Pear and Sotols bear the burden for keeping green in the vegetation game. The Sotols own the calling best and produce a green worthy of the label.

A lack of the color synonymous with life leads to hours of scalping the front property. A landscape guru suggested I complete the rite annually to prepare the way for next season’s wildflower explosion.

Scalping removes the aftermath of a gorgeous season full of Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes and Blankets, Giant Spiderwort, and Winecup. Not to mention a multitude of their distant cousins second and third removed whose names I have yet to learn.

Such weedeating adventure unveils the mounds and boulders and Sotols in the landscape design. The boulders we staged from other areas of the property. The Sotols God staged years ago.

I enjoy seeing the two distinct looks of the land. One a merry-go-round of pigments. One casting its hat stoically with the browns. One flowery soft. One granite chiseled. Both real and fitting.

Scalping reveals the true contours of life. More skeleton and sinew than clothing and flesh. More true to drought conditions and able to weather whatever.

I recall many scalped seasons. Times all of the prettiness of life left overnight. Events driving me away from myself into a deeper reliance on the Creator who triples as Redeemer and Sustainer.

Hard granite edges worn softer. Mounds of pride lowered. Suffering supplanting celebration. Temporary droughts of joy.

By faith I knew scalping served a purpose. It reveals what’s underneath. The stuff from which wildflowers spring. Thanks to the Creator who seeds the area daily.

Knowing by faith didn’t mean the sadness left. Or the worry. But the Sustainer saw me through.

My wife demands confirmation my scalping won’t stop the wildflower beauty from returning. I promise their abundant seeds will make it so.

Already the Bluebonnets have sprouted. On track for their March showing.