Spring has just sprung in the Northern Hemisphere,and that means an annual natural spectacular is just a couple of weeks away, deep in the heart of Texas.

There are no other natural wonders in the rugged Texas Hill Country. No awe-inspiring canyons, no snow-covered peaks or rain forests or raging mountain streams.Most of the time, the appeal of this tapestry of cedar and oak trees, lazy streams, and low limestone cliffs is more modest.

But there's nothing modest about a Hill Country spring. In 1991, George Oxford Miller published a book of photographs of the region. In the text, the environmental photojournalist wrote that "excitement comes in small packages". He found what he described as "air unadulterated with human additives, stars undimmed by city lights, the uninterrupted sounds of nature, and fields of flowers unblemished by footprints."

Four hundred species of flowers, including Indian Paintbrushes, prickly poppies, flowering herbs, and the most compelling blossom of all-the bluebonnet, the Texas state flower.

"Everybody that I know of, and probably 90 percent of all Texans, have got a picture of either their dog or their child or somebody in the bluebonnet fields," John Thomas told us. He founded Wildseed Farms, the largest flower-seed-producing operation in the nation in the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg.

The area is also known as Tex-Deutsch country.Fredericksburg was founded by German settlers when the area was still open prairie.

You'll still find German architecture, oom-pah bands,German dresses and lederhosen - even Mexican-style tacos Stuffed with sausage and sauerkraut.

But the big spectacle is reserved for spring, when thousands of tourists, 80 percent of them Texans, come? to see the hillsides ablaze in wildflowers - especially the bluebonnet.

參考中文譯文

春天已經(jīng)來(lái)到了北半球，這也意味著德克薩斯州的中心地區(qū)將迎來(lái)一年一度的自然界盛事。?

德克薩斯州崎嶇的希爾山地沒有什么特別的自然景觀。那里既沒有讓人產(chǎn)生敬畏的大峽谷，也沒有白雪皚皚的山峰，更沒有熱帶雨林或者奔騰的山間溪流。一年中的大部分時(shí)間，人們?cè)谶@里看到的就是雪松和橡樹枝繁葉茂，小溪緩緩流淌，以及低矮的石灰崖延伸至遠(yuǎn)方，一切都顯得是那么平淡。??

但是，希爾山地的春天絕不平淡。1991年，環(huán)境攝影師喬治·牛津·米勒出版了一本該地區(qū)的攝影集。米勒在書中寫道，“在這里驚喜連連”，因?yàn)樗l(fā)現(xiàn)：這里純凈的空氣沒有被人類活動(dòng)污染，滿天的繁星沒有被城市的燈光遮掩，大自然的聲音沒有受到驚擾，無(wú)際的野花沒有被踩在腳下。”

德克薩斯州有400多種野花，包括印第安火焰草、刺罌粟、草藥花，以及怒放的矢車菊——德克薩斯的州花。? ?

野花種農(nóng)場(chǎng)的創(chuàng)辦人約翰·托馬斯告訴我們，他認(rèn)識(shí)的每個(gè)人，很可能大約90%的德克薩斯人，都至少有一張家里的寵物狗、孩子或者其他家人在矢車菊花海中照的照片。托馬斯經(jīng)營(yíng)的農(nóng)場(chǎng)位于希爾山地的弗雷德里克斯堡市，是全國(guó)最大的花籽生產(chǎn)基地。??

這個(gè)地區(qū)也通常被人們稱為“德克薩斯德國(guó)郡”。弗雷德里克斯堡當(dāng)年是德國(guó)定居者創(chuàng)建的，當(dāng)時(shí)那里還是一片荒蕪的大草原。?

如今，人們還可以在那里找到德國(guó)建筑物，演奏巴伐利亞傳統(tǒng)音樂歐帕帕的樂隊(duì)，德國(guó)服裝，以及德式皮短褲，甚至在典型的墨西哥食物Taco玉米卷中，當(dāng)?shù)厝硕既麧M了德國(guó)人喜歡的香腸和泡菜。??

不過，當(dāng)?shù)刈顗延^的場(chǎng)面仍然是每年春天，成千上萬(wàn)的游客，其中80%來(lái)自德克薩斯州各地。他們紛紛涌入希爾山地，去觀賞漫山遍野如潮的野花和盛開的矢車菊。

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