Waiting for the Blue Bell truck

Texas Stop Sign

Here in Texas, this is known as a Texas Stop Sign . . . 'cause you can't drive by without stopping for a DQ treat . . . and for the first time since I moved here in 1989, we have a Dairy Queen in Red Oak, Texas . . . I took this photo today when I stopped by for a DQ specialty . . . I chose the Cappucino Heath Blizzard . . . sure was good! . . . the Dairy Queen in Rockdale, Texas was the hangout when I was a teenager . . . and the local Dairy Queens along the route were a frequent stop when we rode with the Texas Sesquicentennial Wagon Train in 1986 . . . welcome to the neighborhood, DQ!

Oh long may it wave

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Flowering Weeds

Vinca aka Periwinkle

Today I found several of these blooms in the shaded southwest corner of my goat-yard next door . . . the ground in that shaded corner is covered with this green vine . . . Jake and Mandy have not been in there to graze yet this year . . . I vaguely remember a green ground-cover that was there last year, but I never saw a bloom . . . and I definitely did not plant this . . . or anything else in that spot for that matter . . . anybody know what this is?

Edited the title from "Unidentified Bloom" to "Vinca aka Periwinkle" after proper identification was made by Carol (see below