Leaf peeping and Living a Great Story at Lady Bird Lake
November 25, 2014 After sightseeing and shopping on vibrant South Congress Avenue on Sunday, yesterday my dad and stepmother joined me for a post-lunch, 3-mile walk around Lady Bird Lake. Rusty orange bald cypress, golden cedar elm, and fiery red crepe myrtles have set the shore ablaze. This is as ...
Hill Country style and a downtown view in the garden of Ruthie Burrus
October 30, 2014 I see a lot of gardens on public tours, which I enjoy tremendously. But being invited for a private tour of a new-to-me garden is a special treat, especially if the garden happens to belong to an avid gardener making the most of a beautiful, hilltop site ...
Monarchs flutter into Dallas Arboretum on fall migration
October 09, 2014 We weren’t the only visitors to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden last Sunday. Aside from all the human visitors, hundreds of monarch butterflies arrived on the north wind blowing into Texas and settled into the garden for a rest stop. I understand their fall migration is ...
Tanzanian safari: Maasai school and Lake Manyara National Park
January 12, 2014 On our fourth day in Tanzania (June 2007) we visited a local school on the way to Lake Manyara. An English-language world map was painted on the school building. The only city noted on it is New York, which is of course how New Yorkers see the ...
Tanzanian safari: Arrival in Arusha and village market
January 10, 2014 During this gardening downtime, I am really enjoying reliving some of my exotic travels here at Digging. Whether you are an armchair traveler, or making notes for a future trip of your own, or just seeing how my experience compares with yours, I hope you’re enjoying these ...
Red and gold leaves at Red Bud Isle
November 19, 2013 Austin has an extensive tree canopy, but fall color is not something we can brag about. Our deciduous trees generally fade to a pale yellow or brownish red right around the time people are putting up their Christmas lights. But this year would-be leaf peepers in Austin ...
THIRST art exhibit: Memorializing 300 million trees killed by drought
September 30, 2013 Lady Bird Lake is a constant-level lake — kept that way through releases of water upstream — which means that the ongoing, devastating Texas drought has not touched this beautiful body of water that meanders through downtown Austin. While Lake Travis and other Highland Lakes continue to ...
Lake Livingston, I presume? Birding and boating in the East Texas pineywoods
March 22, 2013 We wrapped up our spring break vacation last weekend with a visit to the pineywoods of East Texas and the cute little lake house that belongs to my sister and her partner. This is the view from their yard. Located on the Kickapoo Creek side of Lake ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2012: Rockcliff Road Garden
November 10, 2012 My fifth stop on last Saturday’s Open Days tour, the Rockcliff Road Garden, was really more of a sculpture garden. Lots of open space on this lakeside property, graced with a home designed by Lake Flato Architects, gives prominence to many large works of art placed on ...
Rocky Mountain National Park: Bear Lake, wildlife, and tundra
July 12, 2012 My family and I recently enjoyed a nearly two-week vacation in Colorado, and I’d love to share some photos from Rocky Mountain National Park, a favorite destination for this Texan looking to escape the heat for a little while. Bear Lake Trail is an easy hike around ...
No rain, no watering: Imagining a drier future for Austin & its landscaping industry
November 18, 2011 Photo courtesy of Lee Clippard Are we brave enough to look the worst-case scenario in the eye? Let’s lay it out: the rains don’t return this winter, at least not sufficiently to ease our exceptional drought, and next summer Austin enters Stage 3 watering restrictions, in which ...
The long view: Reflections on Austin’s drought
September 17, 2011 The approach of autumn is a hopeful time for the central Texas gardener. It means we’ve survived another long, hot summer and can enjoy being outdoors again. It means time for the rains to return to revitalize the summer-weary garden, replenish our aquifers and lakes, and offer ...
Fish ladder & wave sculpture at Seattle’s Ballard Locks
August 28, 2011 During our family vacation in Seattle last month, we took the bus out to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, locally known as the Ballard Locks, to watch boats of all kinds moving through the locks from the freshwater of Lake Union and Lake Washington to the saltwater ...
Nature, only better: The transcendent Bloedel Reserve
August 18, 2011 The Bloedel Reserve is a place of utter beauty and almost spiritual peacefulness. Rain drips quietly from mossy branches, and the color green wraps you in a soft embrace. I explored the grounds for two-and-a-half hours—not nearly enough time to see all 150 acres, but enough to ...
Garden with a view: Epping garden at Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling
August 11, 2011 If you’re lucky enough to live on a hilltop in Seattle, odds are you have a nice view of something, seeing as the city is surrounded by mountains and the sea. In the Epping Garden, which we visited on Day Two of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, ...
Outdoors at North Carolina’s Chimney Rock, Sliding Rock & Lake Lure
June 30, 2011 Ever since my Carolina childhood, the mountains of western North Carolina have been one of my favorite weekend destinations. During a recent vacation I had the pleasure of introducing my children to some fun hikes and nature outings in the Asheville area. Pictured above is a view ...
