Early March visit to Mercer Botanic Gardens in Humble

Early March visit to Mercer Botanic Gardens in Humble

March 12, 2024 Two weekends ago, during a trip to Houston to see family and friends, I made a morning visit to Mercer Botanic Gardens in the northern suburb of Humble. The gardens were just waking up for spring, and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll along garden paths and trails ...
Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend garden is preserved in time

Ima Hogg’s Bayou Bend garden is preserved in time

June 05, 2023 Back in April, work took me to Houston. While there, I stepped back in time with a visit to Bayou Bend, the formal estate garden of Houston socialite, art collector, and philanthropist Ima Hogg. The daughter of a Texas governor with terrible baby-naming skills, Ima shouldered the ...
Kinder Land Bridge restores coastal prairie and unites Houston's Memorial Park

Kinder Land Bridge restores coastal prairie and unites Houston’s Memorial Park

May 04, 2023 Kinder Land Bridge as seen from Memorial Drive Houston’s Memorial Park, a 1,500-acre urban green space, has for years been sliced and diced by busy roadways, keeping people and wildlife from safe access to all parts of the park. Compounding this design flaw, the heavily wooded park ...
Pond critters at Houston Arboretum

Pond critters at Houston Arboretum

April 30, 2023 While in Houston a couple of weeks ago, with a few hours to kill, I heeded the call of nature. That is, I visited Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, an oasis for wildlife, native plants, and people who enjoy nature strolls and birding. This 155-acre refuge with ...
Organic sculptures by Steve Tobin at Houston Botanic Garden

Organic sculptures by Steve Tobin at Houston Botanic Garden

February 22, 2023 When I fled to Houston during Austin’s ice storm aftermath earlier this February, I made a visit with family to Houston Botanic Garden. Even in Zone 9 Houston, winter had not spared palms, grasses, and many other plants. Still, an art exhibit by Steve Tobin called Intertwined: ...
Back to Beck's majestic live oaks

Back to Beck’s majestic live oaks

February 10, 2023 Two days into no power and no heat, with shattered trees making a dangerous obstacle course around our house, and all this coming just two years after Snowpocalypse, I packed a bag, picked up Mom and her dog from her cold, dark apartment, and headed to Houston ...
Pond of the Blue Moon and bird- and gator-watching at Shangri La Botanical Gardens

Pond of the Blue Moon and bird- and gator-watching at Shangri La Botanical Gardens

December 16, 2022 Yesterday I introduced you to Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center, which sits along a bayou in Orange, Texas, right at the Louisiana border, and I shared a tour of the inner gardens. Today I’ll complete the tour starting at the back of the 250-acre property, ...
Shangri La Botanical Gardens, a garden fairy tale

Shangri La Botanical Gardens, a garden fairy tale

December 15, 2022 Dancing Sisters bottle tree sculpture at Shangri La Sleeping Beauty has nothing on Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center. Located in the small town of Orange, Texas, just across the Sabine River from Louisiana, Shangri La’s very existence is in some ways as fantastical as the ...
Facing history with courage at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Facing history with courage at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

December 13, 2022 During our November road trip from Asheville to Austin, we stopped in Montgomery, Alabama, to visit the remarkable National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The open-air pavilion dedicated to 4,000+ Black victims of lynching wraps a hilltop overlooking downtown Montgomery, near where Jefferson Davis, president of the ...
Chimney Rock thrills with a-Lure-ing views

Chimney Rock thrills with a-Lure-ing views

December 04, 2022 I’ve always loved the thrillingly high and scenic views from the cracked tower of stone known as Chimney Rock, 25 miles southeast of Asheville, North Carolina. I came here many times as a kid and young adult when I lived in the Carolinas. Privately owned and managed ...
Bewitching bonsai, art, and autumn gardens at North Carolina Arboretum

Bewitching bonsai, art, and autumn gardens at North Carolina Arboretum

November 30, 2022 Located in Asheville on the doorstep of the Blue Ridge Parkway, with views of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the North Carolina Arboretum draws hikers, mountain bikers, and trail walkers thanks to 10 miles of wooded, hilly, dog-friendly trails. But garden lovers like myself find plenty to enjoy ...
Golden trees and black bears in Great Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove

Golden trees and black bears in Great Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove

November 28, 2022 On Halloween, we sought the warm colors of autumn — pumpkin orange, harvest gold, bonfire red — along the Blue Ridge Parkway and in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee border. And we found them too, despite the lateness of the leaf-peeping season, ...
Elk watching in Cataloochee Valley

Elk watching in Cataloochee Valley

November 25, 2022 I’d hoped to hear the bugle of bull elk during our road trip through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but those eerie, whistling autumnal calls elude me yet. Still, I can’t complain about the elk viewing in the scenic Cataloochee Valley of North Carolina, about an hour ...
Autumn gardens and biking at Biltmore House

Autumn gardens and biking at Biltmore House

November 17, 2022 During our visit to Asheville, North Carolina, earlier this month, we spent one day at Biltmore House — but not to see the castle-like chateau erected by the New York-based Vanderbilts as their summer place. We’ve toured the house before, and it’s interesting, but I didn’t feel ...
Fall foliage, falls, and food in and around Asheville

Fall foliage, falls, and food in and around Asheville

November 15, 2022 Looking Glass Falls near Brevard, NC I love fall and seeing the trees change color. Since autumn color in Texas rarely offers more than a faint blush or tinge of yellow, I’ll travel far to see a good show. But it’s tricky when you’re making reservations 6 ...
Enormous live oaks wow at Becks Prime in Houston

Enormous live oaks wow at Becks Prime in Houston

August 25, 2022 If you need a moment of Zen, or for gratitude and joy to lift your spirits, get yourself to Houston to visit…a hamburger place. Not just any hamburger place. At Becks Prime at 2615 Augusta Drive, near the intersection with Westheimer Road, you’ll find two absolutely enormous, ...