Tree of Life, architecture, and jazz in New Orleans New Year
January 11, 2020 We rang in the new year in New Orleans, the U.S. city at the top of our Italian exchange student’s list of places to see, after New York and San Francisco. NOLA is only a 7-1/2-hour drive (with no stops) from Austin, so we rented an Airbnb, ...
Kempelen’s Owls and more public art in downtown Austin
December 27, 2019 Looking for free family fun over the holidays? Why not burn a few calories on a self-guided walking tour of public art in downtown Austin? My daughter and I did just that a few days before Christmas. I was eager to see Kempelen’s Owls, a pair of ...
Sculpture worth visiting at Rice University
December 07, 2019 Rice University is my alma mater, and if the weather’s nice when I’m in Houston I’ll often take a walk around campus. It’s not all for nostalgia’s sake, though. Rather, Rice has really upped its sculpture game in recent years, and much of it is open to ...
Casa Neverlandia and sculpture by James Talbot keep Austin delightfully weird
October 10, 2019 Never pass up a chance to see something creative or unusual. Seeing how someone’s passion gets turned into art fascinates me. So when I heard about Casa Neverlandia, the home of fellow Rice University grad, artist, architect, and free spirit James Talbot, I knew I had to ...
Sightseeing in Austin with our exchange student
September 16, 2019 We have a young exchange student from Italy living with us this school year, and part of the fun of that for us (and hopefully for her) is dragging her around Austin to see, well, everything. The pink granite dome of the Texas Capitol beckoned us one ...
Lyon botanical garden and architecture
August 26, 2019 After Provence, we drove north to Lyon, where we would catch our flight home from France. But first we enjoyed a day of sightseeing. Of course that included a garden! Lyon’s botanical garden is part of Parc de la Tête d’Or, a large city park that also ...
Roman (ruin) holiday in southern France
August 23, 2019 I can explore a garden or busy market all day long, but I have a low attention span for cathedrals and museums, no matter how stunning. I joke with my husband, who loves the history and culture of such spaces, that I prefer places that are alive, ...
Sunny southern France vacation, part 2
August 22, 2019 Dodging the heat waves that plagued France this summer, my husband and I day-tripped through Provence for 5 days in late July after meeting up with our daughter following her study abroad program (she did not manage to dodge the heat waves). In my last post I ...
Provence lavender fields and rosy Roussillon
August 14, 2019 Summer in Provence — what do you think of? Fields of lavender and sunflowers, sun-washed hill towns, buzzing cicadas, hot days and cool nights, a glass of wine at a small table along a cobblestone street? Yes, yes, and yes. Years after falling for the region’s rugged ...
TatTopia garden embraces stonework and sustainability: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 09, 2019 When the construction dust settled at Tatiana Maxwell’s new energy-wise home, studio, and guest house in Boulder, Colorado, in 2010, the yard was just an expanse of bare dirt. Her first thought was to build an English-style cottage garden. But after brainstorming with stonemason artist Thea Alvin ...
Lunch in the garden at Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 07, 2019 Dining on Persian chickpea kufteh, tofu Thai curry, and teacakes beneath a grape arbor in a sunken rose garden at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse was an elegant upgrade from the usual box lunches on Day 2 of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019). Boulder is a ...
Wildflowers revving up at Wildflower Center
March 19, 2019 Although its name is a bit of a misnomer — the gardens at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center showcase native Texas trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials, succulents, vines, and water plants, not just wildflowers — the Wildflower Center really does shine in early spring when bluebonnets, pink ...
Winter meadows and fiery possumhaws at Wildflower Center
February 09, 2019 Mexican plum and redbud may be blooming at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center by now. But last Sunday afternoon the gardens were still in the “grip” of an unusually mild winter. Flowers were few, but the tawny and russet hues of early February offer their own ...
Streetside gardens, colorful murals on Austin’s South Congress Ave
January 12, 2019 South Congress Avenue, SoCo, a street of eclectic shops and restaurants just south of downtown that epitomizes “weird,” welcoming Austin and converts tourists into residents. Fewer and fewer of those shops remain now that Austin has grown so expensive, but it’s still a playful, appealing, and increasingly ...
Paperwhites and palmettos at Lady Bird Lake
January 09, 2019 A post-holiday hoof around Lady Bird Lake reveals some beautiful surprises, like a spring-fresh cluster of paperwhites in bloom. Inside the Pfluger Bridge Circle, designed by Christine Ten Eyck (my next Garden Spark speaker!)*… …I smiled to see this native palmetto playing a piano. What? Nah, it’s ...
Stonehenge near the solstice brings out the Druids
August 18, 2018 On a chilly, windy morning in mid-June, a few days before the summer solstice, we visited Stonehenge during our family vacation. Was it just a bunch of old rocks? Absolutely not. Visiting Stonehenge is a fascinating glimpse into the lives, beliefs, and mad rock-moving skills of prehistoric ...
