Wildlife

October 12, 2009 The world is full of beautiful places, and proclaiming one the most beautiful is, I’ll admit, as capricious as crowning one person the most lovely. Still, Yosemite National Park has to rank near the top. My husband and I visited in October of 1995, on a side ...

October 11, 2009 Aspens along Alberta Falls trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Last week I invited other bloggers to post their favorite stories or pictures of a national park they’ve visited. I’d just watched Ken Burns’ series The National Parks, which illustrates how America’s attitude toward its national parks ...

October 11, 2009 Aspens along Alberta Falls trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Last week I invited other bloggers to post their favorite stories or pictures of a national park they’ve visited. I’d just watched Ken Burns’ series The National Parks, which illustrates how America’s attitude toward its national parks ...

September 04, 2009 Datura metel Late last night, I opened the front door to water a wilted plant on the porch and heard a mysterious rustling. Peering into the shadows I spotted the armadillo that’s been digging under my fence nearly every night to dig up my new plants in ...

July 29, 2009 Unfortunately, it’s a squatter. This squirrel moved in a couple of weeks ago, we think, and has taken to hanging her head out the door for long periods, trying to stay cool, I imagine. Or, seeing as she overlooks the new stock-tank pond from that vantage point, ...

June 13, 2009 Orange narrowleaf zinnia ( Zinnia angustifolia) loves the heat. Ah, summer. The Death Star is back. For the past week Austin has felt the heavy hand of summer pressing down, with sticky humidity and temps near 100 degrees (37.7 C). Summer also means thunderstorms, and on Thursday ...

June 13, 2009 Orange narrowleaf zinnia ( Zinnia angustifolia) loves the heat. Ah, summer. The Death Star is back. For the past week Austin has felt the heavy hand of summer pressing down, with sticky humidity and temps near 100 degrees (37.7 C). Summer also means thunderstorms, and on Thursday ...

June 07, 2009 So I was talking on the phone with my mom yesterday afternoon, telling her how something had been digging up my new beds for four nights in a row. “New plants pushed out of the ground, the mulch thrown aside, the soil torn up like someone dragged ...

May 06, 2009 Drive just 30 miles southwest of Austin to find one of the most beautiful natural areas in central Texas: Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve. Last Saturday we drove out for a hike, arriving about an hour after it opened, and found something we’d never experienced there before: no ...

March 13, 2009 Austin demonstrated yesterday that it’s pretty easy being green. The National Wildlife Federation certified our city as a Community Wildlife Habitat. Austin is the largest U.S. city and the first in Texas to achieve certification. As explained on the NWF’s website, “The Community Wildlife Habitat project is ...

February 10, 2009 I turned my face to the rain yesterday morning like a turtle in an old, dried-up mudhole. After fearing that rain would never fall again in parched central Texas, we awoke early Monday morning to the plink, plink of raindrops on the patio. The sound confused my ...

January 26, 2009 Little by little a new garden is taking shape. This pot of ‘Blue Elf’ aloe in bud holds the promise of beauty in days to come. Starting a new garden on an older home lot offers the chance to correct the uglies that former owners never got ...

October 14, 2008 As we wait out the national financial disaster that’s keeping potential buyers away from our former home, I find myself in the unique position of caring for two properties. I mused on the differences this morning as I watered the old garden, seeing as it’s never going ...

September 05, 2008 For the second year in a row, my cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia ) is being tip-pruned without my authorization. Every morning I sweep up the patio under the tree (I’ve got to keep things looking good for potential buyers), but only an hour or so later I ...

August 21, 2008 A new Austin garden blogger named Karla introduced herself this week. She’s blogging at The Garden Guide and gardening out near Mansfield Dam on eight acres. For those of us who wish for more room to plant and grow, eight acres sounds like heaven, doesn’t it? Welcome ...

July 20, 2008 If you haven’t been to Chanticleer, you must go. Hop on a plane or jump in the car and go. Now. Dubbed “a pleasure garden” in its brochure, it lives up to the billing. From the moment we arrived, just after lunchtime on a quiet Sunday in ...