Bat watching in Austin
August 29, 2019 Nightwing by Dale Whistler at the south end of the Congress Avenue Bridge represents Texas’s official flying mammal and looks great with Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). Austin goes extra batty in August, when the colony of Mexican free-tailed bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge swells with ...
Tau Ceti mural in downtown Austin
June 09, 2019 Austin’s excellent mural scene just got a big boost with the addition of Josef Kristofoletti‘s Tau Ceti. The spectacular, spectrum-based mural by the Austin muralist fills a formerly blank corner of a bland parking garage at Brazos and 2nd Street, creating a new hotspot for selfie snapping ...
Bigger than life jackalope on N. Lamar
February 23, 2019 A bigger-than-life bounder crouches on North Lamar Boulevard. “Bigger than life” may not be quite accurate, of course, seeing as the jackalope is a mythical beast of Texas legend. Created by Ion Art for Red Velvet Events, the horned hare stands 18 feet tall, fabricated from rusty ...
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 ...
Joy to the Weird: Austin’s 37th and 35th Street Christmas lights
December 25, 2018 Merry Christmas, Joy to the Weird, and festive holiday greetings to you from Austin! Last night, on Christmas Eve, my family and I joined curious throngs of people walking and cruising along W. 37th Street, with a jog down Home Lane and over to W. 35th Street, ...
Moonstruck and aglow at Wildflower Center’s Luminations
December 10, 2018 Under a fingernail sliver of moon, we strolled quiet garden paths illuminated with hundreds of glowing luminarias, ultraviolet uplighting on trees, and the occasional white moon light at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last night. The annual holiday event runs for four nights, but following two ...
Sculptural light installations glow along Austin’s Waller Creek during 5th annual Creek Show
November 19, 2018 Last Saturday, on the final day of Creek Show 2018, hundreds of tents floated sinuously above downtown Austin’s Waller Creek, glowing orange and purple like fairy lights. To reach the start of this temporary art exhibition sponsored by Waller Creek Conservancy, which is remaking the long-neglected creek ...
Bloggers soaked up Austin at Garden Bloggers Fling
May 11, 2018 For 11 years I’ve traveled to cities around North America to attend Garden Bloggers Fling, and I’ve helped organize two Flings held in Austin — in and again last weekend. Normally I take hundreds of pictures of the gardens I visit. (Go to Categories in my sidebar ...
Abuzz over gopher plant, plus new plants!
March 14, 2018 Honeybees are out in force, and gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida) is one of their early spring favorites. I’m abuzz over gopher plant’s chartreuse bracts and yellow flowers too — so sunny on these early spring days. Lemon-lime rules out front right now, with ‘Color Guard’ yucca, gopher ...
Ellsworth Kelly’s “Austin” brightens University of Texas campus
March 07, 2018 Resembling squares of lime, cherry, berry blue, and grape Jell-O, the glass-block windows of artist Ellsworth Kelly’s new artwork, Austin, are colorful, playful, and flat-out fun. You kind of want to slurp them up, or stick your finger in them to see if they jiggle. A new ...
Fair grounds at Fareground food hall in downtown Austin
February 06, 2018 Twice last week I visited buzzed-about Fareground food hall on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, killing time before shows at the Paramount Theater. I’ve yet to see Fareground in the daytime, but at night the softly lit landscaping and plaza sure are enticing. (The stairs and outer ...
Yippee Ki Yay! Austin has its own Stickwork sculpture in Pease Park
February 03, 2018 Have you ever seen a bowerbird’s elaborate, woven-twig structure? That’s what the Stickwork creations of North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty remind me of. I’ve admired his twiggy sculptures in other cities and gardens. And now we have one in Austin at Pease Park. Titled Yippee Ki Yay, ...
New Central Library – “Austin’s front porch” – boasts rooftop garden and more
December 15, 2017 Austin is head over heels in love with our new Central Library, a marvelous civic structure by Lake|Flato that is much more than a library. It’s a community space for all of Austin in a prime location on Cesar Chavez Street near Austin City Hall and across ...
Austin shines brightly at Trail of Lights and Zilker Tree
December 13, 2017 Five years have slipped by since we’ve walked Austin’s beloved holiday light display at Zilker Park called Trail of Lights. When our kids were little we went every year, and our last visit was in 2012, but this year it was just me and my husband keeping ...
Creek Show 2017 lights up Waller Creek, ends tonight
November 18, 2017 I’m into public art and especially enjoy the annual Waller Creek Conservancy-sponsored Creek Show, a 9-night run of light installations along a scruffy downtown waterway that’s being redeveloped into a chain of urban parks. This is Creek Show’s 4th year, and it ends tonight (November 18), so ...
Umbrella sky at Aldrich Street in Austin
October 05, 2017 It looks like a convention of Mary Poppinses passed through a rainbow over on Mueller neighborhood’s newly opened Aldrich Street. Presumably inspired by the Umbrella Sky Project in Águeda, Portugal, this public art display of colorful umbrellas suspended over a wide sidewalk makes a festive paseo for ...
