Philadelphia Area Fling and Andrew Bunting’s Belvidere
September 28, 2023 A gravel garden in the front yard of Andrew Bunting’s Belvidere I spent all last week in the beautiful countryside around Philadelphia for the 14th annual Fling (formerly known as Garden Bloggers Fling), touring private and public gardens with around 100 other garden writers, bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, ...
Happy, colorful courtyards at The Lincoln Marfa
September 18, 2023 I stayed at The Lincoln, a boutique hotel of 14 “unique homes” at a century-old property, when I visited Marfa a couple weeks ago. A bright yellow door and orange cosmos flowers offered a cheerful welcome as I rolled my bag to Unit 7, passing a gigantic, ...
West Texas golden hour and sightseeing
September 16, 2023 I was back in West Texas a week ago to shoot gardens for my forthcoming book (due out spring 2025). Being up at sunrise and staying in gardens until after sunset meant I got to enjoy some beautiful skies every day. Lavender and mango sunsets were a ...
Running through Marathon, Texas
September 03, 2023 On the way home from a trip to far West Texas in late July, my friend and I swung through tiny Marathon, Texas, for lunch. Fifty miles east of Marfa and 50 miles north of Big Bend National Park, Marathon is known as the gateway to remote ...
Wild creatures and smoke-shrouded scenery at Glacier National Park
August 31, 2023 We arrived at Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana in mid-May. It was our northernmost destination on our 5-week RV road trip across the West. As we drove north from Yellowstone, the sky grew bleary with haze and then gray with smoke from Canadian wildfires. Road signs ...
Majestic mountains, wildlife, and Mormon Row at Grand Teton
August 24, 2023 During our RV road trip across the West, we visited Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming, a majestic place where blue, snow-streaked mountains rake the sky above a scenic valley. The Teton Range was formed along a fault line, where, 10 million years ago, colliding tectonic ...
Native plants at Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Garden in West Texas
August 22, 2023 Cow’s tongue prickly pear and Mitre Peak While visiting far West Texas last month, a few people mentioned the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and its botanical garden, located just outside of Fort Davis. So one morning my friend and I drove over from Marfa to check it ...
Moose, goose, grizzlies, and more Yellowstone wildlife, part 3
August 17, 2023 Yellowstone National Park was my favorite of all the parks we visited during our spring RV trip through the West. Why? Because the wildlife-watching there is epic! That’s my favorite thing to do, far more than hiking, which I’m always a little nervous about in grizzly country ...
Bison kick up their heels at Yellowstone, part 2
August 15, 2023 Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times, the national park service tells us. And in that time, bison have really learned how to play — apparently right from birth! Calves just wanna have fun We were in ...
Michael Eason’s desert garden retreat
August 14, 2023 While in West Texas a couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting designer and author Michael Eason‘s garden in Alpine. Michael had lined up some wonderful gardens for me to visit there, ones that he’d designed, but it was nice to see his own personal ...
Grizzlies and geysers at Yellowstone, part 1
August 13, 2023 As we drove toward the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park, I twisted my telephoto lens onto my Nikon and held the camera in my lap. Twenty-three years earlier, on a late afternoon drive in Yellowstone, we’d seen a grizzly sow and twin cubs dash across the ...
Bison, wild horses roam at Theodore Roosevelt National Park
August 11, 2023 After seeing Badlands in South Dakota, we drove north to see the badlands of western North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Named after the 26th U.S. president, the park memorializes Roosevelt’s love for the region, where he ranched during the late 1800s, and its role in ...
Meeting artist Julie Speed at her Marfa studio
August 10, 2023 Marfa is an oasis for minimalist art in West Texas, despite the town’s tiny size (population 1,750) and remoteness from, well, just about anywhere. A friend and I road-tripped there two weeks ago, and instead of pilgrimaging to see Donald Judd’s minimalist concrete boxes (maybe next time), ...
A good day in Badlands National Park
August 09, 2023 The Badlands. The Bruce Springsteen song pulses through my brain. We headed into Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota in early May during our RV road trip through the West. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the desolate beauty of the place appealed to me ...
A healing garden in West Texas
August 08, 2023 A week ago I had the pleasure of visiting a lovely garden in Alpine, located in far West Texas, 400 miles west of Austin. Owner Susan Wallens showed me around and told me how the garden came to be. Susan’s husband, Mike, is the vicar of St ...
Marfa’s masses of sotols at John Chamberlain Building
August 06, 2023 I spotted a sotol convention while I was in Marfa in far West Texas last week. The spherical, toothy plants — I think these are Texas sotol (Dasylirion texanum) — are growing in a long grid in front of the Chinati Foundation’s John Chamberlain Building on the ...
