Women in American art at Crystal Bridges Museum
July 04, 2021 Roadtripping up to St. Louis last month with my mom, we stopped in Bentonville, Arkansas, to visit the marvelous Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It was my second visit and Mom’s first. When visiting Crystal Bridges with your mom, you must be sure to see Maman ...
Home gardening inspiration, plus a boxwood garden and Chinese garden: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 4
June 27, 2021 Visiting Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) earlier this month for the first time, I expected to breeze through the Center for Home Gardening and get on to more interesting parts of the garden. Instead I found myself poking around this space for close to an hour. I was ...
Seiwa-en, a serene Japanese strolling garden: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 3
June 25, 2021 A week ago I road-tripped to St. Louis to visit Missouri Botanical Garden. At its far end I found the acclaimed Japanese Garden Seiwa-en, a 14-acre strolling garden built around a curving lake, with naturalistic but carefully composed views. Quite the contrast with the colorful, geometric, and ...
Victorian Garden, Stumpery, and origami sculpture: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 2
June 24, 2021 It’s Pollinator Week, so I’ll kick off Part 2 of my visit to Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) with this bee-attracting patch of coneflowers behind one of the administrative buildings. What a pretty little garden of echinacea, allium, and amsonia in a hidden-away spot. Victorian Garden In contrast, ...
Climatron tropical house, origami sculpture, and more: Missouri Botanical Garden, part 1
June 22, 2021 A week ago today I road-tripped with my mom through Arkansas up to St. Louis to visit Missouri Botanical Garden, which I’d long wanted to see. I’d always thought of St. Louis as being not that far away from Austin. After all, Missouri is part of the ...
Remembering Dred Scott on Juneteenth at Gateway Arch in St. Louis
June 19, 2021 Today is Juneteenth, our newest national holiday, which commemorates the end of slavery. Short for June 19th, Juneteenth has long been celebrated by African American communities in Texas. On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Texas were finally told, two months after the Civil War had ended, ...
Stonehenge II and the serene Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country
June 08, 2021 Cruising through tiny Ingram, Texas, on the way to a river cabin rental over Memorial Day weekend, we spotted something that made us laugh out loud, and then pull over for a closer look. Stonehenge! Or rather, Stonehenge II, the wild-hair creation of two locals with a ...
Fun stuff at Austin nurseries this spring
June 03, 2021 In my mad rush from nursery to nursery this spring, buying plants to fill holes left by the snowpocalypse, I’ve spotted a lot of funny and eye-catching decor. Let me share some of it with you! Humor at Barton Springs Nursery At Barton Springs Nursery, the bed-headed ...
Potted characters at East Austin Succulents
March 26, 2021 Weird and wonderful creatures with plants for brains — sound like anybody you know? — greeted me at East Austin Succulents last week. They were silent types with big personalities. This ghostly guy with ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) sprouting from his forehead may have been my favorite ...
Exploring Austin’s Sparky Park mosaic wall
March 02, 2021 At Austin’s Sparky Park, craggy, curved walls of karst limestone and blue slag glass display mosaics of seashells, ceramic tile, petrified wood, and other found objects, all fashioned into fantastical trees and solar systems. Rock arches connect turret towers bejeweled with blue and silver gazing globes, creating ...
Octopus joins fantastical creatures at Mueller parks
January 06, 2021 A giant purple octopus wraps its tentacles around the restrooms at brand-new Jessie Andrews Park in Austin’s Mueller development. Like the monsters in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Lord of the Rings, this supersized sea creature menacingly creeps close, ready perhaps to grab someone or wrench ...
Origami sculpture in the Culinary and Adventure gardens at San Antonio Botanical Garden
December 10, 2020 Part 3 of my recent visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden to see the Origami in the Garden exhibition by Santa Fe artist Kevin Box takes us through the relatively new Culinary and Family Adventure gardens. Two festive Christmas trees greeted me just inside the entrance. Zachry ...
Tropical conservatory and origami sculpture at San Antonio Botanical Garden
December 09, 2020 Rising Peace I’m not much for conservatories, as regular readers know. They give me mall vibes. But maybe I’m starting to come around a little, thanks to the Origami in the Garden exhibit of Kevin Box‘s sculptures at San Antonio Botanical Garden. This is Part 2 of ...
Origami sculpture and Christmasy cactus garden at San Antonio Botanical Garden
December 07, 2020 I first admired Kevin Box‘s playful origami sculptures on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Now he’s exhibiting his work at San Antonio Botanical Garden through early May 2021. I kept wanting to visit this fall but couldn’t find time until last weekend, when my husband and I ...
Grow a hedge using native Texas plants
November 30, 2020 I want to share a little more Wildflower Center inspiration, this time from the maze in the Family Garden. Traditionally mazes are defined by clipped boxwood or yew hedges that grow at least to head-height — about 6 feet tall. Here at Austin’s native-plant botanical garden, the ...
Bigtooth maples and more fall foliage at the Wildflower Center, part 2
November 19, 2020 Did a few bigtooth maples from Lost Maples Park lose their way and end up at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center? It sure looked that way last week, when I spotted pumpkin-spice trees in the Family Garden. This is part 2 of my tour. Big, colorful ...
