Bluebonnets in the neighborhood
April 04, 2024 While on a neighborhood stroll last week, I spotted a bodacious bevy of bluebonnets at a Bevo-loving neighbor’s house. Ka-pow! A few pink bluebonnets mingled with the standard blues. A glorious sight — thanks, neighbor! I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post ...
Poppies are popping at Wildseed Farms
April 01, 2024 On my wildflower drive out to Willow City Loop last week, I stopped at Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg, Texas, to check out their planted wildflower fields. The corn poppies were popping! If lightning hadn’t been flashing and thunder rumbling, I’d have stayed longer to take more pics ...
Willow City Loop wows with Texas wildflowers
March 29, 2024 I headed west to the Hill Country on Wednesday on a THIRD wildflower safari, cruising the Willow City Loop between Fredericksburg and Llano. This famously scenic, 13-mile ranch road winds through rugged canyons and over rocky hilltops offering spectacular views, with low-water crossings and free-range cattle to ...
More Texas wildflower joy near Independence
March 26, 2024 Bluebonnets are popping off in Texas this spring, so much so that I made time for a second wildflower safari last Friday, heading east through farm country toward Independence. I shared Part 1 of that drive yesterday. Today, here’s Part 2. The rolling fields, farms, and ranches ...
Wildflowers and miniature donkeys near Independence
March 25, 2024 A couple weeks ago, I went on wildflower safari south of Austin, east of San Antonio, and saw some good flower fields. But this above-average wildflower year called for a second safari. On Friday, my husband and I hit the back roads east of Austin, near tiny ...
An extravaganza of bluebonnets and other Texas wildflowers
March 15, 2024 Texas bluebonnets are coloring fields and roadsides a month early this year, and they’re already at peak in certain areas. I follow Facebook page Texas Wildflower Report each spring to learn where good fields have been spotted. And so when I found myself with a free afternoon ...
Colleen Belk’s Old Austin garden
November 15, 2023 An Old Austin-style garden was featured on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour two weekends ago: Colleen Belk’s 43-year-old garden. Yes, 43 years! What is Old Austin style, you may ask? I think of it as a lushly planted Austin garden with Deep South-meets-Southwest plant choices, sort ...
Into the sunflowers in Longwood’s meadow
October 04, 2023 As I roamed Longwood Gardens during the Philadelphia Area Fling, I was eager to see the Meadow Garden in its late September glory. I set off on the meadow trail in late afternoon, as the light slanted low through golden petals and tawny grasses. I reached the ...
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 ...
Windows to the sky at Arches National Park
July 24, 2023 North Window Arch In early May, during our national-parks RV trip, we spent a day exploring Arches National Park in eastern Utah. The place is a wonderland of hole-punched, fin-like, and soaring rock formations, including more than 2,000 documented stone arches. Located near Moab, with its hotels, ...
Hiking and off-roading at the Needles in Canyonlands
July 17, 2023 Canyonlands National Park spreads across 337,598 acres in southeastern Utah, divided into 3 districts by the Green and Colorado rivers: Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. In early May, after exploring popular Island in the Sky, we drove to the Needles on another day ...
Canyonlands: Purple canyons and cliff-clinging Shafer Trail
July 12, 2023 Terracotta sand and rock stubbled with green. Terraced buttes of mauve and lavender. Blue mountains with snowy, sawtoothed peaks. A vast sky and stomach-dropping abyss. Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah offers awe-inspiring western vistas, beauty, and adventure and was my favorite among the Utah parks we ...
Capitol Reef National Park petroglyphs, orchards, and pie
July 06, 2023 At Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah, ancient layers of stone stand exposed in a red-rock desert. Formed into turrets, reefs, and domes by geologic uplift and then the slow erosion of water over millennia, the park’s layered rock tells the history of the Earth to ...
Scenery for a million miles at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
July 02, 2023 Is 1.8 million acres big enough for you? That’s the size of sprawling Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, one of our stops on our spring RV trip out west. Utah felt like one big park to us — it contains 5 national parks plus 8 ...
Waterfalls, wildlife, and wonder at Zion National Park
June 21, 2023 Utah and its wealth of national parks drew us west on our 5-week RV trip this spring. Zion National Park in southwestern Utah sparkles as one of its crown jewels. For anyone wishing to beat the heat in canyon country, April is prime visiting season. We arrived ...
Wildflowers, breathtaking views at Horseshoe Bend and Glen Canyon Dam
June 16, 2023 Hatted and sunscreened against the intense desert sun, we took a morning walk out to see Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona, before our tour of Antelope Canyon. This was back in late April, during our 5-week RV trip to see western National Parks. Wild rhubarb (I think?) ...
