Swimming at Barton Springs Pool, the ultimate summer cool-down
July 16, 2021 You wouldn’t think I’d have a hard time finding someone to go swimming with me in July in Texas. But when I proposed an excursion to Barton Springs Pool recently, most of my family and friends said no way. Why? After all, Barton Springs Pool is considered ...
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 ...
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 ...
Postcards from COVID-era Austin
May 28, 2020 “You’re not in traffic. You are traffic,” I heard on the radio last year, and it resonated with me. Here we Austinites were, almost a million of us, sitting in traffic jams all day long, insanely frustrated by the wasted time and by our fellow drivers. And ...
Mexico City: Jacaranda purple haze, Centro Histórico, and native plants
March 27, 2020 A romantic, violet veil brightens Mexico City each spring, when jacaranda trees unfurl a profusion of purple flowers on bare, sinuous trunks lining parkways, park paths, and residential streets. Jacaranda trees I caught sight of the purple haze from the airplane as we descended over the smoggy ...
Urban landscaping along Austin’s 2nd Street
February 18, 2020 While downtown recently for dinner, we walked along 2nd Street and the arched Butterfly Bridge and visited Austin Central Library, first stopping to admire the native-plant landscaping along Shoal Creek. Purple trailing lantana cascades over rock walls to brighten the late-winter garden. More trailing lantana, which blooms ...
Graffiti plant
January 22, 2020 Last weekend I spotted this graffiti of a flowering yucca or palm on a bridge support at Lady Bird Lake. Sometimes you just need a plant where no plant can grow. __________________________ Digging Deeper Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks ...
Ganador grackle now rules the roost at Austin City Hall
January 19, 2020 One of my favorite local artists, Christy Stallop, branched out last year from her lucha libre grackle paintings to make a monster-sized grackle in a Mexican wrestler mask using recycled bike tires over a steel frame covered in polystyrene. Her idea won a TEMPO grant, and Ganador ...
Supersized sculpture at Mueller’s Southwest Greenway trail
January 14, 2020 The only place I’m happy to see a supersized spider is on the walking trail at Mueller neighborhood’s Southwest Greenway. Arachnophillia by Dixie Friend Gay strides along the native-prairie trail, one steel leg extended as if to feel the way… …or wave hello. With a belly full of blue ...
Tree of Life, architecture, and jazz in New Orleans New Year
January 11, 2020 We rang in the new year in New Orleans, the U.S. city at the top of our Italian exchange student’s list of places to see, after New York and San Francisco. NOLA is only a 7-1/2-hour drive (with no stops) from Austin, so we rented an Airbnb, ...
Kempelen’s Owls and more public art in downtown Austin
December 27, 2019 Looking for free family fun over the holidays? Why not burn a few calories on a self-guided walking tour of public art in downtown Austin? My daughter and I did just that a few days before Christmas. I was eager to see Kempelen’s Owls, a pair of ...
Sculpture worth visiting at Rice University
December 07, 2019 Rice University is my alma mater, and if the weather’s nice when I’m in Houston I’ll often take a walk around campus. It’s not all for nostalgia’s sake, though. Rather, Rice has really upped its sculpture game in recent years, and much of it is open to ...
Otherworldly Creek Show lights up Waller Creek through Nov. 17
November 08, 2019 Despite a blue norther that dropped temps from the 80s to the 40s and ushered in a chilly rain, we trekked downtown yesterday evening for the opening night of Creek Show, an annual light-art installation along Waller Creek, which is being developed as a chain of parks ...
