Sunny southern France vacation, part 2
August 22, 2019 Dodging the heat waves that plagued France this summer, my husband and I day-tripped through Provence for 5 days in late July after meeting up with our daughter following her study abroad program (she did not manage to dodge the heat waves). In my last post I ...
Provence lavender fields and rosy Roussillon
August 14, 2019 Summer in Provence — what do you think of? Fields of lavender and sunflowers, sun-washed hill towns, buzzing cicadas, hot days and cool nights, a glass of wine at a small table along a cobblestone street? Yes, yes, and yes. Years after falling for the region’s rugged ...
Strouse Garden gazes toward the Rockies: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 01, 2019 It’s hard to compete with a grand view of the Rocky Mountains. And why would you? TLC Gardens instead created space-defining, bird-sheltering, pollinator-friendly beds around the Lafayette, Colorado, home of Jim and Laura Strouse, which I toured on Day 2 of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June ...
Spring evening at home
March 28, 2019 This has been the most beautiful week of spring, with soft, warm days, cool breezes, and wildflowers galore, including a patch of Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) in my gravel front walk. Orange creamsicle flowers on gray globemallow (Sphaeralcea incana) Pink cascade on the weeping ‘Traveller’ redbud (Cercis ...
Screech owl at sunset
January 29, 2019 The sky went pink last evening as a cold front blew through. In the owl box, a small screech owl watched me from his snug perch, safely out of the wind. The owl box hangs in a different spot in our back garden this winter. We recently ...
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 ...
A close encounter with Devils Tower in Wyoming
September 18, 2018 The ultimate destination on our mother-daughter road trip through the Great American West last month was Devils Tower National Monument in northeastern Wyoming. (Yes, the lack of apostrophe is the correct geographic spelling.) I’ve wanted to see it for years, ever since it appeared as a hub ...
Stonehenge near the solstice brings out the Druids
August 18, 2018 On a chilly, windy morning in mid-June, a few days before the summer solstice, we visited Stonehenge during our family vacation. Was it just a bunch of old rocks? Absolutely not. Visiting Stonehenge is a fascinating glimpse into the lives, beliefs, and mad rock-moving skills of prehistoric ...
Paris parks, pigeons, and masterpieces
June 28, 2018 After Venice earlier this June, we spent 5 nights in Paris, a city I hadn’t seen in 29 years. It is as beautiful and vibrant as I remembered. My husband took these twilight images from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, looking out over the city ...
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 ...
Sunset at magical Cannon Beach, Oregon
September 27, 2017 I’m not a beach person. I don’t enjoy lying in the sun, sweating on the sand, nor do I like to swim in the ocean. You don’t do any of that at Cannon Beach, in Oregon, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much ...
Columbia River Gorge, waterfalls, and flower farms, a scenic Oregon drive — before the fire
September 09, 2017 I debated about writing this post right now. During our August road trip from San Francisco to Portland, we made a day trip along the majestically scenic Columbia River Gorge, the “playground of Oregonians” that’s currently on fire. As the Eagle Creek fire has raged for a ...
After the volcano blows: Crater Lake National Park
September 04, 2017 Mt. Mazama spilled its guts in a massive volcanic eruption 7,700 years ago, emptying itself out to such an extent that the mountain collapsed in on itself, creating a 3,900-foot-deep caldera. As the centuries ticked by, the caldera partially filled with snowmelt and rainfall, transforming into a ...
Desert dust skies
July 30, 2017 I’ll never forget a moment in my college years when I was exclaiming over a particularly vivid Houston sunset. A friend remarked, “You know that’s because of pollution, right?” I probably responded with an exasperated sigh — so much for the romance of natural beauty! — but ...
Easy livin’ at Lake Livingston
November 21, 2016 Lake lounging. Wine sipping. Sunrise and sunset watching. That’s what we did over the weekend at the getaway cottage my sister and sister-in-law own on Lake Livingston in the pineywoods of East Texas. Here’s a sunrise view from their back porch. Around 12 hours later, here’s the ...
West Texas sky-gazing at McDonald Observatory and Davis Mountains, plus swimming at Balmorhea Pool
August 30, 2016 The last two days of our Southwestern road trip took us through West Texas and the surprisingly green and scenic Davis Mountains, where we visited McDonald Observatory. A land of big sky, low humidity, and dark nights is the perfect place for gazing at stars and planets ...
