cool gardens in a hot climate™
February 06, 2018 Twice last week I visited buzzed-about Fareground food hall on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, killing time before shows at the Paramount Theater. I’ve yet to see Fareground in the daytime, but at night the softly lit … Read More
February 03, 2018 Have you ever seen a bowerbird’s elaborate, woven-twig structure? That’s what the Stickwork creations of North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty remind me of. I’ve admired his twiggy sculptures in other cities and gardens. And now we have … Read More
December 04, 2017 If you happen to be in Eugene, Oregon, and want to see beautiful nature art, visit the University of Oregon’s Ford Alumni Center and look for the big hearth wall. On a visit to this pretty college … Read More
December 01, 2017 Seeing Blackbird, a new sculpture in Austin’s Republic Square Park, for the first time last week, I couldn’t help hearing Paul McCartney’s lilting voice in my head: Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken … Read More
November 18, 2017 I’m into public art and especially enjoy the annual Waller Creek Conservancy-sponsored Creek Show, a 9-night run of light installations along a scruffy downtown waterway that’s being redeveloped into a chain of urban parks. This is Creek … Read More
October 16, 2017 At my alma mater in Houston last month (right after Hurricane Harvey), I appreciated the marriage of foliage and architecture at the Brochstein Pavilion, a remarkable structure and hub of student activity that didn’t exist when I … Read More
October 05, 2017 It looks like a convention of Mary Poppinses passed through a rainbow over on Mueller neighborhood’s newly opened Aldrich Street. Presumably inspired by the Umbrella Sky Project in Águeda, Portugal, this public art display of colorful umbrellas … Read More
July 13, 2017 One of our stops on the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling was Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland, where I was smitten by a stand of Verbena bonariensis along a formal path. I didn’t end up taking many … Read More
June 12, 2017 I love seeing public art — sculpture, murals, earthwork, any kind! — and often drag family members out to see new works. Last evening, I headed downtown to the Waller Creek boathouse on Lady Bird Lake to … Read More