Wordless Wednesday: 1 hour's worth of trash 8-(

Practicing

I've never been very good at using the macro feature on my camera and thought it was time to get some practice in. Fortunately, my neighborhood, where I usually take my daily walks, has some great flowers on display since 1) many of my neighbors are much more dedicated gardeners than I am; and 2) we had enough rain this spring to give us a bumper crop of lovelies.

Like the althea bush that's by my back door. Since I hardly ever remember to water it, usually I'm lucky to see three or four blossoms all summer. But for now anyway, it's pretty much loaded with these handsome guys...

So, after two or three days of forgetting to take my camera on my walk, I finally remembered the other day and offer these results of my attempts at macro photography. Enjoy!

It is very tricky (at least it is for me) to get the focus right and there were quite a few efforts where the focal point was obviously not where I wanted it. Like this one:

Fortunately, these lovely flowers appear in several yards along my route, so I had other chances. Which, I think, came out better...

Unfortunately I don't know what these flowers are called, but I do know that after blooming they produce this less lovely seed pods...

Another mystery shrub that I see pretty often sports these purple beauties...

I feel like I should know what these are called, since I'm pretty sure my grandmother (who was quite a gardener) always had some. But for the life of me I can't call that name up from the vaults. However, I enjoy the yard near my house that has an extensive bed of the stuff...

However, I do know the names of the rest of my samples...

the super-showy Pride of Barbados

xeriscapers' favorite: lantana

a big display of plumbago

BTW, that's also plumbago in the background (nicely macro-ed, if I do say so) behind the bright red hibiscus at the top of the post.

Finally, another example of what happens after the blooms. Our mountain laurels bloom very early in spring, so by now their seed pods are well developed...

I'll continue to practice with my macro setting and hopefully will have some more snaps worthy of showing off as the summer progresses.

After a long absence

Cold weather, low water, various ailments, visiting grandchild, etc., etc. Some of the reasons I haven't been paddling in a long time. 

Even though the water levels on the upper Guadalupe weren't that great last Saturday, we decided it was time to get back in the saddle, so to speak. The result was a lovely paddle on my favorite stretch of this river, from Zoeller Lane to Sisterdale.

And, as usual, there are more benefits than just lazy floating and upper-body exercising to recommend this wonderful activity.

Flowers, for example, like these fine examples at our put-in...

poppy panorama

poppy close-up

lowly but lovely thistles

...the rocky cliffs and overhangs on this stretch are spectacular...

Henry and non-leader Sandra

...and of course those cypress trees. I can't ever get over the sculptural quality of their trunks and, especially, their roots...

Isn't it amazing how the roots just grow every which-a-way, wherever they need to be to get their nourishment...

Yes, there's a lot in favor of this retirement hobby. But with summer coming and even lower water on the horizon, it will probably be another long while before I partake of it again.

Wordless Wednesday: view from the loo

Art Underfoot

You find the most amazing things when you decide to walk just one more block than you planned!

The other day after a doctor's appointment I decided to take a quick walk around the little park that's next to the medical building before heading back to my car. I hadn't really noticed before that the park actually extends another block. And in the middle of this bonus block is this gazebo...

(I also didn't know that the park has a name—Crockett Park—handily provided by a quick google search. It actually has a pretty interesting history, as you can see if you follow the link above, which is to a waymarking site, I assume for the use of geocachers).

But what really blew me away, and made this little detour worth blogging about, is—wait for it!—floor art! Or, actually ground art, but still so cool!

Readers who managed to wade through all my European posts will remember that I got a little batty over there about floor tile art in churches and museums (the floor of the Duomo in Siena was the highlight). Who knew that there was some waiting for me right out in this little park a few miles from my house!

The bluebonnet at the top of the post is one of three lovely flower mosaics that surround the gazebo. Here are the others...

Aren't they pretty?! And especially since they were completely unexpected.

What drew me over to the second block of the park was this extremely handsome structure...

Formerly a hotel and today an apartment house, it's called the Aurora and I'd love to go inside it someday and see what I hope is still the original art deco interior. But wouldn't it be great to have one of those stone balconies outside your window!

It's a great little park, but severely underused, I suppose because of the lack of free parking around it. I'm just glad I found it.

A weekend with Lady Bird, part 2

My second encounter with the legacy and memory of Lady Bird Johnson, while in Austin recently, was at a place that I'm ashamed to say I had never visited before: The Wildflower Center in south Austin.

It's a little out of the way and it seems that a visit there just never had fit in with our Austin plans. But fortunately the group of women I was meeting this time had a place for it on the schedule and I was so happy to finally get to see it.

Perhaps a little late to see the big stars—bluebonnets and such—there were still plenty of lovely sights, and some quite unexpected. Like the newly fledged, and still fuzzy-feathered, owlet that our guide was able to show us. You can see him/her perched on left.

The Center also has a great family area with plenty of cool things for kids to see and interact with, like water features decorated with these amazingly-porous hunks of limestone...

...and culminating in a waterfall that can be walked behind...

I liked this handsome interactive Fibonacci spiral sculpture...

...which is there to show kids and their parents how this mathematical concept relates to the growth of flowers nearby...

Here are a few other snaps of interesting scenes at the Center...

verbena were looking lovely

I don't think you can find a tree with a more beautiful trunk than a madrone

the Center's buildings blend attractively with their natural setting

what else would you expect in a Wildflower Center loo?

In spite of the somewhat alarming signage spotted occasionally, our visit came off with incident or injury and was most enjoyable. I'd like to return at another season!

Wordless Wednesday: well, yeah!

A weekend with Lady Bird: part 1

When I lived in Austin, 'way back in the last century, this lovely body of water running through the heart of the city was just called Town Lake. Soon after she died in 2007, however, it was renamed for this First Lady, an early champion and advocate for environmental issues. A couple of weekends ago I was able to enjoy both the lake and another Austin attraction named for her; I'll tell you about that one next time.

But first, the lake. Longtime readers (and those who've seen my London blog) might remember when I've written about the very pleasant walk you can take around a good-sized chunk of lakefront. But the last time I took that walk was an astonishingly long time ago.

This time, the occasion was an annual get-together of a group of Rice women who graduated around the same time as myself (also far back in the mists of time). They meet every spring in a different Texas city and getting together for a weekend of visiting, touristing, eating, and drinking with these delightful ladies is quite fun. This year the meeting place was Austin, and one of the activities was a walk around part of Lady Bird Lake.

As you can see, we were very lucky with the weather. It was even cool-ish when we started the walk by crossing over Barton Creek...

Then upstream to the MoPac expressway, where there's conveniently a pedestrian walkway tucked underneath. (There's a great view of the downtown skyline from here; you can see it above.) 

This was really my old stomping grounds, since I lived in an apartment very near the then-brand-new MoPac, on 6th Street ('way before 6th Street was cool). 

Our trail took us—and large numbers of Austinites out for walks and runs—back towards downtown and the pedestrian bridge that was new when I saw it back in 2011. On the way we walked under the Lamar Street bridge...

...which we could look back to as we crossed on the pedestrian bridge...

These were only two of the many, many watercraft out taking advantage of the great weather and lack of wind on the lake this Saturday. I've actually paddled on the lake myself, again back in 2011. We went upstream to the next bridge where the enormous bat colony lives and waited for the bats to emerge at dusk. (You can read about this adventure here.)

This time the scenery was much less eventful, but still quite enjoyable. Especially when coupled with good visits with friends new and old.

fun Sunday brunch at Mi Madre's

Next up: Lady Bird's truest obsession...wildflowers!

Wordless Wednesday: Make way for ducklings!