• Reading

    My Favorite Kind of Entertainment

    Growing up, my hobby, other than playing outside, was reading. Now I don’t devote nearly as much time to reading as I should, though the internet is my source of reading a lot of times these days. Anyway, this is the stack of magazines I need to weed through. Chris’ dad gave me a stack of Outside magazines, a new Yoga Journal came in the mail, as did Urban Farm, and Backpacker. So did Texas Parks & Wildlife. I have a lot to flip through! And then there is this stack, too! I have finally worked up the nerve to start The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in…

  • Texas,  Travel & Places

    Spring at Westcave Preserve | Part I

    The weekend we went to see the bats we went to Westcave Preserve as well. I think it has turned into our favorite little place to go when in the Austin area. We had hoped to get there again before May to see the chatterbox orchids but alas, that did not happen. Maybe next year! The prickly poppies were putting on a beautiful show and have continued doing so around the state since. Of course I love to get up close and personal with the flowers I take photos of and these were not any different. It was peak bluebonnet season when we went; the flowers were everywhere. I think…

  • Art,  Photography

    My First Photo Show | Thoughts & Review

    Last weekend I drove down to the San Bernard NWR for the Migration Celebration. It was very busy and full of activities but I only had time for a trip to the San Bernard Oak and to see the exhibit hall which included the photo contest exhibits. The photo above is the 2nd place award I won for the Nature Photography as Art part of the contest. As I said, I entered on a whim, mostly to test my skills to see if I even had a chance. And I guess I did. But, I don’t think I will enter this contest again. The photos above were the rest of…

  • Thoughts

    Beauty in Abstraction

    I started going through photos I took several weekends ago in Austin and came across this photo of a prickly poppy. I loved it so much but wondered if it was good for anything other than a nice quote. I’d read and article regarding Thoreau, about the change in bloom times in many species of plants in New England. Thoreau had kept an excellent record of the flora and fauna in Concord and now scientists are comparing his data to data they are collecting now. It is very fascinating stuff, phenology. Thoreau was on my mind and so I chose the quote above. I’m over at Sprout Dispatch today….drop by…

  • Family

    Easter Part I

    Yes, I know Easter was a few weekends ago. I’m terribly behind on processing photos! Sorry! And I took so many that I’m going to have to do two separate posts! This set is from an egg hunt at my brother, sister-in-law, and mom’s church. It was packed! Who couldn’t love this face?? Zoe loved the petting area with several farm animals. I think she would have carried them the way she carries her cats if she could. Grayson very happy! My dad and Grayson! Love this picture! Zoe in the egg hunt for her age group. Apparently she is in the stage of learning to bite her fingernails. But…

  • Local Coffee

    Local Coffee: Coffee², McKinney, Texas

    It’s been a long time since I have done a Local Coffee post, mostly because I rarely go anywhere that has a local coffee shop. There was a very neat one near Bandera, Texas that I should have done a post about but didn’t get around to it. Coffee shops are a favorite haunt of my friends and me. If we can find a coffee shop to hang out in and catch up for hours on end, we will. This one Coffee² in historic downtown McKinney, Texas is nearby my friend Stephanie’s house. The shopping area downtown is very active with many shops and the day we stopped in because…

  • Wildscape Photo

    Photography Website Update: Wildscape Photo

    I spent some time this spring working on my galleries on my section of our website. When I put everything together in late Fall 2010 I was rushed and hadn’t thought it through. I’ve taken so many more photos since then and while I haven’t put all of those up yet, I have re-organized the website into better galleries. I’ve also created an image index because our galleries aren’t easily searchable. I also wanted the words to be able to be pulled up in a search engine and this way they will. The headers of each listing should be linked to the appropriate gallery. I still have a lot of…

  • Friends

    My Girls

    I don’t often write about my friends—I do have them!—mostly because I don’t get to see them a lot since they live in different cities and states. At the end of March most of us were able to get together, three others were unable to attend. We all met back in college, most of us while sailing on the Texas Clipper II back in the summer of 1998. This photo, nabbed from my friend Michelle, second from left (her daughter in front there), is definitely reminiscent of the type of photos we took in college. I think this was outtake #10 or something because we couldn’t stop laughing. It started…

  • Gardening

    Early April in the Garden

    I love our variegated nasturium flowers. I think they are my favorite! The onions decide to start trying to flower and we pinched the flowers off to give the bulbs a bit more time to fatten up. We had some maroon bluebonnets decided to flower at the last minute. Sweet pea blossoms along the back fence line. The honeysuckle aroma is so delightful! I love walking in to the aroma! The County Fair cucumbers were planted a bit far apart so Chris helped them out by putting bamboo poles across so they could vine easier. Caterpillars were going crazy eating lettuce and other plants. We did a round of BT…