Dallas Arboretum April 2015

In mid-April I had to go to Dallas for a conference.  Shawn, after much convincing, joined me since we've never been to Dallas.  We were supposed to go for our 8th anniversary, but my Dad had to have his heart valve replaced so we never made it.  The Dallas Arboretum was about 20 minutes from our hotel so we made a day trip of it.

Columbines

Crinum Lilies

Dr. Seussian trees

A weeping tree next to a water feature at the entrance of the Arboretum

Kids' splash pad

Foxglove

Gingko Biloba

White Foxglove along the grassy field

Japanese garden - this is actually the first garden we walked through.

Lobelia

Mum

Pathway through the Japanese garden

A pathway through another part of the Arboretum

A statue testing the foxglove waters

Another statue overlooking the reflecting pool.

A waterfall through the trees

Water feature in the Woman's Garden

Entrance to the Woman's Garden

Chikkins

Roberta's chikkins, to be precise.

Pip (I think) and Agnew the accidental rooster.

"Careful lady, I like riding around on shoulders like a pirate's parrot."

Greenwood Cemetery, Round 2.

On Easter, after going to McKinney Falls with Roberta and Beags, we made a stop at Greenwood Cemetery.  All of these photos were taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.

Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis)

Bluebonnet from the top (Lupinus texensis)

Texas Dandelion, aka Small Flower Desert Chicory (Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus)

Happy Easter

Close-up of the fence at the back of the cemetery.  It took me a while to figure out why it looks like there are diamond splotches in the background - that's apparently what a fuzzy chainlink fence looks like.

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea)

Pink Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.)

Another type of Spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.), or maybe it's the same type - spiderwort is like hydrangeas and will change color based on the pH of the soil.

Cemetery statuary

Scarlet Paintbrush (Yellow mutation) (Castilleja coccinea)

McKinney State Park

On Easter Sunday, Roberta and I went to McKinney Falls State Park with the Beags (aka Beagle, aka Lilly - one of Roberta's dogs).  The goal of the trip was for Roberta to take some pictures with her camera for her 365 project, but I figured I might as well take my camera and take some photos as well.

Rebel XTi - Trees by the lower falls.  Notice the rock overhang on the right - the fact that the water has eroded away the rock means that this area floods with some regularity.  This is also part of the reason why if you're in the tent camping area there's a sign which tells you to immediately run to higher ground if you hear the air sirens go off cuz it means a flood's a' comin'.

Rebel XTi - Onion Creek by the tent camping sites.

Rebel XTi - Spiderwort flowers

Rebel XTi - Tree trunk.

Cell phone - Roberta taking a picture of the bluebonnets.

Cell phone - Beags is not impressed with the bluebonnets.

Cell Phone - Roberta had Beags sit on a picnic table which had sidewalk chart art on it - apparently some of it rubbed off.

Cell phone - Luna moth.  I think this poor guy was getting ready to leave this mortal coil considering that he was completely non-concerned about us taking photos of him.  Of course, Luna moth adults only live for about a week.

Floppin' Garlic

Yep, you read that right - Floppin' Garlic.

In my previous years of growing garlic, I've never had the tops flop over - that has been something only the onions do.  This year, however, almost all of the garlic has flopped. Apparently it has to do with growing softneck garlic as opposed to hardneck garlic.  And per this article by the Oregon State Extension Office, it looks like it means that the garlic is ready to harvest.

Columbine

Eastern Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

I have a special place in my heart for columbines. First and foremost, I grew up in Colorado, and the state flower is the columbine (of course it's the blue columbine, not the red one, but to me a columbine is a columbine, though admittedly I do occasionally try to grow the blue ones down here).  Secondly, I remember walking around my grandparents' property in the mountains looking for all the columbines (and wild strawberries).  Man that brings back the memories...

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset

Lucinda's Iris

One of the more common pass along irises in Austin is an iris that we all call "Lucinda's Iris" because it originally came from Lucinda Hutson's yard.  Caroline at the Shovel-Ready Garden did some crazy Google-fu and figured out that this iris is actually called "Kate Izzard" (or she's 90% sure - it could also be Isolene, Rhea, or Romance). Us garden bloggers, however, have decided that we'll just continue to call it "Lucinda's iris."

"Bearded Dragon"

Tulipa Clusiana

A few months ago, I went to Lori's house to get some practice in with the camera (which I admit I'm very lax about using recently).[edit: Lacey & Neil - Lori is the blogger I was telling you about on Saturday, so be sure to get in contact with her!]

But I don't know, I think these turned out pretty darn good.  Good enough that I may have to print one (or both) and put them on my kitchen wall.