An Old Fence

We are in Austin, Texas this week which is our state capitol, and  home to The University Of Texas, a large and highly ranked University. It is also a city with a lot of Tech Companies, so the population here consists of intelligent, well paid young adults. They have an unofficial slogan here which states: Keep Austin Weird. A topic to discuss at another time.

On a walk in our daughter's neighborhood we came across something even older than we are.

It seems that this corner lot, in a neighborhood that now is considered close in, was a 500 acre farm of an Irishman back in the 1800's.

All of the structures on the property seem to be very well preserved.

Including the fence

which looked original to me.

Linking to: Good Fences

A Grand Old Lady

We are helping to care for little Hannah (in Austin), after she had her tonsils out yesterday.

Driving through little Belton, Texas again, I noticed this grand old lady. I will try to find out the history.

Botanic Garden Walk part two

Meanwhile back to our walk

Our gardens have been here for a long time. Thirty seven acres were set aside for a park in 1912, and then in 1933 the City Forrester a Mr. Morrison felt that the public should know more about the local trees and plants so a project began in 1933 to have more formal sections and various walking trails.

My first memory would be in the 1960's. I was in high school and visiting my oldest sister who had moved to Ft. Worth after getting married.

Sadly, the huge rose garden that the park is so famous for, is having to be completely replaced because of a plant disease. The other plants and flowers were recently beaten down by our two hail storms. So, only a few blossoms greeted us, but plenty of sunshine.

The leaves on the trees around the large pond are just beginning to peak out.

Looks like local turtles were enjoying the sunshine too.

If you looked closely you could see some Japanese Koi fish

There even seemed to be some young ones following their Mother

We continued on another trail, that led to a children's garden. My Tom was the only kid I had in tow.

Next we walked by the Japanese Gardens which were added to the park in the 1960's.

Even without many flowers blooming the park is a beautiful place to explore

The whole project over the years has grown to 110 acres and includes that Japanese Tea Garden which was added in the 1960's. It is the only section where there is an entrance charge, and
we decided to wait a little later in the Spring to visit. 

The Gathering

My sister Polly, and her husband Mike hosted our family Easter dinner yesterday. Celebrations like this remind me why Tom and I moved to Ft. Worth from the Houston area, which is almost 300 miles south. We missed so many family gatherings and if we did make it, we had a long drive home.

You knew from the minute you arrived at the door, that things were going to be festive.

and they were. Decorations were everywhere,

and an array of delicious food kept arriving

not to mention a host of relatives.

Why those that ate on the porch even had a Morning Dove watching from her nest.
The whole day turned out to be just beautiful.
Thanks Polly and Mike

Happy Easter

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

My niece Kristin made these cookies for our family celebration today. We will gather at my sister Polly's and all bring a dish. My assignment is fruit salad. I am taking a large bowl of assorted fresh fruits with a yogurt/honey/lime dressing on the side.

Tell me what you Easter plans are....

Let's Take A Walk

My, those words come out of my husband's mouth at least once a day, if not twice.

Sounded like a great thing to do yesterday, because the high winds had finally died down and it was beautiful out.

He suggested we  walk through The Botanical Gardens.

Parking was scare on such a pretty Friday, which was a holiday for many. So, we parked near the entrance and walked along this elevated Board walk into the park.

Despite the full parking lot, the gardens are so immense that we didn't encounter throngs of people. It was very peaceful.

Every few feet, along the boardwalk there were these flip
boards with nature questions for children.

This one identifying the many animal tracks you might see in the park.

Kids were having a ball with this...so was Tom.

You speak softly into this tube and someone at the next station can hear you clearly. Tom saw a little Hispanic kid speaking into one, so he hurried to the next station, and started conversing through the tube in Spanish with him. The conversation was short lived, as Tom's Spanish vocabulary is quite small. :(

Come back again and we will continue our walk.

Museum Day

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, but very windy. It didn't matter, because we were inside most 

of the day at a couple of our favorite museums. Our guests really like western art, so I think the Amon Carter

was their favorite.

I took this from the second floor of the museum. It sits on a hill to the west of downtown.(Fort Worth).

 I liked several of the paintings by Charles Russell. This one titled: Indian Women Moving 1898

 There was an action packed one titled: Smoke of a .45 1908

again by Russell

and  this one titled: The Silk Robe 1890

Charles Russell posing with his horse Neenah
Russell was born in Missouri in 1864, but moved to Montana in 1880 where he lived out his life. He even lived with an Indian tribe for a year.

The Amon Carter Museum also has a large collection of Frederic Remington's
This one: Ridden Down painted in 1905

and if you like bronze statues they have ones by both Russell and Remington
The above by Remington

Our visitors. Laura and Ted enjoyed the Amon Carter
If you are ever in Ft. Worth, don't miss it. It is a large museum also filled with other types of American Art and
there is no entrance fee.

Guests

We have guests this week

This is a hazy picture of Laura and Ted who are passing through from Colorado on their way to San Antonio. We are delighted to have them stop over to see us  for a couple of nights. They live about twenty miles north of our little town in Colorado, in a community up in the mountains, called Blue Mesa. I think they get they mail from the tiny town of Powderhorn.

This was taken in the parking garage. None of us had our cameras, and Laura wanted a picture with our opera house .

 It was unusually quiet downtown last night. I was able to stand in the middle of main street to take this picture (again with my phone), of our Tarrant County Courthouse. Maybe folks stayed home because they were aware of the approaching storm. Yes, we had more hail.

We are headed to several museums today. Thank goodness the storm has passed.

The Price of Gas

No, our gas is not this low in price right now, but it was a month ago. I know that there are folks around here that wish it would stay this low (regular is now about $1.89 gal), but having cheap gas is a catch 22, especially for the Texas economy.

When it gets and stays this low, drilling is stopped and that creates a domino effect that in turn effects us all..I guess what I am trying to say is that we either pay now or pay later.

Stormy Weather

This past week, Tom and I had our little three year old Hannah visiting. We picked her up on Wednesday and early Thursday morning our weather turned quite nasty. If you live in North Texas, you know that storms can be deadly. I turned on the t.v. and they were saying we were under a tornado warning. A warning is much more severe than a watch. It means they have a tornado is on the ground, possibly heading in your direction.

So, I scooped up little Hannah, who was still fast asleep, and put her on large pillows in Tom's closet. It is in the center of the house, has no windows and is long and narrow. I also brought in my cell phone, mainly to have if the electricity went off. I tried to get Tom to join us, but he didn't grow up in tornado alley like I did....and I think he thought I over reacting a bit,

besides he was busy marveling over the size of the hail stones that were falling.

I am happy to report you are looking at our only damage....my trailing geranium :(

 The hail stones did get larger as  the storm crossed town. Witness the size of the ones that fell on my sister Polly's yard.

and look at the leaves covering her street. I am happy to report that our weather since has been quite lovely.

Practice

After lunch in Belton (previous post) ,we walked down the terraced hill to pretty Nolan Creek,

where I noticed a man wearing a helmet....in the water

He seemed to be enjoying the rapids

but in reality, he was part of a group of firemen that were practicing water rescues. As he floated by swiftly, the men on the shore would throw rescue lines to him. They did this over and over, taking turns being the victim.

I know they were working, but they did seem to be having a lot of fun on such a pretty day.

Off The Road

When we travel by car, I love to go on the back roads, instead of the freeways. Although, there are some trips where time won't allow.

If you are traveling south on Interstate 35 in central Texas you will notice an exit for Belton, a little more than an hour north of Austin. Looking to the west the very top of the courthouse (Bell County), is visible and has always beckoned to me, but being in a hurry to get from point A to point B we always zoomed right by.. .. I promised myself one of these days I was going to take the time to see the rest of that structure.

Well, this week we arranged to rendezvous with our youngest daughter, and pick up our granddaughter. Hannah  is on Spring Break from her little school..... and guess what? We rendezvoused in Belton, Texas.

Lunch was in a restored old cotton gin  that sits between the courthouse and beautiful Nolan Creek to the south.

The  Gin Restaurant also has a great out door patio, with views of the creek, but it was such a pretty day...there wasn't a table available. 

After lunch, Katy and Hannah found the creek to be very enticing.. If you are ever near Belton, I highly recommend that you take a break and get off of the freeway.

Courthouse
credit C MBJ