Pretty Pics: Mayfield Park, a Peacock Paradise

Patrick & I went to Mayfield Park on Sunday afternoon & I snapped tons of pics. Yes, I've blogged about this place before, but it's just so darn amazing!

More pics in my Mayfield Park Flickr set. Hope you're having a beautiful day!

Pretty Pics: Things that Hang from Trees

This afternoon Patrick & I did some planning for new flower beds in our front yard. While we were out there we noticed how pretty the acorns looked on our deciduous Oak. They're pleasantly smooth & soft to the touch, too.

On the other side of the path leading to our front door is an amazing Magnolia grandiflora or Southern Magnolia. It looks lovely right now with all of its fruit.

Pretty, huh? It's all pink & fuzzy! Upon closer inspection, we noticed something else hanging on this tree in addition to the fruit...

If you're squeamish about bugs, you might want to stop here.

Still with me? Ready for a closer look? Okay, here goes...

Cicadas have left their shells all over this tree! Clinging to the branches...

and hanging from the undersides of leaves. They were positively all over the place. On every branch we saw more and more.

They reminded me of childhood summers at my grandparents' house in Ganado, in southeast Texas. My cousins & I would have contests to see who could collect the most cicada shells from the trees. Kinda like Easter egg hunting, except slightly disgusting. Their shells retain all of the little details of the insects that molted from them. I am simultaneously grossed out & fascinated by cicadas. How about you?

If you want to see lots more pics of cicadas, hear their song, & even watch time-lapse photography of a cicada molting (it's pretty darn cool!), check out the Wikipedia page on cicadas.

Pretty Pics: The Garden at Krause Springs

A couple of weeks ago, we went camping with friends at Krause Springs, which is about 30 miles west of Austin. It's a wonderful spot with a spring-fed swimming hole & a beautiful garden with humongous wind chimes in the towering oaks. These are some of my favorite pics I took. If you want to see more images from the amazing gardens, check out my Krause Springs Flickr set.

Sunshiney, Summery Pics by Pink Sherbet Photography

 
Just poking around in Flickr's Creative Commons area & came upon some gorgeous work by D Sharon Pruitt, a.k.a. Pink Sherbet Photography.

Wishing you all a weekend full of happy doggies, raspberries on your fingers & other such summer joys!

All pics in this post belong to D Sharon Pruitt. She's awesome, no?

Scenes from a Bike Ride: GINORMOUS agave blossom!

Patrick & I have been toolin' around our neighborhood quite a bit lately on our fun new bikes! I snapped these pics on one of our rides over Memorial Day weekend. Look at the flower on that thing - it's sooo tall!

This is an Agave Americana, more commonly called a Century Plant. They're very common in these parts. We have several at our house, but none of them are anywhere near this big!

Fun fact: Agave is in the same family as asparagus, Asparagaceae. I can totally see the family resemblance!

Gorgeous sunflowers are blooming all over the place right now, too! They're so summery & cheerful.


So where were we heading on that particularly lovely morning?

To our neighborhood coffee shop, Corona Cafe! It's love at first sip.

P.s.
Our bikes are Raleigh Specials, if you're curious. They are great bikes if you want something simple with a retro flair - we love 'em! If you're an Austinite, check out The Peddler; that's where we bought them. It's a great bike shop where everyone is super-helpful & friendly.

Do you bike? Know of any great trails or destinations in Austin we should check out?

Pretty Pics: Golden Gait Mercantile

All of the above pics were taken at Golden Gait Mercantile in the exceedingly lovely Victorian village of Ferndale, CA. Ferndale was a stop on the second leg of our big Seattle to Austin road trip of August, 2008.

Yes, the trip was a while ago, but I'm still going through all the photos, editing them & archiving them in my Flickr Travels collection. Better late than never, right?

Pretty Pics: Small Towns in Southeast Texas

Over the weekend, P & I traveled down to my parents' hometown of Ganado, TX for my cousin's wedding. Along our trip, I got lots of shots of the wonderful scenery. The pic above is a field that was right outside of our motel room in Wharton.

The rest of the pics below are from the drive home, when we stopped off in Bastrop, right outside of Austin. I spotted a highway sign that touted it as "The Most Historic Small Town in Texas!" Surprisingly, neither of us had ever been there, so of course, we had to stop! Glad we did; it's a really charming town. It was Sunday though, so most of the shops were closed. We'll have to go back on a Saturday because there were some great-looking antique shops.

If you're enjoying these pics, check out my Texas Towns Flickr set for lots more!

Of course we had to end our exploration of Bastrop with a peek inside the bakery! We had already had donuts that morning though, so got a mini buttermilk pie for the road & a package of hamburger buns for grilling later this week. Yum!

Pretty Pics: Sunny Santa Fe

It's rainy & overcast today here in Austin, so I thought I'd share some sunshine-filled photos with ya. These pics are from the road trip P & I took when we moved from Seattle to Austin in August 2008. I have a lot of wonderful pictures from that trip that I'll share here from time to time, even though they're now over a year old. You don't mind, do you?







We soaked up the pretty Pueblo Revival Style buildings, the Barrio De Analco Historic District and the fabulous Canyon Road galleries. These bronze works by Sergio Bustamante at The Meyer East Gallery were my absolute fave. I hope to someday own a dreamy piece by this Guadalajaran artist!



Hope you've enjoyed my photo tour of Santa Fe! Have you ever been there? If so, what struck your fancy?