faves in austin

this post is for a good friend who may be moving here and hasn't been to barton springs, i figured some pics of the cool, clear water would be tempting--even if it is closed for the season.... always something to look forward to for next summer!

another one of my fav things is flip happy crepes just off barton springs and lamar where i will take my sister when she comes to town for a visit--something i can barely wait for! it will be an eating festival for sure!! yum! this was the peanut butter something... whatever it's called it was delicious! sugar coma for sure.

and some shots of the cute trailer and colorful picnic tables.

keep austin weird

we have a saying for our fabulous city here, "keep austin weird" so i thought i would post some of the stranger things i have photographed lately. these first couple aren't weird at all, just cool things i saw in shop windows downtown on 2nd street.

these hanging paper decorations were super cool--extra fancy origami.

and then there was the rat... ha ha!! i couldn't resist. but i think it's really a stuffed rat. yikes. i wonder if it was someone's pet?

then everyone's fav animal, the lovely armadillo... these are outside Threadgills cast in concrete. i actually think they are really cool looking.

bird of paradise

here is a photo and some close-ups of a commission i just finished painting, not my usual kind of subject matter so it was interesting and different to do. now that i am looking at it unattached i realize it needs more detail in the petals of the blooms, and i would like to add some very subtle leaf textures to the background. we'll see when i will get to this, let it be a lesson in discipline, something i tend to lack.

datura dreamland

i had to dedicate one whole post to the amazing datura plants i found at the botanical gardens. i have never seen such an enourmous group of them before, it was really amazing. they were slightly tricky to grow in new orleans, for me at least. anyway, they are one of my favorite blooms(actually, the double one with the purple exterior and white interior is my very fav). enjoy!

bat face

ok, how funny is this??? i always thought i got the "bat-faced" cuphea before, but no. not until i got home yesterday and looked through all my pictures and saw this tiny face looking at me did i really, truly get the name!! how funny! i love it.

anyone who knows me well knows that i am obsessed with bats and am super happy to be living in a bat city with a bunch of other crazy, bat-obsessed people. so here's to austin, being a cool bat-friendly city and all.

these were blooms on one of the water plants in the front pond at the gardens, i love the contrast of the very yellow-lime green stem in the background next to the lavender and purples.

and i really will never tire of looking at the passion flower blooms, so very geometric and amazingly complex. i wish the red one had been blooming as well, it was full of buds but no blooms.

eggplant blooms are another of my favorite flowers, just so pretty and sweet

cactus thingy. cool and spikey. don't you love how technical i am with the names??

zilker botanical gardens

in between the mosquitos eating me for breakfast i managed to get some decent shots at the botanical gardens. here are the water scenes, taken at the front pond at the entrance and the koi in the japanese gardens. more later.

a life question

WHAT WOULD YOU ATTEMPT TO DO IF YOU KNEW YOU COULD NOT FAIL?

scary thought. my list is way too long for my liking. about to change all that though.