back in the habit

Austin, Texas = muchly needed vacation!! so much to see, so much to eat, so many pictures to take . . . I had a wonderful time there and I recommend this particular Texan destination to anyone who might actually be bothering to read this . . . The climate is wonderful, the city is entirely casual, and of course you may have heard about the insane number of music festivals held there. The food is fantastic and it's entirely to easy to put away entire platters of cooked meats.

Being the landscape-oriented person I've become, I visited the Zilker Botanical Garden just outside downtown Austin. The butterfly garden, rose garden and herb garden are pretty standard elements found in most botanical gardens and not quite in full bloom. The oriental garden would have been truly beautiful . . . if there had actually been water in all the pools. The one area with koi fish was really lovely and had attracted the imagination of quite a number of children: peering into the water, hopping between stone steps and posing for pictures in the bamboo grove. The prehistoric garden featured a variety of plant species from "back in the day" as well as a statue of the ancient beastie that had left some footprints across the area.

Overall, the Zilker Botanical Garden was wonderful and shady with lots of colorful plants to photograph. The rose garden seemed like it will be quite impressive when in full bloom and the entire garden is free! I'll talk more about the rest of my trip in the next post!

Now, get back to work! ^_^