Spring Break trip to the Hill Country

For spring break this year hubby and I decided to take a trip down to the Hill Country. For those of you that might not know, this is the area around Austin. To me, it is the most beautiful part of Texas. It was settled by immigrants from Germany and still has so much German influence. The first night we stayed in Gruene (pronounced Green) which is a historic German town right outside New Braunfels. We love to eat at the Gristmill..which was, well...an old gristmill! The hamburgers are to die for, and the Sangria is even better. The next day we headed to Fredericksburg.
We stayed here. This is an old log cabin that was built in 1847. I realize not everyone would be interested in this kind of accomm-
odation, but the cabin sure was cute!
This is the back..
This is the bedroom...
yeah, I know they probably did not have king size beds back then, but it sure was comfortable
And this is the kitchen. We are not discussing the bathroom..I concen-
trated on how cute the rest of the house was!
The weather was perfect most of the time we were there. Of course I had to take a trip to my favorite place, The Wildseed Farm.
It is way too early for anything to be blooming, but you can see these poppies just starting to show.
I also saw some of these: BLUE
BONNETS!
We saw lots of bonnets by the side of the road just ready to bloom too.
I had a great time going through the
"Butterfly Haus."
Wish I had one of these..
So many Zebras. The butterflies would fly to your hand if you held it out.
We also took a fun hike to the top of Enchanted Rock. We went the short route--straight up!
On the hike we saw a few wildflowers blooming..
Just enough flowers to give the otherwise drab landscape some color.
Of course, what trip to the hill country would be complete without some junkin'! I love to dig through and find the perfect "treasure." This old chair was just $5.00. I think it will be perfect holding a hanging basket.
I love, love old galvanized buckets and was lucky to find some really good ones. I am thinking red geraniums!

The best find of all...and my wonderful husband gets the credit for spotting it...is this old washtub on a stand. And what a steal! My goal for years has been to find one of these. Remember the area behind the pond I cleared out a week or so ago? Won't this look great right there with cosmos growing all around it? I can't wait to plant those seeds. But, as you may or may not know..we came home on Sunday to snow on the ground! Yeah, here in Dallas it snowed on March 21st! It melted fast and the temperature today is 70! Sigh... Interesting note: one of our weather forecasters said it will be cold until the pecan trees start to bud. Are there any buds on your pecan trees??

Tyler State Park...remembering when..

When my children were young we went to Tyler State Park camping at least twice a year. It was always such a treat for everyone. My mother and step-father would drive down for a day, and my sister and her family would come from Longview to join us. We would fish, hike, grill hamburgers and enjoy the outdoors. We kept this tradition for many years, but as the children grew older and became involved in weekend activities our trips to Tyler slowed down and eventually stopped. I guess it has been about 15 years since we have been to Tyler State Park. This Saturday my husband and I decided to take a day trip and once again enjoy the place that gave us so many wonderful memories.

We wondered if anything had changed..

was it still as pretty as we rem-

embered ?

The path through the woods seemed much shorter now without toddlers and young children taking time to explore everything as they walked .

Fall was in bloom-just as we had seen it so many times before.

The old fishing spot was still there, just now rather overgrown. Many little fishermen with snoopy rod and reels learned how to cast at this spot.

The Bat House-a new addition my little ones would have enjoyed.

The view across the lake was just as beautiful as it was 15 years ago. We met an unexpected visitor as we made our way around the lake.

I always hoped these early adventures camping would create a love of the outdoors in our children. I hoped they would grow to love nature and develop the desire to do their part to help preserve it. I hoped the good times we had camping would give them wonderful memories of times together sharing nature and enjoying each other.
And I believe this has all happened. Our now 3 grown children each have a love of the outdoors that is all their own. They are only all together about 2 or 3 times a year now, but it is during these times I see 2 brothers and a sister who really enjoy each other.

The trip to Tyler let us know the park is still there..and it still holds some very precious memories for us.

We enjoyed our day,

and we enjoyed our time remembering when...



"We have not inherited the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children."

Old Native American Saying

Come with me to the East Coast!

We left Friday morning for a visit to the northeast to visit our daughter who lives in Washington DC. Knowing how much I love quaint, historical old towns, she recommended that we stay in Alexandria, Virginia.
It was the perfect weekend. Let me take you on a quick visit.



We saw lots of old houses



This is Robert E Lee's boyhood home.

The Carlye House

The William Paca House in Annapolis, Md. William Paca was the governor of Maryland 1792-85.

His house had a vegetable garden...

...and a flower garden

Lots of asters here in the northeast.

We saw cute townhouses..

There is not very much room for gardening in the townhouses but they make up for it with their container gardening.

We saw cobblestone streets...

The colors have not changed yet in this area, but this pretty dogwood tells us it will not be long..

We visited where Washington lived...


(This was a wine tasting on the grounds in the evening)

We saw where Washington went to church...

The cemetery by the church had graves dating back to the late 1700's.

And we saw where Washington ate..

This is the dining room at Gadsby's Tavern.

We saw Great Falls on the Potomac River












We rode a hay wagon and picked pumpkins and apples!

I have never seen pumpkins growing before, so I was amazed! I wanted to find a big one and bring it back, but didn't think that would make the airlines very happy. : )

I did manage to bring back a small white pumpkin and 2 gourds.

The pumpkins were beautiful!

The entire weekend was amazing...

all the history, the beautiful river, the delicious food, the green countryside, picking pumpkins and apples..

Everything was perfect..but the most wonderful part was getting to spend time with our precious daughter!

Bloom Day....

...but not in my yard. I was so impressed with a garden in Lake City I wanted to use pictures from their garden. Lake City Colorado is very small. Just one main street--with wooden sidewalks! I fell in love with this small, quaint mountain town. There are lots of flowers around, but I noticed what I thought might be a park filled with flowers, so while my husband was off handling car things, I took the chance to check it out. Actually it's a town garden. There are several plots, each gardened by a different store owner. What a great idea! I was so impressed with the thought of everyone working together to create something so beautiful. I know there are community vegetable gardens, but I have never seen a community flower garden. It was simple, but very, very pretty. Wouldn't it be wonderful if life was always like this --- everyone working together to create something so beautiful as this small Lake City garden.

This part of the garden was called

"Serenity"

White Columbine in with the blue

Of course, all mountain gardens have poppies!

The largest peony I have seen. This bush was loaded with these and beautiful!