April has become a month of travel. Spent a few days in the Texas Hill country and in Austin with Lisa. Was home for three days. Now we are off to Washington, D.C.! Lisa has a conference and I’m going to shoot covers for books. Then I’m heading back to Austin for the 2017 Smarter Artist Summit. So basically I won’t be home again till May. Crazy month!
The photo above is Austin at night. I took it from the 1st street bridge and I’m super excited about heading back in a few weeks.
Last weekend when we were in Austin I got to see Mckinney Falls!
I had looked it up before, but never thought of going because I thought it was too far away, but our friends were like “No it’s RIGHT HERE!” and it took us less then ten minutes to get there.
This photo is of the upper falls. It was so gorgeous. I have to make time to go back on an early weekday when there are smaller crowds so that I can get a wider photo or maybe even to swim.
McKinney Falls:
http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/mckinney-falls
Coastal Texas has flowers year round, but some of the most vibrant show up in the spring in the Texas Hill Country. I shot this just outside of Fredericksburg, TX!
This is the Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. We visited it last year on our way back from New Orleans.
It was gorgeous to see, but one of the first times I’ve ever visited a historical site and saw slave quarters. What was interesting though is that a slave who lived their in the mid 1860’s was big into plant grafting and breeding. He invented a type of pecan tree called a “papershell.”
The crazy thing is that we have a papershell tree in our back yard at our house in Texas! So our tree in some shape or form can trace it’s origin back to the plantation. Very wierd.
I have no idea what flower this is. Lisa probably knows. We have a big garden with a mix of wild flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, and plants specifically meant for attracting butterflies and humming birds.
The plants started blooming in early February and will continue to do so till the end of June. By June it gets too hot for most of the flowers, but they all usually rebound and we have a second blooming season in September.