Dallas Arboretum

It is rare to find a place that has been planned and tended so carefully that every view, vista or passing glimpse is a beautiful one. It is even rarer that you can spend as long as you like in such a place for a mere dollar apiece. The Dallas Arboretum during August is just that place.

Dallas skyline in the distance.

An infinity pond merges seamlessly into White Rock Lake.

The garden was planted on the grounds of two estates. I believe this was one of the original houses.

For added interest, there were children's-story-themed playhouses dotted around. This rather abstract one is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I'd heard of this book a few times but never tracked down a copy, so was delighted to find an online text here.

This next is Hansel and Gretel, of course. Disappointingly there was no view of a witch being pushed into the oven when you looked through the windows. Only some old chairs.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini. He was 15 when he wrote the book and it is well worth reading. Pretty typical fantasy fare (dragons, magic, swordplay, good vs evil) and good fun.

Comments

Mr White Watson of Bakewell

Once upon a time, back in 1795 or so, lived a man who was always asking questions. The kind of questions like, "Why is glass transparent?" or "Why do fruit trees grow better in that place than in this place?" or "What does the earth look like underneath the surface?" This last question was one that he was particularly interested in, and he went so far as to work out what the rock layers looked like where he lived, and draw little pictures of them. Now he was a marble sculptor by trade (as well as fossil hunter, mineral seller, and a few other things) so he thought it would be even better to make his little pictures in stone. That way he could represent the layers using the actual rocks they were composed of. Over the course of his lifetime he made almost 100 of these tablets, as he called them. Then he died. And no one else was quite as interested in all those rocks and minerals as he was. His collection was sold off, bit by bit, and the table...

Baby Language

For some reason baby equipment is an area in which American English differs markedly from British English. As well as learning how to care for a baby, we had to learn a whole new vocabulary! Fortunately we are now fluently bilingual, and I have compiled a handy US-UK baby dictionary for you. Diaper n. Nappy Mom says if you can read this change my diaper. The first time you change one of these you will be all thumbs and stick the little adhesive tabs to yourself, the baby and probably the changing mat before you get them where they ought to go. A few years later you will be able to lasso a running toddler and change them before they even know what's happened (yes, I have seen it done). You will also get through more diapers than you ever thought possible, creating scary amounts of expense and waste. Hence we are now mostly using: Cloth diaper n. Reusable nappy Cool baby. No longer those terry squares, the main drawback is that there are now so many types it can be qu...

Melbourne Art Festival: A Surprisingly Good Afternoon Out

Maybe it was the warm autumn weather. Maybe it was the fun of peeking into other people's back gardens. Maybe it was the novelty of standing with other people, listening to real live musicians. Or maybe it was just the giant pink ice creams. Whatever it was, Melbourne Festival had turned into a surprisingly satisfying afternoon. I'd seen the posters for it and thought it might be a nice change from yet another walk on a Sunday afternoon, but that was about as high as my expectations had been. When we arrived, the male three-quarters of the family were immediately pleased to see the signs for classic cars at Melbourne Hall. Shortly afterwards, I was pleased to discover that there were only about half a dozen of them, so that we could rapidly move on to less mechanical works of art. The festival was spread out around the village of Melbourne, in churches, halls, and private gardens. Melbourne is one of those fascinating places anyway, with archways and ...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Search This Blog