Texans love bluebonnets and we love taking bluebonnet portraits.  The sturdy blue flowers grow in abundance along the highways in the early spring, thanks to the foresight of Lady Bird Johnson. For most of us, at some point in our lives, we have had to squat down in a sea of bluebonnets on the side of the road for our official bluebonnet picture … all the while hoping that a car would not run over us and the fire ants would not bite us.  But, after the event (if there had not been too much crying) we had a portrait de beauté. And, we were proud.

So, it was just natural that I felt that I needed to take a bluebonnet portrait of our one-year-old pup, Neville, amongst the state flowers.  However, when a friend caught us shooting Neville’s bluebonnet photo, I knew I was in trouble. “Really, you’re kidding, right?  Your’re not taking a bluebonnet picture of Neville … are you?”

At first, I tried to pretend that he was just sniffing for squirrels, but alas, he was all primped up and posing and it was just too obvious.  So I confessed. “Yes, as a Texan dog, he knows this just comes with the territory.”

And, when I was questioned as to whether I had portraits of my human children, I was relieved that I could say, “Yes I do.” So, here are a few pieces of proof that I treated my first three just as specially as our newest addition … if you can call forcing your children to dress up and sit near possible varmint holes special.

And speaking of bluebonnets, WHAT a season we are having … the prettiest in years.  See below for a great weekend tip for bluebonnet sightings if you are in the Austin area.  Some people are suggesting that this weekend may be the peak, while others are pointing to next weekend.  But either way, I hope everyone can take a bit of time off to just enjoy this little Texas miracle.

And, if you see someone on the side of the highway shooting bluebonnet pictures of her dog, she is not me.

Below are some pictures taken of our girls, friends and cousins, who, as card-toting Texans, were kindly posing for the required Texas Bluebonnet Portrait when they were little … proof positive that Neville was just partaking in family tradition.

A wonderful teacher from our school shared these great bluebonnet sighting tips if you are around the Austin area this weekend.

“In 45 years of driving the Central Texas hill country, I’ve never seen bluebonnets as lush as we saw this afternoon on Hwy. 71 between the end of metropolitan Austin and Llano (app. 60 miles).  In good years, this has been one of my favorite bluebonnet roads.  Difference this year?  For mile after mile after mile, they wrap right up to both sides of the highway and extend into the fields on both sides–in puffy blankets.  Every time you crest a little rolling hill and think you’ve seen the best, you get a view of a blue sea that runs for 3 more hills, and often well out into the fields on either side of the road.

If you’re from this area, you know that some years are great, some are meager, most are “average” (still beautiful), and the bluebonnet season is relatively short.  I’m sending this because this is the best I’ve ever seen, and there are probably one or two good weekends left.  Our drive took 4-5 hrs.

The other spectacular road we took was Hwy. 152 between Llano and Castell.  It wasn’t shabby south of Castell to Hwy. 87, which runs from Mason to Fredericksburg.  What’s different about Hwy. 152?  It’s a county road–smaller, less traveled, but very good surface.  More curves, more dips, more creek crossings (dry today).  More opportunities for one breathtaking view after another, even more luscious, pillow-like flights of bluebonnets, even more other wildflowers mixed-in, for yellows, golds, oranges, purples, other blues, and whites.”

Enjoy the bluebonnets, and don’t forget your cameras.

We recently had a fun brush with greatness.  That’s what we call it when we spy a movie star on the streets of New York.  But this time, we brushed with greatness right here in Austin, Texas. And we actually know her!  Anna Margaret Hollyman was in town with her very talented and smart movie makers, Lilianna Greenfield-Sanders (director/writer) and Rowan Riley (producer) to be a part of the Austin Film Festival’s screening of their film short, Adelaide.  Anna Margaret is Adelaide!
Their funny film is about a girl who creates medical emergencies to find love.  Not only is it cleverly written, but it is wonderfully portrayed, and that’s not just my prejudice speaking.  I am particularly fascinated with Anna Margaret’s lips.  There are several extreme close-ups of her, in which she is able to express a feeling or create a mood change very quickly with just the tiniest movement of her lips.  And the artist in me has to give two thumbs up to the beautiful art direction.  I love the way the film is bathed in vivid saturated colors.  The rich, creamy pepto-bismol pink, which accessorizes many of the scenes is bubblicious.  Even Adelaide’s fresh complexion glows with pinkness.  I might have to use this film as inspiration for a new collection … hmm, I think I’ll call it Adelaide Adorability.

So, if you have a chance to see this entertaining short film, do.  It has won Best Short Film at the 2009 Woodstock Film Festival, Best Narrative Short at the 2009 New Orleans Film Festival and the Best Short Film and Audience Award at the 2009 Gen Art Film Festival, just to name a few … the list goes on and on.
If you would like a little taste of our brush with greatness, click below to see the trailer.  If your spirits are low, it will definitely put you in the pink.

During our “vacation” to Austin, we finally had a chance to try out some of the great trailer food popping up in town … mostly south of the river.  Our first stop was Mighty Cone, on South Congress which was mighty good!  I had been hearing about it for awhile, because it is run by Hudson’s on the Bend, a great restaurant way out near Lake Travis.  Much closer, and much cheaper, this little trailer offers a short and sweet menu with the same interesting blend of flavors.  The cone of choice was the Hot ‘N Crunchy Chicken Avocado cone. The chicken and avocado are covered in a crunchy shell of almonds-sesame seeds-corn flakes-chili flakes-and-sugar, wrapped in a flour tortilla and then topped with mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce.  That’s a lot of flavor in one cone!  It was lip-smacking good!

The picnic area provides shady umbrellas and the tables have special cone holders built in.  Very handy.  Above right: this little pistol-packin’ mama just happened to stroll by our table with her pretend six-shooter ready to take on thievin’ outlaws.  We were definitely in Texas.

Sometimes it’s fun to take a vacation in your own hometown.  Lucky for us, two weekends this summer brought our cousins to Austin, so we just put on our tennies and gimme caps and went on a road trip … across town.

Our first Austin-y thing to do was walk around the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail. The trail  around the lake is surrounded by shady trees and the path has that wonderful crunchy sound as one walks on the crushed granite.  Plus, this trail offers the best people-watching and dog watching in town. In fact, we saw several dogs that looked like the possible grown-up versions of Neville, our new puppy, whose lineage is unknown.  We inquired of several dog-walking owners about the breeds of their dogs and we are now pretty sure that Neville might be a Collie-Lab-Rottweiler-Shepherd mix … maybe that would be a Colab-rotshep?

This is Barton Springs!  It is FREEZING … which feels really great on a hot summer day.  Here are the cousins s-l-o-w-l-y inching into the icy water.  Barton Springs is famous for the nude sunbathers that have relaxed there through the years, but we didn’t see any, and even if we had, I would have had to crop them out of my pictures since this blog is rated G.

This is the Zilker Zephyr!  We have happy memories of bringing the girls to ride this miniature train when they were little.  It’s a pleasant 3-mile circle, and I can even remember riding it with my grandparents when I was young!  This 50-year old line is truly the little engine that could!

I completely understand the urge to say “Hey, let’s go get an ice cream cone,” or “I’ll meet you for a latte,” but it never really occurred to me to suddenly think, “Hey, I could sure go for a cupcake,” …. until now! With cupcakeries popping up all over America, I think I might soon, find myself driving the kids home, and saying, “Hey everybody, who wants a cupcake?!”

I also think I just love to say the word, “cupcakery” … and I’m really not even sure if it’s a real word. Nevertheless, we recently had the opportunity to visit two such cupcakeries and you can learn a little bit about them here, just in case you find yourself hankering for a cupcake when you least expect it in Austin or Berkeley!

Love At First Bite Berkeley, California
Sweet scents drew us into this lovely little shop tucked away in the heart of the “Gourmet Ghetto.” Since the summer weather in Berkeley was freezing by Texas standards, just the idea of a warm cupcake sounded comforting. We particularly liked that they offered little miniature versions so that when we lusted for a great big cupcake, we could reel ourselves in and save some calories for the next stop in this neighborhood of foodie heaven.

Hey Cupcake! Austin, Texas
Sweet scents drew us over to this bright shiny airstream in the heart of the South Congress District of Austin (SOCO). Since we mistakenly chose the middle of a 104-degree day to stop by, we were delighted with the pink parasols provided for hungry customers while waiting in line. Miniature cupcakes were not offered here, because, well, we were in Texas, where everything is big, even the cupcakes!

Well, I’m back in California now after a lovely time in Texas. If anything wasn’t lovely, however, it was the weather…for which it seems that my years up north (and Cali counts, by the way, since I am wearing a polar fleece as I write this) have made me unprepared. With daytime temperatures topping 108° and the nighttime not doing much to reverse that, I am amazed that my mom’s garden has any green in it at all! Yet, it seems to be thriving. Perhaps she just made very wise choices when we went to The Great Outdoors – a labyrinthine nursery and garden shop on South Congress in Austin. The spot comes highly recommended by those of us at Cathy Heck Studio, although maybe it would be most lovely in September or October…

(Clockwise from top left: a stowaway studio mouse peeking out of a stack of glazed pots, Cathy selecting a succulent, some caladiums – happy to be in the shade)

These California plants don’t know just how good they have it…