On our mission to work-in at least a bit of exercise when and where we can (it does not seem to be happening at the gym lately), we parked at the Spy Glass entrance to the greenbelt and trekked over to the Zilker Garden Festival yesterday. They host it annually at the Zilker Botanical Gardens and it was another beautiful day in Austin, even more so than Saturday as the wind had toned down to a nice breeze. If you have never taken a trip to the botanical gardens, it is worth a trip. The Japanese tea gardens are well manicured and always fun to visit. They truly give you the feeling that you are in an exotic land and not in Austin anymore. The rest of the park is in bloom right now so this is definitely the time to visit. Also, be sure to check out the pre-historic gardens, easy to imagine a dino lurking around the corner.
We had no real agenda other than to amble around and see what there was to see. A ton of vendors were near the entrance. We decided to check them out on the way out.
Picked up a bite to eat at the food court - good ol’ festival food was available – sausage wraps, frito pie, tacos, bbq, even Amy’s ice cream. With snack in hand we plopped down in the rose garden to listen to some Zydeco and soak up some rays.
Playing with the macro setting
Music played throughout the day and you could hear it in the distance up at the vendor tents. We wound up picking out some herbs – Thai basil, rosemary and lavender. I am most excited about the Thai basil for some cooking adventures, but I am going to have to read up on the care for it. Hillary picked up some unique jewelry that neither one of us has ever seen. This artist had taken tiny dried, but colorful flowers and made mini arrangements that were then encapsulated in clear acrylic with sterling silver trim. They were sold in the form of pendants, earings, rings, etc. She was excited about her purchase. We also had the “pleasure” of choosing a succulent that we later found out may or may not have blooming flowers that smell like carrion, cow manure or stinky garbage. Apparently this particular species uses flies to pollinate. The flower on it is pretty cool looking though. After some research we got mixed reviews on whether this particular plant would be offensive. Oh well, if it ends up stinking up the place it will be donated to the wilderness.
We packed it all up and headed back to the car, which was close to two miles away…. it was a good day!
now i wish i had gotten off my lazy butt and gone