Hill country foray

We all had a day off and decided that we had to head west, to Fredericksburg, Texas. Fredericksburg is part of the German heritage that is part of Texas history. It is known for its buildings, German restaurants, shops, and probably other stuff, too.

Along the way we stopped at the Wild Seed Farm. Texas is known for its wildflowers. This farm is a gorgeous stop, kind of like a nursery on steroids. Their seed growing fields are all around the business, and are beautiful.

Their grounds are sculptured and beautiful, too. They have tons of landscaping and gardening gear, as well as stages, a restaurant, shady spots to sit, etc.

There are lots of different varieties of cactus. I caught a finger full of tiny thorns taking pictures. In my mind I pictured a dog's muzzle after a porcupine meeting.

While others shopped for new house plants and supplies I tried to capture some of the variety of their display gardens.

The displays were both wet and dry. There is water in the hills, so it is not unusual to see trickles and streams.

I have always loved water lilies. They have such symmetry and contrast with their leaves.

Here is a dry creek bed display for contrast with the wet environment.

The garden supplies displays range from full sun to shady retreats. There is tremendous variety. There are huge clay pots costing hundreds of dollars. There are also small items.

I'm not much of a shopper, so I wandered around, amazed at the insect life and flowers.

Once we were done here, we were off to Fredericksburg. Our first stop was at Der Lindenbaum restaurant for Jägerschnitzel, etc. Good, but not as good as in Germany!

Then we were off to walk around the town, looking at period houses and shopping. The architecture is supposed to be typical of that in Germany at the time of the German settlement here.

The porches looked quite practical here, given that it was hotter than the hubs of Hades.

This building used to be a krankenhaus (hospital). Now the main street is pretty much given over to shops.

Here is a review of this store, to give you an idea.

This is Texas!

And this is Texas.

But this is Texas, too! One of the other art glass stores had a small Dale Chihuly piece.

We found plenty of antique shops. This one seemed to specialize in bed frames and iron work.

This building seemed perfect for a Hollywood set.

It was a gorgeous day to be inspecting curley-cues and doodads,

and window shopping.

We finished our visit by seeing Admiral Nimitz birthplace. It is really hard to imagine a young boy from the dry hill country of Texas becoming one of the greatest admirals of all time.

We finished our visit by looping through the hills on a ranch road, viewing wildflowers and limestone outcroppings. Our road back took us over hill and dale, dipping down to creek beds. At each of them is a standard flood measuring device, displaying markings up to 5 feet above road level. Best not to get here during a flash flood!

We passed the Pedernales Falls State Park on the way to and from. This will be a place to visit a bit later.