Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center Never DIsappoints

Today was an open to the public day at the Wildflower Center. One of the nicest parts (other than the wildflowers) is that the Center supports sculptors. Today we had not even entered when we saw our first piece. It echoed what we saw later on in the visit, a dragon-fly.

The Center focuses on the grace and beauty of native Texan plants. Both in dry climates,

and in wet. Wet micro-climates abound among the limestone hills.

The natural scenes are interspersed nicely with sculptures here.

Here some 6 foot long ants "converse."

Here a local sculptor continues a year-long work in progress on Ladybird, herself. He has had input from members of the Center who were personal friend of Ladybird, as well as from one of her daughters. He spent quite a few minutes with us talking about the process of developing the model, and how it would turn into a bronze casting later on.

Outside was one of his pieces, of a native Indian girl.

Further on we found this longhorn in UT orange.

Then this gorgeous piece, of a stylized horse.

Not to downplay the flowers (there are always blooms in evidence), but for me, this visit was about other aspects of the Center.

Of course, with all the blooms, there are lots of butterflies around. The center breeds and releases butterflies, it seems.

This guy stood still for lots of shots, though his head swiveled around continuously, watching me as I watched him.

A few more minutes, and we were off. This was the last sculpture we saw. I liked it a lot.