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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts

Backyard Bluebonnets | Time in Nature Reduces Stress

Thursday, March 26, 2020
Relaxing in backyard bluebonnets is one way nature can bring calm to our bodies and minds during stressful times. Research shows spending as little as five minutes outside can reduce stress levels. Plus, even viewing scenes of nature reduces fear and anger, and makes you feel better emotionally. 


Backyard Bluebonnets are a way Time in Nature Reduces Stress
If your stress levels are low right now, spend time with my backyard bluebonnets to feel even better. If your stress levels are high, or you are depressed, afraid, or angry, sit back and enjoy a little relaxation in my backyard bluebonnets to feel better emotionally. Take your mind off your worries.  

 And get a few ideas for how to create time in nature in your own backyard. 
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How To Grow Texas Bluebonnets

Sunday, May 12, 2019


Texas bluebonnet wildflowers require five things to grow. Alkaline soil, rhizobium bacteria, water, sunshine, and seed are the five things you need to grow Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) and have a spectacular wildflower garden next spring. 



Texas bluebonnet flowers in a backyard naturalized garden
With those five things, you can grow bluebonnets in your  backyard, in your garden, or in your open countryside fields in Texas. You may also need a sixth thing, patience. 

Now is the time to make plans to grow bluebonnets this fall. Seed companies frequently sell out of bluebonnet seeds; May is a good time to order bluebonnet seeds. This spring's plants will have gone to seed, and companies will be harvesting their crops to sell the seeds. 
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Backyard Meadow | How To Grow Through The Seasons

Sunday, May 5, 2019


Growing a rye grass meadow in the backyard is easy and looks good through three seasons of the year in north Texas. See how to begin and to grow a grass meadow with no pesticides, with no fertilizers, and with little supplementary watering. 


Backyard meadow under oak tree with girl statue
The backyard meadow shown is part of a two-acre lot in the countryside outside any city limits in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Where you are located has a major impact on what your yard must look like. City codes regulate yards, and close neighbors in housing subdivisions expect lawns to look uniform. 
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Beyond Bluebonnets

Sunday, May 3, 2015


Texas Indian Paintbrush
unusual pink color 

Spring in Texas is legendary for fields upon fields of wild bluebonnets, roadsides covered in bluebonnets, and backyards with bluebonnet patches. Newspapers publish subscriber's bluebonnet photos, Internet sites track where the latest bluebonnet fields are blooming, and every small town provides bluebonnet trail maps. Bluebonnets are spectacular, and seeing them in bloom was destined to become one of the rituals of my life each spring the first year I saw my first bluebonnet patch. Bluebonnets became one of the redeeming features of living in Texas.

Texas Bluebonnets
Ennis, Texas 

You see, Texas became home after marrying a long tall Texan who was serving in the US Navy in the Washington, D.C. area.  Before ever visiting Texas, Texas became my home, and my impressions of Texas were all based on second- and third-hand accounts from movies, books, television shows, and friends' and new family tales of Texas.  Not all of those impressions were positive.


Wild Foxglove
along Texas Hill Country roadside  

Have you ever seen The Last Picture Show, a black and white movie, set in a dying small west Texas town populated by townspeople who have affairs with each other, single and married? Their lives were unfulfilled with lost hopes and dreams. The most indelible scene in my mind shows a tumbleweed blowing across a dirty empty street with dust swirling across barren flat land in the background. We saw this movie the night before I was to have major surgery just three weeks after our wedding. Going to the movie was supposed to cheer me up, but instead drowned me in a sea of despair, causing me to cry as I asked my new husband if this was what Texas and the people were really like. He reassured me that this was not what Texas was like.


Winecups on roadside
Of course, after moving to Texas two years later, I discovered Texas was populated by good, kind-hearted people and was not black and white.  Indeed, each spring the land comes alive with stunning shows of multi-colors in wildflowers. Bluebonnets are only the first act.



Texas Indian Paintbrush
in unusual fuchsia color & common orange color

More than 5000 blooming plants make Texas their home, and each spring my spirit is renewed as I make pilgrimages just to look at what is blooming. To drive slowly along, windows rolled down, head and arms leaning out to try to spot every bloom, and to spot the unusual is an annual ritual. Over the years, together my long tall Texan and I discovered the beauty of Texas wildflowers. While he had seen them for years while growing up in Texas, he had never really looked at them before our outings.


Texas Indian Paintbrush
two unusual shades of pink 

Growing up in Alabama, spring meant cultivated flowers such as dogwoods and azaleas, but not  showy fields of wildflowers. Over the years, many a dogwood tree, azalea, and peony died in our yard in the Texas blazing summer heat as I tried to grow the plants from my childhood. Others have grown these successfully, but I cannot. Instead, I now appreciate the plants that do flourish in Texas.


Texas Indian Paintbrush in deep pink 

The pinks, fuchsias, and peaches like these Texas Indian Paintbrushes are not as common as the orangey-red Paintbrushes that grow in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Each year I keep a look out for pastel Paintbrushes, and these pastel Paintbrushes were spotted in Brazos County.


Texas Indian Paintbrush 
Texas is now my home by choice. Now retired, I could move anywhere, but I see beyond the bluebonnets to my friends and family who also are Texans. If you look for me, you know where to find me.
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Want to read more about bluebonnets? 

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4 Ways To Be Cool at Round Top Antique Fair

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Another 90°- day at the 
Fall Round Top Antique Show 

Here are four ways not only to keep cool, but also to be cool at the 
Marburger Farm-Round Top Antique Show. 
After all, Round Top Antique Shows are the places 
to see and to be seen. 


  1. Buy an adorable blue and white paisley print straw cowgirl hat at a convenience store on Highway 290 in Carmine, Texas.  Get some of their delicious chicken salad from the deli while there. Then head south to Round Top. 
  2. Wear your sunglasses you brought from home with your new ultra-chic blue paisley cowgirl hat. While shading your head and eyes, wander through the thirteen buildings and nine giant tents that house 350 exhibitors at Marburger Farm Antique Show, one of my favorite antiquing sites along Highway 237 during the Round Top Antique Show. 
  3. Drink plenty of liquids to beat the heat while strolling from tent to tent.  A large glass of iced tea, sweet or unsweet, will cool anyone down quickly.  Marburger Farm has a large open-air covered area filled with long tables that sport red and white checked tablecloths for resting while eating and drinking. 
  4. Generate your own breeze by using a hand-held old-fashioned fan on a stick.  Marburger Farm supplies the cute advertising fans in the shape of a cowboy hat.... to go with your cute cowgirl hat from Carmine.  You supply the energy to wave the fan back and forth, being sure to share your breeze with whomever is standing near you.  Southern hospitality, you know. 
Four ways to beat the heat at the largest antique show in the USA...  
All the while looking chic and exuding Southern charm...  

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Please join me at these inspiring sites...
SUNDAY
Share It One More Time @ One More Time Events

MONDAY
Amaze Me Mondays @ Dwellings, the Heart of Your Home

TUESDAY
Anything Blue Friday @ The Dedicated House


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Patriotic~Red, White, Bleu

Friday, May 24, 2013

Hurrah for the 
Red, White, & Bleu 
all summer long...

May 26 ~~~ Memorial Day
June 14 ~~~ Flag Day
July 4 ~~~ Independence Day
July 14 ~~~ Bastille Day
of course, a little French has to be included
September 2 ~~~ Labor Day

A celebration table that will 
set the joie de vivre for any of our patriotic holidays...
Just seeing red, white, and blue cheers me!
Hurrah for the red, white, and blue, 
may it wave as our banner forever...

Holidays bring families together 
to enjoy good food, to enjoy laughter, and 
to enjoy swapping stories.

To show how important families are to us, 
we set tables with special dishes and decor.

The table runner is two kitchen towels from France.
I mixed the unexpected red dominoes with
traditional themes of stars and stripes for a fun table 
and as a reminder of fun games to come later this day. 

Lots of memories of good times/jokes recanted to 
young, old, new to the family, those who
just want to hear it again...
"Mr. J took a bite of Mrs. J's ice cream, 
when she asked for a bite of his in return, 
he said, 'close your eyes, open wide,' 
and gave her a BIG spoonful...
of MAYONNAISE."

Most of us do not have 
sets and sets of dishes to create 
a multi-layered place setting.
The red, white, and blue striped layer is 
a french fries paper holder from World Market. 

Flags and flowers...
The American and French flags are in an 
antique blue bottle.

White flowers, red berries, and blue stars...

Place cards are homemade using white card stock 
trimmed with deckle-edge scissors and
decorated with US Postage stamps.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~Justice~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~Equality~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~Freedom~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~Liberty~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Words that describe ideals we hold dear...

The fleur de lis is a nod to 
the French who celebrate 
the French National Day of independence, 
known as Bastille Day, 
on July 14.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
The national motto of France...

Stories of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, babies... 
AND
Stories of time spent serving 
in the military, defending our freedom.
Three nephews, brothers in the same family, 
who were career military...
The oldest in the Air Force, the middle one in the Navy, and 
the youngest in the Army...
Each with different stories...
Tours in Iraq...
Working in the Pentagon on Sept. 10, 2001, 
but not on Sept. 11, 2001... 
Repairing ships...

Moods lighten and thoughts turn to 
dominoes "42" which is one of the favorite games in this family. 

After the dishes are washed and put away, 
the centerpiece remains and so does the 
patriotic basket on the coat closet door 
seen from the table.


A faded American flag design basket holds
American and Texas flags, 
plus flag tissue paper,
bluebonnet printed ribbon, 
and a flag decorated legal envelope.

The patriotic basket will hang 
all summer 
from the closet door hook 
as a celebration 
of all our 
red, white, and blue holidays.
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Renaissance Lapis china by Fitz and Floyd
Jamestown Red glasses by Fostoria
Stainless flatware by Towle
White Madeline plates by Pier I
Blue chargers by Kirklands
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Please join me at these inspiring sites...
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Texas Bluebonnets

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Texas 
Bluebonnets
are wild lupines.
The state flower of Texas is the species
Lupinus texensis.




Bluebonnets are native to Texas and grow wild 
across plains, along the roadsides, in ditches,
in pastures, under mesquite trees...
Texans rejoice each spring when 
the fields of bluebonnets appear.





The Texas highway department, local governments, businesses, and
landowners plant bluebonnet seeds to supplement nature's wild sowing.
All during the year, we talk about how the bluebonnets are progressing.

We track the sightings of blooms with several state websites.
Towns hold festivals and fairs.
Parents plan outings for photos of children and 
dogs in the bluebonnets.
Newspapers and websites post the most beautiful photos
of fields of bluebonnets 
and bluebonnets with children and dogs.






We pick them and put them in vases, fruit jars, crocks, metal buckets,...
We gather seeds to plant in the fall.





As annuals, each year's crop depends on the germination of seeds
the previous fall and on rainfall at crucial times during fall and winter.
Bluebonnets bloom for about three weeks in the spring.
See the bright magenta centers on some blooms?
And bright white centers on other blooms?
Why the difference?





Blooms are fertile about six days.
The center of the bloom changes from white to magenta
when the bloom is no longer fertile.





I love bluebonnets.
They are one of the highlights of my life every year.





Right up there with my love for Paris
and all things blue...





The hot dry Texas summers sizzle.
Flowers stop blooming, grass turns brown, and trees are dusty grey-green.





But in mid-March to mid-April each year,
bluebonnets are lush,
giving joy to all who see them,
filling acres and acres with their beauty.



Every spring, the Great Spirit remembers my sacrifice 
and covers Texas with the beautiful blue flowers. 
The flowers are called bluebonnets.

 quote from
The Legend of the Bluebonnet
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Texans Are More French Than Texans Realize

Saturday, September 22, 2012

While traveling this week from the Dallas, Texas metroplex to the Houston area, I discovered Texas provides free wireless Internet service at its rest stops along Interstate 45.  After getting back home, I then discovered Texas was the first state to provide wireless Internet access at Safety Rest Areas throughout the state.


A Texas map on the state's transportation website shows the location of rest stops all over Texas.  The map also indicates which rest areas are new and which ones are scheduled for renovation.

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