Saturday, December 1, 2007

A Visit to Wimberley

Copyright © 2007. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

A few weeks ago I met a friend in Wimberley, Texas. Wimberley is a quaint little town full of history and adorable cottages turned into shops. It's an easy trek from Austin, so I like to take friends and family there when they visit. This time we saw lots of lovely plants and animals that are well worth blogging.

One of my favorite garden stone walls in Wimberley is so thin it seems likely to topple over, but I'm told it's stood there for many years.


On the edge of the wall stand pillars with shells embedded into the concrete.



Nearby was this mystery vine with purple berries.



As well as this American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)....


One little shop has a fine garden in the front yard. This pomegranate tree (Punica granatum) was host to some lovely fruit...



Cutting through town, not far from the shops, is Cypress Creek.


My friend discovered a B&B in Wimberley called Highpoint Manor Inn that is home to several farm animals as well as some lovely wild plants.

I was impressed by the tenacity of this pink wildflower that happily bloomed out of its rock home. I'm ashamed to say it's another 'mystery plant' to me. I tried to find it in my copy of "Texas Wildflowers" to no avail.


Peacocks roam freely on the little farm.

While the chickens and bunnies have safer houses behind raccoon-thwarting wire.



My favorite animal on the B&B farm is this frisky miniature horse.



He was very greedy for the apples we were sharing with him. As a matter of fact, he reminded me of Tom Bombadil's wise little pony, "Fatty Lumpkin" in the Lord of the Rings novel.


"Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?
Up, down, near or far, here, there or yonder?
Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin,
White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!"
~
J.R.R. Tolkien in 'The Fellowship of the Ring'


Copyright © 2007. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

7 comments:

Libbys Blog said...

Always lovely to have a favourite place to visit! I think we always take people to Lacock in Wiltshire, where some of the Harry Potter films where filmed!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

A fun tour, thank you. I like horses in any size. I think the minatures are so sweet looking. I hear they are great pets.

Anonymous said...

This is my first time I visit your blog..
Thank you for your pictures, love the big rock with the pink flower, the horses and plants with different berries.
Your cats are beautiful and I am sure they have a good home now.
cheers from Canada.

Nancy said...

I THINK, perhaps, the black berries are what my Grandpa used to call "Possom berries". I remember him showing me how they could be used to make a pretty good substitute for ink.

Oh, and I was married just outside of Wimberley, on my pa-in-law's farm.

Anonymous said...

The pink flower is a four o'clock, Mirabalis jalapa. They can get pretty weedy but if you want some seeds I'll save you some.

mss @ Zanthan Gardens

Dawn said...

Hi Libby!
Brilliant! I'd certainly rather visit Wiltshire than Wimberley (no offense to Texas, of course). We were very close to that area when we drove from Bath to York in '92. The countryside is breathtaking.

Thanks Lisa!
That miniature horse was charming. He had a very 'big' personality in a small package. If he were mine I'd name him Napoleon. ;-)

Welcome Guild_Rez!
Thanks for dropping by & saying 'Hello'. I hope all is going well in Canada this week.

Hi Nancy!
Thank you for naming the berries for me. I do believe the ink story. The ground all around the plant was very darkly stained. Very cool that you were married on a farm in Wimberley. That sounds quite romantic to me. :-)

Thank You MSS!
Great link! It's good to know smart ladies who have a lot of plant knowledge. I'm getting quite spoiled...in a good way, of course. Heehee! I'd love some seeds if you have any handy. Thanks for the kind offer.

Happy Yuletide Gardening!
Dawn

TPS said...

Hi. Did you ever find out what those purple berries are? I found a cluster near my home and I want to be sure they're not poisonous.