This time of year is when our household takes a look around the property and cuts or trims back live oak trees. I have one tree that has 4 big trunks coming from one spot, so going to get rid of 3 of them today to let one, the triumphant one, spend all its energy on making one big shade tree. Also put some bluebonnet seeds out that I hope will get a good start for next spring. AND giving thuja trees a chance. I have read that they may be invasive but where I am planting them I don’t think they will be in any other plants way. Big concern there is whether deer like to eat them. If they work well and get really tall, not only will that improve the view with privacy and beauty but I’m hoping it will help with the increasing summer heat to aid in cooling down the yard.
Just read a great article on the Texas Eagle Amtrak train. I LOVE taking the train. It’s cheap, you don’t have to navigate crazy traffic, it’s comfortable, and you can meet interesting people if you like. How I do it is to get a ride to Cleburne and hop on it there when going to Austin, then I get picked up by kin in Austin and reverse the process the next day when I come back. The train takes about the same amount of time it would take to drive, unless there are any delays. The coach seats are wide, with a foot rest and comfortable OR you can get a fairly inexpensive room to ride in. The Texas Eagle also has an observation car where you can go watch, expansively, the scenery go by. A few years ago most of my family also took the train to Chicago to sightsee for a few days, and it was terrific. One family member that has small children got a train room with beds. I like to take books and it is immensely relaxing. Last year hub and I went to a few places in Europe where public transportation, including trains, is ubiquitous, and easy to take. We took a train to sightsee in some places outside the main city and it was SO EASY, especially compared to driving in an unknown city. I feel personally that the US should catch up to Europe in this particular and cut down on the love affair we have with cars.
Last night we went to the Bass Performance Hall to hear the Ft Worth Symphony Orchestra to hear Mozart and Mahler’s Symphony #4. It was exquisite, review here on DMN
Cooper, like Glover, is known for her Mozart performances.She provided luminous, graceful pianism in the concerto, subtly leaning into the surprising twists of melody and harmonic implications of the first-movement cadenza. Both she and Glover captured the slow movement’s mystery, both then setting the finale gracefully dancing. The orchestra played beautifully, with strings appropriately reduced here and in the cantata.
