Spring In The Steger Garden (2010)

From Flowers

Keep It Wild!

Richardson Civic Center

From Flowers

The photo caption is correct. The photo above was snapped at the Richardson Civic Center. That field of wildflowers is surrounded by busy city offices, streets, a freeway, library, post office and apartments. Henry David Thoreau understood that "in Wildness is the preservation of the World." Richardson honors that sentiment with pockets of colorful wildflowers spread around the city every Spring.

Richardson doesn't honor wildflowers just by planting them, it wildly celebrates them with an annual "award-winning, multi-day eclectic arts and music festival" called simply Wildflower!, now just one week away. It takes over the Galatyn Park Urban Center from May 14-16. Take the DART Red Line to Galatyn Station. Enjoy live entertainment at one of three outdoor performance stages, along with food tasting, displays and exhibits and plenty of kid's activities. After all, Thoreau's Wildness isn't the only kind of Wildness that's beneficial to the human soul.

After the jump, a couple of close-ups of those wildflowers at the civic center.

What I Like About Richardson

The City of Richardson has a bond election coming up on Saturday -- $66 million for streets and alleys, parks and rec centers, fire stations and neighborhood vitality projects. The "yes" side says we need these things to keep Richardson an attractive place to live, work, shop and play. The "no" side says we only want these items, not need them, and we can't afford them in any case.

After the jump, another way to look at the election.

Twitter Tracks: Tomato The Town, Census, Oil Leak

Twitter tracks from April, 2010:

• 2010 04 01 - The next big thing for @amiromar: Tomato the Town (http://bit.ly/blGFpX)
• 2010 04 01 - Claire: "How could anybody reasonably be expected to distinguish an April Fool's joke from their [D Magazine's] normal content even on 4/1?"
• 2010 04 01 - Don't forget, today is Census Day. Fill it out. Thanks, great-great-great-grandpa for returning yours in your day: http://bit.ly/cAtd7f
• 2010 04 01 - Robin Williams calls Australians "English rednecks." Australian PM takes offense. You see, Aussies really hate being called English.
• 2010 04 01 - The Church's response to revelations of sexual abuse? Stonewall. Issue non-denial denials. Attack the messenger. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
• 2010 04 01 - Sarah Palin joins Sierra Club in criticizing Obama's drilling plan. Both are being consistent. SC champions environment. SP opposes Obama.
• 2010 04 01 - Daily Show on the census: If the gov't doesn't know you exist, how will the black helicopters come to tax your guns to pay for death panels?

After the jump, more Twitter tracks.

OTBR: Between Two Meadows In Estonia

Latitude: 59.34910° N
Longitude: 24.46510° E

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".