The Art of the Pumpkin at the Dallas Arboretum

You know it's fall when the Dallas Arboretum opens up the Pumpkin Village, the best pumpkin patch in all of Dallas-Fort Worth!  This year's them is The Art of the Pumpkin.

We have been bringing the kids to the Pumpkin Village every year since they were little.  It makes us fall in love with autumn all over again.  

The Pumpkin Village is the perfect place to take family pictures because it is just fun and full of fall colors.

There are four 20-foot tall pumpkin houses in Pumpkin Village!  Each pumpkin house has its own design and made from a gathering of beautiful pumpkins and gourds. 

Of course, the beautiful princess carriage is drawn by two straw horses in a field of pumpkins.

There are over 10,900 corn stalks and 1,200 bales of hay in Pumpkin Village.  Most of these are used in the maze that little kids just love to run through.

There are 24 different types of pumpkins, 18 different types of squash, and 4 different types of gourds.  I loved looking at them all spread out next to each other.  This picture is just a small part of the full presentation.

There is so much more going on at the Arboretum besides just the Pumpkin Village and don't forget to take the kids to the Rory Meyers Children's Garden!  Scroll down below and see the amazing list of events they have in store for this fall.

DEMONSTRATION COOKING

Dallas College Cooks

Every Monday

11 a.m.-Noon

A Tasteful Place

Participate in this popular demonstration cooking class, taught by Chef Lisa Roark, from the college's nationally recognized culinary school, formerly known as El Centro. She demonstrates two new recipes each month.

September: Grilled Eggplant Salad & Glazed Turnips

October: Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers and Grilled Artichoke with Lemon and Herbs

November: Broccoli and Greens Soup and Roasted Fennel Bruschetta

 

Chef-tastic Cooking Series

11 a.m.-Noon

A Tasteful Place

See how the pros do it, and sample a small bite of the fruits of their labor. Enjoy a demonstration from renowned chefs and restaurants as they take center stage in the demonstration kitchen.

September 19: Greenville Avenue Pizza Company and their famous pizza

September 30: Yelibelly Chocolates

October 1: One Great Vegan, one of her fabulous Vegan recipes

October 1: Terri Finazzo, demonstrates a pepper recipe

October 3: Josephine's Cakes, Sweets Treats and More, featuring her popular Pumpkin Bread

October 8: Terri Finazzo, demonstrates a tomato recipe

October 10: Whitness Nutrition, pumpkin recipe

October 14: Kuluntu Bakery showcasing her sourdough bread

October 17: Creative Cookies and Pops, demonstrates her gorgeous decorative cookies

October 28: White Rock Ale House

October 31: Custom Cafe Foods and a lovely fall recipe

November 4: CiboDivino shows off an Italian recipe

November 7: Charlie's Treats featuring his famous nuts

 

Mommy & Me Mondays

& Tiny Tot Tuesdays

Every Monday & Tuesday through October 27

10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Pecan Grove

Children's activities include painted body tattoos by A Fresh Perspective, Country Critters Petting Zoo, Fit4Mom White Rock Dallas Stroller Fitness at 10 a. m. and Kindermusik at noon. New safety precautions and socially distanced rules will be in place for all of these activities.Sponsored by Kimberly-Clark

 

Walk This Way

Every Monday 10 a.m.-Noon

September 21-October 26

Get fit by joining this walking class around the garden, led by Denise and Max Davis, long-time Dallas Arboretum volunteers.

 

Tasteful Tuesdays

Every Tuesday

11 a.m.-noon

A Tasteful Place

Every Tuesday, local flower store professionals show participants helpful tips and tricks for making their own floral arrangements and how to select the best grocery store flowers.

September 22: McShan Florist

September 29: Ruibal's

October 6: Enflowerment

October 27: McShan Florist

 

Daily Harvest

Every Tuesday and Thursday

10 a.m.

A Tasteful Place

Horticulture Manager Joseph Farmer harvests seasonal vegetables, fruits or herbs right out of the garden in A Tasteful Place.

 

Pumpkin Thursdays Scavenger Hunt

Every Thursday

September 24 through October 29

10 a.m.-3 p.m.

At the Information Booth on Thursdays, guests are invited to pick up a map leading them on a scavenger hunt throughout the garden and finding surprises in Pumpkin Village. Complete the hunt; turn in the card back at the Information Booth to receive a ticket to be redeemed by 4 p.m. for a brownie from the Terrace Café.

 

Learn to Grow Horticulture Presentation

11 a.m.-Noon

A Tasteful Place

Presented by the North Texas Master Gardeners and the Dallas Arboretum Horticultural Staff, speakers discuss summer and autumn gardening and tips.

October 16: Favorite Plants of the Dallas Arboretum - This class is for those new to the area, new to gardening or simply want to refresh their landscapes.

November 6: This is Texas State Arbor Day, a terrific time to plant trees all across the state. Visitors can learn the best selections for North Texas.

 

Fridays with Dave

October 2, 9, and 23

11 a.m.

A Tasteful Place

Dave Forehand, Dallas Arboretum's vice president of gardens, has kept the community informed of all the varieties of plants and floral displays during this pandemic. Garden guests are invited to meet him in person and hear his presentations on select Fridays.

 

Live Music & Performances Every Weekend

Saturday and Sunday from 2-4 p.m. 

Visitors are welcome to bring a picnic or purchase food and kick up their feet every with live music and special performances on the Martin Rutchik Concert Stage & Lawn.

September 19: Reckless Angels - Classic Rock

September 20: Monkey Love Band - Party Rock Band

September 26: Don Diego Band - Jazz

September 27: DJ Sullivan Trio - Electro Mix

October 3: TBA Band

October 4: Marc Touissant Combo - Jazz

October 10: Mountain Natives - Folk

October 11: The Closers - Blues

October 17: Sierra Leone along with performances by the SMU Mustang Mavericks 

October 18: Missing Three Band - Classic to current Rock

October 24: For Love of Country 

October 25: The Closers - Blues

October 31: Missing Three Band- Classic to current Rock

November 1: Cool Side of Easy- Acoustic guitar duo

 

Oktoberfest

September 20

11 a.m.-4 p.m.

The garden celebrates Oktoberfest with complimentary beer samples, tasty local and traditional food vendors, and live music all weekend! Compete in the pretzel toss and stein-holding competition, supported by White Rock Ale House. Monkey Love Band plays a concert from 2 p.m.-4 p.m.

Café on the Green's Oktoberfest menu, which is available from September 19 to November 1, features various bratwursts, carved pastrami sandwiches, warm apple strudel, black forest cake and assorted Oktoberfest beers.

 

National Coffee Day Celebration

September 29

10 a.m.-4 p.m.

A Tasteful Place

Free with Paid Garden Admission

Tastings and Products for Sale

Grab a cup of coffee from one of many of Dallas' favorite spots, listen to live music and choose from a selection of pastries, baked goods, and other coffee flavored treats such as ice cream and popsicles.

 

National Cookie Month

October is National Cookie Month, and the garden offers a variety of cookie vendors and demonstrations to celebrate.

October 7  11am Frankly Good Vegan Cookies

October 21 11am Hey Y'all Bakery

October 24 11am Full Circle Bakery

 

National Taco Day

October 4 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

A Tasteful Place

Free with Paid Garden Admission

Tastings and Products for Sale

A Tasteful Place features a variety of specialty tacos for sale ranging from street to gourmet from favorite local spots as well as fresh salsa, tortillas and paletas, while festive live music plays. Stop by for a beer taste test to guess the Mexican beer brands versus domestic ones.

 

All American Weekend

October 9-12

Martin Rutchik Concert Stage & Lawn

Friday, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. - Eddie Coker

Saturday, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Mountain Natives, a Dallas folk rock band

Sunday, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. - The Closers, a rock and variety band

Saturday, Sunday and Monday activities also include body tattoo painting by A Fresh Perspective and Country Critters Petting Zoo in Pecan Grove from 10 a.m.-2 p.m

 

Mum Day! Homecoming returns to the Dallas Arboretum

October 17-18

Don a homecoming mum on Saturday and Sunday. Snap a selfie in front of the Octagon Pumpkin House wearing the mum, and post with the hashtag #dallasarboretummumday to receive a special treat from the Lula Mae Slaughter Terrace

 

"Owl-O-Ween" with Window to the Wild

October 24 Noon-2 p.m.

Pecan Grove's Pumpkin Village

Join Window to the Wild for a meet and greet with their owls including Hermes, a great horned owl, and Pigwidgeon, the tiniest, Eastern screech owl. Guests can meet and take pictures with these owls as well as ask questions of their handlers. Don't miss this unique "Owl-O-Ween" opportunity.

 

Family Fun Weekend

October 31-November 1

10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Don't miss the annual Halloween extravaganza weekend with trick-or-treating throughout the garden, pumpkin decorating, body art tattoos and a petting zoo. 

Martin Rutchik Concert Stage & Lawn

Saturday's live music from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. features The Missing Three, and Cool Side of Easy on Sunday from 2 p.m.-4 p.m.

Window to the Wild Bird Flight Show

November 1, 10:30 a.m.

Martin Rutchik Concert Stage & Lawn

Join Window to the Wild for a 45-minute outdoor education flight training show. At the end of the show, come to the stage to meet and greet with the birds and their trainers.

 

DISCOUNTS:

Early bird tickets

People can purchase tickets online from September 1-18 to receive $1 off per ticket; these tickets are valid for admission during the festival dates, September 19-November 1, 2020.

BOGO Wednesdays

Every Wednesday

9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Buy one, get one admission every Wednesday.

C.C. Young Senior Living Thursdays

Every Thursday

9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Seniors 65 and older receive $1 off general garden admission on Thursdays as well as receive a 20% discount in the Hoffman Family Gift Store. 

About the Arboretum:

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is located on the southeastern shore of White Rock Lake at 8525 Garland Road, Dallas, Texas 75218. The Arboretum is open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.  Festival admission is $17 for adults, $14 for seniors 65 and older, $12 for children 2-12, and free for Arboretum members and children under two.  Parking is $15 or $10 purchased online. 

For more information, call 214.515.6500 or visit www.dallasarboretum.org.

Fossil Hunting in Post Oak Creek

We went on an adventure to try a fossil hunting site that I just learned about called Post Oak Creek in Grayson County, Texas.  At one time this area was all under water and this is an easy site to access and hunt for fossilized shark teeth and other fossils of marine life that date back to the Great Flood (or the Cretaceous period which is believed to be 60-145 millions years ago). 

I am proud that my kids are up for exploring new places with me, even if they dress fancier than any explorer would ever consider dressing.  I love this little girl so much!

The site is about an hour from our house but we also had to stop at Tractor Supply to pick up rain boots since we were going to be walking through a creek.

The area that most people go to access the creek is at the Travis Street bridge in Sherman.  The path to the creek was well-worn.  There were several families and groups already in the creek on this day.

The creek was shallow and lined with trees.  It was easy to wade through but we were glad to have our rain boots.  

This is what we saw as we looked into the water.  Lots of little pieces of rocks and probably some fossils mixed in.

Nicholas quickly found a tooth!

The kids wandered down the creek but Stuart had a lot of success just staying in one area where wading in the creek wasn't necessary.

It is very helpful to bring some sieves or even kitchen strainers to help sift through the small gravel.  I got a set of 5 different size sifters from Amazon and the kids had fun sifting for fossils.

It is also good to bring some hand trowels and something to carry your finds in like a bucket or backpack.

More teeth!

Rachel was wearing rain boots but some of the spots in the creek were deeper than her boots were tall.  She didn't mind.  I always expect my kids to get wet if there is a creek around.

If you get tired of wading in the water to search the bottom of the creek, you can also search along the bank.  It all looks the same and there are lots of fossils throughout both of them.

We wandered down the creek some to explore.  The water got deeper as we walked and at times the bank disappeared so we were limited in how far we could walk.  It was a nice little hike and we searched for fossils all along the way.

When we get home from fossil hunting, we always clean our finds and spread them out on a towel to dry.  Here is an overview of our collective bounty.  I was able to ask some members of the Dallas Paleontological Society for help in identifying some of these.  I'll post their comments below in quotes.

We found more teeth than we have ever found on a fossil hunting trip!

Stuart had the coolest find of the trip.  It looks like a vertebrae of some kind.  "It doesn't look like the typical vertebral body that is usually found.  I am thinking it could be an intact neural arch from a fish vertebrae without the vertebral body.  If so that would be a fairly rare find.  Nothing of great value or anything, but rare because these parts are fairly fragile and rarely survive.  When they do, they are usually still attached to the vertebral body."

I don't know what these two things are.  I still need to research them.

We thought this might be some type of a vertebrae but someone from the Dallas Paleontological Society thinks it is an oyster fragment.

The piece below is "from the Kamp Ranch limestone.  It is the 2nd layer from the top of the Eagle Ford group.  It underlies the Arcadia Park formation.  It looks like a possible ichnofossil aka trace fossil from a burrowing creature.  My personal belief from personal observations in the field is that it is the trace burrow of a bivalve."  Note: I think of a trace fossil as a fossilized evidence of a creature's movement through or across a substance.  It is different than a fossilized impression of the creature's actual body.  A burrow is the remainder of a tunnel that a creature created in the ground or sea floor.  Burrows are trace fossils.

I really thought this piece below looked like a piece of bone.  But two DPS members agreed that is is a burrow cast in limestone.  Not as exciting as a bone but still amazing to me to find something like this.

This piece of bone has a clean cut so it is probably from a modern cow from a slaughterhouse that is up the creek.

The following is "a fragment of an Eagle Ford septarian nodule.  Looks to be largely calcite in yellow to cream.  The brown, root beer colored crystals may be aragonite."

The following is a cluster of Bellaplicata oysters.

This piece below is a mystery.  It could be man-made but it is too light to be concrete.  Someone from the Dallas Paleontological Society said, "I don't think it is concrete.  It see a fragment of a Pectin bivalve.  Probably an off layer of Kamp Ranch Limestone."  The line through the middle could be a burrow from some kind of small critter.   I don't know what it is but it is interesting looking.

The easiest access to Post Oak Creek and the way we entered was in Sherman on Travis Street where it crosses the creek.  Park on the road near Bob's Muffler Shop and Danny's Paint and Body Shop.  This is a well-known spot for fossil hunting and cars park here everyday.  The people in the town don't seem to mind at all.  You will see a path going down to the creek.  There is one steep area to get down to the creek but it wasn't too difficult.  I would love to see pictures of your fossil finds if you go!

Making Masks for Essential Workers

Rachel and I have made masks for our family.  However, with the shortage of masks for essential workers in our community, we decided to keep making masks so we could donate them.

We worked on about 5 masks at a time - measuring and cutting fabric, measuring and cutting elastic, sewing masks, attaching elastic, washing masks, ironing masks.

Rachel loves to sew so she put in a lot of hours on the project.

We ran out of elastic and couldn't find any locally.  Amazon had some on back order that would be available in May but I didn't order it.  Surely we wouldn't still need masks by May.  It's supposed to be just 2 weeks or so to "flatten the curve".

We had to get creative with our masks.  We started using ribbon that I had on hand instead of elastic.  We also tried two different styles.  Our original styles is just a rectangle of fabric that is pleated.  We also used my Cricut Maker to cut another style of mask that is more fitted and conformed to the face.  

The video below shows the Cricut Maker cutting a piece of felt lining for a mask.  It is just amazing how this machine works!  It first draws the sewing line with seam allowance then it cuts out the fabric.  It's fun to watch.  If you are reading this post on email then you might have to click on the title of the post to go to the actual blog to see the video. 

Eventually we used up all of the elastic and ribbon that we had.  I had to research how to make bias tape.  Ugh!  Just another time consuming step.  I recruited Nicholas to help.  We cut the cotton fabric into strips, folded them, pressed them with a flat iron for hair, and sewed them.  Each mask needs four of these and they become ties for the mask.  

I kept reading how nurses were asking for masks to have a metal nose piece so they could custom fit it to their face.  I found a company called Chapco who was offering to send free metal strips to mask makers.  I was so excited to receive my package.  

In case you can't read the card it says, "Amazing things can happen when people come together.  Thank you, from all of us at Chapco, for your efforts".  What a blessing!

We adjusted our sewing pattern to include a little pocket at the top to hold the metal strip.

Just keep sewing.  Just keep sewing.

Rachel was proud to also make masks for her grandparents in Louisiana.

We made and donated 50 masks to essential workers.  I'm so proud of both of our kids for working so hard on this important project.

R

Feeling Stressed? Get Outdoors!

We have been staying home for most of March and we needed to get out of the house.  But we still wanted to avoid being around other people since we just aren't sure how easily coronavirus is transmitted.  So we decided to keep to ourselves and go on a family bike ride down to the duck pond.  When I'm stressed I just want to get outside and explore.  There are many studies that show how the great outdoors can help with stress management.  Check out this article, How Being Outdoors and Getting Active Impacts Stress Management.  It is a great way to get us all out of the house, soak up some immune-building Vitamin D, get some exercise, and get a breath of fresh air. 

We made the ride to the pond and got off our bikes for a while to enjoy the scenery.  These "ducks in a row" made me smile. 

My teenager who used to love being in front of the camera now rolls his eyes at Mom taking pictures of him.

But Little Bit still smiles for Mommy.

I loved that someone had set up a small community pantry of items on the picnic tables.  The signs say "If you are out, take some.  If you have extras, leave some."  There were various food items and the highly coveted toilet paper.  What a wonderful blessing for the neighborhood!

We decided to keep riding.  We often go to the end of this particular trail and take a break at the bench.  I first found this spot about 15 years ago when I was walking with Nicholas in a stroller.  We used to stop here and I would let him out of the stroller to feed him a snack while we sat together on the bench.

A beautiful dandelion!  While these are typically considered to be weeds, they are actually a very edible herb.  The leaves and roots have medicinal qualities.  They contain anti-oxidants and they also reduce inflammation, cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure.  The roasted roots can be used to make a great alternative to coffee.  Our local farmers market actually sells dandelion leaves next to the lettuce in the produce section.

We kept riding until we made it to Fish City Grill.  

The restaurant's dining area was closed but we were able to go in to place an order for takeout.

It was sad and almost eerie seeing the restaurant so empty and unused.  I'm sure their business and so many other restaurants are really hurting during all of this.

We were able to use their restroom and wash our hands.  I love their sign about washing your hands!

We each ordered a cup of gumbo.  Oh it was so delicious.  Now that is Cajun comfort food.

Time to head back home.

On the way back, we stopped and played in a creek that we love.

It made me happy to look at the buds and new growth on the plants as if it was reminding me that this virus will soon pass and the shut downs will be over and we will all be able to get back to normal life with a brand new outlook and a fresh start of our own.

Boys always love playing with sticks.  As they get older the sticks just get bigger.

And they must be used as a tool to make a big splash!

If a big stick was fun then a whole tree might be even better....

I know it is hard to read the chalk writing in this picture but it says, "The whole country would be tested by morning if Chick-fil-a was running the drive thru testing centers".

I love the shirt Stuart wore today.  Our church gave it to him to wear when he baptized Rachel.  We could all use a little Hope these days.  

Notice the little blessings all around you and you will soon find joy and hope in your heart again. 

If you are feeling stressed and anxious, take some time to go outside.  Here are some publications and research studies which support the idea of Nature Therapy for healing the body and mind:

• Physiological Effects of Nature Therapy (research study)
• Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv (book)
• Using Nature as a Therapeutic Partner (article in Counseling Today)