Wildflower Center

Today, we all went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which is a nice botanic garden that primarily features the titular wildflowers, but has other kinds of grasses and vegetation for this time of year, plus they had an exhibit of different kinds of forts.

Today was chilly and overcast, but the center was still pretty crowded since I guess a lot of people thought to go on the day after Thanksgiving. My friend told me that Lady Bird Johnson was “Lady Bird” because LBJ, being a horrifying narcissist, insisted that everyone in his family be “LBJ.” Both his daughters were named L and B names. I didn’t know that before, but having learned it, I noted that none of the many signs and placards about her at the wildflower center (“Who was Lady Bird Johnson?” and etc.) actually mentioned her real name. I googled it — it was Claudia. She is widely known for her highway beautification act, and she did a lot of other things for the environment and public landscapes, one of the more effective and fondly remembered First Ladies.

At the center, there’s a “Hall of Texas Heroes” — a circle of oak trees, each one commemorating a Texas hero. I was prepared for a lot of placards about white guys but it turns out all the “heroes” were famous Texas oak trees, so these were trees honoring other trees, which I found delightful and bizarre.

Edith was pretty blasé about the wildflower center, but she seemed to mildly enjoy herself.