Stop #7 on the Les Tour Des Jardins -2014 (Northwest Louisiana - Master Gardeners)

     A while back I went to a wedding at this location and had a lovely time.  It was at the brides home in northern Caddo parish.  While we were waiting for the bridal pictures to be taken I was admiring the rocks that they had in their gardens.  I took some pictures of them and did this post on it.
http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-feel-like-im-such-rock-loving-nerd.html
     I didn't know if I would ever be there again and was so thrilled to find out that the house was going to be on this years - Masters Gardner's tour of homes called - Le Tour Des Jardins -2014. To be honest I probably would have gotten a ticket even if this house wasn't on the tour.  I just love looking at beautiful gardens and finding out about plants and flowers.   It's always so nice to see the Master Gardner's places.  They are usually so beautiful and you can tell a lot of hard work and love went into creating them. 
   This post is just going to be on stop seven of the tour.  You can see the other gardens at this post:
http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-le-tour-des-jardins-2014-shreveport.html

This is their house as seen from the road. 

Once I got out I couldn't help but take some pictures of the rocks I was seeing.  We did get to talk to the owners and he confirmed that the rocks are of the Wilcox formation.  He said as they were building the house they ran into all sorts of problem with them.  They moved some of them and had to work around some others.   He said that it seemed like there was a whole band of rocks that had a lot of iron in them and he was curious as to where the iron came from.   It got me thinking about it.  I just said I wasn't too sure but it would make a great thesis for someone to work on.  It is really fascinating stuff to look at.

He took me over to this one and asked what the white veins were.  I said they are most likely calcite deposits since they could be scratched with the penny.    I must admit it was an interesting rock to look at. 

I wasn't too sure how these rounded pieces got into the rock.  I told him that when the sandy looking bigger part of the rock was forming it was most likely on a beach.  And these rounded pieces were transported into the area and deposited.  The sand then settled around them and they got included into the matrix of the formation.  I thought it would be real interesting to get some pieces of these and look at them under the microscope.  They looked liked they had too much iron for them to be of limestone origin but I could be wrong on that. ***

This is what I expected the Wilcox to look like very sandy and friable

Here you can see another one of those boulders being surrounded by the sandstone. 

But we didn't come to this place to look at the rocks we came for the garden and the owner was very proud of his vegetable garden and wanted us to see it. It was the only vegetable garden we saw on the tour.  I must admit it was impressive and wished I had taken a broader vies image of it instead of focusing in on some of the things that were growing and looking so healthy.
   Like these squash plants.  At first I though they may be pumpkins but was told they are squash.  That didn't surprise me since pumpkins are in the squash family.

These cabbages were incredibly big and I wished I had something there for scale.  They almost looked like they were pieces of art and were planted there.  In front was some onions growing and behind was various lettuces. 

They had blackberries and raspberries bushes but the berries were just starting to form on them and it wasn't so impressive.  But when I cam to these blueberries my mouth started to water.  They looked so good and it wouldn't be long before they would be ready to eat.

They even had asparagus growing.  I was so impressed because normally it takes 3 years to grown asparagus so that you can eat it.  This was their third year and it looked like they would have some soon on their table. 

I had seen a peach tree with some fruit on it and was surprised to see this one.  The fruit didn't look the same as the peaches and so I asked what these were - Plums.  I should have figured that one out but I'm not used to see plum trees. 

Plums growing on a plum tree.

After we saw the vegetables it was time to wander around the property.  The owner did tell me if I had time I should walk over to this one area where the rocks outcropped. We talked about it but didn't have time to go to see the outcrop if we were going to do the other things we had planned for the day.  The owner did give me permission to come back again as long as I cleared it with his wife first.  Since my husband has had some business dealing with them, he said just contact them through the business. 
    In the mean time I did walk around and admired the rocks and flowers and how they worked to incorporate both of them into the landscape.

Thought it interesting to see how this one had weathered out and was so rounded.

This is the scenic view they have of there back yard. 

Wilcox boulders used in landscaping a yard

This rock actually looked like it was in place an this may actually be part of the outcrop.

Another one with a rounded boulder inside of it. This also looked like it was in place.

Here's some irises that were blooming.

I thought these were pretty views of the house.

The vegetable garden was where the building were but the cars are blocking it.

Some more interesting ones.

I do hope I do get out to this place again.


***The rocks are of the Wilcox formation and here's a link to an image showing were they outcrop:
http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2009/10179warwick/images/fig10.htm

The Wilcox is late Paleocene to Eocene in age.  I know this is about it in Texas but in the North East corner it continues into Louisiana.  Caddo parish boarders Texas and the city of Shreveport is only 25 miles away from Texas.  
http://academic.emporia.edu/schulmem/hydro/TERM%20PROJECTS/2008/Jones/carwil.htm

There is  set of diagrams for the deposition of the Wilcox that comes to you when you do an image search.  I should note this is for the Wilcox aquifer.   Here's the image search..
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0LEV0u7L2lTll4ADtRXNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGJjawM0YTNmYTFkOWxhb3ExJTI2YiUzRDQlMjZkJTNEdS4wTTBVcHBZRUl2T21nU05jQ1pNdHppd0c2amc1eTVNSGFJbXctLSUyNnMlM0RyZCUyNmklM0R3Q1VrQmxDMHg3NXlYeEcuZWFSawRmcgNtb3ozNQRncHJpZAN2bXMuWG1nVFNibU5ORndIdXg5d2JBBG10ZXN0aWQDTE9ORyUzRERGRDYEbl9yc2x0AzEwBG5fc3VnZwMxMARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAMxNwRxdWVyeQN3aWxjb3ggZm9ybWF0aW9uIAR0X3N0bXADMTM5OTQwOTk5NTQ5MQR2dGVzdGlkA0RGRDY-?gprid=vms.XmgTSbmNNFwHux9wbA&pvid=ohNFkjk4LjFFDeoLU1VjQQtbNTAuMVNpL7v_pIZY&p=wilcox+formation+&fr2=sb-top&fr=moz35
 When I click on the one I can read it but it wont let me create a link to it without paying for it. It's with World Oil  and look for this caption under it:

fig 1 paleogeographic map of drawdown climax with residual gulf of ...

500 x 41942.1KBwww.worldoil.com

If you click on this image it may take you to the article that is really good about the Wilcox formation and the depositional model for it.  It's too complicated to explain here but if you're into geology its worth looking at. 

The "Le Tour Des Jardins - 2014 Shreveport / Bossier area, Lousisiana

I just love looking at pretty gardens.  In our area we have a active Master Gardeners group and they put on tours that are open to the public.  The money they generate from these tours go towards some very worthwhile causes and its a good thing to help support the community.
   At one time I used to love to garden and had even thought about becoming a master gardener but then I had an reaction to fire ants that has made it almost impossible for me to garden again.  So now I just have to go to other places and look at what others have done.  I love it when the Master Gardeners have their tour because I know these gardens are going to be a cut above the gardens you may see at other places.
    I also love finding out about flowers and plants and many of them have labels with them so you can find out what they are.

So here's the pictures I took of this years tour.
My husband and I did not go in the order of the tour guide.  He really wanted to see this one and so we went to it second.   This was stop number 3 on the guide.
     It now belongs to a man that had graduated from the same college I did. Needless to say he's been a little bit more successful than I have.  He even has a building named after him--- hmmm I guess that's not going to happen to me.  Its nice to see a fellow alumni doing so well.
     You had to park in the horse pasture and then walk up to the house.  

At least the walk was pretty and the landscaping was professionally designed.  Makes me wonder how my yard would look if I could have it professionally designed too.

The one thing I did notice is they did have some Wilcox boulders (or i think they are) on the property too.  I had  looked at the ones on the river front not too long ago and these were very similar in appearance to them.***

The fountain was so pretty to see and hear.

Most of the garden design was around the pool area  to the side and back of the house.   This is what you first see as you come around to the back of the house.

I thought this was the end of the pool area when I saw this outdoor building.

The flowers were pretty and the roses were in full bloom.

I kept on walking to see the other flowers and realized that the pool area was wrapping around and was a whole lot bigger than that first section that you saw when you came in.

I thought this section was very lovely and it really gave you a secluded tropical island escape feeling.

This was near the main house.  When I first went by it - it was filled with people and you could tell this is a main area where they do a lot of entertaining in.

They had us exit on the other side of the pond which was nice because you really got a feel for how big and pretty the yard was.

I enjoyed seeing these irises near the water.

Another look at the front of the house with the fountain.

Then we went to another home on the tour. I think this was stop 4.  I liked the way the different flowers were labeled at this location.  I never was sure what these were called and was pleased to find out they are violas

I couldn't see the label on these pretty pink flowers but  still wanted to get the picture anyway.

I also like this one but didn't get its name either.

These were amaryllises.

I thought it was fun to see this rabbit poking its head out of the flowers.

This was stop 5 on the tour.  I liked this and took this image because we have a pool in the back yard too and going to things like this gives me inspiration to spruce up our yard.

I liked the way they were able to make the place not noticeable from the street.

That's it for this section.
I did take so many pictures I've decided it was best to break it into two posts since the one had a lot of geology to it too.

*** I came across this diagram when I was looking for information on the Wilcox formation and the location is where the Wilcox should be outcropping.  I can't tell if I can copy & share this information or not so I'm going to give the link for it. http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2009/10179warwick/images/fig10.htm  .



more on Wilcox later

Magnolia's blooming on 4-30-2014

I went walking on 4-30-2014.  The couple of days previous the weather had been bad and I wasn't able to get out walking.  I was really surprised to see some magnolia's already in full bloom.  Usually you notice the white buds first.
   I do like to keep track of when I see things first blooming and the magnolia's are one of them.

Aren't they lovely?

Magnolia in bloom on 4-30-2014

Thanks to my 50,000 Pageviewers

I've finally had 50,000 hits on my blog.   And for some reason its made me very happy that I've had that many visitor to it.  I just want to thank people for coming by and visiting. 

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     I started to blog on Oct 5, 2010.  There used to be a geology blog carnival called Accretionary Wedge that I wanted to participate in.  I was told in order to participate I had to have a blog.  At first I didn't think I would like to blog but after I did it a couple of times I really got into it.  It started out as Ann's Musings on Geology and Other Things.  But the title was too long and cumbersome and it was hard to create links for it.  I found by switching to Gallivanting Rockhound  it was easier to work with. The trouble was my definition of Gallivanting and other peoples were not the same and I started to get inundated with sexual things that I had absolutely no interest in.  So once again I changed names.  I tried to go back to Ann's Musings but it wouldn't let me so I had to come up with something else and that was  Rockhounding Around.  I must admit that Rockhounding Around is a better name and suits me more.  When I came up with Ann's Musings I had to come up with something fast and really didn't think much about it and just did the first thing that came to my mind.  With Rockhounding Around that's what this blog is more about - an amateur geologist that likes to travel and take pictures.  I really liked having a place where I could store and write about the pictures I've taken while traveling and how so much of it applies to geology.  When I write something, its so much fun to do some research on it and relearn, or learn for the 1st time, things that have always fascinated me.  I just like being able to share what I've learned with others.
     After awhile I broke the Accretionary Wedge stuff away from this blog so that I could concentrate more on my pictures that I take while traveling.  My other blog is Wondering Rockhound.  That blog is basically inactive since the moderator for the Accretionary Wedge has stopped doing his job and other geologists have stopped offering to be hosts.  I still think its a good idea and hope someday it starts up again and I can be active in it again. When it happens that blog will be activated again.
 
    Some blogs get popular real fast and those people reach high number quickly.  Unfortunately my blog is not like this and most of the people who visit it do it though a google search.  Because I always have had such few viewers I've haven't done much about having followers or tracking of viewers like some of the other bloggers have done.  But I do appreciate people coming and looking at this stuff.  It does make it feel like its all worth doing, and it is a fun hobby to have. I do enjoy sharing things with other people and it is always an ego booster when I see a image of mine being used in another place.  I'm an artist at heart and taking photo's is one of my creative outlets - when others like it enough to share with others then it gives me a feeling of satisfaction that others enjoyed it enough and thought it worry enough for other to see too.

Again thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
In ending, there is a saying that is attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that I'm paraphrasing (and may get wrong) but it goes like this:
       'Wise men share ideas, common men share events, and lower class people gossip".
  I have always been one to share ideas and love learning new things.  Feel free to share your ideas too.