Allison Gillies

Allison Gillies paints large, so large that the usual run of canvases don’t provide enough space for her expansive ideas of color, shape and texture. She tried making her own canvases out of fabric from Wal-Mart, but that didn’t work either. An old tarp in her father’s garage reminded her of a sail, and her quest for something big enough to hold her ideas was over.

Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, just off US Hwy 26, is just seven miles from DFW Airport. Located on 52 acres the place has plenty of “wow factor.” Pulling into the parking area, a question came from the backseat, “Is that a space ship?” From seeing the pictures on the hotel’s website I knew that the “space ship” was just one of the four big water slides.

Road Trip!

Want to know how important bees are to the production of food? See for yourself in the Heard Museum’s Living Lab. Watch the busy bees come and go (they have access to the outside, but not to the visitor area) and make honey in a series of very active hives.

Pond Boss

Bob Lusk of Gordonville wears two hats. One hat transforms him into the publisher/editor of a successful little magazine called Pond Boss. When he puts on the other hat he really is a pond boss, traveling the country designing and overseeing the construction, stocking and management of private lakes and recreational ponds. No matter which hat is on his head, Lusk’s passion for fish has brought him national recognition.

Queen with a Curl

The ice cream was too cold, and that got J. F. McCullough to thinking. Mc-Cullough and his son Alex had started the Homemade Ice Cream Company in Davenport, Iowa, in 1927, and they had done pretty well, eventually moving to a former cheese factory in Green River, Illinois, and converting it to make ice cream mix.

Texas Red Dirt Music

Texoma is deep in the heart of the Red Dirt music scene. Taking their names from the iron- oxide-rich soil that colors the Red River, Red Dirt trailblazers such as Cross Canadian Ragweed and Stoney LaRue blurred the line between country and rock in Oklahoma and let the winds carry the grit south to Texas, where artists such as Texoma’s Spur 503 have put their own spin on the dirt.

Pumpkins

Did you know that pumpkin pie originated when early Americans scooped out thick-walled pumpkins, filled them with milk, spices and honey, and baked them slowly in the ashes of a fire? I don’t know when I fell in love with pumpkins, those colorful globes, bright and round as beach balls.