The 2009 Austin Pond Tour was this last weekend, July 18-19. It was my first time going on the tour, and I’m so glad I set aside time for it, though I didn’t get to go to all the ponds, just mostly ones on Saturday. Such beautiful water features across Austin! I was most impressed. Some were engineering feats, others were just plain huge, and still others kept the “Keep Austin Weird” motto fully alive. I took hundreds of pictures of the gardens I visited, which is way too many for a blog, so I’ll give you a highlight. It’s still a lot of photos — sorry!

I really appreciate the Austin pond owners opening up their yards and giving us all so much of their time to let us visit their ponds. I think every yard was incredible, and though I can’t show all the pictures here, nor did I get to visit every home on the tour, I truly wish I could share a glimpse of all the wonderful yards we saw. The night-time shots, as expected, didn’t turn out, but if I could share with you the wow factor presented by those ponds, I would.

I found that I was particularly drawn to the owner-built, whimsical ponds, so you’ll see more pictures of those in this selection.

These last photos are all from one home. Believe me, I’m not even showing you half of the cool stuff at this place.  🙂

Wave goodbye! Thank you again, Austin Pond Tour home owners and volunteers!