A Touch of Whimsy

While the memory of ice cream melts away (although I do believe plans may be afoot for another division playoff leading up to the ice cream super bowl), I thought I’d enliven your day with a little whimsy. Have you read Love Does by Bob Goff? You really should. Bob is a great believer in whimsy (read my interview with Bob here–I’m hiding behind my alter ego “WOF” but it’s really me. Don’t tell.)

Another proponent of whimsy was Douglas Chandor, of Chandor Gardens fame. I mean, just look at this:

The Chinese Moon Gate

It’s not the sort of thing one finds in the average Texas backyard. Or how about this?

It’s a normal, flat door. All the cool stuff is paint.

I mean, anyone can put a boring ol’ door in their wall. Whimsy demands a little something extra.

I have to confess, after seeing that I did come home and stand in front of several doors in my house going “Hmmmmm.”

Note these gates. This gate? Is that a plural or singular…? Whatever. There’s a story (of course). The Chandors were in Manhattan, I believe, visiting their friend Vincent Bendix, who had these gates hanging on his wall. There was some conversation about the garden, I gather, and when the Chandors returned home to Weatherford, the gate(s) were waiting for them. Here’s a close up (they were recently restored and look rather fab): In honor of his friend, Mr. Chandor left a little tribute on the path.

“Good old Vincent, here are your windows”

Whimsical, yes?

Speaking of, the day we were at the gardens a group was setting up the most amazing baby shower in the sunken “bowling green” area. We gawked shamelessly and even took some pics of their decor. They didn’t invite us to stay, and we hadn’t brought a gift, so eventually we wandered off to a noteworthy restaurant for lunch. More about that in another post.

Until next time, have a whimsical day!

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A Walk Along the Water

As we continue our mini-tour of Chandor Gardens, walk this way and admire the water feature. Make that water features…streams, ponds, a waterfall–they’re everywhere. I find that when it’s 100+ degrees—like many spots around the country about now—staring dreamily at pictures of water can be very soothing. So consider this post a mini retreat; just a little gift from me to you.

Check out this sweet walkway–do you know what those stepping stones are? They’re millstones! How genius is that? If millstones had opinions, they’d probably enjoy their new life away from all that dusty grain. Such fun to walk across, too. Here’s another look with a view of the awesome arbor that had lush plants hanging from it… And once you get to the middle of said pond you can see the boat! It may not go very fast…or at all…but isn’t it sweet?

And, as promised, a waterfall:

I feel cooler just looking at this lovely bridge over the lily pond. It’s so what my spinster friends and I used to call “ro-tic” (that would be “romantic” minus the “man”). And with that, I’ll sign off. I have one more batch of fabulous to share in the next post, but until then, if you find yourself in Weatherford, go visit Chandor Gardens and you can see all this for yourself. I’ll bet that even in the July heat, all that water will make you feel cooler.

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Down the Garden Path

We have come to that time of year when my gardening activity tends to consist of looking out the window of my air-conditioned home at my poor, sweltering plants and saying, “Good luck out there! Luv ya. Mean it.” Besides, I’m busy refining my Spar for the Spurtle entry. So I thought I’d revisit a garden outing from earlier this year, when it was cooler.

For years I’d been saying, “We really need to go to Chandor Gardens.” But it’s in Weatherford, which is somewhere on the other side of Fort Worth or something (my geography gets a little hazy past Irving). But after spending the night in Arlington after the infamous Opera Tailgate we were halfway there, so off we went.

This is just the entrance.

The garden was the creation of Edward Chandor, an English portrait artist who married a Weatherford girl. He bought this house: And proceeded to turn the acreage around it into a fantasy of a garden. Check out the courtyard fountain:

That’s some slate, a flowerpot, and a few other bits and bobs.

There are multiple water features and fountains, built by Douglas out of this, that, and the other. The next one is a bit more elaborate:

I can’t even remember what all was in this one, but I know marbles and Coke bottles are part of the design.

Don’t you love gates? Open ones always seem to be an invitation. (Closed ones always seem to me like something really awesome must be on the other side. That or a big dog.) And look, once you accept the gates’ invitation, there’s a message on the sidewalk! If you like things a little funky and full of whimsy, Chandor Gardens is full of inspiration.

Is it a tree? A planter? A pair of bark-covered pants?

In fact, I took so many photos of so many lovely and fantastical things that I’ll have to save some for the next post. So until then, stay cool and think happy garden thoughts.

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Roses are Red (& Yellow & White & Apricot &…)

On our way to the center of the ice cream universe we stopped at the Antique Rose Emporium. The name doesn’t do it justice, it’s huge! Acres of gorgeousness…they even have their own chapel. I could live there. Well, I could if they’d just let me move in here: It’s outside Brenham, so one could make regular ice cream runs. I suppose all the tourists might be a problem…and they may have other plans for that house…but I’m sure that could be overcome, don’t you think? We wandered happily about the garden for some time and had to drag ourselves away. I mean, look at all this!
Not only was it lovely, the staff were full of helpful information about roses. We stopped and smelled plenty along the way, too. Totally worth a trip!

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Now Then, Where Were We?

Probably here;

“Bloomers” as in flowers, not unmentionables.

On our recent Conroe trip, every time we said we were going to the Antique Rose Emporium someone would ask, “Are you going to Martha’s Bloomers?” Well, heck, we can take a hint. And it’s in Navasota, on our way, so why not? It’s a lovely spot: and they have a tea room, so we went there for lunch. Sadly, they were out of the first 3 things I ordered and what I got was eminently forgettable, but never mind. They have cats.

That’s a real cat curled up amongst the merch. My kind of store.

On the other hand, we might have been here:

Ladies, beware. It’s dangerous in there.

This fabulous store is in Montgomery and one could spend hours there perusing the beautiful things, tasting wine, trying on jewelry, reading cookbooks, trying to decide which antique chandelier to buy. As they say, The Rancher’s Daughter is a “purveyor of things fine and funky.” Oh yes, it is.

But enough of this lollygagging. We came this direction for a purpose–and after only a few detours, we reached our destination only to be greeted with this heartbreaking sign.

Oh, the tragedy.

And where were we? Ice cream heaven.

The promised land.

Now, the tour thing was a problem, but it didn’t stop us from going upstairs to the ice cream parlor, which was a good thing, because as Rosemary’s bib says…

Alas, it’s only too true.

We fought our way through crowds of spring break trippers to the counter, stood more or less patiently in line…

So close…

And achieved our goal.

Seriously. It doesn’t get much better than this.

The crankies were avoided for another day.

At last….my-y-y luh-uh-uhve has come along…

And all was well.

We take our ice cream seriously here in Texas.

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Tailgating at the Opera

When I saw The Dallas Opera had Mozart’s Magic Flute on their schedule, I planned to go to a performance. But when they announced a simulcast . . . at Cowboys Stadium . . . FREE . . . I knew it was a can’t miss opportunity.
Since the show was at the great temple of football, it seemed only appropriate to tailgate. I understand typical tailgate fare is along the burgers & brats line—but this was the opera. And that required something rather different.

All this for one meal. That’s what happens when you travel with foodies.

We arrived in good time, found an appropriate spot, put on our aprons and got to work.

Looks like we’re setting up camp, doesn’t it?

Chillin’ and grillin’

These lovely steaks came from Local Yocal, a fabulous little store just off the McKinney square. They’re local, grass-fed beef. (The steaks, not the store.)

Steak. Mmmmmm.

Remember those little foil packets from Camp Fire Girl cookouts? Vikki took that concept and upgraded it a bit.

Yes. That is lobster. We had matching packets of snow crab.

Except for a sudden gust of wind that threatened to blow our table away, everything went remarkably smoothly.

Dinner’s on the stove.

And this is what we ended up with:

It tasted even better than it looks.

Steak, lobster, snow crab, blue cheese & walnut potato salad, and grilled asparagus. Oh, and champagne. Because, you know, we were at the opera. Then there was dessert.

I got the shortcake recipe from over at Eat Make Read and it’s definitely a keeper. Meanwhile, other people arrived. LOTS of other people. 15,000 other people, give or take. Our local classical station, WRR, held a tailgate party in another parking lot and we originally planned to go, but by the time we cleaned up it was time to go to the performance. The pregame show had already started by the time we found our seats, which were fabulous. We were in the club section (comfy leather chairs) on the 50 yard line, dead center to a screen roughly the size of Rhode Island. It was an amazing view.

Opera Pregame Show

We lost subtitles a couple of times, but our trio has sung enough German works we were able to get the gist of the plot. A wonderful experience all round! When it was over (three hours later) we went back to the car and munched on brownies while waiting for the traffic to clear. (Oh yeah, we do know how to party.) And the next day, the party continued. But more about that later.

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Another Day, Another Adventure

Not long ago the eternal optimists at the timeshare invited me out for another sales pitch meeting. (You’d think they’d learn.) This time, instead of going to my usual Hill Country Resort, we decided to head to the Piney Shores of Conroe.
The usual suspects (Rosemary, Vikki, and I) packed the car full of snacks
and set off on a weekend adventure.

Naturally, we left the main road behind asap to wend through the country and found ourselves a winery. We began at Bernhardt Winery, run by family of the famous Sarah Bernhardt herself.

Bernhardt Winery, Plantersville, TX

Charming folk, tasty wine, lovely setting, and a completely adorable birdhouse.

How adorable is that?

Next we wandered through the wildflowers to Cork This! Winery in Montgomery, which was so much fun I forgot to get a photo. (They do botox, wine & chocolate evenings, girls.) The nice wine lady there directed us across the parking lot and down a side street to this place for dinner. They serve, um, Texas food. Like this:

Special du jour?

Dedicated foodies that we are, we had to try… their chicken fried steak. Which was, I do believe, the best I have ever eaten. Anywhere. Including my kitchen. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked, perfectly perfect. With the light fading, we waddled past this rather fascinating wreck of a house: and down to Retreat Hill Cellars, our third winery of the day (but who’s counting?) in the former bank building.
And that was just day one. All this time I thought that part of Texas was boring. So. Not. Montgomery alone is well worth the trip and we didn’t even get to half the stuff there. Small town, big fun factor. All just a few short hours south of Dallas.

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Flower Friday: Fences

They say good fences make good neighbors. Personally, I have a crummy fence and great neighbors, but since my fence doesn’t touch their property it’s probably irrelevant. But I digress… What I really want to point out is that a good fence also makes a great backdrop for flowers. Virginia seems to be full of fabulous fences with equally fabulous flowers…

I'm so recreating this in my backyard.

Here’s the view from the other side:

We spent the night here; more about that later.

This classic combo was at our timeshare. It makes a lovely corner to tuck in these especially gorgeous daylilies:

I don't have any this color in my yard. Yet.

And look at this sweet little fence-let:

In case you were wondering what to do with your leftover skinny branches...

Then again, sometimes a fence doesn’t even need flowers to look good:

Found this one at Yorktown Victory Center

This one is in NC at Biltmore (it might be a railing, but that's fence-ish)

Good fences, every one. (Unless that last one is a railing, I really don’t remember…but whatever it is, it’s gorgeous!)

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General Washington’s Army

Maybe it’s the former drama major in me, but I love a good “pretend” and Williamsburg, VA is full of opportunities to play. Take our visit to the Yorktown Victory Center: it’s not the official historical site, but it is grand fun.

Don't you just love a man in uniform?

We had a lovely time chatting with the Colonial Army and admiring their quarters. (Their sleeping quarters, not their change.) Captain Morris must have been out on a mission; we poked around on his desk while he was gone.

Trusting soul, to leave all that out.

As we were decidedly not Tory spies, no harm was done. I particularly like the laundry area…note that they make a point on the sign that they use soap. Clearly an exemplary establishment.

Scrub a dub dub.

On a random note, one thing they do have is George Washington’s actual tent that he lived in during the Revolution. It’s preserved behind glass, but it’s set up so you can get a good look at it and it’s quite impressive. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of that; it didn’t come out. Take my word for it or go see for yourself.

We were most entertained while there by the musket and cannon demonstration. The little boy who came out of the crowd to help fire the cannon was so well-trained he had to be told it was OK to toss the…whatever it was…on the ground. (I can’t remember exactly, but it was something to do with the fuse, I think.) No silencers on these puppies; muskets are loud and produce impressive amounts of smoke. Just imagine what it must have been like with scores of these going off at once. It must have been difficult to see who you were supposed to be fighting on the battlefield. This being a pretend, and as the Colonial Army is not currently engaged in battle, they let anybody hold their weapons. (Yes, we let the kids go first.)

Yes, I know that's not the way to hold it, but it was a photo op, not a battle.

And one final thought, from my old crush John Adams…

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The Glass Guy

I’m not quite sure how it happens, but everywhere we go there’s “a glass guy.” Wimberley, Texas. Cape Cod, Massachusetts. And now, Jamestown, Virginia. They started trying to make glass in Jamestown round about 1608. They imported German and Polish glass guys to try and make a go of it. Sadly, things did not go well. They tried again in 1622. And failed again.

But you know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed…skydiving is not for you. No, wait, I meant “try, try again.” So some four hundred years later, glassmaking is alive and well in Jamestown.

It's hot in there. Really, really hot.

Note the orb of molten glass. That's hot, too. Like 2,350 degrees hot. Seriously.

When they’re finished, you end up with pieces like these:

Look at all that lovely glass.

The natural color of glass is green, because sand has iron oxide or rust in it naturally. So naturally, the piece I bought was green. And gorgeous. And will appear in my next post. (I have a cunning plan. Trust me, it’ll look better there.)

So there’s my latest glass guy. Do you have a “glass guy” where you live? Do tell! I’ve discovered this latent love for handcrafted glass pieces and I’m always up for another trip. Or is there some other kind of person/activity/thing you always find on trips? Tell us about it!

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