From question to inspiration….

Missouri City: a bedroom community.  That is about the extent of my knowledge of Missouri City. And it isn’t hard to figure out; there is a sign as you come down Texas Parkway that says the population is 67,000+ and there are grocery stores, shopping strips, government buildings, CARS and houses.  There are no high-rise office buildings, no hospital, no manufacturing.  Most of  the houses seem to have been built in the 70s and 80s and now south and west of  here there are two large areas of even larger, very upscale houses being built.  Yes, there is work someplace that pays very well and everyone drives there to work, and then drives home again to sleep – the typical bedroom community.

To tell the truth I haven’t thought much about its history, really didn’t think it had one.  I thought that it is just another add-on to Houston as it spreads itself across the southern plains of Texas, but with a little internet search (thank goodness for Google search) I found out that the towns in this area date back into the mid 1800.  That Missouri City itself sprang up as a railroad town.  And that, what is now highway 90 was once its main street that ran parallel to the still existing and active railroad tracks.  That, even then it was a bedroom community, its citizens taking the train to Sugarland to work in the sugar mills. 

During this time the area also had farms, ranches, and sugar and tobacco plantations, (needing the train ) and around 1925 oil was found, and still more recently natural gas fields.  (I am getting to the point….)  One of the sugar plantation was owned by The Dew brothers, in fact it was called the Dew Brother Plantation. (!) The original home has been blown down, burned down, neglected and modified, but still stands.  The city picked it up, lock stock and barrel, as we say in these parts,  and moved it to Kitty Hollow Park and named it the Dewalt Heritage Center.  It is now used for classes, weddings and other official functions.  I need to go see the inside spaces.  If the photos seem to be tilted this was soon after the house was dropped here and there were yellow/orange temporary keep out fences all around….  and I was walking the dog.  “… sit Spritzer, sit, stay… NO sit – just sit for a minute….OK lets walk….”

      

Winter is here,

Four days ago we woke to ice on the car windows, it was 20’ outside.  Today it is 62 reaching into the 70s.  This is Houston during the winter months.  Like the rest of the USA, we have had nearly 3 months of unusually cool temperatures this fall, giving us fall colors; trees turning all shades of bright orange and yellow, and even two nights of hard freeze in December and now in January, usually the real winter in Houston, we are up in the seventies with bright blue skies and warm southern breezes.

Today, the only thing telling me that it is winter is the mix of bare branched trees and the still green, native live oaks.  

This blow from the north, icy air temperatures and winds shifting to the south with warm, humid air flowing in, gives us constantly changing scenes.  Bright and clear one day and dark and moody the next as the cold air moves across the warm water, and warm wet ground creating layers of  morning fog. 

2014 – a new year

… The New Year; Interpret as you wish; from celebrations in your towns to personal reflections and resolutions; what does the coming New Year mean to you?

Yes, I will write this.  I have sat down, stood up, got another cup of coffee and a yogurt, sat down, stood up, walked in a circle and sat down again.    It is time to put it down on paper (screen doesn't sound as romantic).  2013 was all about losing Camillo.  Change, adjustment, uncertainty and more uncertainty, but also tears and laughter, more sadness and little joy; there is no way to talk about 2013 and what is to come in 2014 without including him in the story.  So I write.

2013 – a long year, a fast year, filled with things to do, legal things and just things.  I traveled, avoiding staying at my daughter’s house for long periods; trying to hang on to travel, one of the things that made us a couple.  Travel, we did a lot of it and I tried to hang on. 

I went to Sarasota Fl. to visit my sister in her winter home.  I flew back to Brasil for a week to take care of banking issues; walking the downtown streets looking for Camillo.  I spent a month in Michigan trying to stick with a plan of driving around the state to see more, but mainly sitting on the sofa watching TV with my mother, (a good thing really).  Driving to Michigan with RioRose and back home with Patty, seeing the country; trying to hang on to, but returning with new resolve to let go.

A broken arm in July slowed me down but didn't stop my Italy Trip.  One month in a rented apartment in Rome, walking, walking, walking; eating goat’s cheese and parmesan, drinking coffee with milk, spending time with Camillo’s sister, a bit of wine and a little more Prosecco (sparkling white wine): prosciutto di Parma, green sweet olives and fresh tomatoes from the market; all of our favorite things.  And for myself: long walks with the camera, finding a small pastry shop, going to wine tastings, eating gelato of all flavors, buying train tickets by myself, travel to Lucca and writing a long letter to Camillo, telling him of my experiences in Italy.  Knowing he was smiling all the while.  Coming home with new( er) resolve.  Feeling courageous and happy: I can do this.

Then the holidays.  A bit of a set back.  Now the tears where there haven't been any before.  Maybe now I am really letting go and letting go hurts.  I finally hung his picture on the wall of my room.  I still have his shaving lotion in a bag under my bed – it is losing its ‘Camillo’ smell.  Seeing his children and grandchildren enjoying the house in Friburgo over the holidays – hurts.  But I don't think I am still looking backwards, maybe the eyes are a little more in front.  ‘What to do next’ is more prominent than ‘what we did then’. 

This is what 2014 will be about.  What next?  The real Transition. Some plans:   I know now that plans are to be left behind, forgotten, changed, remade, reinvented, rediscovered, but it is a direction.  Plans are not sitting watching TV or playing games on the iPad.  Plans are movement, energy, forward: change.  And change is not forgetting but using the past to make the future better.  Now, I know these things, the phrases roll of my pen (keyboard doesn’t do it) with ease, now I just have to use this bit of knowledge to make change happen.  This next week I start looking for a small house or a large apartment to make Spritzer and my home.  This is the biggest, most important step to take for all other plans hinge from that location, wherever it may be. 

Happy New Year to all my blogger friends, and to my family.  Much love and happiness to you all for many years to come. 

GingerV

Houston Parks continued, Cullinan Park in Sugarland

Over the past few years I have posted about several Houston parks that I walked while visiting Houston.  Houston has beautiful natural space and I love walking around them, meandering, taking photos.  Now, as a permanent resident, I have joined a couple walking / hiking groups locally, and after many delays, I’ve finally been able to join a couple of the long walks through our local parks.  I look forward to doing more of this walking – social – exercise and sharing them with you as the seasons in Houston change. 

The Houston metropolitan area is laced with waterways.  We are a drainage basin for two major rivers, Brazos River to the west of Houston (i.e. Brazos Bend State Park) and to the east the Trinity makes its ways down from the Texas / Oklahoma border.  These rivers are joined by many creeks, bayous, and smaller rivers as they make their way through the Houston area.  Because of them we have many State and Federal Parks, and nature / bird reserves and estuaries.  All of this lends itself well to nature trails and other hiking, biking, horseback riding, and fishing activities.  My activity of choice is hiking.  Hiking with the camera, of course. 

This time of year and on this particular day, it is rainy, brown and gray, and the sky washes out to a bright white.  I am sure there is a way to edit these white skies or filter them when taking the photo, but I don’t know how so you see what I saw on this day in mid December, close to the first day of winter.  The colors of a  pre-winter day; all fading out as winter gets here in earnest.  In an attempt to get the colors in the photos to be close to the colors I saw, I used an edit special effect of applying ‘oil painting’.  I was please with the results.

 

Light up the town….

Houston, like most towns in the USA are lit up at night year around.  This time of year, Christmas time, many homes and businesses add lights to brighten our nights even more.  I decided to not post Christmas lights for what lights up my town, but to show the atmosphere that is around us all of the time.  This particular place is a about 10 miles from home, (Patty’s house) and a great place to go at most times of the year for a hamburger and a beer.  The Fountains, on the Southwest Freeway at Kirkwood, has a string of restaurants along a man-made pond.  Lots of lights, outside seating, warm air, high humidity nearly all year round, blasting music muted by the water and humidity and more bright lights, being absorbed into the atmosphere, makes it just right for a stroll along the water’s edge.