Paying a visit to Miss Hogg's gardens.

Yesterday dawned sunny and bright. My azaleas were quiveringly in bud, and I knew that the azaleas at Bayou Bend were bound to be in full glory.

Bayou Bend was the home of Miss Ima Hogg, the daughter of one of the governors of Texas. When she was 44 years old, back in the 1920's, she endeavored to create a home and garden in the heart of Houston. Today that garden is open to the public year around.

The trick is to visit the garden at the peak of flowering perfection!
I knew that Wednesday, yesterday, was to be sunny; not too hot and not too cold. Thursday was to rain, then it would warm up and be cloudy. Surely the flowers will go past peak facing those challenges.

Should I wait for the weekend so Laura and Bernie could go with me?
Shouldn't I just stay home and clean the bathrooms and vacuum like a good little housefrau?
I felt guilty considering going to such beauty when Laura and Bernie were toiling at their jobs. I even felt guilty thinking about my BGF Gail in Colorado working away at Focus on the Family.

I emailed her and told her what I was feeling.
Her reply: GO!!!! ENJOY every bit, and share the day later via photos. She would walk about outside on her own lunch break and enjoy what springtime she could find there, and think about the springtime I would be enjoying here.

So....here are some of the pictures Gail!
(Remember you can click on each picture to enlarge it to full screen size.)

The bridge you go on to enter the gardens.

Miss Hogg's home, now a museum of American historical furnishings.

Now that is only a preview of what I saw.
If you'd like to walk the grounds with me, see more of the pictures and read my comments, click HERE and start the slide show to join me in my stroll through Bayou Bend gardens. You can click through the pictures one by one, or click on the SLIDESHOW option on the sidebar to see them full screen with a black background.

Oh, it was beautiful. And even was made better because I knew I could share it with you...yes, you, dear reader, and Gail. I hope if you are surrounded by wintery white today this walk through Southern springtime will serve to gladden your day.

Doors!

There is a posting project among a group of unrelated bloggers today.
The project is to post pictures on your blog that you have taken of interesting doors.

The project was first brought to my attention by a blogger who posts from Marrakesh.
You can see her door entries by clicking HERE
All the bloggers who agreed to participate are posting pictures that they have taken of doors.
Without further ado, here are my pictures of doors taken in several countries.

Blue door surrounded by bloom star jasmine. May 2007, Milan Italy.

Not technically a door, but a doorway now in a museum. May 2007 Milan Italy.

Church door photographed in Murren Switzerland. May 2007

Early 20th century cottage in Clayburn, British Columbia Canada. Photographed August 2007.

My own front door. Kingwood, Texas, USA.

November 2007

Inside view of my front door.
Kingwood Texas, USA.
Photographed Jan. 1, 2008

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Photographed December 2007

French Creole structure, built in early 1700's. Photographed in Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA.

Photographed Feb. 2008.

Church door, depicting Biblical stories and heroes, cast around 1980.

Photographed in Zurich, Switzerland.

June 2007.

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Bonus material:

Another door challenge, as viewed by a non-human species.

Not everyone enjoys doors.

Click HERE to see a quick video.

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To find links to other bloggers who are participating in this project, click HERE and and HERE to follow the posted links.

Following the links will provide you with an arm chair tour of doors around the globe.

Fabulous!

Thanks to Frank and Elizabeth and all the others who worked to make this this project happen!

Millinery: And the winner was....

You will see the winner of vote on "which hat to wear to the wedding" later in this post.
But first.....

The wedding had a rehearsal dinner with a Texas/Western theme. The wedding couple and their families were from San Diego (go figure....the couple have moved to Austin), so San Diego California girl Laura "cowgirl upped" and got herself a cowboy hat to wear to the event.

Cute, huh?
Yee haw!

Crystal did wear hat #1.
Doesn't she look glamorous as she waits for her friend's wedding to begin?

Actually I think both girls look fabulous.
Crystal's hat is a black sinamay "Inga" design, a designed conceived by Kate Pernia, and implemented/interpreted by myself in a class a few years back.
It's the same hat that I am wearing in my "about me" section of my blog.

LOVE that hat. It is light weight, and has a vintage mother-of-pearl buckle in the back, and chenille dotted veiling.

Laura is wearing a vintage black velvet halo cocktail hat, with a black veil trimmed with rhinestone/felted dot detail.
The hat belonged to Laura's grandmother Barbara, whose birthday we celebrated last week.

Don't they look like they are having fun?

The bride LOVED the hats, and especially loved the black veiling. The photographer asked if a special picture could be taken of the girls with their hats on.
I can't wait to see the professional photographer's pictures of the girls in their hats.

The "Inga" is held on via a back band of sinamay tucked under Crystal's hair. A crystal, pearl and hematite hat pin provides further stabilization.

The early bluebonnets called for special attention.
Which is more blue: Laura's eyes or the bluebonnets?

(I think it is too close to call that one.)

Laura said she wore the hat much lower on her forehead than these pictures showed.

I think both she and the hat look great in this picture.

I wonder why more women won't consider wearing a little veil now and then, especially to a wedding or fancy event.

Thanks to everyone who voted on which hat Crystal should wear to the wedding.

You definitely chose well, and I hope you enjoyed seeing her at the event in the hat that you selected.