Re-opening the Hermann Park Garden Center

If you read this blog, you know that Hermann Park is one of my favorite places in Houston. It's got the Japan Festival, the Houston Garden Center (which includes the herb garden, the rose garden, the Chinese Pavilion), the zoo, a lake, Miller Outdoor Theater, and it's within walking distance of the best museums in town. If I could live in the park, I would. 

As I reported earlier this year, Hermann Park is celebrating its 100th anniversary by making over the Garden Center. Last weekend, the public was allowed to see what has been done. It was supposed to be a grand opening, but they're not quite finished (heavy rains pushed back the schedule) so it's more of a preview. 

Not quite finished yet

The first thing you notice is the hill. It has a spiral path leading to the top, so it resembles an enormous green snail shell. The black stripes are planted with ivy, so eventually it will be completely green.

the hill, that stripe is actually a cascade.

The old garden center has been demolished and replaced with a new, modern building, with more light and room for exhibitions and displays. 

New layout, from top of the the hill. The new garden center is at the end, the rose garden will be on the right and the citrus orchard on the left. The trellises on both sides are planted with vines, so someday, there will be shade.

The rose garden has not been replanted yet. You can see where it will be, but it's empty beds right now. 

The Chinese pavilion has been placed in a grove of pine trees, with a view of the rose garden and the statue of Confucius.

On the opposite side of the garden from the roses, is a vegetable garden and citrus orchard, with rustic log benches and raised beds made of wood and galvanized metal.  This makes it completely different in feel from the formal garden, which is only a juniper hedge away. As with the rose garden, they haven't finished yet, so there are lots of little signs saying things like "Coming soon - Mint"!

Everything is ready to grow, the retaining walls on the mound are planted with ivy, the paths are planted with vines, even the parking lot has been planted with shade trees.

the parking lot, hope the trees grow quickly

I loved the new chairs, which are really comfortable. I just needed a drink for the whole thing to be perfect.

Once all the plantings settle in and have had a few seasons to grow, it should be lovely. I'm looking forward to seeing it get even better.

'Bowl' ing

Last week, I found a map of Houston's Museum District and realized that there were a lot of museums that I had never heard of, let alone visited, so I am making it my summer project to go see the little museums around town.  Everyone knows about the Museum of Fine Arts, but how many people know that Houston has a Czech Museum? I didn't.

Saturday, I went to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, whose mission is "to advance education about the process, product and history of craft." There is a gallery, a little garden in the back (with some truly huge chard plants), workshops and a really neat little gift shop, where you can buy contemporary crafts.

A bowl of bowls!

I didn't know this when I decided to go, but my visit coincided with a charity event, Empty Bowls 2014. The place was filled with bowls donated by local artists and craftspeople. You chose a bowl, (or bowls) that you like and paid $25 per bowl. The proceeds went to the Houston Food Bank. Whole Foods got in on the act by giving a bowl of soup, a roll and a bottle of water to those purchasing bowls. 

Lunch, provided by Whole Foods. 

With an opportunity like that, I had to stick around and see what was on offer.  

More bowls than you would have thought possible. Wooden bowls, bowls made of laminated paper, felt, clay, and even vinyl. Crocheted bowls, which if you turned them over, looked suspiciously like hats.  Bowls in every color of the rainbow, and incised with geometric patterns. 

If you were willing to pay more, there were "bump-it" bowls, which were larger and extremely lovely. And there was a silent auction of bowls that had been commissioned for the event. 

Wouldn't that be a surprise under your morning cornflakes?

I bought two, a delicate and simple turned maple bowl, and a brightly glazed pottery one with colors that called to me. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but it's $50 for the food bank, and that's what's important. 

My pottery bowl. I love the swirl.

Hermann Park - 2014

Saturday, I was at a loose end so I grabbed the camera and headed to Hermann Park. 

Hermann is my favorite of Houston's parks. It's close to the Museum District, it's home to the Miller Outdoor Theater, and unlike most of the other parks, it is not inundated with exercise fanatics. Hermann is a place to relax, people watch, sleep beneath the trees and enjoy the day. If you want to work out, go to Memorial. 

It's also a photographer's paradise, with gorgeous spreading oak trees, fountains, sculptures, reflecting ponds, a Japanese garden etc. Most weekends you will see people posing for cameras all over the park. I particularly love watching the quinceñeras, the dresses are so bright and fluffy.

2014 marks the centennial of Hermann Park, so there are a lot of things planned: performances, new art installations, and most importantly, the rose garden on the North side of the park has been bulldozed, along with the herb garden and garden center. The space is being completely re-done, but right now it just looks like a huge pile of dirt. 

This is supposed to become some kind of mount/water feature

stranded in the parking lot

 But even with the construction, Hermann does not lack charm. It also helped that the first flowers of spring were showing.

flowering pear branches

Japanese lantern and a redbud tree

Snowy egret

One of the new art installations, a house woven from twigs. 

So keep your eye on the park, who knows what's coming up next?

Walking through Rice

The docent said the carvings are supposed to be representative of what happens on campus. Here, women and sports tempt a student away from his books. I love the parasol and the old-fashioned football gear.

Last weekend I went on a walking tour of Rice University. I've been there before (I've taken a few continuing education classes) but I'd never really explored the campus.

It's a huge campus, 295 acres (not as big as my alma mater, UT, but still, a good walk). Originally, it was out in the suburbs, but the city has grown up around it. Now, it's an easy 10 minute walk from campus to the Texas Medical Center.

Although Rice's mascot is the owl, squirrels are plentiful

Rice was built under the influence of the City Beautiful Movement, and the campus was designed to be a public square, encouraging interaction. The architecture is a mixture of a lot different styles, but that's part of what makes it interesting to visit. There's modernism, and touches of gothic, a little Chinese architecture, and some Northern Italian. Like the city of Houston, it's a multi-national mixture that is uniquely itself.

over the door of the James Baker III Institute

AIA Houston sponsors the tour, which takes about 2 hours. If you go, you have to see the frog wall, which is not photogenic, but a high point of the tour.  I'm still trying to think of a way to install something similar in my house.

The James Turrell Skyspace - not at its best at 11 am, but still striking.
I love the way it makes you focus on the qualities of natural light.

One of our tour members dressed for the occasion

It might be January, but there are still a few flowers left

My mental image of Rice: arches and oaks.

Fun fact: Superbowl VIII was at Rice. 

Not a under a live oak, but still lovely

The campus is covered in and surrounded by live oaks.  From outside the campus, you barely see the University, just avenues of oaks. This is not only beautiful, but practical, as Rice was built before air-conditioning. Houston weather demands as much shade as possible. There are tables and chairs set up under trees all over campus, taking full advantage of the shade and encouraging outdoor living (hard to do in Houston). 

HMNS: Fabergé and Dinosaurs

 

The Houston Museum of Natural Science opened a Fabergé exhibit this weekend, and y'all know I am all about the bling.

 

I don't wear diamond pins, but then again, I don't have any (I'm open to offers). And the necklace (right) has the most beautiful moonstones I've ever seen. Jewelry exhibits should have replicas you can try on.

The enamelling on the egg is amazing. I don't know if you can see it, but all the edges are done with a millegrain technique. Very impressive. 

Isn't the bird delightful? The choice of stone with the natural blush falling in exactly the right places on the head and wings. I love how the bird's claws aren't exactly even on the ring, but slightly lopsided, just like a live bird.   

After oohing and ahhing over all the pretty things, I went to see the museum's new wing: The Morian Hall of Palentology.

Wow! Just wow! It's an amazing display. It's arranged so that the visitor goes through time, from the earliest, simple, uni-cellular organisms all the way to mastadons and modern humans. There is even a side section, devoted to fossilized trees called "Jurrasic Bark". (really) Who says museum curators don't have a sense of humor?

 

Stromatolite colony

This one is called "Happy Puppy" and is a coal age frog-oid. One of the highlights of the exhibit is how they tried to make the exhibits as dynamic as possible. The skeletons appear to swim, run and attack each other. Like I said earlier: Wow!

Before this exhibit, I didn't know that trilobites rolled up when attacked, like armadillos or doodlebugs.












I forget what these are, but they make great patterns on the rock.













Tails of a couple of dinosaurs.  Me trying to be artistic.

Don't forget to look up!  Some amazing things are suspended from the ceiling. This turtle is the size of my car.

Fossilized wood. To me the pattern looks like a reclining woman, with her arms stretched out. What do you see?















Museums have the best gift shops. 

Places to Visit: Alexander Deussen Park



Going to visit the buffalo

This past Saturday was gorgeous; cool and sunny, it would have been criminal to stay indoors. So I grabbed my camera and headed out to Alexander Deussen Park.  

Alexander Deussen is mostly trees, fields and some playgrounds, but there's a boat launch (the park backs up on Lake Houston) a duck pond (if you need to get rid of stale bread) and a small herd of buffalo. Unfortunately, the buffalo were out Saturday, so I don't have any pictures of them. It was mostly a bird and people watching day.

   

Vultures!

I love the combination of signs. Anywhere else, they'd say "Danger! Alligators!" - here it's "Don't feed the animals"

 

 

 

Pelicans are like a line of chorus girls, always facing the same way.

Ducks are more chaotic, which makes them frustrating to

photograph, but more interesting.

 





A birthday party.

The best decorated crawfish hole I've ever seen.

Alexander Deussen is not a fancy park, with statues, fountains and formal gardens, like some I've seen in Europe (and they are lovely) but more in the American style of nature preserve. The trees are a bit sparse right now (the drought killed a lot) but it's a pleasant place to take the dog for a walk, go fishing, or have a family barbecue.





Weekend update

I spent a very cultural weekend, starting with  at  Miller Outdoor Theater on Friday night. Miller is wonderful, not just because it's in the middle of one of my favorite parks, but because it's free and the programs are terrific. Case in point, Friday's program by Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernandez. If you ever get the chance to see them, go, it was fantastic.

I also saw "Life is a Dream" by Pedro Calderon de La Barca performed at the Main Street Theater. My friend Vero, who is Spanish and has actually read the original, told me that the translation was very good. A wonderful play.

But I didn't spend all my time at the theater - I was productive. I mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, cuddled the cat, did the laundry, bought groceries and went to every kitchenware store in Humble looking for a tart ring for a recipe I want to try. The other notable (stupid) thing I did was weed whack my own leg when I was edging the lawn. Ouch! 

Don't do this.

At least the lawn looks good.

Bayou City Art Festival

Floating display in the reflecting pool in front of City Hall

One of the bi-annual perks of living in Houston is the Bayou City Art Festival. Every Spring and Fall, artist from all over the United States come and show their works for two days. There's just about everything you could imagine, and quite a few things you never thought of. 

I don't know what they are but they do make you stop and look. Do you ever have the feeling that some people live in a far more interesting universe than you?

I have an abstract print from a previous show. I didn't buy anything this year, although that fox is awfully tempting.  I may have to look that artist up and see if they still have it.