Kathy & Clint's Engagement Pics

So when I met Kathy and Clint in Galveston for their session, my first thought was, "Aww, Kathy looks so pretty! and my second thought, as my eyes moved to Clint, was "HOLY COW! You look like Dave Matthews!"

Yeah, evidently he gets that a lot. They even have that same little eyebrow-raise expression... uncanny! At any rate, Kathy also brought along a helpful friend and the fabulous young lady who will be her flowergirl. The flowergirl was crazy hilarious and I can't wait to see her again at the wedding-- she's very entertaining!

We walked around The Strand Historic District for a while, then made our way over to Kempner Park. Garten Verein and its lovely grounds fared well through Hurricane Ike (no surprise, the octagonal pavilion also survived the storm of 1900 and the entire twentieth century), and though some of the vegetation wasn't quite back up on its feet, it still made for lovely portraits. The Strand had changed a little (my favorite bright blue bookstore wall is now a really neat blue and yellow tile mosaic... and still makes for a rockin' portrait background), but mostly seemed to be cleaned up with many of the businesses up and running.

Kathy and Clint met at Molly's, so we strayed a little from my usual path and took some pictures in front of the pub (see the embracing-in-doorway pic, last one of the bunch). I think it's so cute to have a little place like that, my husband and I met at a burrito joint, which just doesn't really carry the same romanticism/nostalgia as a cute little pub. So now, for your viewing pleasure... heeeeere are Kathy and Clint!

My grandmother, Josephine, was born in a small farming town in Texas (in the Brazos Valley). When she was 2 years old, Houston was just getting its first air-conditioned building. When she was 3, Houston was opening the doors of the Fine Arts Museum. As she was celebrating her eleventh birthday, the very first Houston Fat Stock Show & Rodeo was being held.

She got married in 1941, and moved with my grandfather to the city of Houston, where city planners were designing major thoroughfares in what would become the "loop" system, and the population was a bustling 380,000. The Medical Center was established a couple of years later, and eventually she saw the construction of Texas' first freeway, I-45.

In her life, she has seen the world go from horses to cars... she has lived life without running water and plumbing and cars. She's picked cotton in the fields and worked as a cook/housekeeper for an army officer-- who even from the front lines wrote home that he missed "Josephine's Pancakes".

She's lived near Memorial Park for over 50 years now-- in one of the "little old houses" that still remains among the new and modern townhomes that have taken over. Her home is still a comfortable gathering place for her 8 children, 18 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren... and she can often be found sitting out in the front porch swing on a nice day, enjoying the shade and the birds and the squirrels.

She is one of the sweetest, most giving women I know.

I've been trying for years to get her to sit for a portrait, but she always waves me off and tells me she doesn't need any portrait... well the medians along Westcott were brimming with bluebonnets this season, and she's a sucker for a pretty field of flowers. The fact that they were right out front of her neighborhood was just an added bonus! We planned a time, she got all gussied up for me, and I finally got her to let me do some portraits of her.

And then, in true Nana fashion, she went home and baked me a cake. Here she is, 87 years young.

Austin!

We're back!

I took a short spring break trip with my son and nephew to Austin. We saw the sights, visited the Capitol Building (thanks to Monica for the VIP tour!), saw "Horton Hears a Who", visited The Oasis on Lake Travis and the AWESOME 80,000 square foot Whole Foods on 6th Street with Auntie Gale, and closed out our visit with a walk up to the Visitor's Center where we boarded an interesting vehicle for an "Austin Duck Tour". Soooo many kids quacking their little duck-caller-quacker things... FUN!

The weather was icky Monday and Tuesday, but turned out to be absolutely beautiful and cool on our last day. I'll post more pics later, but here's my favorite... it just goes to show that you don't need clear blue skies to get yourself a nice pretty picture of the Capitol Building... and it will always remind me of the boys skipping around town with those big, bright umbrellas-- just being the silly little guys that they are.

Salem, Lexington, and Maine

(See previous blog entry for part I)
We were staying outside of Boston in Chelmsford, which meant I had to do some exploring in the areas outside the city. I was determined to hit Salem and see all the witchy witchery sice it was so close to Halloween.

I visited Minuteman National Park on an crisp, unbelievably clear fall day. After walking Battle Road for a bit and reading all of the placards along the way and imagining what it must have been like for this half-trained militia of farmers and back-country people to defend themselves against the redcoats... and walking down the path and seeing the site where Paul Revere was captured by the British... I looked up at the flag flying over the visitor's center and I can honestly say I have never felt more patriotic in my entire life. It definitely made me feel a deeper sense of appreciation for our founding fathers and those who put their lives on the line, literally on a daily basis, with the odds stacked against them... all for the opportunity to live free and lay the foundation for America's future.

Next was Salem-- I made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in New Hampshire before making my way over to Salem (thank Heaven for our patient Bostonian friend Rick, who guided me via cell-phone to Salem). Upon arrival, I was ecstatic to see the cobblestone streets and witch and pirate souvenir shops, because after all, kitschy is cool! I made my way over to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial which was a lot cooler than I had expected. I guess I had somehow always tucked that whole time period away in my mind as a work of fiction, after reading "The Crucible" and watching silly movies about witches. I had forgotten, or not made the connection, that these women and men were literally killed by their society because they didn't fit the norm.

The memorial is very understated-- words of the accused (from their trials) on a concrete slab that "faded" into the dirt of a reflecting garden with tall shade trees... and along the walls of the garden are 19 benches, each with the name of someone executed during the Salem Witch Trials. Some names, like Giles Cory and Sarah Goode were recognizable. It was a very odd expereince, made you wonder what on earth could make a community turn against its citizens with such hate and paranoia that they felt hanging them or pressing them to death was a good idea. Later I toured the home of one of the judges of the trials... to think that his wife and children sat home spinning, sweing, and cooking while he condemned their neighbors to death? Eery. Especially since it is surrounded by Salem's burying ground with the Halloween-ish slate headstones and some old wooden buildings.

The last picture is an old house in Maine... it's not a significant house or anything, I just loved the tree in front of it and the blue sky. To this southerner, it was typical New England!

Boston

A couple of years back I had the opportunity to visit Boston, Massachusetts while my husband was there on business. We went up a few days early and made a wedding anniversary trip out of it since I'd always wanted to see a "real" autumn and hey... what can you say? We're history buffs. Once my husband took off to work, my mother flew up to join me, as she had never been to New England and really wanted to see the sights.

Boston is just teeming with historical places and as a city, was home to many of our nation's founders, figureheads and revolutionists. The Freedom Trail is a footpath through Boston, and you can take a self-guided tour of some neat places and really immerse yourself in the history. You're in walking the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere and Samuel Adams and *ooh* the British soldiers. You're standing on the Boston Common where they had public hangings for witches, pirates, and heretics! Where Amelia Bloomer spoke out publicly against women having to wear skirts and dresses all the time... You're looking up at the very tower that our early revolutionists looked for the "One if by land, two if by sea!" beacon from Paul Revere on his midnight ride. You see the graves of people who came over to America on the Mayflower.

And oh, the graveyards with their gorgeous slate headstones with the ornate carvings... I could have milled around all day looking at the images and script carved into the headstones all those hundreds of years ago. I also could have spent my whole trip touring the old embellished churches. That is a whole other story!

ENJOY! Next I'll post more from the surrounding areas like Salem, Lexington/Concord, and Maine.

p.s. the pumpkin pics are from the Bostom Common, where they were trying to set a world record for most jack-o-lanterns lit at one time. They didn't set the record, but it was one heck of an attempt!

The first image in the bunch, a photo of the inside of Trinity Church, won me an award at the Texas City Art Show in 2006... I lovingly refer to it as my "award-winning" picture.