SPRING FLING IN A GARDEN

What a glorious time is spring! In spite of my allergies, I love spring. This past weekend, Darling Daughter 2 took me to the annual Chandor Gardens Spring Fling in Weatherford west of Fort Worth TX. As we approached, we saw that cars lined the street outside the gardens and filled the parking lot, but we scouted parks anyway. Luckily for us, we caught someone leaving and scored the perfect park closest to the garden walkway. How often does that happen?

Are these blue bells?

Once we were inside the gardens, the brisk wind didn’t reach us, and we enjoyed our time among vendors, flowers, artists, and a lovely setting. The sky was the gorgeous blue seen only in the Southwest “land of the tall sky.”  We found a handcrafted jewelry vendor and DD2 bought a couple of necklaces and I bought a small metal cross.

Too bad I didn't bring a book. This is
the perfect place to curl up and read

Although I enjoyed browsing the artists selling their paintings, I didn’t buy. My home’s walls are already too crowded.  My wallet was safe there and Hero was relieved to learn I hadn't "lugged home" something else.

Japanese Fountain with twin dragons

While DD2 visited with friends, I spent a few minutes seated on a bench near the Japanese Fountain. Overhead, a large tree spread its branches upward. Nearby a man selling handcrafted flutes demonstrated his wares and provided delightful melodies that reminded me of Native American flute recordings. We were there early—too early for the Jazz Band from Weatherford College, but I was content with the flute’s gentle strains.

I love purple iris because they were my mom's
favorite and remind me of her.

Renowned English artist Douglas Chandor moved to Weatherford from England to please his wife, the former Ina Kuteman Hill. Chandor counted among his famous portrait subjects the Queen of England, Winston Churchhill, and Dwight Eisenhower. Chandor Gardens used to be a showpiece at first called White Shadows Gardens.  For many years, the gardens were open to the public at certain times, much like stately English homes, and became a locally famous tourist attraction.

Flowers line walkways. 

The estate is four acres. The house sit on a hill overlooking the city. Chandor directed work that surrounded his gardens by an elaborate network of walls that enclosed an array of plants and trees, Chinese pagodas, a Japanese water garden, and a miniature replica of Mount Fujiyama. Although his claim to fame was his talent as an artist, Douglas found his real passion as a gardener. He once told Ina that his talent for painting was merely a means that enabled him to fulfill his dreams of building a "living artwork."  

This Chinese lion and his mate stand guard at a walkway

Water is almost as much a focus as greenery. Wherever you look here, there are fountains, Koi pools, and man made streams. Benches dot the gardens at spots perfect for meditating and enjoying nature. Seeing the gardens today, realizing they were carved from a pasture on a chalk hill is difficult. Chandor's vision created beauty.

Secret hideaways are tucked in to surprise the visitor.

After Douglas Chador’s death, Ina eventually had to be placed in a nursing home for an extended stay. Her nephew was in charge of her estate, but was eventually forced to sell off most of the treasures to pay her bills. By the time of Ina’s death, the famous gardens had become overgrown and disheveled.  For years, the estate stood in sad disrepair.

No, these aren't remarkable. but they remind
me of those my grandmother grew each summer.

Eventually, a civic minded couple, Charles and Melody Bradford, restored the home and gardens. I hope karma repays them a hundredfold for rescuing this property! The Bradfords sold the restored estate to the City of Weatherford at a bargain price. Now the city maintains the gardens and rents out the home for weddings and receptions. The former groundskeeper’s cottage is reserved for brides to change into their wedding gowns. What a lovely setting for a garden wedding.

Darling Daughter 2 photographs the grotto.
In order to make the rock work visible, I
had to cut out the curved benches intended
for reflection while listening to the water.

For DD2 and me it was a day to enjoy one another and the gorgeous setting. I hope you have the occasional luxury of time to spend enjoying loved ones. The hours will renew your spirit.

Thanks for stopping by!

A VISIT TO CHANDOR GARDENS, WEATHERFORD TX

Weatherford TX Courthouse

Weatherford is a city in Parker County, Texas, United States,a western suburb of Fort Worth, and part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Nicknames are Cutting Horse Capital of the World and Peach Capital of Texas. I confess I do not know if these nicknames were bestowed by the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce, or because of the town's reputation.

When I first moved to the western edge of the Metroplex my mom's friends from Lubbock kept asking her if I’d toured Chandor Gardens in Weatherford yet. Until they did, I'd never heard of Chandor Gardens. And there's a reason. For many years the gardens were closed and in a state of disrepair. One courageous and preservation-minded couple, Charles and Melody Bradford, stepped in and restored the grounds, then sold the property to the City of Weatherford. This spring, I learned that the gardens were having a special discounted-price open house, and Darling Daughter 2 and I attended. We're both fans of discounts, gardens, tours, and goofing off in general. A first trip to Chandor Gardens for each of us, we were pleased to tour this beautiful property.

But that’s the shortened version. Here’s a more complete story.

Douglas Chandor painting

Douglas Granvil Chandor was born 20 August 1897 to Lucy May (Newton) and John Arthur Chandor in Surrey, England. World War I began a few months after he completed his education at Radley, and at seventeen he joined the Life Guards, First Regiment of Household Cavalry. Later, he served as a member of the celebrated Scottish Lovat Scouts.

In 1918 Chandor was discharged from the Scouts after contracting typhoid and severely damaging his knee. He recuperated in Surrey, then pursued his childhood interest of art. In 1919, he received his first major commission, to paint Sir Edward Marshall-Hall, K.C. When it was displayed at the British Royal Academy Exhibition, the portrait attracted further offers for the young artist, including a commission to paint the Prince of Wales, a work he completed in 1921. The painting drew "half of London" to the Grieves Gallery. Two years later Chandor accepted an invitation to portray the prime ministers of the British empire at work during the Imperial Conference held in London at 10 Downing Street.

View of Japanese bridge

Included among the invitations was a request to paint President Herbert Hoover, Vice President Charles Curtis, and the entire cabinet. Chandor's painting of Hoover, combined with his earlier portraits of British aristocrats, established his reputation as a painter of the world's political leaders. During his career he painted about 300 portraits. Significant subjects included President Gerardo Machado y Morales of Cuba, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Samuel T. (Sam) Rayburn, and President Franklin Roosevelt. His portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt is believed to be the only one for which she formally posed; he also painted Sara Delano Roosevelt and the wives of James and Elliott Roosevelt.

Spirea (bridal wreath) and arbor

Chandor was divorced from Pamela (Trelawny) in 1932 and married Ina Kuteman Hill of Weatherford, Texas, in 1934. He returned with his wife to her native city where they lived in the family mansion. I love living in Texas, so please don't misunderstand me, but I've been to England. Talk about culture shock for Douglas Chandor. After the green of his native country, his first glimpse of Northwest Central Texas must have been a killer, but perhaps having "a family mansion" helped soften the blow, no disrespect intended. For the rest of his career Chandor spent half of each year in New York and the remaining time in Weatherford. He developed the grounds of his estate into a showplace that the Chandors named White Shadows Gardens. 

Tiered fountain

The house, which sat on a hill overlooking the city, was surrounded by an elaborate network of walls that enclosed an array of plants and trees, Chinese pagodas, a Japanese water garden, and a miniature replica of Mount Fujiyama. To most, this chalky hill in North Central Texas would seem an unlikely place for a garden of such imagination and splendor. Although his claim to fame was his talent as an artist, Douglas found his real passion as a gardener. He once told Ina that his talent for painting was merely a means that enabled him to fulfill his dreams of building a "living artwork". Douglas Chandor's destiny would be to turn these dreams into a reality.

I was pleased the Koi show up in my photo.

The gardens were carved from 4 acres of rock-hard terrain that was once a cow pasture. The project began in 1936 with the aid of picks, shovels, dynamite and mule-drawn plows. Truckloads of topsoil and tons of boulders were brought in to transform the barren cactus-dotted property into a peaceful haven enclosed by hedges and walls. Chandor devised a series of garden rooms, each with individual character and stunning views, all connected by meandering walkways. His creation combines the styles and ambiance of Chinese and English gardens with such delights as fountains, grottos, and even a mountain waterfall.

Mount Cox waterfall

Another view of Mount Cox that shows
cave-like grotto behind waterfall
(sorry about too much sun)

The Chandors worked tirelessly together in the gardens until Douglas' death from a cerebral hemhorrage after returning from a trip in 1953. Ina renamed them Chandor Gardens as a tribute to her husband. The gardens remained open to the public until shortly before her death in the late 1970s. Because there were no direct heirs, the property remained unattended, overgrown and deteriorating for 20 years.

Half of Dragon fountain

Charles and Melody Bradford purchased the estate in 1994 and took on the enormous task of restoring the gardens and home. In what could only be described as a true labor of love, they painstakingly spent years clearing and cleaning away the debris of decades of neglect. Many large old trees, Douglas' original wisteria and boxwood plantings, and his magical hardscapes remained. Everything else was replanted by the Bradfords, and thanks to their efforts Chandor Gardens was once again transformed into a lush tranquil delight.

Stone of the Immortals,
sculpted by  Douglas Chandor. This
was my least favorite feature.

In time, the Bradford's had completely restored the property and decided to sell and offered the gardens to the City of Weatherford. They must have given the City a really good deal, because Weatherford  purchased Chandor Gardens in May 2002. After minor renovations necessary for compliance with the American Disabilities Act and City building codes, Chandor was re-opened to the public in the fall of 2002.

I know they're everywhere, but purple
iris were my mom's favorite flower

The gardens are available for public and private tours. The gardens along with the Chandor mansion are available for rental, and are popular venues for wedding ceremonies and receptions, photography, meetings, and special events...and for just strolling through for photos and relaxation..A walk in a garden is always time well spent!


Thanks to Wikipedia, http://www.ci.weatherford.tx.us/index.aspx?NID=457
and http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fch17

Thanks for stopping by!

IT'S MAY, THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY!

April showers have
bought May flowers,
pink petunias here

Here we are, in the Merry Month of May, as it’s called in the song from the stage show “Camelot.”  What are your memories of past May celebrations? I don’t celebrate Beltane, but I celebrate many other things about May. I love the flowers the April showers have brought. Educators and students celebrate because they know school will soon be finished for this school year. Gardeners celebrate because they can enjoy their gardens before the summer heat hits.Others celebrate because vacation plans are underway for summer trips. Isn't it a great time of year?

Each year from kindergarten through second grade, I remember weaving a basket out of strips of colored construction paper and then plucking wildflowers on the way home to fill the basket. At least, I truly hope they were wildflowers and not from someone’s garden. The idea was to give the basket to my mom as a surprise. I placed it on the welcome mat, knocked, and ran around the house's corner. As if my mom wouldn’t know who’d left the lopsided paper basket filled with weeds. Yeah, I was a pretty dumb kid, but she always played along and pretended to be surprised and wonder aloud who could have left such a nice basket and flowers..That was when we lived in Southern California. I don’t remember doing more than making a card when we moved back to Texas. I suppose May 1st is too close to Mother's Day to merit much craft project time after kids leave primary grades.

May 1st is celebrated in many parts of the world as a holiday. For instance, have you ever danced around a Maypole? As a child, maybe first or second grade, my class did. Probably, it was in first grade because that teacher was near retirement age and a big fan of tradition (and a tremendously interesting person - even to a kid). Of course, at my elementary school, we did a very simplistic Maypole, but it seemed grand and exciting to me at the time.

Maypole dancing is ancient, but there's a lot of discord over just how old. The church of St. Andrew Undershaft in the City of London is named after the maypole that was kept under its eaves and set up each spring until 1517 when student riots put an end to the custom. The maypole itself survived until 1547 when a Puritan mob seized and destroyed it as a "pagan idol".

According to Wikipedia, here’s the way the real Maypole works.

Dancers perform circle dances around a tall pole that is dressed with garlands, painted stripes, flowers, flags and other emblems. The circular dance is regarded as the most common and ancient form and is thought by some to have Germanic pagan fertility symbolism, although there is a lack of evidence to support this. The circular dance is traditionally performed in the spring around the festival of May Day, but in Sweden it is during the midsummer festivities.

Dancing around the Maypole at
Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire, England

Dancers gather in a circle, each holding a colored ribbon attached to a much smaller pole. As the dance commences the ribbons are intertwined and plaited either on to the pole itself or into a web around the pole. The dancers may then retrace their steps exactly in order to unravel the ribbons. This style of maypole dancing originates in the 18th century, and is derived from traditional and 'art' dance forms popular in Italy and France. These were exported to the London stage and reached a large audience, becoming part of the popular performance repertoire. Adopted at a large teacher training institution, the ribbon maypole dance then spread across much of England, and is now regarded as the most 'traditional' of May Day's traditional characteristics.

Both dance forms can be seen on the same day at the triennial maypole festival held in the village of Barwick-in-Elmet, West Yorkshire. Children of the village school perform a ribbon dance around a small maypole, and later a group of Morris dancers perform a circle dance around the main maypole.

If anyone does a Maypole dance locally, I’m unaware of it. Maybe at Scarborough Faire, but I am unsure.o I suppose that is another tradition slipping away. Not that it’s good or bad, it just seems today’s kids get cheated. Video games are fun and educational in some ways, but they don’t teach tradition or personal interaction. But I digress.

Here are some English children and their Maypole dance for you to enjoy. They were in Wheatley, Oxfordshire, England in 2008.

I hope May is a merry month for you. Even without a Maypole, you can do a little happy dance that May is here.

Here's another great thing about May - Brenda Novak's Annual Diabetes Auction. This year I donated to the Sweethearts of the West basket, which is valued at over $140.00. Anna Kathryn Lanier, a true sweetheart,  collected and posted the basket for us. My portion of the basked consists of a copy of HOME, SWEET TEXAS HOME, a fun Wanted Dead Or Alive photo frame, and a pendant watch necklace. The site has a list of the items. Whether you bid on this or something else, please bid. There are auction items to suit any taste.

http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=2481486

Thanks for stopping by!

SPRING AND A SNEAK PEAK

Has spring arrived in your neighborhood? Right now, we have spring temperatures, but this is Texas. The saying is true, “If you don’t like Texas weather, wait three days.”


Still, I’m hopeful. Perhaps you noticed I’ve put the spring redbud photo back as my header. My friend Celia Yeary said the snow scene made her cold and she requested I put the redbud photo back up so she wouldn't freeze when she visited the blog.

Daffodils are in bloom, and the redbud’s buds are swelling. Unfortunately, the elm and cedar are pollinating. Ahhhhchoo! Cough!

Hero and I watch our bird feeders
and bird houses from our breakfast table

Spring is my favorite time of year. It holds such promise! The blue birds are nesting in our birdhouses. Baby bunnies are appearing. Our grass has greened up (and the weeds) and early flowers are blooming. Dandelions and vetch do count as flowers, right?



Darling Daughter 1 brought me a
starter plant of this wild rose
from her wild rose hedge.



Several rosebuds are on my Earthkind roses. Roses are my favorite flower. All in all, I’m a happy gal all spring.

Farmer's Market = Work!

This year, Hero and I plan a small raised-bed vegetable garden, about four feet by eight feet. A few years ago, we planted several acres of vegetables and melons for us and to sell to the farmer’s market. We don’t want to sell produce now. Yikes, is that ever work! What we want is food for our table. Good, fresh, organic food.

Similar to my blue ribbons

In past years I won blue ribbons at the State Fair of Texas for my canned jams, jellies, and veggies. Okay, only one blue ribbon for green beans, but several for peach jam, grape jelly, cinnamon crabapple jelly, and blackberry jelly. Seeing my jars on display with a blue ribbon was exciting.

My worst experience was the year we had a bumper crop of pomegranates. My sister in Fresno puts the juice in ice trays to use with a sprite or seven up. She also uses it in pumch. Hero and I decided that was a great idea and we'd  extract the juice for jelly and to drink. Bad, bad idea. We had no idea how that juice stains! And it sticks to everything! We cleaned our shoe soles and mopped the kitchen four or five times, but our shoes still made sticky whop whop sounds when we walked. I think my sister only works with a few pomegranates at a time. We went way overboard. 

Better than winning a blue ribbon at the fair is seeing my books for sale. I love writing, and love having people tell me they enjoyed my books. It’s an addiction but there is no Writers Anonymous or 12-Step program. So, I’m hooked on writing. I’m only a week or ten days away from publishing a new western historical romance on Amazon Kindle. Here’s a sneak peak at the cover.

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s from Jimmy Thomas and Novel Romance Covers. He’s a very popular cover model and I’m sure you recognize him from many book covers. Both independent publishers like me who publish on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords as well as large publishing houses use his work.

Obviously, the book is titled BRAZOS BRIDE and it's the first of the MEN OF STONE MOUNTAIN series. BRAZOS BRIDE is the first of a trilogy of three brothers and is set in 1870 North Central Texas on a ranch beside the Brazos River. Stay tuned for the launch date.

Thanks for stopping by.

SPRING BRINGS PROMISE AND HOPE

Spring is my favorite time of year. Everything is green, flowering, and beautiful. Even the high winds and fires nearby can't eliminate my delight with the season. Every flower encourages me. The song of each bird lightens my mood.  

You can imagine my pleasure last week when Darling Daughter 1 and I visited a nearby botanical garden. The day was perfect--cloud cover to cool us but no rain. I'm sharing the photos I took and will share Darling Daughter 1's photos later. Her photos are much more professional than mine.

That's a white swan grooming herself on the lagoon's bank

"The most important word in the English language is hope." Eleanor Roosevelt.

Wise woman, and I so agree. As a romance writers, I sell hope through my books. Readers know that no matter how hard the obstacles, the hero and heroine will overcome to reach a happily ever after conclusion. Their success inspires readers facing their own obstacles.  Reading a story with a foregone conclusion gives the mind a break while the reader enjoys the read.

Pink poppies with roses
in the background

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." -Helen Keller

And who better to know that a woman both blind and deaf? If she could succeed, there's hope for each of us!

Poppies and snapdragons with
lavender near the hedge

 
"No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." - Jeanne Bice

So true. Stop rehashing the "if onlys" and "I should haves" thoughts that drive us nuts. Begin with today. God gives us a brand new begining each morning. Don't waste it.

A fountain donated by
 friends of the garden

















"Spend some time alone every day." the Dailai Lama

This is important. If I'm not comfortable with myself, how can I be comfortable with others? Sometimes we need to be still and think, evaluate, and/or pray--maybe all three.

Walking trail through the gardens

Because this is a sacred season to those of us in both the Christian and Jewish religions, I'm sharing my favorite Bible Scripture: "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord...plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Isn't that appropriate for Spring and this religious weekend?

Please return on Monday when my good friend Celia Yeary will pay a visit.