Cypress, TX Daily Photo

First post-ode to Cypress

2007-04-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

A beautiful pasture in Cypress TX which no longer looks this way. That is the sad state of affairs with all the new construction. Tomorrow I will post what it looks like now.

Second post-Sunset

2007-04-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, couldn't get out for the pasture after pic. I promise soon. Here is a beautiful Cypress sunset taken at the Fairfield baseball fields.

The pasture "After" pic

2007-04-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

As promised, the is what the horse pasture looks like now. No worries, my son and I took a drive out to the Cypress countryside today and saw good ol' Texas nature. I can't wait to show y'all! (I don't really talk like that.) (And sorry for the soooo not professional pic, took it while driving. I promise I slowed down.)

Cypress-Rosehill & FM 2920

2007-04-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Corner of Cypress-Rosehill and FM 2920. For those of you who don't live in Texas, FM stands for Farm-to-Market. Thought this was a great shot of what a country intersection looks like; confederate flags for sale and a sign for the local Mexican Grill.

The Big Easter Duck

2007-04-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

Oh no, it's the big Easter duck! My son got a kick out of this and once again I took to taking a pic while driving. Oops. But I promise my eyes were on the road with the camera pointed at the duck hoping it was in frame. This is a church on Cypress-Rosehill. An early Happy Easter to all!

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Foundry United Methodist Church's Easter service at the Berry Center on Barker-Cypress.

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed!

It's not what you think...

2007-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

My Texas Star Hibiscus are growing fast! After some cold weather this weekend (maybe even a freeze!), the plants are ready for summer. When they bloom I'll add some pics. The flowers are deep red 5-pointers. And yes, they have been mistaken for weed. People have even gotten "busted" for them! See this link, http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=5420.

Baseball days are here again

2007-04-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

In Texas we are lucky enough to play Fall Ball and Spring Ball. The weather never stops us from playing sports. This is the local ball field in Fairfield off of US 290. Pretty soon though, the 6pm games are going to be unbearably hot. Summers get up to the high 90's and 100's. Even at night you're sweating and amazed that the pavement of your driveway is still hot to the touch.

Throughout the summer I will post pics of my plants around the house. Most of them are native to Texas which means they love the hot weather and need little attention. Pretty ideal.

Our lizard friends

2007-04-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

These little green lizards are abundant in Texas. You can watch them change color in your hands, from brown to green and back.

My beach

2007-04-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

When my son saw this pic he asked if it was at the beach. Nope, just our yuccas against a beautiful blue Texas sky.

Juergens Dance Hall

2007-04-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

Juergens Dance Hall - downtown Cypress Top

**Excerpt from:
Steve Radack, Commissioner
Harris County Precinct 3 Report
JUNE 2006
Work continues on another historic park in Precinct 3 and plans for an opening there
should be announced soon. That park comprises most of what used to be the business
district of the old railroad town of Cypress, originally known as Cypress Top and established in the 1850s. The site and several antique buildings, including the old Juergens General Store and the Juergens dance hall were donated to the county last year by Gene Zaboroski. The old buildings are being repaired and painted while the rest of Cypress is being turned into a vast shopping center. **

So here starts my ode to what's left of downtown Cypress. But I have to say, they've done a good job so far and I can't wait till the park is open for business!

The railroad comes to Cypress Top

2007-04-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

The Railroad

Below is some history found online. I know that this building was tied to the railroad in some way. They've really fixed it up, it used to have moss growing all over it. The railroad still runs regularly through Cypress right along Hwy 290 towards Austin. Cypress Top is along an old stretch of Hempstead Hwy that used to be part of 290. Then the highway bypassed our little main street; on a map you can see the "bump".

**RAILROADS. Transportation was a major problem facing early settlers in Texas. As late as 1850 the settled area of the state was largely confined to the river bottoms of East and South Texas and along the Gulf Coast. Although steamboat navigation was common on the lower stretches of a number of such rivers as the Rio Grande, Brazos, and Trinity, Texas rivers were not deep enough for dependable year-round transportation. Roads were either poor or nonexistent and virtually impassable during wet weather. Ox carts hauling three bales of cotton could only travel a few miles a day and the cost of wagon transport was twenty cents per ton mile. Many proposals to improve internal transportation were both considered and attempted during the period of the Republic of Texas and early statehood. These included river improvements, canals, and plank roads in addition to railroads. However, it was the railroads that made the development of Texas possible, and for many years railroad extension and economic growth paralleled each other.

In 1848 Ebenezer Allen of Galveston obtained a charter for the Galveston and Red River Railway Company. The project remained dormant until taken over by citizens of Houston and Washington County. On January 1, 1853, Paul Bremond and Thomas W. House broke ground for the Galveston and Red River. Although initial progress was slow the company opened its first twenty-five mile segment between Houston and Cypress on July 28, 1856.**

Texas Green

2007-04-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been gone, trouble with dsl at home. Fixed now.

Spring brings such beautiful colors to Texas!

Tiptoe through the...tulips?

2007-04-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

In Texas, you're allowed to have a cow skull in your flowerbeds. My kids saw a dead cow in a field then went back the next year and collected the bones. But alas, the bones are not of a Cypress cow. This one hails from Austin. (It just "lives" in Cypress now.)

P.S. I don't think anyone is reading this blog...

Keep'n Em' Level

2007-04-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

What do I love about keeping up this daily photo blog? It's making me look around more as I drive around Cypress. Yes, it does prompt more "photos out the car window", but if I stopped everytime I saw something interesting, I'd be out all day. I do want to get a shot of a sign I saw this morning in front of a liquor store, "Hop down the bunny trail and buy some liquor." (I'm pretty sure that's how it read.)

Until then, here's another shot of the intersection of Cypress-Rosehill and FM2920. Need horse shoes? We'll come to you. We will level your horse. Is there a dictionary out there that shows the correct way to butcher the English language? Keeping=Keep'n; Them=Em'; You all=Y'all...............

Side note: A man got "birthday scammed" on the Dean and Rog show this morning, FM93.7, by a friend of his. The man said, "I'm gonna to kick a mud hole in his butt, and he's knows I can do it."..................Yep, this is Texas.

Crepe myrtles before pic

2007-04-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a line of Crepe myrtle at our local Fairfield baseball fields. This is a before pic as they have beautiful blooms in the summer. Each spring you decapitate them and they grow two branches where there was one. The flowers are very delicate and beautiful but a pain for people with pools.

Lagerstroemia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lagerstroemia (also Crepe myrtle; Crape myrtle) is a genus of about 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees or large shrubs native to eastern Asia and Australia in the Lythraceae family.
Grown mainly for their flowers Lagerstroemia have sinewy, fluted stems and branches with bark that sheds each year giving a mottled appearance. The leaves are opposite, simple, with entire margins, and vary from 5-20 cm long. The leaves provide autumn colour.
Flowers are borne in summer in panicles of crinkled flowers with a crepe-like texture. Colours vary in shades of pink, mauve and white. The fruit is a capsule, green at first, then ripening to black, which opens along six or seven lines, producing teeth much like those of the calyx, and releasing numerous small winged seeds.
The timber of some species has been used to manufacture bridges, furniture and railyway sleepers.

Everything is bigger in Texas...when it comes to windchimes

2007-04-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Went to Arbor Gate on FM2930. Great nursery! Even if you don't buy anything (right!) it's a great place to walk around with the kid. I need to go back to buy some form of Bamboo for the yard. I didn't know they were different types. I can't wait to do research on them.

So this is a pic of a mammoth wind chime which resides at the entrance. It made the most wonderful sounds. Reminds me of the ones for sale at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Check out Music of the Spheres. They offer wind chimes in many scales; Pentatonic, Aquarian, Chinese, Mongolian, Hawaiian, etc. They're expensive but sooooo beautiful.

Gazebo of iron leaves

2007-04-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is a permanent fixture at Arbor Gate, a nursery on FM2920. (See last post.) It's huge, iron and has hundreds of iron leaves hanging from the top.

Leons Barber Shop-Cypress Top

2007-04-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

This another building along Old Hempstead Highway that has been saved from the wrecking ball; Leon's Barber Shop. Now this establishment had been running up until a few years ago. You could always find cars in front and people inside chatting away the hours. With a new coat of paint, it's just waiting for the park to open.

On a funny side note, Yahoo! Yellow Pages still lists Leons under Barber Shops in Cypress, TX. I have yet to try to the phone number. :-)

Spring Break pics-Take 10-Mustang Island

2008-04-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

This is my next to last spring break pic. Tomorrow I'll show you what it looked like camping on the beach! If you ever have the chance to visit Port Aransas or Corpus Christie....GO!!!!

Spring Break pics-Take 9-Gulf of Mexico

2008-04-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

And to the right of the boat....here comes the moon.

Do you know the song "Man in the moon" by Harry Connick Jr.?

"The man in the moon is smilin'...cause he's in love....the man in the moon is smilin' cause he's in love with the girl in the world."

Spring Break pics-Take 8-Gulf of Mexico

2008-04-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

And it's gone. Tomorrow the moon rises.

Spring Break pics-Take 7-Gulf of Mexico

2008-04-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Just about gone... (check the previous posts to watch the sun set)

Spring Break pics-Take 6-The sun is almost gone

2008-04-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Don't let the sun....go down on me.....

Spring Break pics-Take 5-Gulf of Mexico

2008-04-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

So as we're coming back from the fishing trip the sun is setting to my left and the moon is rising to the right. It was amazing.

Watch for moon shots after the weekend. If you always find your head in the clouds, have fun watching the sun go down over the next few days.