The Wendish Heritage Museum

In my second last post, Netflix and other stories, I touched on a German series that I watched – Close to home: Murder in the Coalfield.  The series was set in Lusatia in Eastern Germany.  In Lusatia there is an indigenous population, the Sorbs (aka Wends), a Slavic minority community, who speak a unique language.  The Upper Sorbian language is more closely related to Polish and Lower Sorbian to Czech.  On a whim, I researched where Sorbian people migrated to in the USA.  To my surprise, a large group settled in the Texas countryside, west of where we live, and named the place, Serbin.  Then I spotted the Wendish Museum online and immediately booked a little trip.  My curiosity was piqued!

The group who founded the community of Serbin were seeking religious freedom.  In 1854, Pastor Kilian led the group of nearly 600 Lutheran settlers from 65 villages in Prussia and Saxony to their new home.  The journey was fraught with danger.  They departed Europe on a ship, the Ben Nevis, from Liverpool in England, where there was an outbreak of Cholera.  The ship had to be quarantined and sadly 55 settlers died.  When they arrived in Galveston, Texas, there was an outbreak of Yellow Fever.  By the time they left Galveston, 78 of the group had died including the 55 who perished from cholera.  When they arrived in Texas they purchased over 4000 acres in central Texas and had a long journey to the settlement that would be named Serbin – a 164-mile trip.  The community built a church, one of Texas’ beautiful painted churches, and a school.  The settlement was divided into equitable lots where each family had access to water.

The museum was gifted the most extraordinary book pictured below. The book, a third volume of Martin Luther’s writings (Wittenburg edition), was printed in 1550. This must be so precious to the Lutheran community of Serbin. I was astounded to see an original volume of Martin Luther’s writings in a tiny little place in the middle of Texas.

The Wends (an old English word) refers to various groups of Slavic tribes in the area of east Germany and surrounds.  Other texts refer to Sorbs, so I was a little confused during my research.  Sorb and Wend are now interchangeable terms.

One of the docents from the museum had visited their homeland in Germany and was surprised at how similar the communities were.  They transplanted their lifestyle, culture and religion to central Texas and lived their dream.  Most of the land in the area is still owned by Wendish people who never threw anything out.  The museum is a treasure trove of information, photos, dolls, books and costumes.

My eye was drawn to the books of folklore and the ‘little ones’.  It is believed that some German folk tales originated in the Wendish tales.

Tales of Little People seem to be universal.

The Easter Eggs reminded me of the intricate painting on Russian and Ukrainian folk art and dolls.

The Texas Wendish Heritage Museum is one of the most unique museums I have been to in Texas and would thoroughly recommend a visit. We stayed in a hotel in La Grange but it could be a day trip from Houston, Dallas or Austin.

The Wendish Museum, Serbin, Texas – click on link to see more about the museum, the Wends and Serbin.

ref: Wikipedia, texaswendish.org

Brahmin Beau

Isn’t he handsome? I love Brahmin cattle with their floppy ears and unusual shape. This lovely fellow was scraping his hump on the low hanging tree bough. His family group looked liked Hereford cattle. It was very hot and they were sheltering under a tree. Everyone does that in Texas. I will predate a car park for a tree with shade.

This photo was taken in La Grange, a small county town in central Texas. Yes, that’s right, we finally left the house after an endlessly scorching summer. It has been 100 F plus since June but the weather finally broke with a fantastic thunderstorm that soaked the ground and forest. The weather has hovered in the low 90’s so we took our chance with a road trip to La Grange and Brenham.

The weather was perfect, the food good and the scenery bucolic. More posts to come.

Interior of Fulton Mansion – part II

This is the interior of Fulton Mansion, Rockport, Texas. The house was built between 1874 and 1877 by George W Fulton for his family in the French Second Empire style. The family history is reminiscent of the HBO series, The Gilded Age. George Fulton was an engineer and entrepreneur, from the North East USA, who married Harriet Smith. She inherited ranching land in the Aransas Bay area of southern Texas. I will write more about their history and the unique building style of the manor in Part III.

Above is a delightful child’s bedroom – the bed is ornate without being overwhelming. The bed is positioned to take best advantage of the light across the bay and countryside. How wonderful to jump out of bed and see the dolphins in the bay.

The house was built with central heating and indoor plumbing. Imagine that in 1877! People were still using outside toilets in Scotland when I was young. This looked like it might be father’s sink, above, complete with shaving accoutrement.

The wood paneling surrounding a large copper bath, was quite charming. It must have been so cozy on a cold day. I imagine guests would be surprised at such luxury.

The mother’s sink, above, could be displayed in a modern lifestyle magazine with the marble countertop and matching sink. I hope they hid that antique toilet tissue during the Pandemic… When I was young I had a real sponge. When I realized they were dead sea animals, I switched back to a wash cloth. I call them flannels just like my Nana did. I guess they were made out of old flannels back in the day (but not in this luxurious abode).

George Fulton was a cattle baron so a steer’s head seems fitting for the hallway. The geometric detailing around the door caught my eye. All the wood was in warm tones without being too dark for a seaside house.

This is George’s study – it looks so comfortable and love those drapes! A sea breeze wafting in the window would be quite restful at work.

Each room had a different style of fireplace which seems like the height of luxury to me – I loved the aqua detail on this one. The glasses on the dining table were full of ‘beer’. The early settlers in Texas were master brewers from Czechoslovakia and Germany. It is only in relatively recent times that Texas vineyards have produced world class wines. On a really hot day, there is nothing nicer than a cold draught of beer.

There is even a precious little high chair for the baby that reinforced the feel of a family home. The tiled floor looked as though it was in perfect condition, with those colorful insets. Did you notice the rusks in the baby’s bowl?

This was my favorite fireplace in the living room – I love the shiny black with delicate gold filigree decoration. There is a piano to the right. The whole house was staged beautifully and enhanced the charm of the time period.

I love, love, love this light feature. It is detailed but modern and would look just great in my house in 2023. The house just entranced me – the decoration, the furniture and detail.

Holy Shrimp Boats!

Do you see the name of the boat? It is named after our current Roman Catholic Pope, Francis II – the first Pope to hail from the Americas. Argentina, to be precise. This is the harbor at a magical little fishing port, Palacios about halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas. The majority of the population is Hispanic, some white and minority of Vietnamese who migrated to Palacios for the shrimping. The names of the boats reflected their heritage.

If you zoom in on this boat coming into harbor, you will see that the owner is Vietnamese. He was waving at us very enthusiastically as we snapped images of him. It was the end of a very long shift for him and hopefully a good catch. Palacios is not a tourist trap so perhaps he was intrigued by the Paparazzi. Our respective grandparents were farmers and fishermen, so we are drawn to working harbors and the countryside.

Why does he always walk into my shots???

We stopped at the pretty main drag to get a lovely cup of coffee. I have a theory about why coffee tastes so much better in remote places. The water is better and the milk fresher, perhaps? Some of the cafes we stopped at have a Mission connection to a small coffee farm in Latin America. Coffee that’s good for your soul. In the school vacations I used to see groups of Texan youth going to Missions in remote places of central America – better than playing video games all summer.

The boat’s names were an intriguing mix of Texican, Spanish and Vietnamese. Palacios has been home to the indigenous Karanwaka natives, then the Spanish conquistadors, French and finally the other Europeans. It is satisfying to see that Vietnamese refugees found a new community in the most unlikely of places.

Then I spotted this random dude that I fancied… I am so proud of my Teddy for losing all his excess weight and getting healthy. He is easy on the eyes too. 💗

Painted Churches, St John the Baptist

This is one of the many beautiful painted churches in central Texas. The early settlers from Czechoslovakia and Germany hand-painted their new places of worship in the style of the places that they came from. The churches are off the beaten track, in rural areas, and a joy to behold. I like to call this one the ‘peach church’ but it is really St. John the Baptist, a Czech Catholic Church, in the hamlet of Ammannsville (closer to San Antonio than Austin but in the central area otherwise known as the hill country).

Not only did the beautiful stained glass windows have Czech names on them but the stages of the cross were also annotated in Czech. It struck me that the original settlers probably only spoke Czech for at least one generation, if not longer. Each community is separate, if only by a few miles. Perhaps they learned German before English to communicate with fellow settlers? It’s remarkable and heart warming that they are so well maintained. The original building dates from 1890, it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1909 and this current building is from 1917.

It was another cloudy but warm day in May. The dark clouds give the church an ominous look as did the thousands of tussock moth caterpillars that covered the church and surrounding area. You couldn’t help standing on them or them dropping on your head – eek! My dopey husband wanted to touch their furry bodies but I stopped him in time. Their cute little fur spikes are poisonous, causing a nasty rash, and no doubt he would have ended up in ER (he is highly allergic to bug bites).

Holy Caterpillars! Zoom in, if you dare….

Country Matters

This is the last post from the involuntary vacation series. Our final coffee stop was at a pretty little hill country town named La Grange, settled by Czech immigrants in 1850. We were so enamored with its charming town square that we made a second trip two months later. One this first visit, I nosed around the town square looking at the historical markers and town public notices. This notice, below, about intended treatment of Boll weevil insect in the cotton fields fascinated me. By chance, I had been reading about the recent Texas wines in the Panhandle region.  One of the wine growers’ major problems is that chemicals used to treat the cotton can drift and kill the vines.

I recently read this review, in red, by the Chalk Report of a winery in Loop, a remote area in north west Texas.  ‘Texas Wine wins Double Gold at San Francisco International Wine Competition’ Climate change is affecting wine growing here, as it is in the rest of the world.  There are some wineries just north of us but now the Panhandle area is producing some of the best medal winners.  Cool nights, hot days and low humidity create a good environment for growth.  Tempranillo and Bordeaux seem to suit this climate region. On a nostalgic segue, in Scotland we eagerly awaited the new Beaujolais Bordeaux every year – a bright, vibrant new pressing.  Bordeaux is called Claret.  I know you think that Scots just drink whisky and eat haggis but our wine drinking is an elegant legacy of the “Auld Alliance” between Scotland and France. 

Courtesy of Zeesstof on Flickr

My husband took this fabulous photo of a Red Brangus bull with egret friend in Port Aransas.  If you read the lost cattle notice beneath it, you can see someone has lost a Red Brangus bull.  How??  It’s not like losing your tabby cat.  They weigh up to 3000 lbs. and are worth between $7000 and $16,000.  When we lived on a farm in Scotland, the drunk neighbor did not adequately fence in his bullocks.  They all ran straight down our drive and galloped through the open door into the glass sunporch – talk about bulls in a China shop!  I know it’s not PC but I had to smack their bottoms with a broom to get them out of the house – I swear they laughed at me.  Then I chased them back home and woke up the sozzled farmer (perhaps he had found some Beaujolais Bordeaux?).  I had a few choice words for him…

Ah, I miss some aspects of living a truly rural life.

Flower Hydrant

On our recent trip to La Grange in the Texas hill country, I noticed the quirkily painted fire hydrants. I love this one because it is surrounded by our most famous wildflower, the Bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis, an indigenous wild lupin. In Spring the fallow fields in central Texas become Monet paintings – sometimes just bluebonnets but also swathes of red, yellow and orange wildflowers. They took my breath away as we drove past them; one of nature’s wonders.

This one was less flowery but full of art – even on the pavement… I did wonder if local children helped decorate them. It made me smile. In our forest retreat hydrants and signs are painted brown or green so as to blend with the trees. It helps keep burglaries down because no one can figure out where they are, especially at night with the low lighting!

The Hawk Conundrum

I walked into the living room and wondered why I was there.  As I tried to retrace my steps in my befuddled head, I could sense someone watching me intently.  Turning around to look out the window, I spotted a beautiful red-tailed hawk sitting on the fence.  This one was fully grown with a white and brown knitted vest – very fashionable this year.  She was communing with me, as follows.

HAWK – Hello Squirrel Lady.

KERRY – Hello Magnificent Hunter of squirrels.

HAWK – May I have one of your squirrels?

KERRY – They are not available on demand but you can hunt them when I am not looking.

HAWK – Thank you.

Then it flew off, leaving me laughing.  I have started feeding the squirrels again as winter beckons and it is bloody freezing.  They are getting nice and fat at Kerry’s organic squirrel farm.  The hawk has been screeching and I wonder if there is a late born baby.  The weather has been very mild until now.  Now I listen for screeching and feed the squirrels under the chairs or bushes.  It’s a win-win.

It has been a strange week.  Today I have my first in person appointment with my psychiatrist in two years.  I was offered a job through Linked In last week but it was in Austin.  On Friday I have my first contract job since the Pandemic started – unless they cancel the flight because of the Omicron variant.  On Sunday Teddy drove off with a friend’s fully packed car and trailer to Washington State – he is currently in New Mexico or Utah.  You should have seen us physically move the trailer down our sloped drive to the awaiting car – fitter than we thought!

This is a throw back photo to a fabulous trip to Abu Dhabi where I held my first falcon. Pala was boarding at the most luxurious falcon resort until her owner went hunting with her again. Pala was worth considerably more than me… As a child and young woman I had a phobia about birds and would run screaming from a pigeon in a square. Exposure therapy really works.

Floral Spike with Bee

One of my most popular posts of late was Floral Spike. After reading all the comments from avid gardeners, I decided to allow my Coleus to spike even if that led to the plant’s death. My reasons were that it would likely die in the winter and that the spikes attract butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. I managed to snap this busy little bee foraging. Texas bees were ravaged by the February Freeze – about 25% died. This particular Coleus does look a little sad but she has fed so many garden visitors.

The Honey Bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, is upside down in the spike, trying to avoid my nosy gaze. In the last few weeks my other Lime Green and Maroon Coleus has also started to spike.

It almost looks like a Texas bluebonnet but the Coleus spikes are often blue. Like the other Coleus, I shall allow it to spike and feed our garden friends.

This Coleus grew from a tiny plant pot to this verdant bush in just 6 months and is still popping out little ones at the back. Being part lizard, I feel that winter has arrived and I am sitting with a fleece in front of the gas fire. It is 77 F outside…

Fancy Women

One of the many aspects of Texas that I love are the signs. This one tickled me and I wonder what constitutes a fancy woman? This is actually a sign from our next door neighbor, Louisiana. I noticed plenty of ‘fancy women’ in New Orleans….most were drunk as skunks and flashing their boobs from balconies in Bourbon Street.

I like to think of myself as a fancy woman but in the nicest possible way… This is the ‘skirt that disappeared’. Just before the Pandemic started I ordered a maxi skirt from American Eagle. After some weeks they got in touch to say that the skirt was no longer available. I completely understood given the chaotic situation but eventually started to wonder when I would get my refund. Just as I was getting ready to complain, my skirt arrived in the mail three months later. I had absolutely nowhere to wear it but finally it came out on my birthday, one year later.

This sign was on the Cantina next to our Cajun restaurant. It reminded me of a sign on a major toll road in Houston that made me laugh every time I saw it. It was a ramshackle old sign with mismatched letters leading to a very insalubrious bar in an industrial area, along the train tracks. “Our beer is colder than your ex wife’s heart…” I imagine that only ‘fancy women’ would ever dare go there!

As for the Cantina, all margaritas make you sexier. They didn’t reference the type of meat – that’s always suspicious…

I love marinas and this one at Lake Conroe has got way fancier as the decades have passed. Last year there was a Trump rally in boats on the lake – there was another on Lake Travis in the north of Texas where 4 of the boats sank. I will leave you to imagine how I felt but let’s just say schadenfreude was involved. Before you ask, no one died – there was too many boats on the lake at the same time. The Devil looks after his own…