Monday, December 14, 2009

The Rabbit Hole: A Texas Roadtrip

A small, stone rabbit peers through a rabbit hole in the side of the Parker Corn Crib Cabin in Chappell Hill, Texas.

In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice follows a white rabbit through the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland, a place inhabited by strange and wonderful sights and characters. Tall Husband and I fell through such a portal this weekend, finding sights and characters every bit as wonderful as Alice's entourage.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

John Beland in Historic Downtown Brenham, Texas.

At lunch at Ernie's American Bistro in Brenham, Texas, we found John Beland, the legendary session guitarist. Tall Husband, who plays classical guitar, immediately informed me that this guitarist is "scary good." After lunch, we sat awhile, listening to John's wonderful stories and more music.


We found a beautiful little shop on Main Street in historic Chappell Hill, Texas. The shop has been thoughtfully restored, retaining its original ladder and board ceiling and walls. The shopkeepers had great stories about the renovation and a family friend who hand weaves all their baskets.


We discovered a wonderful historic church, also on Main Street. The keeper there told us of how people always want the bell to ring at events, however, she says that she refuses to climb up to the 18 foot ceiling, crawl through the small opening and replace the rope. Tall Husband is bothered by anything that doesn't work, so he has come up with solutions, which I suspect he will foist upon the Baptists of Chappell Hill.


Parker Corn Crib Cabin. Please notice that the little two-burner stove is by Wolf...first Class for this little jewel of a cabin!

This little corn crib turned guest cabin has more stories to reveal than most libraries. We met John Zimmerman who told us the story of how he and his crew engineered moving the old fireplace, along with it's chimney, from a nearby town and installed it in the middle of the rebuilt cabin. The owner, Kathy, had found the fireplace and it's chimney standing sans house in the middle of a field.


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A precious little trinket embedded in the chimney.

Though we had visited this cabin before, we had not discovered the old tiny china dolls embedded long ago in the surface of the fireplace by an unknown whimsical soul. This time we found them! Fellow Bloggers, could that magical person be our soul mate?

Have a look at Maryanne's Beadboard UpCountry posting on The Country Homes of Chappell Hill Holiday Home Tour.

9 comments:

  1. sounds like you had a good time...looks like a fun place to visit...

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  2. What a nice adventure... John Beland is definitely a talented guitarist... what is the name of the shop in Chappell Hill?

    It's been a busy weekend... so I have to catch up on several blogs, including Maryanne's blog on the holiday home tour.

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  3. Ok...so tell us....was the food REAALLLY good at Ernie's American Bistro ? Is in in the downtown Brenham area ?
    We have been in Brenham twice recently, did not notice that place.
    Love have you telling us where you and TALL husband have been.

    Rose

    http://delightfulclutter.blogspot.com/

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  4. Deb: thanks for dropping by. You are so right...Chappell Hill and Brenham are great places to visit.

    Countrypolitan: Good to hear from you again. Sorry, I didn't get the name of the shop.

    Rose: Yes, the food is really great. We had wonderful chicken crepes. Ernie's is next door to Beadboard UpCountry on Baylor right across from the courthouse.

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  5. Annie.. you find the absolutely best places to visit in Texas... this one sounds great! I'm adding it to my "bucket list"...

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  6. Looks way to warm down there....

    That doll in the chimney is creepy. Maybe I'm just afraid of china dolls, though.

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  7. Hi Annie!
    Great pictures of John and the corn Crib! It was closed the night before so I couldn't get any pictures, I'm glad you did. Didn't John Zimmerman do a great job with it? I remember the day the chimney came down Hwy 290. It was hysterical, like thirty ft tall..just toodling down the road. Just Chimney no house attached.

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  8. Pop and Ice: On second look, I agree: the doll is creepy. And it is way too warm for Northerners but for us it is freezing. I cannot believe I used to live in Bavaria then Nebraska.

    Maryanne: you "painted" such a great image of that travelling chimney! I can just see it now.

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  9. Hello Annie,

    Can you please provide me with your email address or contact information.
    I work for Boxer Property and we are planning a get together for Houston bloggers to provide a behind the scenes view of the whole story of PlazAmericas (formerly Sharpstown).

    I hope you can participate.

    Thank you,
    Silvana Campione
    Silvana.Campione@BoxerProperty.com

    ReplyDelete