Historic Homes Tour in Tyler with my Mary!

Mary and I ate at the children's park in Tyler.  It sure is beautiful there.  There are several statues around the park which celebrate children.  One has two girls (I think) feeding some birds and the other is a little boy holding a fish, about to drop him in the pond.   I should've taken photos, but Mary and I were running late (we left the tickets at home and had to go all the way back to get them!  We were off to the historic home tour.

There were plenty of interesting homes in this district of Tyler.  It is called the Azalea District in honor of all the azaleas which bloom in April.  This year, the azaleas bloomed very early cos it was so warm, so early.  They looked really beautiful.  If I can find a photo of them in our yard, I'll add it later.  This house was not on the tour, but we passed it on our way to the first home.  I found it both aesthetically pleasing and somehow off-putting all at the same time.  I really do think the odd half-moon shape of the roof    

fascinating.  What do y'all think?

There were very many modern, abstract sculptures in this district.  This piece was one of two I saw on the tour.  They were at different houses, too.  The other one was at the last house we saw.  It had the most amazing garden.  Sadly, I didn't bring my camera into this house or I would have had some awesome photos. This garden was multi-tiered.  There were so many varieties of plants and flowers placed everywhere.  There was a Corinthian gazebo sort of thing with a bench and a 15-foot (or so) red triangle shaped sculpture.  It was just sitting there.  Very interesting.   I was most charmed by a little patio area located underneath the boughs of a tree.  Christmas light strands (with plain white lights) were woven through the boughs.  The end of the strand hung down and it was clear that this family plugged this strand into a extension court on nice nights for an outdoor supper or for parties. 

We ran across these flowers whilst walking on the tour.  Mary and I both liked 'em, so I thought I'd include them in our (really short and lame) photo-journal of our day.  Anyone know what they are?

I loved the color of these leaves!  I just had to take a photo, if only so I could look at those beautifully colored leaves.  Looking at them is like a breath of Autumn in the middle of a 83 degree day!

I managed to capture this ant crawling around in the inner petals of this beautiful yellow rose. Yellow roses are among my favorite flowers.  Well, actually, any yellow flowers make me happy.  There is just something really uplifting about yellow flowers.  Dunno why, really, but that is how it is.  Anyway, check out that little ant.

This isn't a really great shot, but I couldn't get one. This was the best one.  As I passed this home whilst trying to catch up with Mary.  Both vehicles are 30-plus years old and I just had to take a picture of them.  

I loved the way these trees looked.  I love the natural patterns in nature.  Oh, hey--remember that you can click on any of these photos and a bigger picture will appear so you can see the details better. :)