The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature

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"The Spirit of the Confederacy" at Sam Houston Park at downtown Houston, Texas.

The plaque on the base says: “To all heroes of the South who fought for the Principles of States Rights.”

This monument placed in 1908 is made from bronze and granite.

AMATEIS, LOUIS (1855-1913). Louis Amateis, sculptor, was born in Turin, Italy, on December 13, 1855, the son of Gen. Paolo and Carolina Amateis. He studied architecture at the Institute of Technology and sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, both in Turin, and received a gold medal from the Royal Academy for outstanding work. In 1880 he received a silver medal at the National Exposition in Turin. He also studied art in Paris and Milan before immigrating to the United States in 1883. Amateis settled first in New York City, where he did some architectural sculpture, primarily for the firm of McKim, Mead, and White. He married Dora Ballin in New York City on February 24, 1889; they had four sons. After his marriage Amateis moved to Washington, D.C., to found the School of Architecture and Fine Arts at Colombian University (later George Washington University), where he served as chairman of the Department of Fine Arts from 1892 to 1902. Among some of his best known works are the bronze doors (1909) intended for the west main entrance to the United States Capitol, a monument to the heroes of the Texas Revolution (1900) in Galveston, and busts of such prominent men as President Chester A. Arthur, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Title quote from Abraham Lincoln.

Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth

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Graffiti at the Buffalo Bayou flood gates in George Bush Park - Houston, Texas.

Title quote from Pablo Picasso.

No motor vehicles

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Entrance to George Bush Park Houston, Texas.

Clouds on clouds, in volumes driven, Curtain round the vault of heaven

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White Lake at Cullinan Park near Sugar Land, Texas.

The lands of Cullinan Park were first settled in 1828 by Alexander Hodge, a member of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred.   For over 150 years, this Columbia Bottomland country was then used for raising cattle, sugar cane, and other crops.   In 1989, Cullinan Park was acquired by the Houston Parks Board and City of Houston, and opened in 1991 as a nature preserve with improvements funded by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Title quote by Thomas Love Peacock

When the sun has set, no candle can replace it

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A field at George Bush Park in Houston, Texas, just before sunset. This photo is actually made up of of twenty photos combined. 4 sets of 5 frames at different exposures combined in the usual HDR fashion and then those images were stitched together to create the final panoramic, its around 30 megapixels total.

The federal government opened the Barker Reservoir in the 1940s, mainly for Buffalo Bayou flood control. The present area occupies about half of the original area.

Due to the ongoing Texas drought, on 9/13/2011, Houston Firefighters were dispatched to the park responding to a wildfire. The fire quickly grew and the firefighters were sent to the north levee near I-10 to wait for the fire to come to them and stop it there. At one point the fire was one mile wide, consuming 1,500-acres of the park, with the cause under investigation.

Title quote from George R.R. Martin

...By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow...

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Exploring the George Bush Park and it's sprawling 7,800 acres. Well I probably only explored a single acre, but I plan to make many more trips.

 George Bush Park is a city park in Houston, Texas in the United States. It is the sixth largest city park in the nation, covering 7,800 acres (32 km2). It was previously known as Cullen-Barker Park.