Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Ready for Comfort

Let’s see, I plan to make stuffed salmon tonight for me, Mrs. Charm and her mother, who is descending from Fort Worth this afternoon to stay with Mr. Boy for the weekend. This being Thursday, he gets his favorite macaroni and cheese. For grandma I still have to change the bedsheets and tidy up the guest room. Mrs. C. and I are off tomorrow afternoon to Comfort in the Hills.

I’ve done several Google searches but failed to find the origin of Comfort, Texas’ name. Onetime Angora (goat) Capital of The World? Check. Home of Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot in the 1942 Tokyo Raid? Check. Has obligatory Hollywood actor resident? Check. Founded in 1852 as a cooperative by German Freethinkers who opposed formal government and religion? Check, check, check. But only one snide remark that the name must have referred to fancy houses and whiskey. Well, maybe. It was a stage stop.

It looks like the weather will be nice. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s.

UPDATE:  Got home late Sunday afternoon. Not even the locals know how Comfort got its name, unless it’s a description of the easy livin’ on the banks of Cypress Creek. The town has grown a lot since we were last there in ’92. But many shops have closed and their buildings are for sale or rent. The economy, I suppose, unless it was too much optimism on the locals’ part. Plenty of B&B’s, though. Ours, the Meyer, was full Friday and Saturday. More later, with a picture or two.

Bluebonnet bonanza

bluebonnets2009This is a snap from last year by friend Chris White who lives out near Washington-on-the-Brazos, It’s a small preview of what’s expected in a week or so along most Texas highways. Winter’s slosh and splash, after several years of dusty drought, is expected to raise anew our beloved blue bonanza.

Winter to linger, flood chances increase

Rainfall has been above normal across Central Texas since Jan. 1, according to the National Weather Service. That’s expected to continue, with a consequent risk of significant flooding, especially on area rivers and lakes.

Forecast rain & storms today through Monday will only add to the problem.

Meanwhile, LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose says one of the coldest winters in the past hundred years isn’t quite ready to relinquish its grip. This month and next are expected to be cooler than normal: “Springtime temperatures aren’t here yet, and it looks like it will still be a while before we see a consistent stretch of warm…”

A! Elbereth Gilthoniel!

So we stood on the quay with Sam and Merry and Pippen and watched Frodo and Bilbo sail away with Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel, at the end of The Return of the King. For my son’s second time and my thirteenth or fourteenth.

And when I reached the last sentence and the trilogy we’d been using for bedtime stories for most of his seventh year was over, Mr. B. said he wanted to start all over again with The Hobbit. I said I needed a break of a day or two. Much as I love Tolkien’s melodic prose, particularly his descriptions of the landscape in the turn of the seasons, reading him aloud takes some work.

But there’s a definite payoff. I finally got the names down to where I could pronounce them as J. R. R. intended. And it’s undeniable that Mr. B.  got a certain far-away dreamy look listening to these adventures that he didn’t even with Narnia and Treasure Island. Then there is the reward of his admission, a few days ago, that despite enjoying the LoTR movies, which he had watched over and over again, he’d decided that he really preferred the books.

Hill Country B&Bs

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Of all the B&B’s in the Hill Country, Gasthaus Meyer is the only one I’m aware of that began as a stagecoach stop more than a hundred years ago. Today it’s a collection of buildings, most old, but a few new, backed up to Cypress Creek in the historic little town of Comfort. Mrs. Charm and I will be spending some time there in mid-March, leaving Mr. B. at the rancho with his grandma down from Fort Worth. Something we used to do every spring before he was born. Just in time for the wildflowers, we hope.

Bye, bye single digits

Mr. B., celebrating his 10th birthday today, is, as his Aunt Lynne has pointed out, officially a member of the double-digit age club. Only a few get into the triple-digit club, so his elevation to that one remains to be seen. But for now, welcome to the club.

Snowfall

Started up at the rancho about twenty minutes ago. Already lots of pictures people are taking around the area. This doesn’t happen often.