Features

If you have a youngin, no bigger than a jackrabbit, pint-sized or knee-high, then you probably already know who Cowboy Jack is. And if not, well, listen up. He likes teaching the little ones about Texas in a fun way, and he has his sights set on Wimberley and the surrounding area.

Vallen Runett, fi ve years old, is all smiles.

At Dell Children’s Medical Center, it is heartbreaking for our pediatric providers and care teams to see children facing life-threatening medical conditions due to exposure to COVID-19, especially now, when this outcome could have been prevented.

Around here we have a saying – “The Wimberley Way”. When you here that it just means we do certain things differently in our “Little Bit of Heaven”. There is one thing I would like to see added to the Wimberley Way. What if we could say in the Wimberley Way we don’t sod lawns; we just leave them natural.

Wimberley audiences are much accustomed to, and are big fans of, D. Heath Thompson’s scripts having seen his very successful full mainstage production of The Legend of Robin Hood several years ago. Did you know that Heath also writes the family productions for Central Texas Theatre Academy?

Architects, like a physician, have to study many years to reach their goal of becoming one. It’s a lot of hard work and study. It takes many hours to be called an architect. While the dictionary says an architect “is a person who designs buildings and in many cases also supervises their construction,” they are actually much more. They can create a style, or a feel for an entire area or even a community.

One of the most spectacular plants in bloom right now is Pride of Barbados. Mine has been blooming for about two months and each month it has gotten more and more colorful with additional orange, red and yellow blossoms as large as your fist. You can see many of them around town and in yards. One place is at the intersection of Old Kyle Road and FM3237. Along the fence on the east side of FM3237, there is a row of them interspersed with yellow Esperanza. If you want to see mine, come down to the cul-de-sac on 101 Mesa Drive and just look down my driveway. You may even stop and pick a few blooms or seeds (if ripe), if you like. My home phone is 512-847-8774 if you wish to stop. Plant seeds in late winter or early spring to get a bushier, more compact plant. Nicking seeds with a file is said to be helpful.

Judge Andrew Cable is part teacher, part referee and all judge.

I have several different yellow native flowers blooming in my yard now, but will focus on three of them that survived our deep freeze. The Yellow Bells (Tacoma stans) are looking great all over town. It is known for its drought tolerance and spectacular display of yellow bell shaped flowers. It can get up to 8 feet tall. The deer will eat its flowers, so I spray mine in the front yard (that I can see from the dining room window) with stinky deer repellent. It grows in the sun but can tolerate some shade. Yellow Bells, also called Esperanza, is a perennial that dies back every winter. I cut mine back severely after it freezes.

WOW is back for 2021! Following a very successful launch event in 2019 and a pandemic hiatus in 2020, the Wings Over Wimberly Festival is now being planned for October 1 and 2, 2021 on the creek-side grounds of Ozona Bank, 100 River Rd in Wimberley.

David William Oertel, conductor of the Starlight Symphony Orchestra, is a finalist of The American Prize in Orchestral Programming — the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award, 2021, in the community orchestra division.

If you have a student at Wimberley High School or have listened to Coach Dick Smith’s ‘Over Easy’ on KWVH, you are aware of Brad Biggers and his love of history. He teaches AP History, and he is also the expert on “Biggers Moment in History” on the radio examining an era in history from a wide angle.

This week we will take a historical trip back to 1976. Jim Miller shared with me an article published in the Wimberley View by his late Father-in-law, W.E. “Bubba” Lomax. The topic is Bromeliads. I have seen several different kinds of bromeliads for sale at the monthly Wimberley Market Days.