A Disquisition Upon Jello

Now if I had once thought that the garlic snails at the yearly NIOSA street food event were dubious eats, I had not had a chance to grok the full horror of the guacamole bird - it's the third one down. click here ... Finished shuddering yet? Good. You see, there is Jello and all the horrors that are perpetuated with it, and then there is just plain gelatin mixed with a variety of sweet or savory liquids and poured into an appropriate Jello mold.

There is the stuff whipped up by the staff of women's home magazines trying to catch the eyeballs (or stimulate the nausea reflex) and not coincidently sell more Jello... and of late there is the parody stuff (like the famous brain mold), and a lot of bizarre things put together for contests; I have heard of Jello aquariums with lettuce for seaweed and Goldfish crackers as... er, gold fish swimming in the pale green lime depths.

And then for those who favor less jokey and more toothsome variants of jellied edibles, there are desserts such as my mother's favorite - the wine-orange gelatin dessert, and my own yoghurt cream mold. Mom's was from the 1970s edition of Joy of Cooking, ( p. 745) "Wine Gelatin"

Soak 2 TBsp gelatin in ¼ cup cold water. Dissolve it in ¾ cup boiling water and stir in until dissolved, ½ cup sugar. Allow to cool and add 1 ¾ cup orange juice, 6 TBsp lemon juice and 1 cup well-flavored wine. Sugar amount may be adjusted if the orange juice and/or wine are sweet . Pour into sherbet glasses and chill until firm. Serve with cream, whipped cream or custard sauce. (It strikes me that this might be very nice with blood-orange juice and a nice rose wine)

My own favorite gelatin recipe - Yoghurt-Cream Dessert - was copied from a newspaper clipping (Stars and Stripes?) into a hand-written collection - no idea of where it might have come from before then, although I think there is an Italian sweet dessert something like it called ‘panna cotta'.

Soften 4 tsp unflavored gelatin in ¼ cup cold water. Combine in a saucepan over low heat, 1 ½ cup heavy cream and ¼ cup sugar, stirring until cream is warm and sugar dissolves. Add softened gelatin and stir until that dissolves also. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and stir in 2 ¼ cups plain unflavored yoghurt and 1 tsp vanilla. Pour into a 1-quart mold and chill for at least one hour. Un-mold and serve with fresh fruit or fruit compote.

I usually make a sauce of ¾ water, and 6 Tbsp water, cooked with about 1 cup of fresh blackberries until berries are softened and syrup slightly thickened. Then I add another cup of fresh raspberries and 2 Tbsp raspberry vodka.

Carp Diem at the McNay

I love the old mansion, and the landscaped grounds at the McNay - sometimes it seems that any town or city with a certain level of accumulation of old money admixed with cultural appreciation has such a museum: a sprawling mansion, in a park-like setting, an eclectic art collection - or a collection of something - purchased by an original owner with sufficient taste and income. Southern California, for instance, has the Huntingdon, Descanso Gardens, and Indianapolis has the Lilly House - and San Antonio has the McNay, at the corner of New Braunfels and the Austin Highway.

The mansion that Jessie Marion Koogler McNay Atkinson built is one of those splendid Jazz-age Spanish-style colonial piles, pale ivory plastered walls with a roof of pale rust-colored tiles, with lots of interesting little porches, balconies and loggias, built around an interior courtyard, and ornamented with all the hand-painted tiles and lacy iron-work. The grounds and the courtyards were further adorned with fountains and semi-tropical plants - this was the ultimate in residential style in 1920, especially in the southern part of the US.

The inside was adorned with her collection of original art, some 700 pieces of 19^th and 20^th century European and American pieces. Alas, the extension of the McNay, and the means of displaying even more art - is one of those brute modern arrangements of glass and geometric slabs, appended on to the back of the house, like some kind of ugly orthopedic brace. I have never figured out why those in charge of expanding aesthetically pleasing period buildings prefer to deface them by slapping on something so eye-bleedingly different in style. Didn't anyone ever consider that extension built of similar materials, with the signature ornamental elements pared down a notch or two might be sufficient and aesthetically pleasing?

She came from Ohio originally - a fabulously wealthy heiress to an oil fortune, with excellent taste and an accomplished artist in her own right. But she came to San Antonio first in 1918 - not as an artist or a traveler, certainly not as an art collector - but as a war bride to Sergeant Don Denton McNay. Alas, very shortly afterwards, he died in the horrific influenza epidemic which most particularly scourged military camps in that year. She married again, in the mid 1920's - but when that marriage ended, she reverted to using her first husband's surname.

That was the name she used for the rest of her life. One wonders if it were a tragic and romantic gesture, a little way of holding on to a memory of love. Eventually the art collection, the house and more than twenty acres surrounding it, and a substantial endowment to support it were left to establish a museum of modern art, open to the public. It is a lovely and peaceful oasis, in the middle of the suburbs. My daughter's favorite is one of the ornamental ponds - in which there lives a collection of perfectly monstrous ornamental carp. My own favorite is the interior courtyard, which reminds me of those old houses in Spain, all built around just such a courtyard, with a trickling fountain and a bounty of plants in urns.

Adventures in Old Lamps

I can't remember when I discovered that it wasn't very hard to re-wire table lamps, or replace plugs and swap out one-way sockets for three-way, so that an ordinary lamp would become reading lamp. Stripping half an inch of insulation off the ends of the wires, threading them through the lamp-base and securing the bare wires around the little screws in the socket base; it's not rocket science.

More recently, I discovered that all the little bits that hold a lamp together and attach a shade are a standard size and thread. We've bought lamps at the thrift-shop or at yard-sales because they have a pretty base, and been gratified with how much better they look with new hardware and a nicer shade - and upgraded wiring. A while ago my daughter bought a pair of inexpensive 1930's era decorative lamps that I didn't dare plug in. The wiring was so crumbly; it looked like a picture of an example of dangerously faulty wiring in a brochure handed out by the fire department. New hardware, new wiring, new sockets, all the way around; amazing how much nicer they looked!

I have a whole basket full of essential lamp pieces, scrounged from various broken lamps. Never know when you will need an essential bit, you see. Since I took up the carpets and painted the concrete floors in the house, some of my favorite lamps have bit the dust - including one made from a blue and white Korean bowl I spotted in a market in Itaewan and had converted to a lamp. Not to fear - I salvaged all the non-china parts, the bases, tops and shades, with the socket and all the metal bits.

Almost at once, my daughter, the Queen of All Yard Sales, spied three replacement lamps, at a San Antonio neighborhood garage sale - all blue and white painted china bases, all vaguely Oriental in design, in good shape and all three for a mere pittance. One of them most particularly resembled the Korean bowl, and as it was approximately the same dimensions, I thought I would be able to remove the brass base and top to it, and replace them with the wooden base and fittings from the Korean lamp - and I would have something that came very close in looks to it.

Only the hex-nut that held the whole thing together at the bottom was apparently tightened on at the factory by Godzilla himself. Not even with a crescent-wrench could we get it to budge - and Blondie and I tried separately and together, and with a spritz of liquid wrench.

There was only one thing to do. And that was to take it to Pep Boys. Really, any garage would have done, but Pep-Boys was open on Sunday. Where else do you find the strength and the technology to separate metal bolts from the threads they are apparently frozen onto, than at an auto mechanics? But the manager did look at me and ask, warily, "This is at your own risk of course. It's not a priceless Ming vase, is it?"

"Five-dollar yard-sale special," I said, "Have at it." It took one of the mechanics about two minutes and all the other mechanics came to look, shaking their heads.

The manager did say afterwards that it was the weirdest request that anyone has ever come to Pep-Boys with.

(Some pictures of what an easy job this can be. Of course, I had feline supervision. The lamp pictured was picked out of a trash can - because the cord was damaged, and the light socket knocked askew.)

News Release
Media Contact: Tom Harvey, 512-389-4453, tom.harvey@tpwd.state.tx.us

Jan. 26, 2010

Texas Parks & Wildlife takes Expo on the Road

San Antonio Rodeo Hosts First Life's Better Outside® Experience Event of 2010

AUSTIN, Texas - On Feb. 20-21 at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will debut its new Life's Better Outside® Experience, in effect taking its TPW Expo on the road. In San Antonio and at similar events this year in Houston, Longview and Corpus Christi, visitors of all ages can try fishing, archery, birding, rock climbing, camping, Wildlife CSI, and other activities, with gear and guidance provided free.

This past October, TPWD leaders announced the Austin-based Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo would be suspended for at least two years due to declines in sponsorship support related to the recession. On the up side, the decision gave additional impetus to expand department outreach efforts beyond Central Texas.

"The goal of the Life's Better Outside® Experience is to provide hands-on outdoor activities for families, youth and children who do not currently enjoy the outdoors, and to introduce them to these activities which can lead to conservation of our natural and cultural resources," said Ernie Gammage, TPWD urban outdoors program leader and former Expo director.

"Moving around the state will allow us to reach Texans who might not have had an opportunity to come to Austin," Gammage explained. "Each event will focus on outdoor opportunities in that region of the state, with information on nearby state parks, good spots to go fishing, paddling, camping and much more. This will also help to connect families to outdoor groups in their area."

"Our goal remains the same: to engage underserved audiences and bring more people into the world of the great outdoors," Gammage emphasized. "One of our core beliefs is that recreation leads to conservation. By introducing Texans, especially urban Texans, to outdoor recreation, the outdoors becomes more relevant to them. They come to care about it and finally to care for it."

The Life's Better Outside® Experience schedule for 2010 is:

• February 20-21, at San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo - www.sarodeo.com
• March 6-7, at Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo - www.hlsr.com
• April 24-25, at Buc Days Celebration, Corpus Christi - www.bucdays.com
• June 5-6, at AlleyFest, Longview - www.alleyfest.org

More information about events and opportunities across Texas involving nature, history and the outdoors is on the TPWD Web site.

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On the Net:

• http://lifesbetteroutside.tpwd.state.tx.us/lboexperience.phtml
• http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/calendar/

The Twig - Planted in a New Place

If you call San Antonio home and love books, and cherish independent bookstores, want children to love books - then of course, you know the Twig Bookstore and it's twiglet offshoot, the Red Balloon. They were on of Broadway, north of the HEB Central Market, but now they are in new and roomier quarters in the Full Goods Building at the Pearl Brewery. I always loved the Twig - especially since I had done signings for my books there - but the premises they were in on Broadway always seemed a bit cramped, three eccentrically shaped rooms with the shelves of books crammed in wherever they fitted. At the Pearl, they have one large, airy room - and it didn't seem to be the least cramped, even though it was full of children and parents, and books, upon books upon books. The odds of being re-ended as you back out of one of the parking places in front are probably reduced, although perhaps Saturday traffic at the Farmers' Market may still afford the same fender-crunching thrills previously experienced when trying to back out into traffic on Broadway.

Yes, the Twig is now adjacent to the weekly Farmers' Market at the Pearl, which we visited a while back. We paid a return visit, purchasing some relatively inexpensive food items - a loaf of dense and luscious bread, some olive tapenade, which made me seriously re-think my decades-long dislike of olives, and a pound of incredibly fresh mushrooms. Yes, some very fine artisan foodstuffs on offer; but not what I became accustomed to in the regular farmers' market/street market in Greece and in Spain. There, the freshness was glorious, the fruits and vegetables, eggs and specialty foods were straight from the farm, and piled up in plenty - but they were also appreciably cheaper than a supermarket - a large part of the appeal to the ordinary shopper. Buy straight from the producer, shave off a few pennies by cutting a distributor and retailer out of the loop - alas, the goods at the Pearl Farmers' Market are wonderful, top-quality, but not all that much of a bargain. It's a sort of HEB Central Market in the open air and with live music and lots of dogs on leashes.

For our bite of lunch we took refuge from yuppies and puppies in an eccentric and divvy place on the other side of 281 - Sam's Burger Joint, at the corner of Grayson and Broadway, or as I realized, at the metaphorical corner of Trendily Expensive and Gloriously Low-Rent. The faint smell from the grill at lunchtime wafted to us from a block away. Although there is plenty of outdoor seating, it was a bit chilly, so we chose to sit inside and appreciate the rustic décor, which seems to have been assembled from yard-sales, thrift-shops and the oil-change place on the corner of Nacogdoches and Judson, which also features a lot of old license plates. Sam's Burgers has live music in the evenings, a line out the door at weekday lunchtimes, swing-dance lessons in the adjoining dance hall out in back, and burgers the size of a restaurant-sized bread and butter plate. Mine arrived so fresh from the grill the meat was still sizzling. My daughter had a chili-dog; no ordinary chili-dog this, but a brat with a scoop of home-made chili poured over it, and the chili wasn't made with that tasteless, cheap skillet-mix meat that usually features in fast-food chili-dogs, either. It was glorious - and neither of us had any appetite whatsoever for dinner that night.

Possum Kingdom!

Although my Texas back yard is tiny, a veritable scrap, a pocket-handkerchief of a back yard, it somehow feels much larger, because it backs on a green-belt, and is alive with birds; not much out of the ordinary, though; the usual brown sparrows and wrens, great flashy blue-jays- the glam rock-stars of the backyard-bird world- a mocking bird now and again, the returning cardinal pair and a flock of very fat grey doves. If I wanted, I could hunt them from the back porch; it would only be easier if they walked up to the door and committed seppuku on the mat. My own indoor cats see the birds as entertainment; Cat Television, the Bird Channel. And the visiting cats did know their limits; they never tangled with Wellie the opossum.

Wellie came to the back porch one summer afternoon, a couple of years ago, drank deeply from the outdoor cat's water dish, and then ate his fill of kibble, as the visiting cats watched lazily from a sun-warmed place on the rock pathway. Then, he calmly waddled across the porch, underneath the chair that I was sitting in, and curled up in the corner cupboard, among the garden sprayers, containers of plant food and the long loppers and went to sleep. I was never able to decide if he was fearless or as dumb as a box of rock, or why- other than a fearsome collection of needle-sharp teeth and claws-the outdoor cats were tolerant about Wellie. I suspect cats see opossums as merely another sort of ugly mutant cat.

Those cats and Wellie have since moved on  from my San Antoino home, but all year round, wild life in my garden burgeons: the toads come and go, and the lime-sherbet-green lizards inflating their pink throats on the wisteria branches are always there. A couple of evenings ago, I heard something crunching away at the kibble in the cats' dish, a tiny kitten-sized thing that skittered away and hid among the potted plants when I opened the door. Not the neighbors' escaped pet ferret again, but a miniature Wellie, an opossum-kit with a white face and black ears. Yesterday it was there again, joined by a second, and a third, who crept cautiously down the lattice, or from between the pots. They crunched nervously, sometimes balancing on the edge of the dish. Two of them fled when a hungry dove landed, and stalked up and down with an indignant flaring of tail-feathers and wings, but the third kit kept possession of the dish. The disgruntled dove hopped away off the porch and the two shyer kits crept out from between the pots again, and ate and ate until they were quite full. I assume they are living on the flat porch roof, under the shelter of the main roof overhang, and come and go by the lattice and the wisteria vines, and that the cat-opossum truce still holds. The man at the pet store says he had a semi-tamed one for a while, and they will eagerly eat slugs and snails, which is a good reason to tolerate them, even aside from the fact that they are rather amusing to watch.

I do wish I had a turtle in the garden, though. I have rescued two from various busy streets, but both times I was too far away from the house to take the time to bring either one of them home. I left them both in green pastures, out of the traffic. But a turtle would be cool - the next one I find in the road is coming straight home and joining my own little wild kingdom.

Deep In the Heart

There are reasons for not particularly enjoying residency in Texas; beginning with the brutal summer heat, and working down through the serious lack of good mountains, distance from the seacoast, the brutal summer heat, highway interchanges that look like the planners just threw a plate of spaghetti at a wall-map, self-chuck-holing surface roads, the brutal summer heat, a distressing tendency for citizens to drown in urban low-water crossings, a high percentage of drivers of large vehicle who completely spaz out when it rains, the brutal summer heat, urban downtown areas which look like Calcutta had thrown up on Los Angeles.... And the fact that everything is bigger applies to the insect life as well. You wanna see a garden spider large enough to snag small birds? Check out my back yard in the springtime ... but bring along a baseball bat. And did I mention the brutal summer heat?

Against those considerations, though, there is an even longer list of reasons to relish living in the Lone Star State. In no particular order of importance, we also have...

Wildflowers; square miles of wildflowers; in spring the highway verges, empty lots, and hillsides look like impressionist paintings.

Given enough rain, the countryside looks really, really quite pretty. Not spectacularly scenic, just lots of gently-rolling country, cut across with green rivers and creeks. The Hill Country is rather more enthusiastically rolling. West Texas is really, really rolling, but not very green most of the year. More medium crispy, and not to everyones' taste... but this being Texas - where everything is bigger - there is more than enough of it all to go around.

Fields of grazing cows; restful to observe, although in some places that view is varied with buffalo, llamas and other exotica.

The HEB grocery chain. Statewide powerhouse, offering a matchless combination of quality, excellent service and attention to detail; if it isn't on the shelf at your local HEB, you probably don't need it anyway. There are whole sections devoted to local salsa, hot sauce and BBQ sauce.

Austin local music scene; not that I know much about that first hand, other than seeing "Austin City Limits" on PBS but my daughter does: she made me put that in.

Local history: a rich mine containing many solid gold nuggets. As Churchill once remarked about the Balkans, Texas produces almost more history than can be consumed locally.

Breakfast tacos; the food of the gods... oh, ye who only know of this marvel through the medium of Taco Bell should hide your faces in shame, and make a pilgrimage to San Antonio on your knees. I solemnly swear that every block of every main avenue has a breakfast-taco place on it somewhere, many also offering drive-through service.

Finally, Texas has an exuberant sense of place. Utah is the only other state I know which possesses the same strength of identity, of pride in a shared history; both states having been independent and entities during their founding decades. Sometimes this strikes new visitors as overstated, but after a while it's kind of endearing, and makes other places seem bland in comparison.

And finally, this is only a personal and purely anecdotal statement... but I do believe that out of all other bodies of human beings in the world, a substantially higher proportion of them will slide out of this existence and into the next, breathless, exhausted and whooping triumphantly, "Day-am! What an incredible ride!"

Wandering Down the Alley

I hadn't been to Artisans' Alley, on Bitters Road just off 281in San Antonio, Texas since I was working a corporate job a couple of years ago. The practice of management was that if the sales team had a really good and profitable month, the sales staff and the administrators who supported them would be treated to lunch and a fine local establishment. On one of these occasions, the choice fell to Bin 555, where we had a quite splendid lunch - alas, since it was the middle of the workday, we had to give a miss to sampling the wines. And a double alas, for Apple Annie's is gone; the place where it was is being renovated to house another restaurant, which will - so they say - open in March or so.

Triple alas - we were there too late for the farmer's market, which is also at the Alley on Saturday mornings, but seeing that it was cold enough to totally freeze the water in one of the patio fountains, we were probably better served by being inside, roaming through what looks like a half-acre of antiques at Back Alley Antiques, full of lovely, lightly aged to well-aged stuff which we couldn't afford. My daughter was entranced by the collection of ladies' hats, especially the concoctions of feathers and fur and a little eye-veil. Yes, there was a time, once, when ladies wore these, along with strings and strings of pearls, white kid gloves, and high-button shoes. The evidence was all around. I discovered that they had reprints of those 1873 birds-eye view maps of San Antonio which were so popular in the 19^th century. My own heart is now set on a copy of the 1873 one for San Antonio, my hasn't San Antonio real estate changed?

When we finally tore ourselves away, and ventured into the cold again, there was a gallery with an invitingly opened door; it turned out they were cleaning up after a leak in a pipe, at Painting with a Twist. Which does offer the artistic experience, and lessons in painting; a sort of wine and cheese evening and a personal art lesson, all in one. The bit of art that I liked best, though, was a one-off sculpture by the manager's sister - a very fashionable rhino, enjoying a relaxing hot bath, with a glass of the good stuff. It really was good stuff, it said so on the bottle label.

At Gardening Galore, my daughter loved the balancing painted bamboo dragonflies - and the gurgle-jugs - a pitcher in the shape of an open-mouthed fish, which gurgles as you pour liquid out of it. The manager works with an artist who does a very sleek and modern version of this traditional Victorian favorite. They also offer a wide variety of hand-painted ceramics, of the sort that I think of as being garden jewelry. They also stock wind-chimes, of the sort that can be heard for miles, as I accidentally brushed against one and practically deafened myself.

On the way out, the daughter dragged me into Ba Da Bling; "Ohhh, pretty! Shiny! Feathery!" - accessories and cloths and costume jewelry, and flip-flop sandals adorned with bunches of grapes. We were greeted at the door by Harley, who came running out from between the racks. Harley did this for everyone coming in through the door at Ba Da Bling. He is a dog who adores people, but I don't think he'd be able to stand the pace, or the constant excitement of working at a bigger retail outlet.

We'll be back in spring - to check out the new restaurant - and to say hi to Harley.

Gov. Perry Sends Search and Rescue Teams to Aid Earthquake Victims in Haiti

Offers Additional Disaster Response Assistance from Texas

January 14, 2010|

AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry today sent Texas Task Force One, the state's elite search and rescue team, to provide assistance in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti. He also sent a letter to President Barack Obama offering additional state disaster response resources to assist emergency response teams, rescue workers and medical personnel. Since the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is leading and coordinating the U.S. response effort to this disaster, Texas must receive federal authorization before state resources can be deployed.

"In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, Texas is standing by to deliver much needed assistance and supplies to the victims of this disaster," Gov. Perry said. "Already this morning a team of brave men and women from Texas Task Force One departed for Haiti to provide vital search and rescue assistance. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, rescue personnel and medical workers in Haiti as they continue to cope with the aftermath of this quake."

Texas Task Force One is capable of responding to mass-casualty disasters and is trained and equipped to locate and rescue people trapped by collapsed structures in confined space in highly populated areas.

Additional state resources available for deployment include:

Medical Personnel:
·    Medical Assessment and Coordination Team with 4 personnel from Texas A&M/University of Texas
·    TxMAT (Texas Medical Assistance Team) - 2 teams - 7 personnel each; one from TX A&M and one from Angel Staffing - 1 physician, 2 nurses, 2 paramedics, 1 respiratory care
·    Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Command Assistance Team (1 team of 7 - 10 personnel) - from DSHS central and regional staff; incident management team
·    Community Assessment Public Emergency Response Team (CASPER) 3-5 person team to augment U.S. Public Health Service

Medical Supplies:
·    40 shelter push packs - support 100 people for three days with over-the-counter medications and other shelter supplies
·    40 shelter supply augmentation kits for infection control focused on preventing infectious disease, including gloves, masks, sanitizers, etc.

Medical Equipment:
·    2 mortuary refrigerated trailers with body bags and supplies

Baptist Child and Family Services: San Antonio (Shelter Medical):
·    Two 500 bed shelters including tents
·    70 staff for Incident Management Team
·    60 kilowatt generators
·    Medical staff (nurses and paramedics)
·    Communications package for satellite and local radios

Texas Baptist Men:
·    Water purification equipment and personnel capable of providing drinking water for 65,000 people.

Texas Military Forces Aircraft:
·    Two C-130s capable of transporting large quantities of equipment, supplies and personnel

TX A&M (Boat):
·    600 foot boat capable of housing responders

Search and Rescue: Texas Task Force One - TX A&M (already approved by federal government for deployment):
·    Highly trained urban search and rescue team
·    80 personnel
·    Search and rescue, K-9, logistics, communications and medical capabilities

Search and Rescue: Texas Task Force Two - DFW Area:
·    Highly trained personnel to augment Texas Task Force One
·    Conduct search of small structures

Texas-related volunteer organizations providing financial and other assistance in response to this disaster include The Salvation Army, Victim Relief Ministers, Billy Graham Ministries, Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, American Red Cross, and Baptist Child and Family Services.

To view the governor's letter to the president, please click the link below.

For additional information on the response effort and situation in Haiti, please visit http://www.usaid.gov/

Attached File: Gov. Perry's Letter to President Obama

The Teashop in the Village

Yes, there is a tea-shop in the village; Bracken Village that is. A tea-shop, serving fresh-brewed pots of tea, and scones and all of that, in two Victorian-style rooms and on the veranda of a quaint little house, restored lovingly, and sitting among others of like, around a gazebo in a grove of oak trees, out on Nacogdoches Road, beyond 1604 in San Antonio. Originally it was a farmstead, known as the Wiederstein-Burkhardt home-place, a tiny house and a carriage barn, but over the last decade, other historic houses have been moved in, renovated and put to new use as shops and boutiques, an art studio, a salon/day spa and a gymnasium. There are garden plantings in between the houses; in the spring it all looks as gorgeous as the setting for a Disney movie set in a small American town. One place, "Country Gatherings" even holds regular classes in hooking old-fashioned woolen rugs, in what was once the hayloft of a quaint old barn.

Some of the houses are tiny - many are ornate, with deep, generous porches. All are historic, and from the local area. Not a few, including the Borgfeld House, which is in the process of reconstruction, are of a peculiar German style of half-timber construction called fachwork. The framework walls of the house, the openings for windows and doorways are made of heavy beams, fitted and braced - and then the interstices filled in with brick, or cut stone. Sometimes this was plastered over, entirely - or in the case of the Borgfeld house, covered with board siding.

There are, at present, two places to eat at Bracken Village - 23 Skadoo, which has Red Hat stuff galore, and does things like soups, salads and sandwiches, and then there is the tea-room, British Sensations, which is in the building which used to house another popular tea-room, Bawdsy Manor. British Sensations also has a stock of imported foods and candies - things like Marmite and the kind of steamed-pudding-inna-can that I remember fondly from a summer spent traveling in England and staying in Youth Hostels. You boil the can in a saucepan full of water for about twenty minutes, then open the can - and yes, this sounds odd, but it was very good. The chocolate puddings were particularly tasty.

The tea-room also offers staple British fare - you know, fish and chips, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, and that sort of solid and hearty fare. Which when it is bad, is pretty awful - but when it is good, is very, very good - even sublime. We tried out the fish-n-chips, and the shepherd's pie, mostly because we were eating at mid-afternoon, and that was all that was available after the lunch rush; oh, and it was good, too, not interminably held over a steam table or something. The fish was tasty, cooked in a crisp crust, and the chips were fresh, too. Shepherd's pie can be dreadful, but it also was good; a particularly British variant on meat and potatoes, with the meat pie portion baked with a mashed-potato crust.

And the best part - it's not even all that far away; just up Nacogdoches Road, past the bridge over Salado Creek.