Category Archives: Place
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
Wings over Luckenbach: Jacob Brodbeck and the limits of history
This week, for spring break, we flew to Colorado to ski and to visit Heather’s sister Isa and brother John and their families. As I sat on the plane, gazing out the window at the green and brown patchwork unfurling … Continue reading
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Tagged aviation, Fredericksburg TX, Isa Catto Shaw, Jacob Brodbeck, John Catto, Luckenbach TX, nineteenth century, Texas Hill Country
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Stonewall: permission to dig
There must be a story behind the sign at the front gate of the Stonewall Community Cemetery—I mean, who digs a new grave in a cemetery without permission?—but I don’t know it. Even though I wrote the entry on Stonewall … Continue reading
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Tagged Civil War, Handbook of Texas, Israel Nunez, Lyndon Johnson, nineteenth century, peaches, Pedernales River, Stonewall TX
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The Frontier Times and auld lang syne
Happy Belated New Year, O Faithful Reader! And what better way to belly up to a brand-new year (and decade) than by contemplating the past? And what better place to contemplate the past, both personal and communal, than the Frontier … Continue reading
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Tagged Bandera TX, Frontier Times Museum, J. Marvin Hunter, John Wayne, museums
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Thanks, Miz Hatfield
Bandera County, and the field of Texas history, lost a good one when Dorothy “Dot” Ferguson Hatfield passed away in late September at her home in Medina. Probably not many of you know who she was, but over the last … Continue reading
Extra! Americans losing sense of place!
One of the things that we hope will characterize Madroño Ranch: A Center for Writing and the Environment is a strong sense of place. It’s right there, implicitly and explicitly, in our mission and vision statements, just off to your … Continue reading
Bigfoot Wallace
Wallace Creek, which flows through Madroño Ranch, is named for Bigfoot Wallace, the legendary nineteenth-century Texas Ranger and Indian fighter who received a grant of 320 acres about five miles north of Medina in 1849. Wallace was celebrated as “the … Continue reading
By shank’s mare across England
Last month Martin and his friend Bruce spent two weeks backpacking across northern England. Here’s his report: Bruce, who’s been going to the U.K. every summer for several decades, is a veteran country walker; he’s done the famous Wainwright Coast-to-Coast … Continue reading
The wonder and power of water…
… in a time of drought are, oddly, matched only in times of flood. The Texas Hill Country is in the grip of a drought unparalleled at least since the 1950s. This drought has been so fierce that cattle going … Continue reading
The naming of writing centers
There are a lot of questions that will need to be answered before Madroño Ranch: A Center for Writing and the Environment becomes a reality. Among the more unexpectedly troubling was, what to call the dang thing? Heather decided fairly … Continue reading
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Tagged Kinky Friedman, Madroño Ranch, sustainability, T. S. Eliot, Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, writing
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