Linda Byrne
Editor

Sometimes being a journalist is like being a passenger on a spaceship, zooming through time and peering down at new worlds.

Take last Thursday’s meeting of the Leon Springs Business Association at World Karate on Boerne Stage Road. The building is the first to qualify for CPS Energy’s rebate for green building. With stained concrete underfoot and Tectum panels overhead to muffle noise, this is the type of building we’ll all be seeing a lot more of. There’s recycled wood, cisterns holding 7,000 gallons of water collected from the roof, huge windows to the east, small windows to the west, one tiny window to the south. Energy-efficient construction is Step One in conserving energy. The 23 solar panels on the roof on the building’s south side make this a mini power-producing plant. I want one.

“I could have spent the $30,000 (over and above standard construction materials) on an escort service,” quips owner David Brown, alluding to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation last week. “But I figure if each of us does a little, we could do a lot.”

Next, speed up Interstate 10 to the Cibolo Nature Center to gather information for our upcoming Newcomers and Visitors Guide. The center is quintessential Boerne and a must-have for the guide.

Executive Director Carolyn Chipman-Evans is excited about old documents recovered from the Rozelle family, documenting life in the 1930s on the Herff-Rozelle farm, which the nature center bought in July. She notes that the center is rapidly becoming the literal center of Boerne. Like Manhattan’s 850-acre Central Park, the Cibolo Nature Center could be a green oasis in the middle of a booming Hill Country town.

“We all know cities that we just love, like Boulder, Colo.,” Chipman-Evans said. “Let’s move in that direction.” Yes, I want a city like that.

The next morning, it’s off to Edge Falls in Bergheim. Talk about old, here’s evidence of the Earth’s strata formed 112 million years ago. Dr. Bill Ward, a limestone geologist, knows all about the Glen Rose and the Hensel. There are botanists, artists, naturalists and nature enthusiasts on this trip. Botanist Bill Carr points out Bexar marbleseed, which blooms on a long stalk with a closed flower that has tiny marbled seeds. “How is pollination achieved?” he muses.

I want one. How come I always get nutgrass and nettles?

Pam Boerner is there for the memories. As a teenager in the 1960s, she used to come here when it was de rigueur to escape city and parents and hang out. Pistol-toting Mr. Edge charged the hip youths 50 cents apiece to swim in Edge Falls’ cool waters. Asked his first name for the record, Boerner’s face turned stern. “Mister,” she replied.

It was mostly innocent fun back then. Edge Falls itself is surrounded by rocks, big ones. And there were too many chiggers in the grass nearby for people to, um, disrobe. Or so says Boerner.

Finding time to write these stories on deadline will be difficult. For a family event, I am required to bake Stephan Pyles’ Heaven and Hell cake. Measure, sift and package dry ingredients on Wednesday, bake layers on Thursday, slice layers and make filling on Friday for frosting and serving on Saturday.

Four generations are gathering for the very first time. My 2-month-old grandson, Anthony, will meet his great-grandfather on the latter’s 92nd birthday. An Army baker in World War II, Grandpa still has a mighty sweet tooth and high expectations.

So all this is “saved to memory”— available in the recesses of the mind for future action. Green building, old rocks, never-ending quest for discovery and knowledge. What will the Hill Country do? To those who can’t wait for more growth, more activity, more choices, the naturalists and preservationists can be hell. And vice versa.

But by layering our expectations on top of our experiences, we might be able to adopt the Heaven and Hell cake formula, which, incidentally, is layers of devil’s food cake, angel food cake, peanut butter mousse and chocolate frosting. The mix is interesting, far more pleasurable than any of these could be alone. It works, and it’s really good.

The concept could be a recipe for Hill Country heaven, a place and time that would sustain and nurture the baby Anthonys of our world for the next century.

For more information please visit:

Edge Falls discussion and history:
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/bergheim-tx/TUKGQ5BE7AQKF8EM5

Edge Falls photos:
http://www.edgefalls.com/creek_and_falls.htm

Chef Stephan Pyles
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-5562726-5036602?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephan+Pyles
 
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