Luke and Rachel Watson have lost most of their sight. They eventually will lose all motor skills. Their parents are losing sleep -- do the adults tell their kids they're dying of Batten disease?
Photo by Katharine Shilcutt
Canapes with house-made chevre and garden herbsAs the fourth course of the meal was set in front of me, I marveled at its elegant construction but was more struck by a far subtler thing: Every ingredient in the dish had been plucked fresh from the organic garden outside, no more than a few hundred yards from where I sat, that morning. The first course of tomato salad with house-made chevre and the second course of risotto with sweet basil puree and homemade re
Photos by Brittanie SheyRows of lavenderLong after the bluebonnets have shed their petals, another lilac flower blooms in the Hill Country of Texas. Lavenderfest, August 8 in Chappell Hill, is devoted to the 2,500-year-old herb that is used in everything from cooking to aromatherapy to fragrance production.
The Chappell Hill Lavender Farm, about eight miles north of the town that shares its name, is one of the few in Texas to grow the herb. (Another larger farm is in Blanco. Its owner, J
Photo by Brittanie SheyIf you decide to head up to Lavenderfest, you might be wondering what else you can do to make your drive worthwhile.
It turns out that Chappell Hill, home of Lavenderfest, is one of the most interesting almost-ghost towns in the Houston area. Once, it was one of the largest towns in Texas, with a population of 3,000 people around the time of the Civil War. The town suffered massively during the yellow fever outbreak of 1867 and never quite recovered, but it's Main
Photos by Katharine Shilcutt
Chorizo and egg taco from Brother's Taco HouseThere are those of us who are naturally early risers. And to those people go such wonderful things as brilliant sunrises, early morning calm, blessedly empty streets and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. And then there are the rest of us, for whom significant motivation is required to crawl out from under the burrow of sheets. And what greater motivation is there than the allure of breakfast tacos?
Break
