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Youth can participate by: 1) Reading: Youth ages 8 to 18 can register and track their reading with a time log and earn a prize for every 10 hours they read. *New this year: After you finish with your reading log, you can submit a short summary of you next books on a slip to enter to win a FREE Large Golden Dragon Pool Float!* Be sure to read and earn prizes as well as a chance to win two great prizes! Ongoing Programs: Sunny the Reading Dog, first and third Mondays, 3:30 p.m.

The Hill Country Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was recognized for its ongoing efforts to honor and support National Flag Day and Week by the Blanco County Commission, which proclaimed the week of June 10-16 as “National Flag Week” in Blanco County. Flag Day is June 14, 2018, which marks more than 241 years of displaying the American flag since the Second Continental Congress adopted the American flag on June 14, 1777. The proclamation by t ...

Johnson City Antique Tractor and Engine twelfth annual Tractor Pull will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 23 at the Blanco County Fairgrounds at 619 U.S. Hwy 281 in Johnson City. There will be events for various size and age tractors from 1965 and older. Along with the tractor pull, there will be a Kiddie pull and lawnmower pull. The event is a non-points Texas-style pull with weighted and unweighted rules like those used at Temple & Hamilton.

The fifth and final performance of the Blanco Performing Arts eighth season, Flights of Fancy, was a spectacular and magnificent end to a masterful season of stellar chamber music. The outstanding concert showcased the memorable duo Jonah Kim, cello, and Sean Kennard piano, who held their audience spellbound during their vibrant performance.

Some of you know my oldest son has cerebral palsy, severe spastic cerebral quadriplegia, to be exact. When DJ was almost a year old (in 1988), I began a crash course in neonatal neurology, pediatric developmental therapy and Children’s Social Services. I embarked upon an eye-opening, life-changing journey to familiarization and exploration of a subculture in which parents of special-needs children raise their kids--a world previously unknown and unacknowledged by me at age 20. Most new mo ...

Everyone has heard of the term “hot topics”; in the past two years I don’t know of any historic site in Blanco that has been a hotter topic. Blanco’s Town Creek runs through the Pecan Bottom, and at the north edge of Town Creek, behind the large stores on Third St., is a dry-stacked, historic rock retaining wall.

Members of the Lucky Leaf 4-H club show off their patchwork quilts, from a recent workshop conducted by Barbara Wilson, instructor and Extension Education Association member (back row. Members from left: Brailee Snow, Mamie Chambless, Jenna White and Celeste Campa.

Children of all ages are invited to Fredericksburg Thurs., June 21, to participate in the World’s Largest Swim Lesson at the Hill Country Memorial Wellness Center (1006 S. State Hwy. 16). The lesson is free, and children are required to register to participate. Registration begins at 12:30 p.m., and the lesson begins at 1:30 p.m. Certified swim instructors from the HCM Wellness Center will lead the 30-minute swim and water safety lesson. The World’s Largest Swim Lesson was created i ...

I assume that folks who read these columns are at least somewhat interested in Nature and our native habitat. If this describes you, then there are two brand-new books out that that will interest you. The first book is “Seasons at Selah: The Legacy of Bamberger Ranch Preserve.” This book was so much anticipated that I put my name on a list to buy a copy even before the actual publication.

Over the past two years, landowners across the Hill Country, including 100 landowners along the Blanco River, have partnered with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), The Nature Conservancy, Hill Country Alliance, Texas Department of Transportation, and other municipal and local partners to build the Healthy Creeks Initiative. This collaborative effort focuses on controlling Arundo (a non-native, invasive plant) and restoring diverse, healthy plant communities along the Blanco River and ...