Hill Country Bed and Breakfast

“Smitty’s Garden Tour”

Smithville Community Garden Fundraising Tour.
May 1, 2010
10AM to noon: Expert Talks at Selected Locations
Noon to 4PM: All Garden Locations Open
$10 for adults; children 12 and under FREE!

Most locations will feature experts in various fields such as bees, vermiculture (worms), landscaping, rainwater recapture, integrated pest management, and others. Some garden locations will include more formal discussions from 10AM to noon, and all locations will provide information and informal interaction with the experts.

Ticket sales will pay for plants and seeds for garden sites, educational programs, needed tools and equipment, and a building fund for the property at MLK and Hwy 95.

The Smithville Community Gardens turns vacant property into productive land with help from many volunteers.

We hope to see you there!
See http://www.ci.smithville.tx.us/ for more details.

Tickets can be bought at the Smithville Chamber or at the gardens on Saturday.

For additional information of what is available in Smithville, see: www.smithvilletx.org Also, if you plan on an extended stay, feel free to email me (pHantompHrog) for additional information.

We plan on this being a friendly event for all families and individuals who attend.

 ARTS COTTAGE PLAYS HOST TO BOB LIVINGSTON TRIO, AUSTIN’S INTERNATIONAL MUSIC AMBASSADORS

 The Arts Cottage – Rock-C Ranch – 1620 FM 535 – Smithville, TX 78957   Saturday   April 24th   7:00PM

  On Saturday, April 24th, the Arts Cottage at the Rock-C Ranch near Smithville will play host to the BOB LIVINGSTON TRIO for an evening of great music and storytelling.  Officially designated, ‘Austin’s International Music Ambassadors’, the Trio is made up of  frontman, former Lost Gonzo Band member, Bob Livingston, guitarist Bradley Kopp, and fiddle player, Richard Bowden.  They will come ready to play for the homefolks in Texas, the same great music that brought them standing ovations in Europe and across Africa last Fall.

 The travels in Africa were the latest leg on a worldwide tour that began for Livingston in 1986.  As a cultural ambassador for the US State Department, he has taken Texas music as far afield as India, Pakistan, Yemen, Thailand and Vietnam, and has demonstrated time and again the unique power that music has to build bridges between peoples of the world.  As Livingston says, “When all else fails, music prevails’.

 Best known for his membership in the legendary Lost Gonzo Band, and his association with some of the most colorful musicians in Texas including Michael Martin Murphey, Jerry Jeff Walker and Ray Wylie Hubbard, Livingston is making a mark these days in his own right as a singer-songwriter.  His 2004 album, ‘Mahatma Gandhi and Sitting Bull’, was named by the Austin American-Statesman as one of the Top 10 CDs the year it was released.  Livingston toured last year around a new compilation album entitled, ‘Original Spirit” and is now back in the studio working with Producer Lloyd Maines on a project that signals a return to his Texas roots: a little more ‘Cowboy’ than ‘Cosmic’ this time around.  This new album is due to be released in May or June.

 The recently opened Arts Cottage is the fruition of the hard work and vision of Pebbles Wadsworth, former director of the University of Texas Performing Arts Center.  The beautifully restored century old cottage was relocated to the Rock-C Ranch, less than an hour from Austin, and is now used as a community gathering place for culture, arts and education.  The acoustics are excellent and the venue is perfect for music.  Come out early, enjoy a glass of wine and watch the sunset, then settle in for a fine night with the Bob Livingston Trio.  Seating is limited to 50, so go to:  www.cottageofthearts.com , or call 512-633-6533 to reserve your place for this wonderful evening.

Contact:  Georgeanne Olive  Telephone:  Cell 404-403-8189

For more info on Smithville contact the Smithville Area Chamber of Commerce. For info on lodging contact the Katy House Bed and Breakfast.

While most of our Katy House guests this weekend were antique shopping at Warrenton and Round Top, we had a couple from Denmark visiting. They were here to run in the 50-mile Hell’s Hills race held at Rocky Hill Ranch on Saturday, April 3. This was a trail run consisting of a 50-mile, 50k, and 25k race and one of the Tejas Trails series. There will be three more events at Rocky Hill this year. Rasmus and Tracy Høeg, natives of Denmark and living temporarily in Wisconsin stayed three days at our bed and breakfast. They didn’t come to relax, they came to win. And win they did! Tracy was third in the 50-mile run women’s division, and Rasmus was first overall. Breakfast on Sunday was a celebration of treasures found at the antique shows, stories of a great family reunion nearby and certainly the victory at Rocky Hill Ranch. A great time was had by all.

“Go Wild in Smithville!”  The Smithville Business Association is sponsoring its Second Annual Wildflower Event.  The merchants in Historic Downtown Smithville will be giving away FREE packets of wildflower seeds (while supplies last). Each of the 18 locations will have a different variety. Start out on Main Street for your first free packet and a map of the participating locations.  The “GO Wild in Smithville” celebration is being held on Saturday, May 1st from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. The Katy House Bed and Breakfast is one of the participating merchants.  We are not on Smithville, Texas’  Historic Main Street,  where all the antique shops are located, but one block away on Ramona and Second Street.

Our 6th Annual  Fly-In & Pancake Breakfast is Saturday, May 8th, 2010.  The Fly-In is at Smithville Municipal Airport  84R . Located at Highway 71 and Hw 95,  it is Bastrop County’s only airport. Pancakes will be served from 9:00 AM to Noon.  For more information call the Smithville Chamber of Commerce at (512) 237-2313 or see the web site at www.smithvilletx.org .    Downtown Smithville is a treat, and there will be transportation available to go visit Main Street for a few hours. Plan to spend the night at the Katy House and we will pick you up at the Airport.  Katy House Bed and Breakfast phone is (512) 237-4262

 March 19,20, and 21st is the Fourth Annual Biker Rally, Thunder on the Colorado, at our beautiful RiverBend Park. Presented by the Smithville Chamber of Commerce.Sponsored by TrustTexas Bank. The park is 2 miles from our Bed and Breakfast, the Katy House. Rooms are still available. Ask for the 10% biker discount!   (512) 237-4262

 for more information see the web site. www.thunderonthecolorado.com

Five Time Champion”, a feature length film, was filmed here in Smithville, Texas. Our Bed and Breakfast had a few of the crew stay with us during the filming.  We are excited that it will soon be released.  As a member of the Smithville Music and Film Commission, I think it is great fun to see productions that have been filmed around our town.   “Five Time Champion” is a film about love, hope, petty theft, adultery, and the boundless opportunities presented by science.

The Director is Berndt Mader.  He is a director and writer living in Austin, Texas. He has written and directed films that have screened at festivals around the globe. His film A NEUTRAL DENSITY won Best Screenplay at the 2005 Cinematexas Film Festival, and was honored with a screening at the Director’s Guild of America Theater in Burbank. His most recent film, “ROAD TO TLACOTEPEC,” won the Audience Award at the 2008 Austin Film Festival. Mader holds an MFA degree in filmmaking from the University of Texas at Austin and is co-owner of the Austin-based production company The Bear Media. “FIVE TIME CHAMPION” is Mader’s first feature film to write and direct.

IF you would like to know more about the filming in Smithville, please visit the Smithville Chamber site.  If you would like to plan a trip our way, visit our web site. Reservations at the Katy House Bed and Breakfast can be made on line, or by calling (512) 237-4262.  

www.KatyHouse.com

This is from a cute couple that just stayed with us. This is Dave’s blog:

An Occasion To Remember

Many men fall victim to their own memory when it comes to anniversaries. Fortunately, my anniversary falls in the same ten-day period as Valentine’s Day and my wife’s birthday. While making this easy to remember, it does have its issues, but nothing I can’t handle.

On our wedding day, we drove to Smithville Texas, the site of the movie “Hope Floats” featuring Sandra Bullock (yes, it is a chick-flick, but it is a good one) and stayed at a bed and breakfast called The Katy House. Now, for those who read this blog (yes, I am talking to you) you may remember that Michelle and I love to tour small towns off the beaten path. Well, Smithville—with a whopping population of 3,900—certainly qualifies as small and it does sit just off of state highway 71, which is a beaten path.

This town has a quaint old style main street with buildings built around the turn of the century (not the recent one, mind you) and a train depot (which is not really a functioning depot anymore, but it serves as the chamber of commerce and a railway museum). Most of the buildings that are occupied house antique stores or craft boutiques, while many sit empty. The other streets are filled with old houses dating back to the late 1800’s when this town was built by the MKT railroad. The Katy House is one such home.

Built in 1909, it was originally named the Chancellor Residence after its first occupant. Many others have lived in it since, but it is now a very comfortable B&B run by Sallie and Bruce Blalock. They made our wedding night stay quite pleasant, setting us up with a bottle of bubbly and getting us reservations at the town’s pre-eminent restaurant, The Back Door Café (make the trip if for no other reason than to eat here, it is that good). Because the stay was so memorable, we come back every year to celebrate our anniversary with them….