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P U B D A T E 06-17-06

O P E R A T O R RREINHARD

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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SATURDAY JUNE 17, 2006 SECTION E

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Windows and an open floor plan give a home a light, airy feel

Midnight turns cubs into grizzlies Midnight has always held a certain mystique. It is the forbidden fruit of the life clock. From fairy tales to monster movies, it is the bewitching hour when things happen. Interesting things. Carriages turn back into pumpkins, mild mannered men sprout hair as they transform into werewolves and the streets turn to orgies of violence and mayhem while the rivers run red with blood. Well, that is what I always imagined. As you get older, midnight is just the opposite of noon. When you are awake to see midnight in your 40s, it just means you will be tired tomorrow. Ah, but midnight for the young is awesome. It begins as the goal of all adolescent sleepovers. The plan includes movies, popcorn, sleeping bags and staying up until midnight. It is a mini New Year’s Eve in footie pajamas. As one enters her teens, midnight at home becomes rather pedestrian. The true thrill of midnight is being out and about among the creatures of the night. Besides the usual theme park visits and middle-of-the-night trips to Wal-Mart, my daughters and I haven’t done a lot of midnight outings. That is what made last weekend so special. I decided to take the girls to a midnight movie. But our first midnight movie wasn’t just a trip to the safe and sound theaters of San Antonio. I decided to take them to a theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Calif. At midnight. If you are going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Knowing we would be in California when the Disney/Pixar movie “Cars” opened, I sort of promised the girls we would see it at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. I sort of promised we could go opening day. I sort of do things like that without thinking it through. I didn’t think about it being sold out. Sold out it was. El Capitan Theater was the jewel of Hollywood Boulevard back when it opened on May 3, 1926, as “Hollywood’s First Home of Spoken Drama.” Clark Gable and Joan Fontaine appeared in plays there. In 1941, Orson Welles premiered “Citizen Kane” there. The theater, as well as the boulevard, is steeped in history. Hollywood Boulevard has a reputation for being interesting. Despite Disney’s presence and the Kodak Theater’s arrival, it still has a “Pretty Woman” aspect to it. But a promise is a promise. Since every showing of “Cars” was sold out except the midnight showing, I bought

PHOTOS BY WILLIAM LUTHER/STAFF

MICHAEL O’ROURKE

BY TRACY HOBSON LEHMANN EXPRESS-NEWS HOME & GARDEN EDITOR

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ike everyone these days, John Kight is looking for rain. Like the rest of us, he wants relief from the miserable heat and drought. But Kight has another interest, perhaps a more significant one: He made a vow to his wife. “He promised me I would always have water,” says Mary Evelyn Kight. Unlike most folks, the Kights rely solely on rain for their water needs. Every drop of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, cleaning and lawn irrigation at their house north of Boerne A three-person comes via household would use the clouds. about 99 gallons of And even water a day indoors with the and 45 outdoors. The daily rundown and dry spell the household total: that’s lingered since Faucets: 5 minutes December per person, 1.5 gal2004, the lons a minute. Total: Kights 22.5 gallons. aren’t conShowers: 5 minutes cerned per person, 2 gallons about being a minute. Total: 30 parched. gallons. The big Toilets: 6 flushes per green tanks person, 2 gallons per out back flush. Total: 36 galstill hold lons. about 21,000 Washing machine: 3 gallons of loads per week, 16 water, gallons per load. Toroughly tal: 48 gallons a two-thirds week. (That’s based of the on a front-loading 30,000-gallon washing machine; capacity, top-loading machines captured use about 40 gallons from roofper load.) top runoff. Dishwasher: 4 loads Even withper week, 8 gallons out a drop per load. Total: 32 of rain, gallons a week. Kight figSource: John Kight ures that amount would keep the faucets flowing for the better part of a year without any lawn watering. “With 2 to 3 inches of rain, we’ll be full again,” he says.

Water use

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A glass of water from John Kight’s 30,000-gallon rainwater-collection system is crystal clear. In the top photo, Kight stands next to one of the tanks that store the water at the home near Boerne he shares with his wife, Mary Evelyn. John Kight designed the system.

Ikebana students look at spaces as well as stems LADY BIRD JOHNSON WILDFLOWER CENTER

Japanese-style arrangements, as taught in museum class, stress natural, seasonal materials.

Zexmenia

D BY MARY HEIDBRINK EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

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he Japanese word for it is moribana. Directly translated, it means heap of flowers. That’s not a very poetic way to describe artful flower arrangements that emphasize the spaces between the stems as much as the materials used. As Don Olsen teaches about moribana and other forms of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, he weaves in lessons in the language. The spiked floral frog that holds the stems is a kenzan, meaning “sword mountain.” He prefers the Japanese term to the less-graceful English names.

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Student Alicia Leff learned about Japanese culture from her parents, who fell in love with it while living in California. When Leff’s mother died 18 years ago, she left a box of ikebana supplies. Her mother would talk about the Japanese genius for revealing beauty and simplicity, discussions that stayed with Leff. “I have always wanted to do this very specific thing,” she says. On a recent Saturday, Leff attended her first ikebana class along with 16 other students at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Three more classes will be offered — June 24 and July 8 and 22 — and will cover a variety of arSee ARRANGEMENTS/5E

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Heather Snow carefully trims the cedar elm branches in an arrangement she’s making during an ikebana class taught by Don Olsen at the San Antonio Museum of Art.

P U B D A T E 06-17-06

O P E R A T O R RREINHARD

(Wedelia hispida) Tough times call for tough plants, and zexmenia proves it’s a survivor by blooming in the current blistering conditions. The evergreen perennial produces yellow daisylike flowers that measure about an inch across. In full sun, the plant grows upright and takes the form of a small shrub. With some shade, it tends to stretch and sprawl as a ground cover. Foliage has a rough texture and can irritate the skin. ■ Light: Sun to part sun. ■ Size: 2 to 3 feet tall; 2 feet wide. ■ Water: Drought tolerant. ■ Bloom: May through October. ■ Cultivation: Shear the plant back in midsummer to keep it in good form. Needs good drainage but adapts to a variety of soils.

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