Editor’s Note: The Texas Historic Commission outlines 12 Texas regions of interest in its Texas Heritage Trails program. The following is a look at the Texas Hill Country Trail, the first part of a series on these trails.

Serenity on tap. A historical treasure chest brimming with natural gems. A place where you can have your high art and your barbecue, too, washed down with a bottleneck of Ziegenbach. More than 19 counties and a crock pot of German, Mexican and cowboy culture comprise the Texas Hill Country, one of Lone Star’s best-kept secrets. The Texas Historic Commission wants Texans—and the rest of the world—to know about this mystique.

By  Angela Thiel, Guest Blogger

How many of you helped your parents, grandparents or elderly neighbor in the garden as a child?  My first summer job, I was 10 years old. It was a brisk walk up the hill from our home, reach the top, and turn left a quarter mile down an old dirt road, crossing a bridge with two ponds on either side covered in water lilies, bullfrogs and snakes. I always hesitated when crossing that bridge; the bridge was in need of a diamond-shaped sign with a stark yellow background featuring a slithering silhouette of a serpent accompanied by one word: RUN. My reluctance in crossing could not be entertained, for there was an elderly no-nonsense woman waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. I hurried on for the last segment of my journey ignoring the magnificent gardenias or grand oaks as not to be scolded for my tardiness.  

By Susan Tomlinson

Some years ago I watched a very entertaining video featuring the antics of squirrels successfully foiling the efforts of homeowners, who were trying to keep them from stealing seed from bird feeders. No matter what sort of obstacle was put in front of them, the squirrels eventually overcame it. The makers of the video even went so far as to create bizarre, complicated puzzles of Rube Goldbergian-proportions, which the squirrels would solve in astonishingly short order to get a peanut. It was hilarious. And instructive.