LEAN ON ME (9/07)

Woo Hoo! I have my house back! Want to know the definition of true friends? True friends are people whom you can call up and say "Don't you want to come visit us in Wimberley this weekend? Oh, and by the way, while you are here, would you mind helping to unload that big container full of furniture in our driveway, and putting our house back together?", and their reply is an enthusiastic "Sure, we'd love to!" Paula and Tim are those kinds of friends.

They showed up at noon yesterday, bearing hamburgers for our lunch. Immediately after eating, John and Tim went to work bringing all of the furniture in, and Paula and I got to visit for a while on the upstairs porch. When they had the last piece in place, the men retired to the downstairs porch, and Paula and I started putting lamps and gee-gaws back in place, making beds, putting books on shelves and pulling the kitchen back together. Once we had finished with all of that, it was time to get cleaned up. We reconvened upstairs for a little wine and cheese, while we deliberated over the most important decision of the day - where to eat dinner.

It took some time, but we finally decided on The Leaning Pear Cafe, which opened this past March in a little 19th century stone building down on River Road. Apparently the young owners chose that name as a derivative of "the leaning pair". At the same time that they were trying to get the restaurant up and running, the husband had a serious health scare (the same one that Paula and Tim had early in their marriage), and they were forced to lean upon one another in order to get through it all. They have embraced the eating seasonally and locally philosophy, have put a lot of effort into making contact with local farmers and cheese-makers, and have even installed a galvanized metal cistern, to keep their garden quenched. Everything they serve is delicious, but their innovative soups (different ones each day) are the bargain of the century. Opening a restaurant in a small town like Wimberley is always a risky venture, but I'm happy to say, it looks like the Leaning Pear is here to stay.

After dinner we came back to the house. The Sanfords have been dying to try out our fire pit ever since it was completed, but each time they came, we were either under a burn ban, it was blazing hot, or it was pouring down rain. Since the temperature had dropped down into the "frigid" seventies when the sun went down, we all agreed that it was time to break in the pit. We stayed out there watching the stars come out, swapping tall tales, enjoying our good friends and good life, until the fire was nothing but a few glowing embers.