DAILY NZ P A G E 1E COLOR P U B D A T E 06-17-06 O P E R A T O R RREINHARD D A T E // TIME:

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SAN ANTONIO
EXPRESS-NEWS
Windows and an open floor plan
SATURDAY give a home a light, airy feel
JUNE 17, 2006 PAGE 10E
SECTION E

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
PHOTOS BY WILLIAM LUTHER/STAFF
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 mid-
night in your 40s, it
just means you will
be tired tomorrow.
Ah, but midnight
for the young is awe-
some. It begins as the
MICHAEL goal of all adolescent
sleepovers. The plan
BY TRACY HOBSON LEHMANN
EXPRESS-NEWS HOME & GARDEN EDITOR
O’ROURKE includes movies, pop-
corn, sleeping bags
and staying up until

L
ike everyone these days, midnight. It is a mini
John Kight is looking for New Year’s Eve in footie pajamas.
rain. Like the rest of us, he As one enters her teens, midnight
wants relief from the miser- at home becomes rather pedestrian.
able heat and drought. The true thrill of midnight is being
But Kight has another interest, out and about among the creatures of
perhaps a more significant one: He the night. Besides the usual theme
made a vow to his wife. park visits and middle-of-the-night
“He promised me I would always trips to Wal-Mart, my daughters and
have water,” says Mary Evelyn Kight. I haven’t done a lot of midnight out-
Unlike most folks, the Kights rely ings. That is what made last week-
solely on rain for their water needs. end so special. I decided to take the
Every drop of water for drinking, girls to a midnight movie. But our
cooking, bathing, cleaning and lawn first midnight movie wasn’t just a
irrigation at trip to the safe and sound theaters of
their house San Antonio. I decided to take them
Water use north of to a theater on Hollywood Boulevard
A three-person Boerne in Hollywood, Calif. At midnight. If
household would use comes via you are going to be a bear, be a griz-
about 99 gallons of the clouds. zly.
water a day indoors And even Knowing we would be in California
and 45 outdoors. The with the when the Disney/Pixar movie “Cars”
daily rundown and dry spell opened, I sort of promised the girls
the household total: that’s lin- we would see it at the El Capitan
Faucets: 5 minutes gered since Theater in Hollywood. I sort of prom-
per person, 1.5 gal- December ised we could go opening day. I sort
lons a minute. Total: 2004, the of do things like that without think-
22.5 gallons. Kights ing it through. I didn’t think about it
Showers: 5 minutes aren’t con- being sold out. Sold out it was.
per person, 2 gallons cerned El Capitan Theater was the jewel
a minute. Total: 30 about being of Hollywood Boulevard back when it
gallons. parched. opened on May 3, 1926, as “Holly-
Toilets: 6 flushes per The big wood’s First Home of Spoken
person, 2 gallons per green tanks Drama.” Clark Gable and Joan Fon-
flush. Total: 36 gal- out back taine appeared in plays there. In
lons. still hold 1941, Orson Welles premiered “Citi-
about 21,000 zen Kane” there. The theater, as well
Washing machine: 3
loads per week, 16 gallons of as the boulevard, is steeped in his-
gallons per load. To- water, tory.
tal: 48 gallons a roughly Hollywood Boulevard has a reputa-
week. (That’s based two-thirds tion for being interesting. Despite
on a front-loading of the Disney’s presence and the Kodak
washing machine; 30,000-gallon Theater’s arrival, it still has a
top-loading machines capacity, “Pretty Woman” aspect to it. But a
use about 40 gallons captured promise is a promise. Since every
per load.) from roof- showing of “Cars” was sold out ex-
Dishwasher: 4 loads top runoff. cept the midnight showing, I bought
per week, 8 gallons Even with-
per load. Total: 32 out a drop See O’ROURKE/4E
gallons a week. of rain,
Source: John Kight Kight fig-
ures that
amount
would keep the faucets flowing for
the better part of a year without any GOOD TO G R OW
lawn watering.
“With 2 to 3 inches of rain, we’ll be
full again,” he says.

See RAINFALL/12E
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
(Wedelia hispida)
D Tough times call for tough plants,
BY MARY HEIDBRINK Student Alicia Leff learned and zexmenia proves it’s a survivor by
blooming in the current blistering con-
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER about Japanese culture from her
ditions.
parents, who fell in love with it The evergreen perennial produces

T
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 arrange-
ments that emphasize the spaces
between the stems as much as the
materials used.
As Don Olsen teaches about mo-
ribana and other forms of ikebana,
the Japanese art of flower arrang-
ing, 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.
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 al-
ways wanted to do this very specif-
ic thing,” she says.
On a recent Saturday, Leff at-
tended 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 ar-
See ARRANGEMENTS/5E
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
BILLY CALZADA/STAFF
midsummer to keep it in good form.
Heather Snow carefully trims the cedar elm branches in an arrangement Needs good drainage but adapts to a
she’s making during an ikebana class taught by Don Olsen at the San An- variety of soils.
tonio Museum of Art.

DAILY NZ P A G E 1E COLOR P U B D A T E 06-17-06 O P E R A T O R RREINHARD D A T E // TIME: