San Antonio Botanical Garden – Part 2

Like most botanical gardens, the San Antonio Botanical Garden is segmented. The Kumamoto En Japanese Garden was probably my favorite: the water feature surrounded by plants and rocks, a mockingbird scolding us (wanting the garden to himself), a sun and moon ‘lantern,’ and stepping stones for going off the trails.

The Sensory Garden was colorful and included sculptures (like the armadillo below) that were positioned to be touched.

The Fountain Garden included ‘Christmas balls’ floating in the water and a metal flower sculpture surrounded my greenery.

We came a garden that attracted butterflies. I managed to photograph Gulf Fritillary and

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I’ve always wanted to get some close-up Datura flowers and seeds…and there was a plant that was well positioned for that!

Two little surprises in the gardens: a design made with pumpkins under some trees and

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A chess set in the well of the amphitheater.

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There was a special display of scarecrows while we were there – created my local organizations.

The garden has several areas that talk about the various water situations in Texas: Hill country, East Texas, and South Texas.  It was more rustic than other areas of the Botanic Garden.

We didn’t see very many birds – but I did manage to photograph a hermit thrush in a tree (right off the trail in the East Texas part of the garden). I was pleased since I am rarely fast enough to get a good image of forest birds.

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San Antonio Botanical Garden – Part 1

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We took advantage of having a morning in San Antonio, Texas before our late afternoon flight home to walk around the San Antonio Botanical Garden. The first thing we noticed is that the garden is still being actively developed with some areas barricaded either for updating or new building. We headed to the conservatories forest. These are very different structures than the glass houses of the 1800s/early 1900s. They rise from concrete peers – high shards into the sky surrounding a courtyard. The climate in San Antonio is mild enough that even the courtyard looked lush and green at the beginning of winter!

There were sculptures in the gardens within the conservatories and the courtyard. My favorite was the ‘owl.’

The conservatories were divided by climate types: desert,

Primitive plants like cycads (l loved the color of the fresh cones)

And Screw pines (I saw the mature fruit in Hawaii and got a better look at the Phipps Conservatory, but this is the first time I saw the fruit at this stage of development).

I can’t resist the unfurling of ferns

Or the tropical flowering plants and trees.

And that was just the first part of our walk around the San Antonio Botanical Garden. There’ll be another post about the place tomorrow.

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2017

More than half the ‘little celebrations’ I’ve picked to showcase in this post are from the first two weeks of the month – spent in Texas.

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During the first week there was a big birthday celebration for my Mother (with three kinds of cake!) and visiting Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge for the first time.

In the second week, the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was one long celebration that include seeing two kinds of Kingfishers on one field trip!

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I still am working on a post about the San Antonio Botanical Garden – it was the first time I’d been there and a place to celebrate.

I got to eat excellent Texas barbecue in three different restaurants during the trip too.

After every long trip – I celebrate getting home again; that was true for the November travel too.

We had company for Thanksgiving this year (daughter and son-in-law) so it was a shared celebration –something to savor.

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And then there was the pre-staging of December activities that actually started in November: volunteering at the model train exhibit and

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Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens. I celebrate the season with every child that looks with awe at the trains or giggles with delight at Nessie blowing steam.