The 21st Century Matriarch

So many things to celebrate in February…I’ve picked my top 10 that are in roughly chronological order during the month.

I started out the month in Carrollton, Texas.

2020 02 IMG_7856 (10).jpg — **Red Yucca.** The seed pods always look interesting to me. I like their curves and points. The warm brown and burnt black colors.

Fried catfish and okra. Sometimes a high-fat splurge is OK….delicious.

A sunny and warm day. In February, the days are often gray and cold….so when the weather bucks the trend…it’s time to get outdoors to celebrate.

The Laredo Birding Festival was not that long…but there was something to celebrate every day.

2020 02 IMG_7905 (3).jpg — **Roadrunner.** What a way to start a birding trip…seeing an iconic bird of the area at a rest stop before we even got to Laredo!

2020 02 IMG_4880 (2).jpg — **Great Horned Owls**. We saw these owls on two days! What a thrill.

Sunrise on the Rio Grande. Celebrating the start of another day….the beauty of a river that draws life to a dry area.

2020 02 IMG_3928 (5).jpg — **American White Pelicans ballet.** I had never witnessed pelicans feeding together in a coordinated way. They were synchronized and graceful…the joy of watching the natural world in action.

Audubon’s Oriole. Celebrating a colorful bird that just appeared while we were relaxing on a veranda after lunch.

And then we were home again.

A Day at home. I always celebrate being at home after I’ve been away. The view from my office window…fixing my own favorite foods…relaxing.

NISE Training. Robinson Nature Center provided a class on some kits they’ve purchased from the National Informal STEM Education Network. I enjoyed the gravity well (Exploring Universe Orbiting Objects) activity and hope there are opportunities to share it with visitors to the nature center. I also passed the information (here) along to my daughter since it had potential for physics related outreach activities her university does. So multiple reasons to celebrate this training!

My husband and I flew to San Antonio (me from Dallas, he from Baltimore) and drove down to the Laredo Birding Festival from there. We made a rest stop at the Lasalle County Rest Stop (southbound) and

Immediately saw our first stunning bird of the trip: A Greater Roadrunner. It was in the picnic area of the rest stop and then moved out into the parking area. It was a cold day, so the feathers were fluffed making it look plumper than usual.

The rest stop had well maintained plantings – some were blooming in the cold.

2020 02 IMG_7905 (10).jpg — The signage and windmill outside the building started the historical story of the county.

Inside the building were displays about the county: ranching, railroad, mining and farming. On the back of the hanging signs were metal sculptures that I enjoyed.

As I got ready to write this blog post, I checked Google maps for the rest stop and discovered that there is a short hiking trail to the south of the rest stop. I’ll walk around it next time I am make that stop (maybe next year).

We got to Laredo and checked into the La Posada Hotel which would be the hub for departures on the trips for the festival. It’s very close to the Rio Grande….in the older part of Laredo. A hour or so later we walked to the Laredo Center of the Arts for the 2020 Birds of the Brush exhibit – bird themed art from local schools. I liked the paintings on paper shopping bags and birds I recognized. The backgrounds were often what made the work memorable beyond the bird itself.