Category: Anita’s blog

Nothing is quite so elegant as a freshly-mown lawn. The opposite, however, can be full of surprises. Many of our chapter members have come to the Valley and purchased a residence with acreage. Overwhelmed with information after TMN training, new graduates sometimes don’t know where to start. I’ve told a few people to quit mowing…

Not often, but sometimes, I feel compelled to help out Mother Nature. For instance, twice this month, one of my cow pen daisy bushes has been thick with butterfly larva. What was a lush, green bush one day, was suddenly sickly looking with little black blobs all over it. The blobs were Bordered Patch butterfly…

Ever wonder what quail eat? A couple of years ago I overheard someone say that quail babies can’t eat seeds; they rely on low growing plants to provide insects. Although I often wondered what I could do to provide quail with food to help them prosper, I never remembered to research when I sat down…

The weather lately has not been to my liking. On pleasant days though, I’ve been out and about, working in my yard or at Ramsey Park. At home, I have weed-eated with a vengeance, freely stepped in thick vegetative growth and rummaged around bare-handed in my over-grown butterfly garden. The weather is cold, so it’s…

This is dedicated to all who have read the three-inch thick Texas Master Naturalist training manual. If you aren’t familiar with slam poetry, it is like some of Bob Dylan’s 60s/early 70s ballads in that it is born out of social consciousness.   Disturbances by Anita Westervelt   Do I have a cause? Did I…

Tony Reisinger’s classes are always fun and entertaining. One of his most popular is fish printing. The classes fill up as soon as they are announced. If you’re squeamish, you’ll soon get over it if you just pick up the dead fish, squirt it with dish soap and gently scrub it with a brush  —…