Back to the Gardens

We thought about returning to the festival on Sunday morning but the botanic gardens called our names just a little louder. So today’s post will be a conglomeration of thoughts.

For one thing, we had to get to the gardens. And that reminds me to comment on the city itself. You know I’m not big on big cities, but we like San Antonio a lot. It’s a big city (pop. 1,300,000), but if you have to be in one, this is a nice one to be in. Most of our few trips within the city were made on city streets, rather than Interstate. The Interstate has issues: too many cars and too much congestion. But the city streets move traffic efficiently and while we stayed out of rush hours it’s not a terrible place to maneuver. Easier in a car than an RV — something I’m appreciating every day now that we are no longer RV’rs.

It seems to us that the river is the emotional focus of this city. There are lovely parks that beg to be explored in slightly cooler weather (at least for us). The 90º’s make me hesitate to do much romping and climbing, but fall/winter will call us back I bet. There are numerous museums to be explored too.

Before I get to today, let me share a couple videos from yesterday. One of the musical groups was The Berts. They have a unique sound and I thought I’d share a couple short clips. It’s a small festival with a small budget — but hey, they were fun even if not phenomenal. Clip 1 is an original number.

On Friday at the gardens we were struck by how many birds we heard, and most of the time I couldn’t get them on video — when I got out the camera they shut up! But I wanted to share these two videos from the festival and the gardens.

And now the Gardens….. So peaceful.

Mostly our Saturday garden visit was about reflecting on creativity and placement of plants. We’re realizing that that in spite of the dry conditions (meaning lack of rain) that some plants find the humid air to be detrimental. For example, certain lavenders which like hot-dry climates do not like the Houston’s humid air. It’s sufficient to allow a mold to grow on lavender which kills the plant.

Sunday we realized how sore our legs were from two busy days on our feet, so our visit was quieter, more reflective, and we spent a lot of time just enjoying the bird songs and behaviors.