Last Wednesday morning, science teacher Pam Meier walked over from the Blanco Middle School with three students to tour our Texas Wildscape for the last time before summer. Two girls, Sarah and Lupita, will go to high school next fall. But Aurora will still be in middle school so hopefully Pam will bring her back along with some new students.
As soon as the group arrived, I pointed out a shrill bird call and asked if they remembered what it was. Hmmm. It's baby, I hinted. It's our statebird, I hinted some more. Mocking....bird!
Next I showed them pipevine caterpillars chomping away on pipevine leaves in the Meadow. I pointed out eggs, too. "I saw the mama butterfly deposit these last week," I said. Then I pointed to a chubby caterpillar. "Isn't it CUTE?" I asked. Everyone smiled and nodded.
This time, they brought their lunch and stayed long enough to picnic on our back patio. Before everyone left, I gave the girls each a flame acanthus and/or blue mistflower to take home.
"Wait a minute," I said as they headed back to school. "Hear that screechy call? What's that again?"
"A baby mockingbird!" the girls exclaimed.
Mission accomplished!
2 comments:
You are a wonderful contribution to your community! I'm sure the school children and teachers love visiting your garden. I wish my white veined pipevine would grow. Has yours divided by runners or seeds? I tried to purchase more, but the garden centers were all sold out by mid Spring. Sigh... I want to see pipevine swallowtail cats.
I'm about to post on my pipevine kiddos! Maybe tomorrow. They are TEARING through our THREE pipevines right now. Can't seem to provide enough vines for them.
Our pipevines are not fast growers. We did get some seeds this week and James is going to try to get them to sprout.
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