Not Just Little Kids

This was another morning of learning events for day school children led by ladies from Norchester Garden Club.  For this group, the story of Catherine the Caterpillar is being read while one of the teachers listens in. 







And here, on a very real poppy plant, perches a very plastic butterfly.  It is one of the items hidden for the children to find for their garden scavenger hunt.   

Thanks again, Ladies.




And, as was so well documented in the April 16 post of this blog, From Behind the Fence (archives on the right) it is not just the very young that enjoy this beautiful park. While the sessions were going on for the children this morning, two buses pulled up which discharged a gaggle of seniors with walkers who enjoyed the morning at the picnic tables .  Nope... not just the young kids enjoy the park and garden.

Right Here in Harris County

(As you have likely learned by now you may link to more information and pictures by clicking on any of the words or topics highlighted by the purple color in these blog posts.)

 

Matzke Park and the Butterfly Garden are beautiful and convenient.  However we constantly like to explore and suggest other “green things” in the Harris County area.  

 

Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Garden’s new Endangered Species Garden dedication was held on Earth Day yesterday. They boast a number of the 760 plant species that are federally listed as endangered or threatened. Mercer has been working with the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) since 1989 and Mercer is one of the 36 botanic facilities in the nation that maintain CPC’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. The Endangered Prairie Dawn (Hymenoxys txana) is only found in Texas and can be found right here in Harris County.

 

Precinct4 has a preserve off of 1960 and Cutten Rd. housing many of these tiny sunflower plants that are about 3 inches high. You might step on them and not even note them on the ground.

Check other interesting things that are happening at Mercer. One endangered plant Correll's False Dragon-head (Physostegia correllii) is of the mint family . It is found only in Texas and Louisiana and is being investigated for use in treating cancer. Read more about it by clicking HERE      

 

 

 

Standing and Munching in the Cold

Friday turned out to be a beautiful spring day. But it started out very cold and windy for the good ladies of Norchester Garden Club who, once again, presented their Children’s Program to local “day-schoolers” from 9:00 to noon or so.   Some of the scheduled classes left them standing in the wind and didn’t even show up.  But the monarch larva did.   It is always amazing to see a pin-head sized egg on a milk weed leaf turn into the very tiny larva..  And within a few days, the larva has greatly increased in size; leaving the milk weed plants as stripped twigs.  Such is the way of nature.  

 

With luck, the weather will be much nicer for the ladies and the larva on Friday April 26 when the next programs are scheduled.

  

 

Always Learning.. Young and Old

Today was the first of many scheduled sessions for day care students, hosted by ladies of Norchester Garden Club and friends of the park.  They listen attentively to the story of “Catherine the Caterpillar” and then make crafts that help them learn about nature, the garden and the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. This morning’s session went fine and the butterfly garden looks wonderful.

 


And your “Helper #1” learned something a couple of days ago.  When I use certain font colors that show up nicely on the blog… some of them don’t show up at all if you are one of the folks who have signed up to get an automatic email version of each new post.    I am sorry about that.  It shouldn’t, but if it does happen again, just check the blog site itself and you will see what was intended. The post for Apr 16 is one that shouldn't be missed in my opinion.

If you choose, just enter your email address in the box on the blog and click “submit”  You will get an email copy of each new post the next day.

Also.. feel free to post a comment or question after any entry. 

Thanks again to the dedicated ladies from Norchester Garden Club for these programs.

From Behind the Fence

One of our most faithful friends of Matzke Park shared this with us very reciently.  It follows below as written....

April 15,2012

Observations from Behind the Wrought Iron Fence

                                                                Two Spring Weekends in April, 2013.

While planting long rows of society garlic on the soccer side of the fence I had a wonderful opportunity to observe the various activities at Matzke Park. I was there for about four hours each day.

·         Easter Sunday moms hiding plastic Easter eggs in the flower beds in the butterfly garden.

·         Lots of family photo taking with the flowers as background.
·         A little girl with her butterfly cage who came to the garden to let her butterflies fly away.
·         A five year old girl telling her younger brother not to pick the flowers because the butterflies eat the flowers.
·         Two elderly ladies from the assisted living apartments opposite Cy Fair High School who said they come daily just to sit on one of the benches for a couple of hours.
·         Many, many children on the playground equipment then taking a rest break to sit on the edge of flower beds or in the Bennett Gazebo.
·         Ten boys ranging in age from seven to about twelve having a pickup game of football with no parent or coach telling them what to do.
·         Three little girls on their razor boards flying on the trail.
·         Little kids driving their battery powered jeeps on the expanse of grass.
·         Families bringing their own folding picnic tables and chairs and coolers full of food to share with friends under the shade of the small trees.
·         A dad watching his teen age daughter practicing cartwheels in order to try out for the drill team at Cy Ridge High School.
·         A dad with his four year old son practicing batting from a T ball stand.

For those of us who have backyards perhaps we fail to appreciate what the park means to many people. Listen to the many languages spoken there on a weekend in the spring.

For those of you who supported saving the land from commercial development a big Thank You.

For those of you new to our area please continue to enjoy and respect this Precinct 4 Harris County Park.

Visit the park . It is a great place to people watch..

 

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Wow.. was that great or what ??   And speaking of back yards... here is a picture of one of the harder working flowers in ours;  taken last week..

 

A "Katrina Rose".. .also called a Peggy Martin on our back fence. You can read about the Katrina Rose by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angels at Work (Updated with An Addition)

The Pct#4 Park “Woodland Angels” (Melvin and Billy, I think Roger was off) were hard at work in Matzke Park yesterday planting 12 Azalea plants. These were purchased at the March Mart plant sale a week ago at Mercer Arboretum and donated to Matzke Park by ABCS.  They now surround the monument describing the history of the park.  And they still really looked nice this morning, despite the 2 inches of rain we had in the area last night. Also visible is one of the newly planted trees.  There will be more to come as native tree planting for Matzke Park is a next focus area for ABCS.  Stop by and enjoy the new plantings, as well as the Butterfly Garden which is looking very nice as well.  

 

 ALSO..

This just in... The Cypress Creek Greenway would be a continuous trail and park system located along Cypress Creek. It would extend nearly 40 miles from Spring Creek, north of Bush Intercontinental Airport, to west of U.S. Highway 290, providing new opportunities to walk, run, and bike.

You have the ability to influence the develpment of the Cypress Creek Greenway project.  This is a great idea that would benefit our Matzke Park and any who like the outdoors.  Just CLICK HERE to open the link to a good discription of the project and a map of it.  You can then take a brief survey... no need to give your name or email.