Hernandez, March 2015

“Have you ever wondered why a thick crust of corky bark covers the whole tree, even to the smallest twigs? This cork is armor.”

– A Sand County Almanac

In the month of March, I went to Zilker Park for the first time in two years! I wen ton March 22, 2015, the Sunday after SXSW week. It had been raining non-stop all weekend long, so when Sunday greeted us with blue skies, and the sun, my boyfriend and I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go to the park. It seemed everyone else had the same idea too because the park was full. So many people, so many dogs, so much mud.

Walking around the park, I noticed patchiness in the grass due to the excess rain water that was received that Friday and Saturday. I didn’t many creatures besides various breeds of dogs and birds. After our picnic at Zilker, we were heading back to our car, when we noticed the Zilker Botanical Garden, which neither of us had ever been to either. So, we park our car again, and head over to the botanical garden. Upon entering, we see this sign:

Walking through the botanical garden, I noticed there were a lot of bees and wasps (which both my boyfriend and I are terrified of due to past encounters with them) around the plants and flowers.

The botanical garden is supposed to “replicate ancient dinosaur habitat,” however that day there was some sort of event going on in which the garden was transformed to look like magical fairies lived there. So, I saw a lot of families with young children taking pictures of the “fairy homes and gardens.” It was adorable. But besides that, we explored the rest of the garden and saw lots of plants and flowers in full bloom.

Damianita flowers were blooming in the “fairy” garden, as well as Snapdragons, and Azaleas. Yellow Columbine was particularly prominent in the shadier areas of the wooded portion of the garden, while Baby Blue Eyes were visible throughout the entire garden. In the butterfly garden area, there were beautiful Dianthus starting to bloom. In the Taniguchi Japanese garden, the Anacacho Orchid tree was also starting to bloom white orchids. Hopefully, the next time I go back (which I’m planning to do very soon) there will be even more plants and flowers blooming.

My favorite thing about being in the Zilker botanical garden is that it is easy to find a quiet, secluded area in which you can sit and be alone with your thoughts. It was very peaceful being in the Japanese garden because there was a small elevated area that is very quiet and overlooks part of the garden. I wish I would have stayed at that spot longer than I had, but in the orchid tree, there was a wasp and so my boyfriend and I decided to go elsewhere. But those solid 15 minutes of listening to the wind blow and rustle up the trees was beautifully relaxing, and was very different than my SXSW experience which was at 12+ hours prior this visit. It was a good contrast.