Chasing Butterflies

With all the people leaving Bentsen Grove and heading north there has been an unexpected benefit (or problem) that I never thought about. When people are going to be on the road for several days there is a problem carrying the food supplies that require refrigeration. So what do they do with it. Just like me most people hate to throw it in the trash. Ant thing that is non-perishable can be given to some people here that will take it to the Colonia. There is a box in the main hall for donations of that sort. I understand that it gets checked and emptied several times a day. Since we have a refrigerator we have gotten the perishable items. We have gotten enough items to fill our refrigerator completely full. We are trying to be creative in what we eat now so that nothing will go to waste. I will have to do something to pass the bounty on to those who are less fortunate.

Erma has been trying to keep the line dancing going here at the resort. There are two line dancing classes during the winter here at the resort. Both leaders of the line dancing have left for the north so there is no official sessions going. Erma would like to dance some every day if she could. So what does she do, she tells everybody that she sees that we are still dancing. Every afternoon except Sunday we are finding a place for an hour that we can dance. I don't have a portable CD player, but I do have a computer and speakers. So for an hour every day there is dancing led by Erma.

I got a call from the activities director today. She said that the person who had taken the pictures of the new people in the park for the past few years has told her that she will be unable to do that next year. Some one told her that I was a good photographer. Who ever it was that told her that has mistaken a person that takes a lot of photos for a person that is good. I really do not consider myself to be good with a camera. But as anyone that takes photos knows "If you take enough pictures some of them will be good." It is so much easier to take a lot of pictures with a digital camera. I can take a hundred pictures and not feel bad if only one is good and two are fair and all the rest are garbage. It is a whole lot cheaper than developing film. The bottom ine of this is that I volunteered to take the pictures next year. I will find out next year exactly what it involves. I have a feeling that some weeks there will be a bunch of pictures to be taken and others there will be none. I will figure out a way to be efficient when the time comes. I will have help if I need it.

There is a place in McAllen that is called Quinta Matzalan. It is a large adobe home built in 1930's. It is now part of the McAllen world birding center. We went there yesterday to see if we could see any birds. I would have been happy and would have considered it a successful day if I had seen a single "plain chachalaca". I would say that I was happy forty of fifty times. It seemed that everywhere we went there were chachalacas. They were chasing each other through the shrubbery, climbing the trees, and then finally creating a real cacophany of cries. One of the workers there said that they did that every day. He also pointed out a hole in a dead palm tree that is the home of an owl. For that I will have to go back early in the day.


ONE OF THE PLAIN CHACHALACAS

We also saw more butterflies here than we did at the butterfly center. The prettiest one led me on a merry chase and eluded my best endeavors to capture it on film. That just gives me another reason to go back.


THIS BUTTERFLY WAS WILLING TO POSE FOR ME

Till Later This is Uncle Duck