The AgriCultural Museum and Arts Center invites you to register now for a seat at “A Taste for History,” scheduled for Feb. 7 from 7-9 p.m.
Enjoy a night of a tasting selection of five wines, along with handcrafted chocolates by the Swiss Chocolate Shoppe. The wines, three whites and two reds, will be paired with delectable chocolates.
Swiss Chocolate Shoppe imports the highest quality chocolate directly from Switzerland, then tempers and works it by hand to create a delightful array of chocolates, bars and truffles.
Learn a little history while enjoying the pairings in the coziness of the Pioneer House. Bring a friend or come alone and meet new friends.
Limited seating at The AgriCultural Museum, 102 City Park Road, Boerne. Pre- purchased tickets required; see ad on Facebook, or call 210-445-1080.
Introduction to Carving Techniques
HCCArts announces a new mini workshop for the new year. “Beginning Techniques for Woodcarving” with Matthew Teter, debuts Saturday, Feb. 22.
Teter’s class will focus on the basic elements of woodcarving skills. This will begin with understanding and using the tools correctly, efficiently, and with safety always in mind.
A worksheet with various images will be distributed in class to explain certain techniques and movements when using the knife, to achieve various carving patterns.
success, and yet that is what keeps me searching.
On those rare occasions when I do catch that twitch of fallen leaves or a sudden blur of movement along the creek’s bank, I feel a sense of elation, and confirmation that it is still there.
I can’t tell you which search is more challenging – finding a 4-inch bird weighing in at a scarcely existent 0.3 ounces, or an owl standing 18 inches tall and weighing 1 to 2 pounds. Both present their challenges, with varying degrees of success.
The Winter Wren is the smallest wren in North America and one of the four smallest songbirds you will encounter in the winter at the nature center not called a hummingbird. The others include the equally diminutive Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets and the longer, but lighter weight Brown Creeper. And while those can be equally challenging, it is finding the mouse bird that thrills me most.
Because it doesn’t sing here, I relied on the Merlin Bird ID app to identify its beautiful song, described in one book as delivered “with remarkable vehemence” as if he was “trying to burst (his) lungs.”
In fact, per unit weight, according to the Winter Wren account in Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World, it has 10 times the sound power of a crowing rooster – at four inches in length, mind you.
According to my eBird records, they will be here until early April — my latest record being April 2. Over the next few months, as you walk along the creek below the woodland trail, don’t be surprised if you see an older man resting quietly on a rock, staring into the trees and among the fallen branches and roots lining the creek. That will be me, patiently watching for owls and wrens.
I invite you to slow down, find a good rock of your own to perch upon, and join the watch. Perhaps you, too, will see a blur of movement or the twitching of dead leaves, revealing the mouse bird going about its daily pursuits.
And, if you are really lucky, you might even catch sight of a Barred Owl resting against the trunk of a tree. It could happen — it has for me.
Visit cibolo.org/calendar to view all upcoming events, programs and workshops at The Cibolo.
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