May 2020 Recap (Part 1)

May was a month when we spent as much time outside as we could. May is that cusp month -- when you know the brutal Texas summer is almost here, but spring still asserts itself. Things seemed like they might be getting back to normal in May (we were wrong about that).  

Here's a peek at what we did in the first part of May:

We visited Sheldon Lake State Park on a beautiful morning. Our best tip for visiting parks is to get there very early before they're packed with visitors. 

 

The arboretum is always one of our favorite spots. We visited 3-4 times a week.  

Such gorgeous wildflowers in May!

On Wednesdays, the boys didn't have online classes, so Henry and I visited Hermann Park and the Japanese Gardens every chance we got.  

This duck really though Henry had some bread!

Ladybugs eating aphids in the McGovern Centennial Garden.

Back at the Arboretum.

Freyja got stuck in a hanger. We have no idea how she managed this.

We made coconut cream pie one day! We had some leftover egg whites and all the ingredients and it was delicious. 

Monarchs! We watched the whole process from egg to little bitty caterpillar to molting to forming a chrysalis to emerging from the chrysalis. It was amazing!

One of the highlights of May was going birding at High Island. This has been our April tradition for the past 4 or 5 years and I was devastated when the park was shut down for all of April because of the quarantine. When the state began to reopen, the Audubon sanctuaries reopened as well. We went the first chance we had and it was delightful to be back at one of our favorite spots.  

Roseate spoonbills

Great egrets

More roseate spoonbills

Snowy egret

Common gallinule

Tricolored heron

Green heron at Boy Scout Woods

We also explored the S.E. Gast Red Bay Sanctuary, which is one of the High Island sanctuaries we hadn't visited before.

Even though we were pretty tired from our full day adventure, we took advantage of the beautiful cool weather and headed out the very next day to Lake Livingston State Park.  

We had a lovely hike and a picnic lunch next to the lake before heading back to Houston in time to catch the vintage airplanes flying directly overhead. 

Part 2 of May 2020 (back when things weren't so bad) coming soon...