The Austin Pond Society held its first meeting of the year on January 18 at the Zilker Botanical Gardens Meeting Room attended by about 40 members. There were several new members who introduced themselves. As usual, Laura, our Hospitality Guru fed us with another delicious meal of Chile with a salad. I really need to get there earlier so I have more time to enjoy the meal. As it is, I spend a lot of the time just setting up the camera and then almost immediately, taking still pictures and in between, wolfing down the food. The good thing about that schedule is that I do NOT have time to eat any desert…
At 7:00 pm following the meal, Barb introduced the speaker whose interests seem far from what most female interest are as she talked to us about bugs. Her name is Wizzie Brown which by itself, is a very interesting name. When I asked her, she said that it goes back to her childhood and has stuck ever since. Wizzie is an Entomologist with the A&M Extention Program.
In spite of her topic, which most people, except Pond People, would not find very interesting, we got to learn about the life styles, uses and habits of the bugs that are in and around our ponds. Which ones are good and which are bad. Probably, only an entomologist would think there is such a thing as a good bug with pond people a close second.
Her talk was very interesting and we could all recognize most of the bugs she was talking about as we see them on a daily basis busy at work in and around the ponds.
Following Wizzie Brown’s presentation, we had some business but nothing of major importance. We are still looking to fill the Parliamentarian’s position and again, there were no takers. Sure miss John and his humor.
The next meeting will be on Monday, February 16 at Zilker Botanical Gardens at 6:30 pm. Our speaker for the evening will be Steve Kainer from Hill Country Water Gardens and his topic will be, “Preparing our ponds for the Spring”. Hope to see you there.
Wizzie Brown video.
Wizzie Brown Bugs from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.
Pond Society Business video.
APS January Meeting 2015 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.
