It’s Fiesta Season! THROUGH ERYN’S LENS!
Showcasing our Winter Texans just enjoying a night out at Trophy Gardens! See photos on page 9.
UPCOMING VALLEY EVENTS!
BON APPETIT!
See calendar starting on page 10.
Try this recipe on page 19.
Check out this week’s listings of what’s happening in the RGV!
1
Executive Chef Bettina Tolin shares a delicious classic comfort soup!
VOLUME 4 • ISSUE 2 • October 24, 2018 • • • your official connection to the rio grande valley • • •
hello FROM KRISTI
W
inter Texans and Monarch butterflies have a lot in common. You both head south to avoid the harsh winter, and both take flight about the same time. I don’t find it unusual that I have a passion for both! As the butterflies arrive, so do our Winter Texans and they are both sights for sore eyes! I planted a butterfly garden a few years ago, and tend to it year-round. If I don’t take care of it, the butterflies will not come (to me, anyway). You can’t expect to plant a garden and only tend to it when it benefits you. The same philosophy rings true with my business. We work year-round tending to our Winter Texan ‘garden’. As a matter of fact, we work harder during the off season than we do in the winter months. Like the butterflies, the Winter Texan migration varies from year to year depending on when the first cold front strikes, and with a well tended garden we’re ready for them whether it happens sooner rather than later. I hope that those of you who are here now will make plans to attend the upcoming Butterfly Festival! For those of you who won’t make it in time, don’t despair, you can visit the National Butterfly Center in Mission throughout the season to get your butterfly ‘fix’. The Monarch butterflies have always been my favorite, and I welcome their arrival as eagerly as I welcome yours. See you out and about this season! •
We’re just connecting the dots,
Kristi
THANK YOU TO OUR
2018-2019
SEASON SPONSORS
Special to Welcome Home RGV
Preparations
are well underway for the 23rd Annual Texas Butterfly Festival in the place USA Today declares “the butterfly capitol of the USA”! While many field trips have already sold out, limited space remains for educational sessions and excursions designed specifically for butterfly enthusiasts of every experience level. Everyone is invited to join in this seasonal celebration of the Rio Grande Valley’s exceptional bounty of butterflies, regardless of age or familiarity with the outdoors. This year, we kick off the festival at 8 a.m., Saturday, November 3, with the second “running of the Monarchs,” in the 5K Trail Run and 1-Mile Fun Run across the National Butterfly Center’s
grounds and gardens. Participants must pre-register for this event at TexasButterflyFestival.com in order to receive their commemorative Monarch Medal and seed bombs for nativeplant restoration.
Come join the nation’s premier butterflying event! The festival’s free, open-house event, known as Community Day, will take place from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., featuring educational activities and games for the whole family. Later in the evening, festival registrants will be treated to a Welcome
Reception and Orientation before they embark on three days of expert-guided field trips to secret gardens and public parks, renowned places, and hard-tofind hot spots from Falcon Dam to South Padre Island. Fresh, fantastic, and peculiar to this region, the festival’s food is just as fabulous as the butterflies! This year, we’re happy to showcase the ‘comadre cuisine’ of Merienda, by Nelda Barrera, and the Latin Fusion flavors of the Valley’s last ‘Iron Chef,’ Jess Castellon, who will feed festival registrants Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at the Keynote Speaker’s Banquet. TEXAS BUTTERFLY FESTIVAL CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 >>