Early Winter at Watson | Silent Sunday

December 10, 2023 view of Geraldine Watson’s cabin at Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve

I grew up in the, as I say, these beautiful woodlands and everything. And on Sunday afternoons my mother would take us walking in the woods flower-picking. And we would pick Birdfoot Violets and Winecups and all those things. And mother would point plants to us that her mother had made medicines from and dyes from. And she would tell us stories all about how they made their own cloth and all that. And, then I learned the trees from my father who worked for a lumber company. And, the mill there at Doucette was a large mill at that time. And he was a machinist there. But, he loved the outdoors … big fisherman. And I followed behind daddy up and down the streams and through the woods and—and all. And, so I learned to appreciate, to understand and appreciate what was there when I was very young.
– Geraldine Watson from Texas Legacy Project