Emily's Nature Blog

           Last Wednesday, our Honors class made our first nature excursion together on the Trinity River. We met up at the Rec center and piled into the vans hauling the canoes and other floating supplies. I grew up kayaking and canoeing with my Dad at our farm and around Arkansas, so my excitement to try out a new river grew as we got closer to the take-in spot. I actually used to be quite good at kayaking-I got to where I could do Class IV rivers at one point!-and some of my funniest memories are of my friends and family canoeing together down the Buffalo River. I have not yet done the outdoorsy activities in Texas that I usually like doing in Arkansas, like hiking and canoeing, so I was interested to see what this experience would be like. Wednesday was the first time in a long while that I had carried a canoe from the trailer to the river, and I must say my arms were extremely out of shape for such an activity. It was probably a comical sight to...

For my second nature blog, I walked around campus for a bit to find a subject I liked. Since I wrote about a tree for my first nature blog, I decided to shift my focus, and look down, for my second one. I walked to one of my favorite spots on campus, which is also one of the most underrated spots in my opinion: the sundial circle right next to Ed Landreth Hall and the Walsh Performing Arts Center. I have always liked it because it is a little garden unlike most of TCU’s other beds. Various flower bushes encircle a concrete pad with a sundial painted on the floor and a small pedestal rising up bearing another little sundial. I like the circle of dense greenery speckled with color rising knee length high, sequestering off a little astronomic sanctuary. Because the spot is nestled away from most of main campus, it is also always quiet and never busy. It always feels so peaceful when I walk by to my theater history class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. I often look over at ...

First Nature Observation On my nature observation, I walked around TCU’s campus for a bit trying to find something that captured the serenity that I enjoy experiencing best when in nature. I found it in this tree. Located in front of Jarvis Hall, it is unlike any other tree I have seen on TCU’s campus before. As I was walking around to find a subject to observe, I realized I rarely look away from my phone or the path in front of me in my hurried walks to class. So, there could well be more trees of this kind and I just have not noticed before. I reflect now that I ought to slow my pace from time to time and take in more of my everyday surroundings, because there is much more to take in than a first glance suggests. On campus it feels as though everything is familiar, and the trees are all in their preplanned spots, and I am aware of all that is there. But taking in this moment has showed me I am mistaken.  I am not familiar enough with trees to know what kind this one is, ...

Tuesday, September 4 For my first nature journal entry, I will share about my outdoor experience this weekend at our family farm and how our previous class period affected my observation of nature in a new way. When my Dad was little, my grandparents bought about 200 acres of land in the middle of the Ozark Mountains in northwest Arkansas. Since then, Big Piney, as the property is called after the creek that runs through it, has become a special place where my family and friends can get away from the world. This year, my Dad bought 30 more acres of adjoining land and built a second cabin, which he amusingly calls “Pineycello,” as if it were of such architectural beauty as Thomas Jefferson’s home. Due to my working in Fort Worth this summer, I was the only family member who had not yet seen the new cabin, so I joined him for a day trip to the farm. While we were there, we drove down to the creek to cool off. I had not been to Big Piney in months, and I hadn’t been during the ...