The Rabbit I saw!
one of my paintings!
Wild Flowers
Field of Bluebonnets
The different trees
I also believe that some other people feel this way as well, and this brings up some issues. The Lupinus texensis, our state flower, the bluebonnet, is see as a circus. People, especially by my dorm, feel the need to trample into the flowers and destroy them to take family photos. I understand if one stands in front of the flowers to take a picture with the blue background, which is entirely possible because they grow in clear patches, but standing in them? It hurts me; this is a clear example of a blatant disregard for the environment for the personal gain of humans. You immediately see the results of stepping in the flowers, so there is really no excuse for doing so. But, I digress; a conservationist rant for the month.
As I stated earlier that this month was different. This month I went to Blunn Creek every week, in the evenings. I know that is breaking the rules a bit, but sometimes you have to break the rules to get what you want. I really wanted to see an animal other than a squirrel. I have been to Blunn Creek plenty of times in the morning, and I know that many plains animals are nocturnal, so I skirted the dawn to dusk rule just a bit in order to see an animal. And this allowed me to see Blunn Creek in literally a different light.
Before I came to college; before I had to grow up and get a job that eats up all of my time, I was a painter. I used oil paints and natural canvas, I would spend months getting my painting just right, just the right color. And this is what Blunn Creek in the spring time reminds me of. The blue, pinks and purples of the wild flowers mixed with the reds of the prickly pears as flowers become intertwined in the cacti. Even the leaves of the trees, especially the Quercus alba, white oak, and the Fraxinus texensis, ash, and many others give off more different shades of green than I ever thought was possible. It is a wonder that nature creates all these different colors in the time between winter and summer, while it would take me more time than that to paint one picture. Nature can paint the world in that amount of time, we just have to make sure not to trample its product. Aldo Leopold captures this sentiment in these touching words: “I know a painting so evanescent that it is seldom viewed at all, except by some wandering deer. It is a river who wields the brush, and it is the same river who, before I can bring my friends to view his work, erases it forever from human view. After that it exists only in my mind’s eye” (126).
And I did end up seeing a rabbit!