For this month’s blog entry I decided to go to Mount Bonnell and spend my one hour of nature there. Not only was the weather beautiful but the view as well. I climbed on the side of the mountain and kept walking until there was no one in sight but the river. It was mid-afternoon so it wasn’t too sunny, but it was still bright enough to wear you could still feel the sun on your face.
The first thirty minutes I was so high up and out in the open I could see so many things happening at once. I could see the amazing houses all down the lake, all different colors and sizes with their own unique style; design of houses I have never seen before so that was pretty awesome. I could also see all the boats passing by the lake, the people on the boats looked like ants from where I was at.
It was one of those days where the sky was so clear blue, not a single cloud in the sky, that it would make the water look beautiful. One thing that really stood out to me was the water , at times it was so still and glistening it looked like solid ground enough to walk through it. Then at other times you could see it splashing under the boats as the sped by.
Not only was the view of the water incredible, but of the hills and trees as well. On the other side of Mount Bonnell there were houses surrounded by massive amounts of trees, so many you could only see the top part of the houses sticking out. There was so much plantation and water surrounding Mount Bonnell, all put together it was absolutely breathtaking.
(It’s not the best quality picture because it’s from a phone but hopefully you can get the idea of what I was looking at.)
One quote from A Sand County Almanac that I could instantly relate to my experience at Mount Bonnell was by Aldo Leopold saying how, “Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.”
I felt like this quote really connected with me and how I felt while visiting Mount Bonnell.
The next thirty minutes I decided to move elsewhere since I felt that I needed to explore further more into Mount Bonnell, as I was completely taken away. For the next thirty minutes I decided to go into the woods and document another part of Mount Bonnell. That was when I ran into a little bench that if you sat on it and look straight ahead, you could see the Austin City Skyline.
As I was sitting on the bench I began to reflect on my week. Soccer wise it was a rigorous week for me as well as academically so it was nice getting to sit back. I felt a heavy load come off my shoulders.
I decided to close my eyes and just focus on the sounds. I mostly heard the rusting of the leaves as the wind blew, I could hear voices in the distant but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.
I was so relaxed the next thirty minutes flew by.
Out of the three different spots I have visited for my nature blog, Mount Bonnell was by far the one I got the most out of.