For my final blog, I went back to Austin Science and Nature Center. I wanted to make this assignment my last assignment of the semester, because there is nothing better that reaching the end and being enable to do something that fills my soul with memories and experiences that I will never forget. My desired to go and see how nature had rakish itself during the month of April. Indeed, what I saw was something completely different from what I had seen the previous months. The soil was covered in green, full of blossomed Gaillardias, Redspike Mexican Hats, False Buttercups, and Purple Toadflaxs flowers. It was 4:50pm, so there was plenty of sunlight and it became a little bit too hot to sit in the wooden “chairs” that were spread all around where the flowers were. The weather was of about 25C and there were no clouds. I sat there contemplating the different weathers in which I have visited these places. From rain to cold, and from cold to spring is how I have experimented different nature spots around Austin. It is interesting seeing the changes not only in the weather, but also in the reactions of the animals and plants in response to this. Today was a day full of light, and life. During the winter, it is very rarely to encounter a large amount of biodiversity in your surroundings. In this occasion, I has able to hear the birds, which were pitching all of the time, making a harmonic atmosphere. I got the opportunity to spot a crow standing in one of the wooden chairs making one of its many vocalizations, the “Koww”. In this occasion I interacted with bugs, which is something that I had not done in the other blogs. I spotted a ladybug and what it seemed to be a centipede (I’m not sure). I played with the ladybug for a few minutes until it flew away. I must admit that I was a little bit scared of holding it at first. This is what I like from spring, everything comes to live and the ecosystem just seems to be full of energy and movement.
Everywhere I looked was full of colors, most of them were green and red/orange, and the blue sky made the perfect contrast with grass and flowers… Aldo Leopold states in A Sand County Almanac “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. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words.” I have come to the conclusion that these words are very true. In fact, I have proved it myself by confronting adverse weathers and still being able to appreciate what the world has offer to us throughout the different seasons of the year. It is difficult at first, I must admit; however there is a possibility that you might never experience being outside, right beside the river in a cold day, because you keep denying yourself the opportunity to do so due to the weather circumstances. It is for this same reason that I still don’t comprehend why there are so many places like the Austin Science and Nature Center with no people. For what I have learned in this semester, it is imperative that people coexist and interact with nature. Nature’s appreciation would help dramatically to the contribution of its conservation. Whenever I interact in this way with nature I asked myself what would it be of us if we did not have nature around us. The greens, the birds, the sun, the flowers and threes make our world complete and the perfect place to live. As my final academic visit to nature spots I would encourage the future classes and people who do not take time to interact with nature to go outside and learn the wonders that wildlife has for us!
Only a mind that has not been committed, that does not belong to anything, and that is not limited in any way, could become a mind open to new knowledge. Is to say that all of us have achieved an open mind and received new knowledge through this project. The learning experiences are clearly summed up in the word cloud. As I looked at our most used words I do not get surprised to see all of them as part of the project. The word “beautiful” is the one that stands out the most and, indeed, there is no better word to describe nature and the experiences you live while you are there. In comparison to my own interactions throughout the semester, I associate them mainly with the verbs “observing”, “noticed”, “felt” and “visit”. For the past three months I have been visiting natural spots, and observed factors that I had never really noticed before. Furthermore, all of these made stress fade away and felt relaxed. My visits have been in fact, to different sites, however, there is no significant difference in between Zilker and the Austin Science and Nature Center, since they are fairly close to each other. My own blog entries portray an image of an individual that has opened its being to the environment. That individual is myself. My own reflections and conclusions had lead me to a point in which I fell in love with wildlife and everything that sustains it. I had been amused, speechless, surprised and enchanted by the factors of nature. I have personally realized that I would not be able to live a happy life without nature spots to go to. Nevertheless, I am sure that I am not the only one that seeks to find something or somewhere that distract us from our daily routines. Interaction with nature should be promoted to everyone in order to increase at least a little inner peace in our society. Sometimes we only need to detach ourselves from the city and satisfy our innate needs of being free. As Albert Einstein said, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better”.
