Today I went to Blunn Creek Nature Preserve near the St. Edward’s campus. It was a beautiful day out and I began my journey around 12pm. It was a breezy and sunny 70 degrees outside. I chose a spot by the creek because today it was full of water, more than I’ve ever seen in it, although it wasn’t much. However, the water was flowing downstream and it made the sound of a mini waterfall. As you can see in the photo, there are some spots where there should be water and it is dried out. The water had lots of green moss in it and it was surprisingly clear. There were no animals, but plenty of insects such as flies and bees. I also spotted several yellow butterflies. There were plenty of trees and a lot of them didn’t have their leaves. Those that did had green leaves. The only ones that were brown had already fallen off the trees and were strewn around. There were plenty of trees that had been cut down; this may have been because they were part of the invasive species, or to just clean up the reserve. Whilst looking around the area, I found some signs that others had been there through some litter- a bottle cap, an old coffee cup, a plastic bag. It reminded me of a quote from A Sand County Almanac, “The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among a people many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as land, among whom education and culture have become almost synonymous with landlessness. This is the problem of conservation education.” We as a population have such an apparent disregard for the land around us. Aldo Leopold, the author describes this as a disconnect from nature, as if progress means that we “use” the land around us instead of being in harmony with it. Sitting here quietly and just observing nature made me instantaneously more connected with the land and the species that occupy it.