5/29/2015

Day 4

Today we went on an adventure out in Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm.

On the way to The farm Alex, Caleb, and myself played the alphabet game to pass the time. Only words one or near the road were exceptionable but not licenses plates. I learned that there are not many establishments that use Q words on their signs, making the game extremely difficult to end. Once we got there we were split into four groups, after being introduced to our guides. One of our guides was even the mayor of Englewood.

After the groups and the guides got acquainted with our guides w were each given a pair of binoculars and given a crash course in using them. Soon after we were introduced to some of the birds in the area. At first it was extremely difficult to locate the birds because of the constant movement and the sound of  multiple birds in one area but over time I got sorta better at it. But my  favorite part of the bay was just being able walk around the woods and observe the diversity in nature in just a single area.  

Mediation

Deep Blue Lake

You're sitting on the edge of a lake, the cattails sway hypnotically in the breeze. You gave a lake and notice of  blue it is, like gazing into a liquid sapphire.  The waves lapping at your feet, calling you deeper into the lake. As you walk down to the water you notice how far into the water you can see. As you gaze deeper and deeper into the water you can feel yourself slipping away the noise around you slips away until it's only you and the water. You are surrounded by the blue of the lake, falling deeper into an aquatic paradise. As you gaze around at the fish and the plants you realize you can here your own heart beat, and can feel how slow it is. You realize this is the calmest you have been in weeks. IT is only you and the water the gentle breeze pushing you about in gentle circles. You stay their for some time before you notice a sound at the edge of your conscience that pulls you back to the surface. It's your mother calling you back its time to return home, as you leave the lake you feel lighter like all your worries has left you. 

5/28/2015

Day 3 #2

At Cox Arboretum there is a tree tower and while climbing up it my partner Alex and I wanted to figure out about how tall the tower was.
At first  Alex and I accompanied by two other dropped a wallet down to see how long it takes it to fall. The problem with that was nobody could remember what we had to do after we timed the fall. So we decided to measure how tall one flight of stairs was and multiply it by how many there were. I stood next to a single flight then we subtracted the height difference and multiplied that by the amount of flights. We discovered that it was around 660 inches and to accommodate the top of the structure into the equation we rounded to 700 inches. So we figured out it was about 58 feet tall give or take a few.

5/28/2015

Day 3  #1

Today we went to Cox Arboretum our goal was to capture pictures of five different trees and one animal. Inside the park there was a pond full of turtles and fish. So we threw small pieces of bread in the water to attract them closer to get better pictures, and to our amazement a huge snapping turtle appears. To attract it closer we started tossing miniature cookies into the water to get it to come closer. One of us had a Go Pro but we were not able to get a good video because of how murky the water was much to are displeasure. But we were able to get multiple good pictures of the trees.

the first tree we took a picture of was a Bur Oak
Our next tree was a Sweet Gum tree
We also got a picture of a Blue Spruce

We also had a normal spruce tree
But best of all we were able to get a picture of an imported Dawn Redwood 
It's already one of the tallest trees in the area but my favorite is still the Blue Colorado Spruce. That maybe because my favorite color is blue but who knows. We also had to settle for a picture of a red ear sliding turtle and a bull frog.

5/27/2015

Day 2

Today we went to Delco park to spend time with the novelist Rob E. Boley and to immerse ourselves in nature. When we met he thought us fun exercises where you take three words from a random page and make a haiku from them. The words I chose were "especially one made" form these words I made the haiku

Lone Sparrow

Especially here
One lone sparrow flies higher
made small by the world

He also showed us how to make a story from a magazine page. You take one sentence and every word in the sentence becomes the beginning of the next line. My sentence was "juncture a point in time especially one made critical or important by a concurrence of circumstances. The short story I wrote was of a dragon talking to a hero who keeps putting off his fate.

Dragon: juncture a time has has come to choose your path do you choose to save our love or the kingdom
A choice must be made
Pointing one way the key to your happiness
In the other direction is the lives of the innocent
Time is not on your side, you have fought against your duties for to long
Especially now more than ever
One choice could either spell the end of all or a new beginning
Made soon the choice must be
Critical it is but, only to you it falls
or a change could be made, there is a chance to save all
important it is that you make the right choices
By storm or flame
A choice will be made
Currently you have two roads laid out before you
Of your choices these have come to be, which path shall you follow

Hero Juncture:...Circumstances may have dictated the paths I can choose but, one destiny is what you choose to make it. I shall carve my own path towards my goal and none shall stop me.

I call It hero's choices

After this we had a small world exercise where we would observe a one square patch of nature and right down what we see form a standing or close up position. So we can see some of the brilliantly beautiful occurrences in nature that we miss from our high vantage points.

After I had finished the activity I had gone down to the dock to sit and observe the water. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something jerk. There was an old fishing line tied to the railing, so I started to pull it in and on the end of it was a catfish. So my friends and I pull it up and work the hook out of its mouth and released it back into the lake.

5/26/2015

Day 1

Today in To The Woods we talked about what was expected of us and what we thought nature writing was and some of the ways it could be done. Before we started our conversations about what we thought nature writing was we did a few activities. First we read the quote “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…”by Henry David Thoreau. We had to write down what we thought the quote meant. To me I envisioned a life were you do what you want  to better your own life instead of working fro others to get what you need, or in simpler terms I could reference the Lion King and just say Hakuna Matata.  After this we had a team building exercise  how to cross river stones

This in its self was pretty interesting and fun. We were also racing another team trying to find the fastest and most effective way to transport our team across the path, but as always team one is number one. After this exercise we had guess speaker Scott Gesel come in to talk to us about what is nature writing and what form it might take so one can describe there connection with nature to others. We recognized that putting detail into the smaller things can allow you to show a greater over all image to your readers, and how you can use metaphors, symbolism, and personification to help guide your reader to see and feel your experience and connection to the great outdoors.