Sara's Nature Blog

When we visited the Carter Museum a couple  weeks  ago, I walked through the  galleries,   taking  pictures of  paintings that caught my attention. I took pictures of three landscapes because they felt calm , yet  powerful at the same time. In one painting,  there is a  steep  cliff   that  rise s  against a glowing yellow sky while a river reflects the light at the bottom of the valley. In another, bright red and orange autumn trees surround a small wooden cabin that seems almost insignificant compared to the mountain behind it. The third shows tall cottonwood trees arching over a narrow stream with open land stretching toward distant peaks. At the time, I just thought they were beautiful. After  doing   some research and preparing for my  Romanticism presentation, I realized that all three  paintings were  part of the Romantic movement.   Learning about Romanticism helped me understand why I...

Over the weekend, I took a walk around  Meadowmere  Park with my family, and it ended up connecting more to Edward Abbey’s  Polemic  chapter than I expected.  It had rained the day before, so the grass was a little damp but not muddy, and the air felt fresh.  The sky was bright  blue,  and the winter trees were mostly bare, with thin branches spreading out above the walking path and playground.  As we walked through the park, I noticed that everyone was either walking or riding a bike. Kids were playing on the playground, and a couple of people were near the soccer goal in the open field, as shown in my other photo. Once we were inside the park, there were no cars around. That  immediately  made me think of Abbey’s argument about how parks should be experienced without vehicles.  He talks about how people experience places more fully when they are moving at their own pace instead of viewing everything from inside a vehicle, and...

This week’s reading from Edward Abbey, the  Havasu  chapter, connected in a personal way to something simple I experienced. I went to my brother’s soccer game by myself. Normally, I go with my family or friends, so I am used to always having someone to talk to during the game. This time it was just me sitting on the sideline. At first it felt a little uncomfortable to be outside alone while everyone else seemed to be in groups. After a while, that feeling shifted into something calmer and more focused. Looking out from the bleachers, the whole scene felt bigger than just the game. The field stretched out below with the track circling  it,  and the stadium lights were already on even though the sun was still setting. The sky was the most striking part. It faded from a deep clear blue at the top into soft  hues  of yellow, peach, and light orange near the horizon. Thin clouds were streaked across the sky and catching the color. From where I sat, I could see b...