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Nature, and my adventures within
Mar. 11th, 2008 02:51 pmToday was a good day to be alive. Started off in a good mood, and I had toast with butter and jam for breakfast, and tea and applesauce, and got to eavesdrop on a couple of friends studying for their opera final, which was very entertaining. Then work. Then, I totally ate my salad and it was delicious. Then class. Very annoying, but I got to do lots of thinking about Hyde.
After class I decided that even though it's still cold, it's too sunny not to enjoy the day a little. weather.com says it's a few degrees above freezing, but I didn't feel a need to wear a hat and gloves, and I even had my coat open. So I dropped off my backpack downstairs and then ran back out and took a walk down to the pond. It was so nice. I was listening to Neo Universe, which really does make me happy. And almost no one was around, and it was very rough and untamed - there was mud and puddles, but also still patches of ice and snow. Very much the end of winter.
I went to this little area that almost no one goes to - or at least, I've never run into anyone there (although I've taken a couple of you there! Remember, Borscht? XD). But it's one of my favorite places on campus. It's this weird little valley that slopes down right behind some houses on one side, and on the other side is the president's back yard, but in between there's this very steep valley thingie with a little stream running through it, and there are a couple of stone bridges across the stream, and there are sort of little flat paths along the side of the walls of the valley, and a couple places where there are stone steps inserted into the hills. And there's a stone bench all tucked away that you really have to climb to get to. It's pretty even now, all covered with ivy and dead leaves and patches of snow. And you can see the bare tree branches as you look back towards the pond and the main path, and in the distance you can see one of the hills that surrounds Pioneer Valley.
So I climbed back there and it's a bit more treacherous than usual, cos things are slippery, and just as I'm about to really start climbing on the narrow paths, I look down and there's a long, thick branch, stuck in the ground in front of me. It was kind of crazy! So I pulled that out and was using it as a walking stick, and it was actually really helpful. But then it snapped on me all of a sudden. But before I could even say "oops," I look down and there's another large stick right in front of me on the path. And I pick it up and part of it was wet, but there was a section at the top that was totally dry - just really cold. And that worked really, really well. And when I got up to the bench there was a whole area of unmarked snow that I was able to leave my footprints in.
I like the bridges, and the little stairs - the signs of artifice within nature - not only for the contrast, but also because they create a suggestion of something sort of magical. Like, well, fairies. XD When I was 13 or so my family went on a summer vacation to various parts of Quebec and we went to this big, beautiful park and took a hike and there was a really wide, shallow stream that ran over all these rocks. So you could jump or wade to the middle and stand on this big flat rocks that the stream is running over and around. And someone had built, on the rocks in the middle, teeny, tiny houses. Incredibly detailed, but made out of rocks and twigs and leaves. They were so, so cool.
It felt really good, to be out there in the weather. Even, like, feeling the cold roughness of my walking stick against my hand felt good, even though it's all red now. It felt good to really be feeling things. And to have the sun on my face - this is a time of year where I start to get "Yaaay Vitamin D! Must absorb all I can!" :D And it was also so great to feel the wind in my hair. I love that. And my hair didn't even get too ridiculous looking! I have large, puffy hair, but it stayed relatively under control. So, yeah, everything was just really fresh and brisk and really peaceful. I was so glad I took the time to go for the walk, even though I now have to prepare a presentation and do all this coding for a website. XD Well worth it! And I just ate 2 Reese's eggs, and talked to Katie (in the middle of writing this, but you shouldn't be able to tell where!) so yeah. I still feel sort of stressed, mostly because I have a lot of stuff to do for school but I also want to fix my resume and write a few cover letters, but I also feel good. Very good. Very refreshed.
Also, kind of excited that I have such an appropriate icon. :D Yaaaay Garth! He plays the organ and the saxophone in the Band, and can also play pretty much anything else. And he arranges, and is quiet and fascinating and incredibly superlatively bearded. And Dr. John calls him "A doctor fer der instruments" because they're both awesome like that.
I can't wait til it gets warm enough for me to do work outside. Til then, I will leave my window open. I love the changing of the seasons.
After class I decided that even though it's still cold, it's too sunny not to enjoy the day a little. weather.com says it's a few degrees above freezing, but I didn't feel a need to wear a hat and gloves, and I even had my coat open. So I dropped off my backpack downstairs and then ran back out and took a walk down to the pond. It was so nice. I was listening to Neo Universe, which really does make me happy. And almost no one was around, and it was very rough and untamed - there was mud and puddles, but also still patches of ice and snow. Very much the end of winter.
I went to this little area that almost no one goes to - or at least, I've never run into anyone there (although I've taken a couple of you there! Remember, Borscht? XD). But it's one of my favorite places on campus. It's this weird little valley that slopes down right behind some houses on one side, and on the other side is the president's back yard, but in between there's this very steep valley thingie with a little stream running through it, and there are a couple of stone bridges across the stream, and there are sort of little flat paths along the side of the walls of the valley, and a couple places where there are stone steps inserted into the hills. And there's a stone bench all tucked away that you really have to climb to get to. It's pretty even now, all covered with ivy and dead leaves and patches of snow. And you can see the bare tree branches as you look back towards the pond and the main path, and in the distance you can see one of the hills that surrounds Pioneer Valley.
So I climbed back there and it's a bit more treacherous than usual, cos things are slippery, and just as I'm about to really start climbing on the narrow paths, I look down and there's a long, thick branch, stuck in the ground in front of me. It was kind of crazy! So I pulled that out and was using it as a walking stick, and it was actually really helpful. But then it snapped on me all of a sudden. But before I could even say "oops," I look down and there's another large stick right in front of me on the path. And I pick it up and part of it was wet, but there was a section at the top that was totally dry - just really cold. And that worked really, really well. And when I got up to the bench there was a whole area of unmarked snow that I was able to leave my footprints in.
I like the bridges, and the little stairs - the signs of artifice within nature - not only for the contrast, but also because they create a suggestion of something sort of magical. Like, well, fairies. XD When I was 13 or so my family went on a summer vacation to various parts of Quebec and we went to this big, beautiful park and took a hike and there was a really wide, shallow stream that ran over all these rocks. So you could jump or wade to the middle and stand on this big flat rocks that the stream is running over and around. And someone had built, on the rocks in the middle, teeny, tiny houses. Incredibly detailed, but made out of rocks and twigs and leaves. They were so, so cool.
It felt really good, to be out there in the weather. Even, like, feeling the cold roughness of my walking stick against my hand felt good, even though it's all red now. It felt good to really be feeling things. And to have the sun on my face - this is a time of year where I start to get "Yaaay Vitamin D! Must absorb all I can!" :D And it was also so great to feel the wind in my hair. I love that. And my hair didn't even get too ridiculous looking! I have large, puffy hair, but it stayed relatively under control. So, yeah, everything was just really fresh and brisk and really peaceful. I was so glad I took the time to go for the walk, even though I now have to prepare a presentation and do all this coding for a website. XD Well worth it! And I just ate 2 Reese's eggs, and talked to Katie (in the middle of writing this, but you shouldn't be able to tell where!) so yeah. I still feel sort of stressed, mostly because I have a lot of stuff to do for school but I also want to fix my resume and write a few cover letters, but I also feel good. Very good. Very refreshed.
Also, kind of excited that I have such an appropriate icon. :D Yaaaay Garth! He plays the organ and the saxophone in the Band, and can also play pretty much anything else. And he arranges, and is quiet and fascinating and incredibly superlatively bearded. And Dr. John calls him "A doctor fer der instruments" because they're both awesome like that.
I can't wait til it gets warm enough for me to do work outside. Til then, I will leave my window open. I love the changing of the seasons.
