Kylie's Nature Blog

Kylie Spindler, Ashton Martini Justification             Throughout this course, a vast amount of material was covered regarding different perspectives of nature and personal experiences from different environmentalists. In addition, we each interacted with nature copious times through nature observations, where we implemented some common themes that we learned. It is a challenge to condense everything covered throughout the semester, so we decided to focus on a few common themes that stuck  out to us. The overarching theme included the dynamics between human interaction with nature. We as humans can either alter nature for better or for worse. This also leads into a theme of industrial tourism and how threatening it can be to the natural environment. Between our many interactions with nature, we have directly observed the circle of life through the active work of the biotic pyramid. These themes drove the structure of our video and what we decided to discuss.             Since we part

 After my last blog post focusing on the fruit trees in my backyard, I realized that I missed one crucial part of my backyard and neighborhood: the wildlife. What is the environment without the fauna inhabiting it? Attending school in Texas has made me notice how different and unique the creatures were in my hometown of San Marino compared to here. The United States is so vast that the nature varies greatly between the different regions. Even my hometown alone differs from the surrounding suburbs, which I will highlight in this blog. I previously discussed the many squirrels that inhabit my town and destroy the avocados of our tree. Therefore, I would like to discuss more distinctive species. At night, we have rats that scurry along the roof of our house and are able to climb the trees in our backyard. I am quite convinced that they are mutant due to this apparent "superpower" they possess. I have never witnessed them during the day, but sometimes they become trapped in our t

 

 During Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to return to my hometown of San Marino, California. I have lived in this small suburb of Los Angeles (only 12,000 people and 4 sq miles) for my whole life. Although I was eager to leave my small town for college, I will always miss my beautiful and unique California backyard. My parents told me that, when an arborist analyzed it, they noted eight unique fruit trees. Although I cannot recall them all, I decided to take a nature walk in my backyard during break to inspect the different trees I could find and notice how they have changed throughout the seasons and years. Unfortunately, many of the trees are not producing fruit in the winter. Before our house was built in the 1940s, the land was an orange orchard. I believe this is what made the grounds so suitable for a variety of different trees to thrive. As you walk towards the back of my yard, there lies our largest tree: an avocado tree. When in season, the straggly branches create co

 For Thanksgiving break this year, my family and I traveled to my grandparents' house in Scottsdale, Arizona. I have been to their house dozens of times over the years, but participating in this course has made me more aware of the environment there than I had been in the past. I have some not-so-fond memories of playing in my grandparents' backyard and getting poked by handfuls of cactus spikes. I whined, tears streaming down my face, as my grandfather ripped them out with tweezers one by one. My first impressions of Arizona were grim, to say the least. The Arizona weather this year certainly did not feel festive for the holiday season. The weather was in the 60s in the morning, but hit the high 70s and even low 80s in the afternoon. I brought some sweaters, but did not even end up wearing them.  The night before Thanksgiving, we all went out for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Arizona: Tonto in Cave Creek. We were sat outside, per out request, at a table near the golf co

In this entry, Mary Oliver recounts her encounters with stones of all different hues, shapes, and sizes. She also ponders upon the history of the stones, noting how long they have been in their locations for and how they came to be. Many stones are quite resistant to change, traveling for thousands of year through different terrains and environments. For example, Oliver talks about how pink stones were part of a mountain before they were taken by a glacier, and how sedimental stones attain what floated down the outwash. Each stone has its own story, which I believe is similar to humans. Although stones appear simple at first, I believe focusing on their characteristics tells us a narrative of the history of our planet. No two stones are the exact same, just as no two stones have undergone the exact same conditions. I have made a connection between stones and humans. Each human has overcome adversity in different ways and has a different story to tell that has shaped them over time, jus