The end is only the beginning...

I am sitting in my back yard for the last official blog post of the semester. It's almost eighty degrees, the sun is still shining while I listed to Frank Sinatra and my fiance is mowing the lawn. The trees have their little buds and the insects are out and about now - you can see the birds flying after them or picking them from the ground. Happiness is in the air, along with the scent of Summer and promises. I can't help but feel happy.

When I was first registering for classes for this semester, I really wanted to take Travel Writing. I would have signed up for it, but I forgot about registration day and the class was filled before I remembered and signed on. While I still think I would enjoy Travel Writing, I am thankful for my awful memory because I have really enjoyed Nature Writing this semester.

Not only has this class given me the opportunity to see that nature writing isn't just for those uber-ecologically aware types, but it has also allowed me to focus on my own connection to the big wide world. I've really enjoyed the readings that have offered multiple perspectives on our responsibility to the environment we live in, which has caused me to really become a part of my place. I would have been connected to the place that I've chosen to write about regardless. I mean, it is my back yard. But, I feel like I would have been connected to it by possessing it. Now I feel that it is such a gift that we were able to find a home amidst such beautiful nature. We were looking for a house that was situated on some land, but I could never have imagined how much I would come to love every blade of grass and every tree.

I was outside a few weeks ago when I heard a chainsaw fire up. I pinpointed the source of the noise - it was coming from the neighbors who live sort of caddy-corner to us, but their property runs behind their house and adjacent to ours. So, the back of our yard, where the woods begin, that is where the neighbor's property begins. I watched them for a while, seeing that they were cutting up already fallen trees. I thought to myself, they must be clearing up some of the dead wood so they can use it for firewood. That seems reasonable in my book. But, a few days ago, I saw them out there again. This time, they were cutting perfectly healthy trees down. Not only that, but they were also cutting these trees down on my property. While I didn't have the guts to go face two grown men with chainsaws by myself (my fiance wasn't home at the time), I was surprised at how much it bothered me. And the part that bothered me the most was not the fact that they were cutting down trees on our lot, but that they were cutting down trees in the first place. How dare they? Did they know how long those trees had been growing there? Hadn't there been enough destruction to the land they cleared to build their house? And the other houses around here? Can't they just leave the land to have some of its own? It makes me want to go plant more trees back there just to make them angry and make more work for them.

I think I am turning into an environmentalist.

I hope that I can continue to explore my place and the surrounding areas. I haven't made it over to our lot across the street that came with the house yet (it's where our sand mound is for our septic system), but it's a wooded acre and leads to eighty acres of woods behind it. I'd love to go exploring in the upcoming months and am looking forward to the surprises. As much as I've become more aware of the nature surrounding me, I am still surprised every day. It was just the other day I was looking for signs of Spring, watching the buds on the trees appear slowly. Then suddenly, the next day, before I was even looking for them, yellow flowers had exploded on the bushes and the trees had those amazing, fragrant white and blush blooms. And part of me hopes to never catch on to nature's schedule so I can always find joy in these sudden appearances.

I'm going to try to keep up with my blog in the coming months so I can continue to remind myself of my connection with the world.