Where Sasha Walks

Hello Blog!  For my outside magic entry, I waited until our class visited the Fort Worth Zoo together. We went yesterday, on April 28, and it was incredibly fun to walk around the zoo with my classmates. We all have a similar lens now with nature, I think, and we are able to discuss our observations more similarly than I would with someone outside of our class.  We arrived at the zoo at 2pm, and the sun was out, and the air was thick and humid. We were expecting rain during our trip, so we brought rain jackets and umbrellas. The animals were active, and we started at the front of the zoo with the primates. The Mandrill and Orangutan were the first we saw, and we were shocked at how aware they seemed to be. They moved so intentionally, playing with each other, eating, and swinging on their structures. I was walking through the zoo with six of my classmates, and we were noticing how much the monkeys resembled us, and wondering if they thought the same. We were also struck by how...

Hello Blog! Yesterday afternoon, my roommate and I rented the Trinity Metro electric bikes and spent a couple of hours riding through Fort Worth. We had no plan, just a general direction, and it was a lovely afternoon of reconnecting with nature!  We started by weaving through the surrounding neighborhoods, then connected to the Trinity Trail along the river. Along the path, I spotted Pink Ladies ( Oenothera speciosa , subfamily Pooideae), a flower with pink petals. It is pictured below, and looks like the plastic flowers you would see on leis at a store. My roommate and I both stopped to look at them, and we immediately agreed they were our favorite flowers we have seen recently. What I found myself wondering, though, was why plants are named the way they are, so I am going to look into that more.  We eventually made it to Clearfork, locked our bikes, and sat down in some chairs outside of Press Cafe. For a little while, we did not do much of anything except people-watch a...

Hello Blog! Lately, one of my favorite things to do outside has been tanning, either alone in my backyard or at the Lot 12 pool with my roommate or a friend. It started as something casual, just wanting to get some sun, but I have started to notice that these moments have become some of the most genuinely nature-connected experiences I have had this semester. Something is interesting about a backyard or a pool. On the surface, it is completely man-made with concrete, chlorine, and lawn chairs. But the longer I stay still and am quiet, the more life I notice around me. Roly polies (Armadillidium vulgare, which I learned are actually crustaceans, not insects) lie around near the edges of the concrete. Snails from the class Gastropoda move slowly along the base of the fence and on my gutters. Ants travel in coordinated lines across the ground. And in the trees — which belong to the class Magnoliopsida, or dicots — birds call back and forth to one another in what sounds like a conversati...

  Hello Blog! Over the past two weeks, volunteering at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge as part of our class has been one of my favorite experiences of the semester. It has been really interesting to see how nature is actively protected and cared for by people who clearly have a strong passion for it. Being there has made me more curious about the space as a whole, and I would definitely want to come back on my own time to explore more of the reserve myself or with friends.   During our first visit, we worked on removing invasive bamboo, and during the second week, we focused on clearing privet. Both are invasive species that disrupt the natural ecosystem, so removing them helps native plants and animals thrive. My understanding is that invasive species are difficult to eradicate since they do not have a predator in the ecosystem -- from not naturally exist there. The work itself was enjoyable and rewarding. The first week, we used loppers to cut down bamboo, which was ...