Backyard Beauty

This morning I decided to walk around the area where I lived and see it with my complete perception. On a previous blog, I wrote about the excerpt of “Amateur Eyes” by Alexandra Horowitz and how she points at many things she didn’t notice where she lived at until she decided to perceive everything around her. I’m quite a perceptive person myself, I believe, due to my innate curiosity of everything around me, whether it be natural or superficial, although I know that I have a bias against manmade objects. I’ve always been greatly intrigued by nature, so I always focus my perception on trees, plants, critters and fishes whenever I see them. One thing I confess that I didn’t notice was occurring right in my backyard, which I haven’t been able to see clearly due to my busy schedule. On my backyard I found plants growing on my old vegetable garden, which have given that patch of lawn a life of itself.

Before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 2017, I was working on a vegetable garden on my backyard. The reason for this was that I enjoy cooking with fresh produce, so I liked the idea of having fresh and organic peppers and spices. I had oregano, thyme, peppers, chamomile, lavender, and other aromatic herbs. When the hurricane hit, however, most of my plants died and later as time passed by the rest died due to lack of care since I was too busy working and studying in college. At first, I wanted to redo my garden, but since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take care of the plants like I wanted to, I just decided to let nature take its course and allowed the soil to be free. I wanted to allow the patch of land to get native plants on her to see, like an experiment, how would the land and plants change. Sadly, due to school and work I forgot about my plan for observation and I forgot altogether what I wanted to do and why.

When I received the tasking from our English Professor to walk around and see everything with perspective, I honestly didn’t think I would see anything new since I always like to see what’s around me and how everything changes over time. It was while I was finishing my walk through the block where my house is that I remembered about the piece of land that I wanted to observe over time. When I got back home I was happy to say that Mother Nature was kind and showed me green beauty around. Although many people would consider the plants that the land had as ‘worthless grass and weeds’, I personally loved how it looked. The oregano plant that I had, for example, had its stems surrounded by tropical flowers, which were being pollinated by bees by the time I saw them. Other than plants, I’m extremely fascinated by bees due to their beauty and great importance for the pollination of not only flowers and wild plants, but they’re also very important for the pollination of many plants important for human use and consumption. I can honestly say that perception isn’t required outside your house or in the county that you live, but in your backyard where nature can show you many beautiful things.