The Passive Park

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Ohiopyle trip last Saturday. For my makeup assignment, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. I don’t have my own car, and buses can only take you so far. Then I realized that there is a small park right up the street from school that I walk past every day, but never had the chance to stop and walk through it. I don’t know if there is a name for this park, but there was a sign near the entrance that read “this is a passive park.” So we will refer to it as the “The Passive Park.” This tiny park consists of many different flowers and statues. Along with those, there are benches and different walk ways to add a small sense of beauty in an area that consists of roadways and man made nature. 

I walked up to the park on a beautiful 70 degree day. The flowers just began to bloom and they trees are getting their leaves back. I am well aware that these trees and flowers are planted there and didn’t go there naturally, but they are still considered nature in my eyes. I really tried to concentrate on the nature of the flowers and left out the road way and urban nature. If you look at just the flowers, you won’t be able to tell that they are right beside a highway exit. No one would ever know the difference.

Boyce Park

       Over spring break I went to my local park up the street from my house called Boyce Park located in Plum, PA, just a half hour east from the city of Pittsburgh. I have been to this park so many times to either walk my dog, talk with friends and explore the trails and when i was on the cross country team in high school,  run for training. I knew the area very well, and would be there all the time in the summer. I have never really explored the area in the winter, so i was very excited for this opportunity. 

      I arrived on a cold windy day on March 5th and decided to take my favorite trail I learned from my cross country trips. As soon as I entered the woods, I was amazed by how beautiful the trees were, buried under all the snow. I took a few close ups of branches and trees close to the ground and noticed that even though they are freezing and buried a lot of the bushes and broken trees still had live to them and are fighters. They seemed to just be waiting out this winter and hold out for spring!

At the end of the trail i was on, I knew I would hit a park eventually. When I did, I saw a swing set and trees, with a few cars parked in the parking spots with no people. The swing set looked so serene, obviously not having a child sit on it for quite some time. I decided to take a picture of it, knowing it wasn’t a man made structure, but for a little boy, or girl, it was nature for them.

I then turned around and saw this beautiful big tree that had the sun glistening through its branches and fell in love with it. Even though there were cars and swing sets surrounding it, it was still nature, and still beautiful.

I definitely have a few photos that I will be using in my portfolio and I am excited to add some of these to it!

the path that I have never seen in the winter before

trees that might have some life left in them after this winter 

it might be man made, but for someone, this is their nature

even surrounded by man made structures, nature is still beautiful in its own way