Personal Journal - May 22, 2011

Today I really was able to take in my surroundings and appreciate the outdoors. I helped my parents fill in some new plants outside, and then just sat outside and listened to everything. My home is surrounded my many plants and animals, and at any moment something new that you have never seen pops up. Later, I jumped in the pool afterward and took it all in. It was refreshing being outside for so long.

Being in more central Florida, lots of the things I would normally see in SW Florida at FGCU are absent. However, there are amazing other plants and animals that live and thrive in this environment. Along the way, I took many pictures of things I saw.

This is a persian shield, that I found in my backyard. While doing some light research I discovered that they are a tropical plant, so it is no wonder that it thrives in the hot Florida environment. It's purple/silverish leaves are very pretty and in the sunlight shine even brighter.

These are the beginnings of a banana tree we have near our garage. It's only maybe a foot high but by the end of summer it will be over 6 feet tall. It even grows plantains, we've never eaten them. I don't think this version of banana tree is entirely edible by humans, but it is fun to watch them grow each year.

This is a sago palm. Unlike the extremely tall palms we have in SW FL, these are much shorter and closer to the ground. There are many here in gainesville, and less of the Christmas palms we see at FGCU. It's interesting that only a few hours can have such a drastic change on the types of plants we see.

And finally I found this little guy in the pool later that afternoon. Well, not so little. I do not know exactly what kind of spider this is but I did know that I did not want to mess with him too much. It is not unusual for my to find cockroaches and large spiders, but thankfully most of the spiders always seem to remain outside.

This little trip outside definitely made me more aware of the different plants and animals that I am surrounded by every day. Although the spider is not the nicest thing to look at, I understand that they play an important part in the word and instead of killing it or letting it drown, We moved it back outside to let it continue on its way.