This is a path and bench in the woods of the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum. The bench is alongside the wood-piece lined trail and surrounded by beautiful flowers. To get to this beautiful place, you go towards east campus and go past E-hall and walk along University Blvd. You cross over and enter in the gates of the arboretum. Once in the arboretum you walk alongside the beautiful pond and then take the trails until you reach the beautiful place to rest. JMU students come here to get away from all the “hustle and bustle” of classes and just relax and be with nature. They also come to go walking on the trails throughout the arboretum with a friend just to catch up and have a good time. Occasionally I see couples coming and sharing a special moment talking together on the benches spread along the trails. On really nice days I see people sitting on these benches with their books reading and studying for classes.
I think campus designers intended this space to be used to be an escape from the buildings on campus. They created this beautiful space for both students and adults alike to come and get closer to nature. It is a place to allow people to forget about all of the stressful things going on and just sit and relax in the comfort of Mother Nature. I also think it was intended to inform people about nature because it has some signs indicating what the plants are and some plaques providing information about the plants. I think one thing they could do to improve this space would be to continue adding wood chips to the trails instead of gravel. I think this gives it more of a natural feel and it is easier on your feet. The sustainability factor of the arboretum is pretty good, the plants are healthy and there are many animals that make the woods their home.
The arboretum will shape my memory of JMU because of all of the good times I have had there. Every day I ride my bike through it to get to class and observe all of the beautiful landscape. Even before I attended JMU as a student, I came to visit my brother here and we spent a great day walking along the trails, playing on the drawstring bridge, and taking pictures by the little waterfall. I will cherish this memory for the rest of my life. I also have had some great moments walking my dog through the arboretum. She loves to adventure and play fetch in the luscious grass. I think the most memorable event that happened in the arboretum was finding kittens during Maymester of my freshman year. We found a litter of kittens behind a log in tall grass right as you enter the arboretum. We didn’t know what to do, but the next day went back and two of them were still there. The others had moved, so we figured their mother abandoned these two that remained. We decided to take them in and look after them. We got them all cleared by the vet’s office and quickly fell in love with them. We were able to find James and Charlotte (the kittens) a lovely new home. I will always cherish these memories I have made in the arboretum.
-Emily Palmer
I agree that the arboretum is a great place to go to relax and hang out with friends and family. The many cats that live in the arboretum are very cute! However, I always wonder if they carry any diseases. I wonder just how many cats live in the arboretum, or if people feed them.
ReplyDelete~Amanda Walker for Professor Connerley
The arboretum is also one of my favorite places on campus to go escape and relax. I walk through it every day on my way back to my apartment or to the gym and it seems untouched and is extremely picturesque. That bench is a wonderful place to sit when it's nice outside because it offers such an awesome view. I have been going there recently with my friends just to talk and to catch some rays when the sun comes out.
ReplyDelete-Anna Frazer
This is an interesting picture to me because it shows a different side of JMU, compared to the constant commotion that occurs on campus. I have walked through this space many times, either on my way to class or just to walk through the arboretum. This space is great because it is always being used and is open to anyone. For example, I have seen a lot of older couples who take advantage of the arboretum and its beauty. I think that this space adds a lot of character to the JMU area.
ReplyDelete-Chance Esposito
I enjoyed your photo and post, and agree the Arboretum is one of the areas of campus that is undervalued and really cool. As a freshman, I felt pretty trapped a lot of the time at JMU. The dorm room didn't feel much like home, my parents and all my family were hundreds of miles away, and I had no car or friends from Virginia to get to know the area with. I was mostly stuck on campus for the first semester or two, and the Arboretum became my way to escape away to another world in just a short walk. I wish that there was space within the Arboretum where you cannot see the outside world - unfortunately you usually can see street lights or a parking lot, and you can hear cars on the nearby roads. In this way it's not as secluded and unique as I'd like, but only so much is possible. For the most part I love the Arboretum and am thankful for it particularly as a freshman.
ReplyDelete-Luke Wachob
The JMU arboretum is a wonderful place to visit. Since I am from Harrisonburg I have visited the arboretum many times. I actually use to think this space was private and only for the JMU students. I thought the space was private because I only ever saw young college aged people attending. This place offers a relaxing atmosphere in the city. The park is located near a busy intersection and the interstate but when a person is at the park everything seems to quiet. The little recognition this beautiful place gets amazes me. Local people in the surrounding area have no idea that this place even exists. I guess the arboretum is Harrisonburg best kept secret. Thanks for sharing Emily.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Bruce
The arboretum is in fact a kind of a gateway as it is for me as well. I was first introduced to this place by my GKIN100 professor who occasionally took the class to go running around the arboretum. The place offers an excellent trail to run or walk, and it changes its colors all year around, providing various scenery each season. The place is open to public dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. I've seen different types of people in the arboretum from students to others who seem to be local residents. I particularly like the location of the place as it is distanced away from everything else, especially the campus. It provides a nice "alone time" place where I can just aimlessly walk or run around it and won't be lost because the trail eventually turns back to a familiar place around campus.
ReplyDelete^Natalie Kwon (Dr. H)
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