Not far away from the road, but nicely still tucked into campus, is the Gazebo, a spot that Geneseo students and community famously use to watch the Sunset. It’s not too noisy throughout the day, other than the intermittent foot traffic at 9:45 AM, 10:10 AM, 12:20 PM, etc. I can’t get too far away from campus because I don’t have a car, so my interactions with nature are quite limited to what’s within reasonable walking distance. Each morning, I take the same route to class, leaving from Ward down to Main, then either Across to Bank Street and down to the Union. Sometimes, I sneak down University Drive, into Newton, into Milne, and then through Blake’s outdoor hallway. Whichever route I take, to get to the Union, I have to walk by the Gazebo.
When I was walking up to class this morning, I paid a little extra attention to the green space, the plant life, trees that surrounded the Gazebo. There’s this patch of dark mulch surrounding the gazebo that makes up a bed of bushes and mid-sized trees. Relying just on memory, I might have estimated that there was one tree and about a foot or two of space, but when I counted today and when I looked back at the picture, I saw at least four trees and double that space. I wonder if something about the large presence of brick and concrete around the gazebo have anything to do with the minimization of the presence of green space in my memory.
When I walk up from the Union to the gazebo, it looks like its bushes are peering above the brick wall that contains them. They’re a nice and vivid shade of green and seemed to be a little damp because this morning it had rained a bit. The rain slightly saturated the concrete too, but it was clear the rain had lightened up and that some of it was drying up because I saw some patches of lighter concrete peeking out. I thought to myself today that it’s strange the leaves havent grown back on the trees. I know we’re only approaching the peak of springtime, but the trees looked as dead as they did in the winter time. Maybe just some more patience is required.
I like this space on campus a lot, but its green space seems to be negated by the overwhelming and domineering presence of concrete and brick, and unique to the past couple of and next couple of years, the construction fences, surrounding it. While the physical structure of the gazebo is limited in green space, I think it is one of the best places on campus to realize the beauty and vastness of the valley. I enjoy the sunset at the gazebo, but even more than that, I enjoy looking out at the valley when it’s completely dark and all you can see is the patches of light from probably what is York. Between small patches of light of neighboring towns are large stretches of darkness, where I like to imagine there are deer grazing.
*Note: No AI was used in the making of this Blog Post.