My visit to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum

Posted on November 1, 2021 by mageenicole11787

“A beautiful field experience with our crew”

By Nicole Magee

Photos of the News Makers crew and Nicole at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum

One of my intense interests and hobbies is nature and hiking. Every weekday morning, I try to go hiking with my dad. On weekends, we get out as a family. My whole family loves the outdoors and camping. We spend a lot of time enjoying all the seasons and activities that surround nature.

Exercising in nature allows me to stay fit and calm. I love creative writing and visualizations, and field experiences like this one. It allows me to see the beauty, visualize it, then write and blog it.

I was inspired after our journey through the Bayard Cutting Arboretum, which was fully decorated for Halloween, and wrote this visualization, after I left. Creative visualization is one of my special interests, it helps you to relax and meditate on a fantasy story. I hope you enjoy it!

A Spooky Adventure through the Woods

By Nicole Magee

Place yourself in a comfortable position, close your eyes and take a full deep breath in, followed by a deep breath out. Continue to follow your breath as I guide you in our spooky adventure.

Imagine you are in a dim-lit street, walking towards your local pumpkin patch. On your street, while you are walking through the pumpkins you get a visit by the pumpkin king Jack Skellington (from Disney‘s The Nightmare Before Christmas), who invites you to carve a pumpkin with him.

At first, you take a big deep breath in and out, because you are feeling scared, but then a good witch named Star appears because she notices the fear in your eyes. She says, take another deep breath in and release your fear, and do not be scared. We will not hurt you, then once again you breathe in and out as you now feel more relaxed and are ready to start carving your scary face on a pumpkin.

Once you are finished, you show your jack-o-lantern to your new friends. Then Jack and the good witch Star say, “wow, that is the work of a true artist.” You reply thank you as the feeling of happiness overwhelms you. You then say, “thank you for a wonderful time, it is getting late and I must go now,” as you pointed to the old clock. It was just past 6 pm, and I did not want to be late for dinner, as I could smell the sensation of pumpkin soup that mom had made for me. As I got up to leave, the good witch noticed I was dressed as a witch for Halloween, impressed, the witch said, “wait, here please take some candy home with you. “I love your costume as it reminds me of my daily clothing. I replied, thank you and have a Happy Halloween.

“Thank you, I am looking forward to it. “

A photo of various orange pumpkins sitting in a bin. A single pumpkin is in focus. This pumpkin has a black scary face drawn on it. It has menacing eyes with small red pupils, a small traingular nose, amd zigzag shaped smile. — Photo of a jack-o-lanthern among various pumpkins (By Mathias P.R. Reding on Pexels.com)

We thank you, Dr. Christine, for taking the Newsmakers group to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River NY.

We had the opportunity to explore the river gardens and the decorated Halloween paths. We stumbled upon a fitness and nature path, which was so cool because it had stations to create creative exercise and breathing.

As a News Maker, it is important to get our exercise in daily to keep up with our creative rituals.

Edited by avanicole23