Alexander Kitsmarishvili

I was pretty excited to do this assignment because having a reason to go outside and do something during this quarantine is great. Obviously I could still go outside without any reason but I like having a goal to reach. I went out on my usual route in my neighborhood. When I’m feeling really bored I walk down the relatively large avenue that runs through my area. I’ve gone down this path a lot whenever I’m either going to a friends house or going to the median that is between two other streets. This median has many no trespassing signs but nobody follows them, there are beaten paths and it’s essentially a mini woods that you can use as a short cut. As much as I’ve walked around here I haven’t ever paid much attention to the nature around.

This time I walked parallel to the median on the street closer to my house. It was a really sunny day and I had a really peaceful walk listening to my music walking on the edge of the median looking for something that stuck out to me. I came back home after an hour or so with 4 pictures of plants that were out of place. A yellow tulip, two different random leafy things, and the hairy plant. The tulip was something I was familiar with and the other 2 leafy plants weren’t anything I recognized but they looked not too different from tree leaves, just a little softer.

The hairy plant was the weirdest one out of the four. First of all, if it wasn’t clear, it looked hairy but on top of that it was almost 2 feet in diameter and looked nothing like anything else I had seen. Thanks to Google Lens I learned that it was the Great Mullein or, the big brain name, Verbascum thapsus. Turns out it is native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia but has been introduced to the Americas and Australia. That explains why it stuck out.

I also learned that it was traditionally used for medicine and remedies, and while it doesn’t have any use in modern medicine, I feel as though this walk was a healing experience for me, more so than most of my walks. I was quite bored like usual and almost angry but the sunlight and feeling of discovery was something I really enjoyed.