This photo was taken close to the shoreline of a tidal creek near my house. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time there exploring and making paths with my friend. Nowadays, I only really use the creek as a place to launch kayaks and paddle-boards because it flows right out to the river, and eventually to the ocean.
There were plenty of other interesting plants I saw at the creek that I could’ve written about, but I was most intrigued by these berries. This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen them either, in fact I’ve seen them show up on my lawn a lot. However, I’ve always just dismissed them without even knowing what they are and where they come from. I knew that they were berries, and I also could infer that they weren’t edible, otherwise my family wouldn’t have had to buy berries at the grocery store for all these years. After researching on the internet, I learned that these were holly tree berries.
I felt kind of foolish for not knowing what they were. Obviously, I have heard of holly trees before, but for some reason I didn’t know that I have them on my own property. I’ve always just know them as “thorn bushes” or the trees I hated getting balls stuck in because it was painful to retrieve them.
Now I know exactly where these pretty, red berries come from. Wherever there are red berries scattered on the ground, there must also be a holly tree nearby. Strangely, this principle did not ring true for the berries I found at the creek. I didn’t recall seeing any holly trees or bushes with thorns near the water at all. Perhaps I didn’t look hard enough among the dense vegetation surrounding me, or perhaps the wind and rain relocated these berries over time. I certainly wouldn’t put it past Mother Nature.
-Michael Muscato
ENGL110 Spring 2020 11:15-12:05 
I liked how you went back to your roots of exploring one of your favorite childhood spots to explore. I also liked how you took it upon yourself to find out about the berries at the creek because you have them in your backyard as well. In your last paragraph, I liked how you used your research to connect berries on the ground to a holly tree nearby. Your last two sentences were very well written and wrap up your writing perfectly.
– Tommy Wilcox
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I really liked the final Paragraph where you tried to investigate how the berries ended up where you found them. As I read it I concluded that the rain took it down to the creek and you thought the same. I also enjoyed how you related it to your years and years around the forestry and how you now have more knowledge of the berries after writing this paper. Hopefully you are spending more time playing and possibly getting balls stuck under thorn bushes with all this time.
-Miguel Palacios
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I really enjoy how you looked at berries that had fallen onto the ground instead of another plant. You really did look far beyond the obvious like the prompt asked. I also like how you spoke about the creek behind your house and how you’ve always used it as a place to explore. and how even though the berries have always been there, you never paid too much attention to them until now.
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One thing that really stuck out to me is that you picked something to write about that you would normally just walk right over. I too myself, would probably just walk over them or squish them with my fingers. But you took this and found out where they came from; remembered when you used to take walks when you were younger.
The last thing that I admired, is that you put humor into your post. “Otherwise my family wouldn’t have had to buy berries at the grocery store for all these years.” I don’t know why it stuck out to me, but I like humor and it went well with this!
-Mya Mostrom
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