Kate Nootz
English Writing Assignment
Holmes Lake
I forced the door of my car open against the strong wind gusts and stepped out onto Holmes Lake Park. I found one of the may unoccupied benches and sat down hoping not to get my pants dirty. The lake was made choppy by the strong gusts of wind that were blowing through the park. The leaves on the trees were also blowing violently with the wind. The water was choppy and on one side of the lake the waves even had white caps. The only place that wasn’t affected by the wind was a small cove that was protected by a rocky path leading out onto the lake. The water appeared to be green from far away but some of the waves extending out from the lake were more green than blue. Once I got closer I realized that the water was definitely not blue but a murky green brown. It made me wonder if the lake only appeared to be blue because of a reflection on the sky. In the middle of the lake the sun made a glare which forced your eyes to squint when you looked at it. Watching the water with the waves crashing against each other creates a wave of calmness over you. The water is mesmerizing to watch and hard to take your eyes off, but it is possible to be distracted by the flicker of a tree leaf or a person walking on the path around the lake. After the commotion is over my eyes always reverted back to the lake. On certain parts of the lake there is a narrow beach with thick tan sand. The rest of the lake is protected with tall weeds; many of the
m are serving as a barrier for the trash which collects in them.
At first Holmes Lake smelled like the great outdoors, trees and grass and some weeds, but every now and then you would get a gust of the potent smell of the lake. The lake doesn’t have such a great and refreshing smell, instead it smells more like algae or fish. You can hear the pats of people’s feet on the gravel path and kids screaming excitedly pleased with the activity they are doing. You can hear the dogs barking as they met each other on the path, or met other people that were unfamiliar to them. In my ears there was always a constant whistle of the wind.
It is strange that a recreation center that is bustling with people doing physical outdoor activities can be so unhealthy. There are people running around the lake or taking their dogs for walks, showing their kid
s how to fish and make sand castles, or observing the lake hoping the waters will make them calm and enjoying the outdoors. Yet the water is murky and was said to be condemned and you were not supposed to eat any fish that came from it or go swimming in it. It is next to the dog park and they share a stream. After they found many accounts of dead or mutated fish they had to dredge the lake, I remember it to be a very unpleasant smell. Vegetation grew wildly in the lake when it was empty and it looked like a lagre meadow or grassland. The vegetation still grows if the water gets low and many plants grow under water. The veg
etation was never affected by the contaminated water but there has seemed to be a decrease of wildlife in the area. I saw only a few squirrels but mostly I saw people’s dogs that were brought there either by car or walked there on a leash.
English Writing Assignment
Holmes Lake
I forced the door of my car open against the strong wind gusts and stepped out onto Holmes Lake Park. I found one of the may unoccupied benches and sat down hoping not to get my pants dirty. The lake was made choppy by the strong gusts of wind that were blowing through the park. The leaves on the trees were also blowing violently with the wind. The water was choppy and on one side of the lake the waves even had white caps. The only place that wasn’t affected by the wind was a small cove that was protected by a rocky path leading out onto the lake. The water appeared to be green from far away but some of the waves extending out from the lake were more green than blue. Once I got closer I realized that the water was definitely not blue but a murky green brown. It made me wonder if the lake only appeared to be blue because of a reflection on the sky. In the middle of the lake the sun made a glare which forced your eyes to squint when you looked at it. Watching the water with the waves crashing against each other creates a wave of calmness over you. The water is mesmerizing to watch and hard to take your eyes off, but it is possible to be distracted by the flicker of a tree leaf or a person walking on the path around the lake. After the commotion is over my eyes always reverted back to the lake. On certain parts of the lake there is a narrow beach with thick tan sand. The rest of the lake is protected with tall weeds; many of the
m are serving as a barrier for the trash which collects in them.At first Holmes Lake smelled like the great outdoors, trees and grass and some weeds, but every now and then you would get a gust of the potent smell of the lake. The lake doesn’t have such a great and refreshing smell, instead it smells more like algae or fish. You can hear the pats of people’s feet on the gravel path and kids screaming excitedly pleased with the activity they are doing. You can hear the dogs barking as they met each other on the path, or met other people that were unfamiliar to them. In my ears there was always a constant whistle of the wind.
It is strange that a recreation center that is bustling with people doing physical outdoor activities can be so unhealthy. There are people running around the lake or taking their dogs for walks, showing their kid
s how to fish and make sand castles, or observing the lake hoping the waters will make them calm and enjoying the outdoors. Yet the water is murky and was said to be condemned and you were not supposed to eat any fish that came from it or go swimming in it. It is next to the dog park and they share a stream. After they found many accounts of dead or mutated fish they had to dredge the lake, I remember it to be a very unpleasant smell. Vegetation grew wildly in the lake when it was empty and it looked like a lagre meadow or grassland. The vegetation still grows if the water gets low and many plants grow under water. The veg
etation was never affected by the contaminated water but there has seemed to be a decrease of wildlife in the area. I saw only a few squirrels but mostly I saw people’s dogs that were brought there either by car or walked there on a leash. The tall grass around the lake acts as a barrier for the outside world. People's trast gets collected in the weeds which prevents some of it from going into the lake like things from people picnicking or things that fly into the lake that people were using. The grasses can only block so much. There are parts of the lake that are more vulnerable like the beaches which have no protection from the outside world. It seems that there are things we cannot be protected from, the barriers that we create are not strong enough from the influences of the city. The influences of the city have a negative effect on the park and what it represents.
The park was full of people, some exercising, some fishing or making playing in the sand, some just observing the lake. There were two families fishing. One of the families was a father trying to teach his young sons how to fish, it was apparent that it had only been one of their first times going out because they were not very successful. Their casts were never very far and sometimes just plopped into the lake, but they were praised when one managed to go far. Their lines often got stuck in the lake on the plants growing on the bottom of the lake. There was a mother and her two young children fishing also. They went through the tall weeds to stand on the big white rocks and fish from a different side of the lake as the other family. Each family encountered the same problem with their poles getting snagged on a weed. They would pull their line out of the water only to find a large tangled mass of green weeds instead of the fish they had been hoping for. Each family was unsuccessful in catching a fish.
The park was full of people, some exercising, some fishing or making playing in the sand, some just observing the lake. There were two families fishing. One of the families was a father trying to teach his young sons how to fish, it was apparent that it had only been one of their first times going out because they were not very successful. Their casts were never very far and sometimes just plopped into the lake, but they were praised when one managed to go far. Their lines often got stuck in the lake on the plants growing on the bottom of the lake. There was a mother and her two young children fishing also. They went through the tall weeds to stand on the big white rocks and fish from a different side of the lake as the other family. Each family encountered the same problem with their poles getting snagged on a weed. They would pull their line out of the water only to find a large tangled mass of green weeds instead of the fish they had been hoping for. Each family was unsuccessful in catching a fish.
It is interesting that we refer to Holmes Lake as being a lake. The only thing that you can do on the lake is fish, and when you do fish you are discouraged to eat the fish. There are signs up around the lake that tells you what fish to keep and which to release. There are also signs that prohibit you from the use of sailboats, paddle boats, wind surfing, row boating, canoeing, and using an aquatic cycle. You are also discouraged to swim in the lake. My dad tells me that the lake used to serve a purpose before it became filthy. He said that he used to go swimming in it and you used to be able to use any of the types of boating that are now prohibited. The only thing that you can do on the lake now is go fishing or in the winter you can go ice skating on it if the lake is frozen solid enough. Now Holmes Lake is more of a recreation center with all the volleyball courts, baseball fields, jungle gyms, and picnic tables.
Holmes Lake has a lot of history in Lincoln. It shows you how things have evolved. You used to be able to go fishing and actually eat the fish that you caught. It used to have wildlife, but now because of its location by a busy street that has decreased. The lake has also become unhealthy for people because of car fumes and other pollutants. It used to be just a lake and was surrounded by grasslands, but now we are making better use of it by adding baseball fields, volleyball courts, and a fancy playground. Just like we are expanding Lincoln and extending the city limits Holmes Lake is also adding new things. It is also holding the values of “The Good Life,”
that we have in Nebraska by being a recreation center but also trying to keep up with the rest of the nation. Of course expanding comes with a price, and that is very evident with the new limitation because of the polluted lake. Like the waves on the lake mimicked the leaves on the trees Holmes Lake mimics the growth of Lincoln.
Holmes Lake has a lot of history in Lincoln. It shows you how things have evolved. You used to be able to go fishing and actually eat the fish that you caught. It used to have wildlife, but now because of its location by a busy street that has decreased. The lake has also become unhealthy for people because of car fumes and other pollutants. It used to be just a lake and was surrounded by grasslands, but now we are making better use of it by adding baseball fields, volleyball courts, and a fancy playground. Just like we are expanding Lincoln and extending the city limits Holmes Lake is also adding new things. It is also holding the values of “The Good Life,”
that we have in Nebraska by being a recreation center but also trying to keep up with the rest of the nation. Of course expanding comes with a price, and that is very evident with the new limitation because of the polluted lake. Like the waves on the lake mimicked the leaves on the trees Holmes Lake mimics the growth of Lincoln. 
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