For my second sit spot time, I really wanted to focus on something I had a difficult time with on my last visit; concentrating and really taking time to adjust to the quiet of observation. This time, I spent a little more time at my sit spot, in order to really find focus and put my mind in a headspace where I was truly refocusing my energy into a calm headspace. This is something I again found extremely difficult the last time, so I allowed myself more time for getting into my sit spot. I found this to be extremely beneficial. I found this time, taking that additional period of refocusing allowed me to be more in tune to my environment and I quickly got into a space where I could focus on smaller details without getting distracted. For example, this time, I could concentrate on smaller sections of my sit spot, like the fall leaves on the oak tree directly in front of me. Instead of focusing on big picture/ larger elements of my environment, I found it easier to zone in on a section and stay there for longer than I had previously. This allowed me to feel more in tune with everything, like there was less I wasn’t noticing. I saw a small beetle make his travels from the limb of the tree, onto a leaf to the left of me, and I followed him make his way to multiple leaves before settling into a restful pause onto a leaf closer to the ground.

My sit spot is located to the right of the tennis courts, southwest of the Hollins apartments, and a little ways behind Tinker. While I forgot to include the cardinal directions in the sketch, that is my best description of what it was from my perspective. I chose to face the trees directly head on, instead of at an angle (as depicted, the picture to the left of this is my perspective from me to my sit spot), because by doing so I felt more immersed in the environment. I know that mentally I can become easily distracted, so I wanted to eliminate anything that wasn’t a part of the natural environment (like structures in the distance). My sit spot is a small forest with a small clearing to the left of the trees and plants, with a few more trees to the right of the clearing.

the beginning of autumn leaves at my sit spot!

I found there to be some drastic changes already in terms of the plant and leaf color as fall gets into full swing, as compared to my time in my sit spot last week. As depicted, the leaves on the trees directly north of me, were beginning to have a yellow hue on a few of their leaves, with some leaves already turning fully orange. Last week at my sit spot, I found that there were a few leaves that were beginning to appear yellow, with some brown spots, but this visit, I found many of the leaves on the tree were going through some major changes. I’m interested in seeing what happens over the course of the weeks in terms of the autumn colors. In addition to this tree, I wanted to revisit the purple plant that I focused on at some points in my last sit spot notes. This time around, the plant was in full wilt. There were no longer any blossom flower left on the plant, no more remnants of purple, simply just the corpse of the flower (as seen in the picture below). I found this to be a little sad, but also very interesting to see how just one week could change the vegetation. The changes that the natural environment go through can happen so rapidly, and that was something I found to be extremely interesting to me.

Another change I saw was in terms of the grass. There was a lot less green color in the grass, and as depicted in the picture to the left, a majority of the grass has begun to brown. The ground was also more hard, and I noticed less activity in the grass, and saw more activity on the branches and the trunk of the tress. For example, I saw a lot more ants on the tree limbs and leaves than I did in the grass. (My legs were thankful for this!). It’s hard to say how much change has occurred accurately since the last time in my sit spot, because early in the day before I sat in my spot, it rained. The ground was still slightly moist, but I did notice that it seemed tougher in texture than the previous week. I definitely there will be many effects from the seasonal temperature change on the ground. It was warm this day, but even after a week, I have begun to notice a difference.

There was a lot of animal action today! I was pleasantly surprised with this. I love animals, and seeing them at any point in my day has always been something that has known to bring a smile to my face. During my period of quiet observation, I noticed the funniest pair of squirrels, that began making quite a fuss in the grass to the west of my sit spot. I watched them for a while, they must have been young squirrels, because what they were doing looked like they were play fighting. One squirrel would hide in taller areas of the grass, while the other would chase after him. When they caught up to each other, one would launch themselves at the other, like they were playing. It was really silly, and I had to resist all the urge to take a video and record it. I couldn’t help by laugh watching them, it reminded of two small puppies engaging in play. After a while, when they calmed down, they raced to the top of a tree to the west of my sit spot, and climbed to the top. They were quiet for a while, and I went about my observation. However, not long after my attention shifted to a nearby pair of black fuzzy caterpillars, I began to hear them again, and watched one squirrel jump from the top of a tree to another. Going back to the caterpillars, it appeared to be a parent/ child. There was an extremely large caterpillar and a very, very tiny fuzzy black caterpillar. My intuition when seeing a caterpillar/ multiple caterpillars, has always been to move them somewhere safe and out of the way of any possible animal or human traffic. However, I did not want to be a Harriet, and I let them be. And I’m glad that I did, because where I would have moved them, was the opposite direction they were going. They crawled slowly, closer to the road, but diverted at the last minute towards a tree to the farther southeast direction of my sit spot. I also heard many birds again, specifically two. I heard a raven call at the top of the tree directly in front of me, and it took me adjusting to my sit spot to even be able to hear the bird, which was interesting. There seemed to be just one, calling loudly to maybe others in the nearby area. I wondered if the bird was calling to locate other ravens, or if there was another purpose of the communication pattern. I also got to see a turkey vulture fly overhead at the beginning of my observational period. I knew it was a turkey vulture because of the v-shaped flying pattern. It was so cool to be able to identify the bird, and I felt very accomplished! The last animals I focused on were bugs, specifically many of the beetles I saw traveling on the tree in front of me, in and out of a hole in the trunk. I counted seven beetles, and I hadn’t noticed them the last time I was there. It got me thinking about insects and which ones fair better in different locations during colder temperatures. I want to mainly focus on these insects, as well as the birds going forward in my time at my sit spot.

As I mentioned in my sit spot notes, there weren’t a lot of non-animal sounds besides cars, and the wind rustling the branches of the trees in front of me. However, (this ties into the sky question), I was perplexed by the beautiful sunlight feeding through the branches of the trees. As depicted, the sun was a warm beam shining through perfectly onto where I was sitting for the entire 

duration that I spent at my sit spot. I was like, a friend, hanging out with me and keeping me company during my sit spot time. It made me want to stay longer, because it was at the perfect angle that it made the spot warm and beautifully lit. The sky was mostly blue, with partly cloudy skies in the northeast direction. These were not storm clouds, more like Cirus clouds speckled throughout the sky. I love the idea of paying some time and attention to the sun and how it affects the way my sit spot feels and looks through my time in the class spent in my sit spot.

In terms of smell, the earlier rain caused the air to be heavy with moisture as well as very fresh smelling. It smelled like it had just rained, which is one of my favorite natural smells that you can find outside. It was clear and clean, and almost dewy smelling. It wasn’t particularly humid, but it did feel like the air contained some small amount of moisture. This was another element that made me want to stay in my sit spot longer, the smell was very calming and felt a little like aromatherapy. It helped me concentrate and allowed me to more easily find a sense of calm in the environment.

One thing I want to continue to follow would be the insects, I really want to see which insects are resilient to the changing weather, and which ones appear when it is colder, and which ones will go away and not be seen when it is cold. I’ve never really thought about the seasonal aspect of insect life and it’s something I’m interested in exploring. Another thing I would like to follow is the different birds that I’ve noticed. After some research after my time in my sit spot, I have discovered one of the birds is a raven. However, there are others that I have heard (not this time) and want to learn to identify. I’m hoping to get a visual on these birds, because besides the raven and turkey vulture, I have not gotten a visual on any of the other birds, just auditory cues. Lastly, I want to keep following my purple plant and the leaves on the different trees. I believe there is also a sycamore tree with changing leaves near my sit spot that I identified with changing leaves. I want to see what is left for my purple plant, will it die off completely, will it change any colors? The decay of the plant has been rapid and very interesting to me, and something I want to keep observing. The leaves as well as the plant I will follow are depicted above, however I was not able to capture a picture of the raven or the bugs as I only had selective visibility of them.

My sit spot has become a place I truly enjoy time decompressing, and this was not something I was personally expecting. I actually went back to my sit spot Friday evening for quiet time, which I found helped me to decompress after a stressful day. I like the idea that I have a place that is just mine, and mine alone. It feels like my place away from the chaos of being a college student. I have never had a place like that at Hollins, so having one now, has done a lot of wonders for my concentration. After visiting for fun on Friday, I felt more in tune mentally and ready to keep working on my theses. I think it will also be beneficial for my mental health to have a place like that, to find time to find peace and get back in touch with myself- to avoid getting overwhelmed.

This time in my sit spot, I found it much easier to get into tune with my environment. Instead of just staying for the required length of time, I stopped worrying about time constraint. Time dictates my life, as I live hour by hour, minute by minute, of “oh, it’s 5:30? Okay, from 5:30-6:30 I’m allowed to work on this assignment. From 6:30-7pm I’ll eat dinner”. As someone that is very Type A personality, it can be hard for me to not live that way. But this time in my sit spot, I concentrated more on finding and refocusing myself, becoming spatially aware of the environment. I decided to just take the time that I needed, even if it was more, to find my place there. By doing so, I feel like I genuinely got more out of the experience than I did the first time that I visit my sit spot. I hope going forward to continue improving my focus and concentration, and even possibly spending more time getting into the mindset of being in the spot. I’d like to explore that more, and not just during my journal time, visiting more frequently for personal purposes.

This picture here is basically identical to the picture I took the week prior, I think it shows the visual changes that have been occurring with the leaves as well as the grass, even though it has only been a week.

I spent around 83-85 minutes in my sit spot this past Sunday.