Oh buddy was I scared. I have always been terrified of the dark and its because of all the Lifetime movies. Once I got settled into the new surrounding the random sounds I was hearing started to fade, the people that I thought were watching me, weren’t there and I started to feel safe. Once I felt safe enough I tuned into what was around me, I could feel the slight breeze hitting my bare arms. I could smell the rain that’s been on and off all day long. I could hear the squirrels scurrying along the ground and the branches. I could hear the VERY loud crickets that I am so so tired of hearing. The tree that I decided to tune in on, to the west side of my back yard, was nothing special just something new to dwell on. It branches were almost as empty as my vocal tree, but the ground beneath the tree was just as covered by wet wet leaves. Tuning into the tree and my sit spot I don’t think I missed much because of the fact that I have always been scared of someone grabbing me in the dark so I am very observant in cases like this one.

My vocal tree is just about empty! It has barely any leaves on it and even the trunk is starting to dry and become oldish.

My walnut is very black now but some green is still holding strong.

My leafy area is the same, I don’t think that much will really change.

Knowing the names of the species in my backyard hasn’t changed much for me. It has given me the ability to be able to search my questions and get answers instead of just doing a very broad search and getting so many different answers. I still don’t refer to the species I identified as their species names because I am still very skeptical so looking at them now knowing the name doesn’t make me look at them differently from how I see them now. They are the very same as the beginning.

The spot that I chose to focus on was right next to my seat and it was maybe a centimeter long and an inch wide. It was like a blank canvas that was waiting to be filled. There were tiny mud bumps that I think are just always there now. There were these tiny puddles to the east side of the area that were just flowing around like little streams. The ground in that area (and truly probably the entire backyard) was soaking wet and mushy. At the beginning there weren’t any insects or bugs of any sorts so I was surprised because I would think that this would have been a hot time for animals to get their business done without being bothered by human traffic. Towards the very end of this tuning in, there happened to be a family of ants that showed themselves but soon ran along when I shined my flash light on them.

 

8:02 pm