The northwest view from my sit spot.

My sit spot is located on top of the hill, just outside the barn. It overlooks some of the paddocks where the horses spend time in. I picked this spot because it overlooks the large mountains just over the highway and I just thought it looked really beautiful there. Looking in the North West direction, I was able to look at the east mountains, surrounding the hill that the Hollins University Riding center is atop. I picked a spot under some trees so it was shaded, and so I could get a look at what was going on on the bark of the tree, and watch the leaves’ eventual change as the seasons turn from summer to fall, then from fall to winter.

As you can see from the picture of the view from my sit spot, the mountains are very prominent, starting just across the highway from where the pastures end. The incoming clouds were dark and grey, showing signs of an inevitable rainfall that was coming. the clouds moved over slowly, as shown in the picture, the shadow cast over the ground is from those dark, grey, storm clouds that were approaching from the south. There was a nice cool breeze, I am uncertain if it was because of the incoming storm, or because of the hill I was sitting on but either way, it was nice. The air smelled like rain, it was humid and warm, like the smell you get before a summer storm.

The tree that I was sitting underneath. Notice the white splotches on the bark of the tree.

Sitting there under the tree, you could hear the highway just down the bottom of the hill. The trees around my spot moved and rustled with the wind and some stronger gusts brought some leaves down with them. The grass around had been freshly mowed, so the dirt underneath some parts were left exposed. I could see the cracks in the dried up sediments in the dirt where little ants would crawl in and out, carrying things back to their nest underneath the ground. The tree behind me had white splotches all over the bark, the grass around the roots fading slightly, giving way to the dirt underneath the big tree.

There was a horse off to my right, who was turned out, eating some grass. He was a dark brown with black mane and tail (bay), he had a crescent moon shaped white patch on his forehead, with two white socks on his back legs. He used his long tail to swat away all of the flies that were landing on his face and back. When he tired of eating the same patch of grass, he went to find some friends to play with. Sadly, there were no other horses out in the same paddock with him so he had to resort to trying to befriend horses from an adjacent paddock. When he tried to call to them, he received no response, and resorted to standing as close to them as he could manage. It must be hard for him to be away from other horses, and horses are herd animals and he probably would feel a lot safer in a group with at least another horse to keep him company.

This is my drawing of my sit spot. It doesn’t quite capture the majesties of the mountains, but I tried to capture the change in elevations of the hills.

As I was observing the sky and the horse, I saw a large hawk fly over my head and land in a nearby tree. He was a dark brown with white tips on the underside of his wings. Size based, he probably would have been as big as my torso. So he was quite a big bird. I assume he or she was going back to their nest because of the incoming storm, in order to seek shelter.

The horse I observed. He has 2 white socks and a white halfmoon marking on his forehead.