Chloe Sit Spot 5: Hello Darkness My Old Friend

I arrived at my sit spot in the dead of night. It was 9:03 and I stayed until 9:57pm…so it wasn’t the dead of night but it was so dark and cold it could have been. I have never been to my sit spot at night before because it doesn’t fit as easily into my schedule as it does during the day. I chose to go during the nighttime because I am not a morning person and can’t bring myself to be awake before the sun rises. Further, I’m busy and have rehearsals when the sun sets, so I couldn’t come at dusk. I normally only do my sit spots in the early afternoon when I have a break from class, so it was nice to go out into the brisk cold.
To be perfectly honest, this was a very different experience than I expected to have. It was cold outside-40 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact (I am from California so 40 degrees is super cold for me), which I expected. Since my last session, the only thing that really changed was the lack of animal and insect populations and the weather itself. I expected to see some weird bugs and maybe some deer and bats during this session, but I saw no animals. I tried to attract insects and moths to my flashlight, but to no avail. I even tried going to the lampposts and tried to see if I could find any bugs there, but I didn’t see anything. Usually bugs will begin to crawl on me as I sit and I get to sketch them, but tonight I saw no insects. I went to the water to see if I could spot any fish, but I couldn’t. I did get to see the water droplets move super quickly thanks to the lamppost light. However, I couldn’t see any stars. The sky looked like a light grey, due to the light pollution, and it shifted to a pitch black. I didn’t see the moon either.
It was super foggy outside when I arrived, and it remained foggy for the duration of my observations. The dense fog made the air moist and the ground and leaf litter around me very damp. I noticed that as I walked to my sit spot no leaves crunched under my weight, unlike my last sit spot where everything was crisp. I couldn’t find either of the pinecones I’ve been observing, which I think is due to human interference with my sit spot. Furthermore, there was no breeze coming from the northwest like there was in my last session. The moss in the pond itself also seemed to be more concentrated around the eastern shore of the pond; I couldn’t see all the way across the pond but I could see the water reflecting where there wasn’t moss near me, so I made an educated guess. Additionally, the ground I sat on was damp and squishy-no pine needles poked me and the leaves didn’t make a crackling noise when I sat onto them. Regarding animals observed, I only observed some insects and heard some birds at my last sit spot, but I observed nothing tonight-no sights or sounds as far as I’m aware. I could only hear cars and water droplets falling from the pine tree canopy above me onto my hood.
I’ve never been to my sit spot during the night and I can honestly say that I felt like I was in a murder/horror movie. It was at night, dark, foggy, and I was walking alone by the side of the road. I realize this was just my imagination running rampant, but I did not feel as comfortable in the night as I do during the day. I feel like if I had an animal to sketch or to study then my brain would have been more occupied. I would do it again, but maybe closer to 11 to see if I can spot some deer and some spiders. I really wish I could have seen some animals-I kept looking up to see if there were any bats flying around and I tried to listen for them, but I did not see or hear them.
In all, this session has a lot less going on than last session. I saw insects last time, which I did not see this time around. However, there was more going on with the weather during this sit spot session than the last-I kept getting sidetracked watching the water float around in the lamppost rays. I never realized how quickly water moves in order to create a constant fog. I did feel more comfortable last session and I got colder last time. There was no breeze tonight, so I did not get cold as fast. My hands were definitely numb, and you can tell from my handwriting in my journal. Since I couldn’t really see much during this session, I relied much more on my hearing and touch to get me through. I liked just listening and having a soft focus with my eyes, but it wasn’t as informative or insightful ad I hoped it would be. The fact that I came at night after sunset has a direct correlation with the lack of animals I saw and the lack of a breeze there was. The colder air and moisture must have altered the wind patterns slightly for it to not be present at all. Further, I believe that my coming to my spot at night made it harder to spot and interact with the insects and fish present at my past sit spot, for they were all most likely asleep (fish) or busy looking for food (spiders).