Lichen

Water levels

Blue lobelia

This was the first time in the entire duration of the sitspot project I have embarked from my room without my trusty crocs. Alas, it was far too cold to step into the creek in the equivalent of bare feet, even though the water almost immediately soaked the lower half of my pants and seeped into my rainboots anyway. It also happened to be the first time in the entire duration of this project that I went while it was dark, which was an interesting experience. I chose to do it then because the last time I went, it was day, and I thought it would be an interesting contrast to go at night.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived, was the lack of crickets. Usually, in past sessions, they would produce a constant cacophony of chirping. That was not the case today, as I think it’s become too cold for them now. There was also no birdsong; the place was rather eerily silent, save for the rustling of the wind through the trees. In fact, the only animals I did see were fish which were rather hard to discern in the dark, murky water. They always darted away when I got too close, but I managed to notice two things: they were brown, and there were two different sizes, which makes me believe there were two species. Unless, of course, the sexual dimorphism of their species causes one sex to be three times as large as the other. The big species of fish tended to be more solitary than the smaller type, which schooled. I don’t believe me seeing these organisms was a result of the time of day, as I’ve seen fish during all of my visits. Other than that, there were no other organisms I noticed, which was disappointing.

The sky was dark (obviously), it was slightly cloudy, and the moon was a waning gibbous. There were faint speckles of stars in the sky. One of the hardest parts of going to my sit spot in the dark was the fact that I could not tell with great clarity where exactly I was stepping, so I stumbled a lot more than usual. For this reason, I would not do it again; I’d rather not trip and fall into icy water, thanks.