Yellow Flower I am observing

Tree I am observing

 I have circled where I like to sit.

 

Pretty views from my sit-spot.

I apologize for my bad drawing skills. I could not find a cricket to photograph; however, I could hear them loud an clear each time I visited in an attempt to photograph them. 

I was sitting in the 3rd floor of the library working on my post and thought that the view was pretty.

My sit-spot is directly in the curve of a tree line. It is above the library here at Hollins. Coming from campus you pass the library, going towards east lot. Once you get to the road you go up the hill back towards the entrance to the school. In the middle of the hill, on the opposite side of the road the woods will open into a field. At this point you cross the road and follow the tree line to the curve. The curve is about 1000 ft off the roadway. Once you get off the roadway, the tree line follows a dip, therefore I sit at the bottom of the hill.  

During my quiet observation I noticed the decreased volume of the crickets, this was a bit strange to me because lately all I hear when I’m outside is crickets. I also noticed the changing and dropping of the leaves in the tree I sit under. Some of the leaves from the tree have dropped, while others have just begun to change to yellow and brown in color. This is a sign that colder temperatures and lower precipitation levels are coming soon (YAY for fall weather). The yellow flower that I am observing has lost some of its color, it is now duller.  

When I got up and walked around, I noticed that there was a thorny bush on the edge of the tree line. I don’t know exactly why I was drawn to the bush (it might have something to do with the fact that I accidentally sat on a thorny plant when I got to my spot), but I was drawn to it none the less. I noticed that the bush had one long stem that went into the ground, and then it branched off into several smaller sections where the leaves and thorns were located. This bush had taken over an area. It had killed some plants, including grass, that lay beneath the bush. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the lack of vegetation under the bush had I not been actively paying attention to it.  

I enjoyed walking around my sit-spot area. I am not good with sitting still, my brain doesn’t slow down enough to let me do this. On my previous visit about half an hour in I had to get up and move around because I was fidgeting so much. “Having” to do this for this blog was nice because I didn’t feel like I was “cheating” or doing it improperly. My brain is constantly aware of my surroundings and constantly wanting to go do something other than just sit. Sitting for an hour is not an easy task for me, and most of the time by the end of the hour I am so fidgety that I cannot focus on the task at hand. I also had to take a ten-minute break in the middle of my post because I saw a snake and spider within a few minutes and kind of freaked out and needed to take a break and come back.  

The world around us is full of adaptations, every individual has adaptations that are specific to them. While walking around my sit-spot and observing the bush I noticed that the flower that I have been observing doesn’t stand straight and tall. The stem of the flower sits about five feet into the tree line, whereas the flower itself is along the edge of the tree line. This is an adaptation to sunlight. If the plant were to stand straight it would not receive any sunlight during the spring and summer due to the trees above it. The trees cover the flower completely, therefore it would not receive sunlight to complete photosynthesis. I also noticed that the tree leaves were beginning to change color and some drop. This is an adaptation to the lower levels of precipitation that occur during the fall and winter. Deciduous trees cut off the water supply to the leaves, causing them to change color and eventually fall. This preserves water for the tree to support itself during the winter. I noticed that when I would take a step onto a leaf, a grasshopper would jump immediately and jump farther away from me, this made it hard to picture. This is an adaptation for them, they are very small and fall prey to many predators. Their tiny legs are strong and powerful allowing them to jump far distances and they have extremely sharp hearing allowing them to hear even the quietest of predators coming.