3:00pm, Tuesday November 19th, 50 degrees

First off, I made the executive decision today to leave my phone in my room. I did this for a variety of reasons, but the main one was that I wanted to try something new, to see if leaving my phone in my room would help me connect with my sit spot surroundings more easily. While this did render me unable to take pictures, I found that in the end, this was the most mentally beneficial way I have been able to connect with my sit spot since the beginning of our sit spot observations in the start of the semester. I found that even when my phone was out of sight, knowing I could reach for it at any moment, even if it was off at the time, was distracting to me and something I would find myself thinking while I am trying to tune in. I found that without my phone at my reach, I was much more aware of the things that were going on around me. I found myself truly getting mentally immersed in my surroundings, the most I have this semester. I prepared this time, I brought a warm blanket, a fuzzy coat, and gloves. It was a little windy, and I get cold easily, so this was a smart decision. Without the cold to distract me, I also found myself even more focused. Although I was unable to take photos at this time, I have tried to include some of my drawings that I did based off of the photo prompts that were provided.

During my fifteen minutes of concentrated focus I was looking upwards at the trees, and spent my time doing that. I find we rarely take time to look up, just always down or straight, and I like the idea of taking a new perspective and approach to things. I spent about 30 minutes doing this, which is why I brought a blanket. I was lying down on the blanket, looking straight up through the branches of a barren oak tree that sat directly in front of me. This was very interesting, I felt like I had known everything about my sit spot, but I didn’t. Seeing this tree in this perspective allowed me to take perspective of an animal that would be looking up at the tree, I saw a collage of branches, and a handful of squirrels, as they jumped branch to branch. I wondered for a while how they were coping with the temperature changes and how they felt about winter. There were three squirrels, what appeared to be one male squirrel and two female squirrels, I could be wrong about this, but one was much larger than the other two. They reminded me of three small puppies, they looked like they were engaging in play behavior- jumping around like small children, faking the other two out while one bumps into the other. I tried to stay very very still so that they didn’t notice I was there. This naturalistic observation was beneficial into getting a very honest look into my tiny ecosystem. By concentrating on the squirrels, I do know I might have missed things that were going on directly underneath me and in front of me, however that was a sacrifice I am glad I made, because the new perspective offered new observations I hadn’t really taken before now.

Like usual, there isn’t much to update on my three objects, as they have truly taken the main effects of winter very hard. As the leaves began to change, there began to have less and less of a presence in my sit spot. My first object, my plant, is no longer, and disappeared at my last time at my sit spot. This is one of the reasons for the title of my blog this time, because it is merely just a small spot of where the title purple plant once was. It is sad to think that it was here in full bloom, two months ago, and is now just a picture of what once was. However, it makes me think of the life cycle of plants and trees, looking at this space. It is likely that though it is gone, it leaves space for it to bloom again, like us, when things maybe take a turn for the worse in our own personal lives. Though it may turn cold, and winter, the space where things once were in our lives leaves space for something new to grow in its place. My next object was the bugs, or the little insects that used to roam freely in my sit spot. Little ants can still be seen navigating the cold ground, but it is mostly barren now, as the cold and brittle grass lays mostly empty, waiting for its next inhabitants in the spring, when the ground warms again. Lastly, the birds were my third object. The birds can still be heard at a distance, the raven’s call soft, but still there. The songs are mostly quiet, but they are still there. This is something I am still studying for my independent project, which is interesting. I thought they calls would vanish completely, however many of the ravens have still persisted, despite the cold weather.

I really liked the auditory tuning in last time, I found it extremely interesting and I loved the new perspective of observation. The first five minutes were interesting, because I am so used to visually tuning in, and paying attention to the things that are moving, not really focusing on the auditory aspect. However, once I almost zoned-out and got into the headspace of, “oh, no, we’re listening with our eyes too,” it was much easier to focus. Once I closed my eyes, it made it a bit easier to tune out everything else. The visual cues were much more distracting than I had realized, as when I closed my eyes it was much easier to focus on every sound. We’re a visual species, so sight is a very dominating aspect of our lives, it’s easy for those things to take over our focus! I mainly concentrated on the squirrels, it was so cute and cool to hear their little feet scampering all over the trees. When they picked up their pace, you could hear their little squeaks as they began to play. I also listened to the birds, the ravens and another bird with a slower and deeper call pattern I could hear clearly in the neighboring trees. The raven call was brief and sharper in tone, the other bird was a more full sound. After a minute, the other bird took off while the raven remained- the soft flapping wings could be heard just above my head. The slightly breeze could be heard as it whistle through the tree leaves, a quiet concert. It was very peaceful, and I enjoyed the segment of auditory focus a lot!

Continuing with my vertical pattern, I decided to pick a small segment of the tree trunk for this small period of observation. I have been focused a lot previously on the leaves or the grass, so I thought I would continue with the change of focus space. The tree trunk had much more activity than I was expecting, as little ants briefly marched underneath and out of the bark pieces that were beginning to come up from the tree. I also noticed a tiny red bug that was following closely behind the ants, as it last minute diverted its path to upward to the top of the tree as some of the ants wove underneath of the bark. I noticed some decomposition on the bark of the tree- flakes of bark that were peeled off to reveal a moist looking wood texture. This tree also had little to no leaves left, so the leaf decomposition process was also obvious. I noticed a small ant holding onto a small food particle as it marched up the trunk. I always found it so interesting that they can hold such heavy amounts compared to their body mass!

It’s so strange to think that this routine time spent at my sit spot is coming to a close for the semester. During my last five/ ten minutes of reflection I was thinking of just how much I would miss this quiet period of the week in nature. I value this time very much, and am considering picking a new spot for the spring and coming to do quiet observation in my own time. It brings a new kind of focus and perspective that I have come to value very much, and could not imagine it not being a part of my week!

Time left: 4:44pm