Date-11/03/2019
Time- 3:18 to 4:25
Temperature- 51 F
The sun has shone brightly, and the sky was clear blue. There was no any evidence of white cloud in sky. When sunlight touched the body, it felt so warm, but the wind acted exactly opposite. The air was cold enough to make the skin numb. I reached my sit spot; the place was all covered by yellow and brown dry leaves. The tree below which my sit spot is, hasn’t shed its leaves and still has some green leaves left. I looked behind my sit spot to see a stream running with clear water. The water looked clean enough to drink (though we must filter it). Some of the trees around me has been naked now but most of them still has their leaves. However, the environment looked little gloomy, may be because of the cold.
In my first fifteen minutes of sit-spot, I saw many changes in the environment. The trees looked depressed with their leaves dying. The pea tree at 75̊ east, which has yellow and green leaves, had the fruits which were dead. The dead pea cover of the fruit, dark brown in color, was still hanging on the branches. I tried to listen birds and insects, but I couldn’t. I tried harder, I even leaned towards the bushes, but I didn’t hear any insects today. I heard one bird, it was singing “chip..chirp..chirp.” I saw the wind flowing through the leaves in the trees making noises. However, there was no falling of any leaves although it is a fall season.
The sycamore trees above me still had abundant amount of fruit and its leaves were only 20% yellow, other leaves were still green. The red berries plant side of me has lost all its berries now, I could see group of 3-4 berries in some place. I don’t think there will be any berry left in my upcoming sit spot. However, the blue berry plant 170̊ South of Red berries still has abundant number of berries on it. Then, I moved towards the stream side of my sit spot. In my first sit spot, the stream had all purple flowers on its bank. However, the sides of stream were only covered by the grasses. The good thing was those grasses seems to be the healthiest plant around my sit-spot. May be because it was species nearest to stream.
I watched the stream from the bridge near me. I found a difference in stream when looking from the different side of the bridge. One side of the stream was green and other wasn’t. When I looked deep into the stream, I saw that on one side of stream, rocks were covered by algae and on others they weren’t. The part of stream with algae didn’t receive the sunlight as much as the other part did, so may be that’s why there is difference in the algae presence on the same stream.
The hour today felt gloomy and sad today. When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t hear any buzzing of insects or the singing of birds. I hardly listened one bird and one insect. I could hear the machines and airplanes which irritated me. I also heard something rustling over the leaves.
That was most probably squirrel. I felt like it was coming near to me. When I opened my eyes, there was nothing. I was just with the tall trees standing around me. I didn’t even see any machines or airplanes nearby. I am grateful to be part of this natural ecosystem but the sounds of machines there didn’t make me happy.
Your perception of the environmental changes in your spot seems really astute in this blog. I like the detail about the differences in color of the stream- something that is not evident without paying close attention to underneath the water. Although I’d expect that the shaded side would have less algal growth than the sun side- clearly I don’t know how algae works.
It’s interesting how people are beginning to note that their spots look gloomy, as you said- I think your spot seems to teem with color, look at those berries! Where we lose color we gain sunlight, I think, or at least the ground is less shaded because of the loss of tree leaf cover.
K
My comment will not be nearly as eloquent as Kate’s, but I will do my best. I wonder how long it will take for the remaining berries to fall from the tree. I completely agree with you about the planes and machines being irritating to listen to! When they pass by, it is hard for me to not follow the track of their sound to see which direction they are headed, but when I tune back into my sit-spot, I always feel like I have missed something important in the time which I was distracted by the plane or car. It is interesting to me that the stream has algae because I assumed that algae was only present in stagnant bodies of water or on things that don’t move, such as rocks in the stream. I had the same experience with feeling like everything was dying. It is very sad to know that, as beautiful as fall is, it is a sign of the coming death of most things in the environment. As organisms begin to die and hibernate, it becomes more and more depressing when we walk outside. Even though I know that the beautiful colors of spring will be here in a few months, it seems like an eternity before the rebirth occurs. At least we have beautiful snow to look forward to this winter!
Nice details and focus Muna – it is interesting how the quieter space and dying leaves bring sadness….