11/22/2019

4:30-5:15 pm

Important note: My glasses broke the morning that I went to visit my sit-spot, so most of my observations were auditory, but I took lots of pictures to visualize what was physically occurring.

The sun began to set a few minutes before I reached my sit-spot, but it was not one of the colorful sunsets that I have become used to seeing in beautiful Virginia. It was a few shades of gray and light blues. It’s very cloudy today and the sun is not peaking through the clouds at all. From what I could see, there was very little animal activity. I didn’t see any ripples from fish biting insects at the surface, or hear any rustling of the leaves. This was definitely the most calm I have seen my sit-spot in the several weeks that I have completed these assignments. Is this lack of activity due to the cold weather, the time of day, or both? I suspect that it is a little bit of both.

As usual, I did not see the wolf spider. I have not seen it since my second blog post. The tree I have been observing has had many changes since the first time I noticed it. It began as a vibrant green color. Its leaves eventually changed to a greenish-yellow shade, then finally yellow before falling to the ground. Now, it only has a few dark brown leaves, hanging by threads, left on its limbs. However, it continues to hang onto its little green ball sprouts. I expected all of its leaves and sprouts to have fallen and decomposed by now. Will it keep these sprouts for the winter or will they fall soon too? The algae has changed a lot more than I expected it to in the past eleven weeks. When I first began coming to my sit-spot, it was a dark green color and it was in large sections throughout the edges of the pond and one large section in the middle. As time passed, it slowly drifted to cover the majority of the pond and separated itself into several different sections. Portions of these sections eventually sunk to the floor of the pond, creating more separation of the algae. I assume that this is due to the algae absorbing water to the point that it becomes more dense than the water. Currently, the algae is located all over the pond. It is separated into a few large concentrations of algae and lots of tiny one inch or two inch samples all across the pond. I want to know what caused the separation of the algae over time.

 

It was a lot more difficult or me to tune in audibly with my eyes open. This is due to the fact that, without my glasses, my main goal is to get my eyes to focus enough that I can see what is happening. During this process, I seem to unknowingly limit the use of my other senses. The problem with this was that I did not see, or hear anything intriguing at all. However, during my time with my eyes closed, I heard what I typically do, water running into the drain, wind blowing, and two crows cawing back and forth, but that was only for a few seconds. The one thing that I could not seem to tone out was the sound of the cars rushing by on the highway. This usually does not bother me, but because of the lack of other things going on, I could not stop hearing these cars. After a few minutes, it really began to bother me because I didn’t know what to do to tone out the sound of tires on the pavement and car horns blaring in traffic.

The object that I chose to focus on was the tree that I have been observing. I have never looked at it in depth before, so I never even bothered with trying to identify it, because I was so focused on the many changes that were occurring. But, I changed that today! Based on the leaf shape and the little green ball sprouts, I believe this is a Sycamore Tree. This would be a logical observation because it is located next to, not just one body of water, but two. Before this observation time, I never noticed how thin the branches of the tree are. The next thing I noticed was a lack of insect activity in the bark. I believe that this is due to the cold weather. Finally, I noticed the leaves on the ground around the roots of the tree. All of them were dark brown and stiff. There was a loud “crunch” with each step I took closer to the trunk of the tree. I believe that the color and stiffness indicates that all of the leaves have been laying there for awhile because, at least with most trees, it seems to be that leaves sit on the ground for several hours or even days before turning this dark shade of brown.

I have really grown to love my sit-spot more and more with each visit. I believe that part of the reason why I became so annoyed by the sound of the cars on the highway was because I have come to feel at peace in this space, and the cars were disturbing my time of peace. The lack of activity today was surprising, but it was almost as if everything around me was at peace, even though I didn’t feel very at peace today.