October 27, 9:35 am Temperature around 56 degrees

As I woke up this morning and checked the temperature, I was expecting it to be a little chilly. To my surprise, it was quite warm when I reached my sit spot. The chair I always sit on as I do my observation was wet and had leaves all over it. It must be the dew- how cool is it that we can see all these signs that it is getting colder! This time, I decided that I want to walk around my sit spot while tuning in and it was a good experience. As usual, I heard the birds chirping and the insects making noises. There was one bird which was sounding like a fire alarm, I thought that was really funny! I noticed that the other end of the Beale garden looked quite different from the end where my sit spot is. It looks a lot cleaner and fresher and even greener than my sit spot space. I guess it is true that grass is always greener on the other side! I was having a bit of a difficult time tuning in this morning because I did not sleep well last night. Also, there was a loud noise coming from somewhere which made me think that I should change the time I go to my sit spot.

American sweetgum leaf

I finally found out using inaturalist that one of the trees that is my focus object is called American sweetgum. The leaves are falling off a lot, looks like they will all be gone in two weeks. My shrubs had already lost flowers last week, and this week the plant itself is turning yellow. There was one that had completely dried off. The Beale Creek is looking less devastated than last time, but everything else looks the same. It sometimes gets hard for me to keep track of the creek because it is flowing. I might have to come up with a better way of looking at the creek. Observation only feels like it can be misleading at times.

Shrubs (focal object)

Dog wood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The species that I had identified around my sit spot were dog wood, yellow wood and fishing spider. Unfortunately, I did not get a glimpse of a fishing spider this time. All of the leaves of the dogwood tree have turned red, but they have not fallen off yet. The yellowwood is starting to get rid of the leaves now, it definitely has a lot less leaves than the last time. It feels good to know the name of these species, It makes me feel more aware of my surroundings. It is always nice to have the name because I can go look up whatever I want to know about it anytime.

I was having a hard time looking at the under story, because it is all grass around my sit spot. However, I did make a few observations that felt interesting to me. First thing that I noticed was that there were a lot of clovers around the areas with trees. I wonder if that means anything. There were two stretch berry plants in the Beale Garden and under those trees I found lots of clovers and ground ivy. I tried to focus on a single transect, but I could not get anything from that. I only saw clovers and grass. There was nothing in the transect that looked like it could become a tree or a shrub in the future. This was a little disappointing given the fact that there are a decent amount of shrubs and trees in the Beale garden. This observation was helping me tune in to my space better because I was very eager to find something. I was paying a lot of attention to my surroundings and observing whatever I could see in great detail to find something.

Ground Ivy

Clover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first got to my sit spot this morning, I was a little disturbed. But as I walked around and observed things, I felt a lot better. The 5 minute quiet time gave me a chance to clear my thoughts and relax for some time. I am happy that having to do the sit spot observation does not feel like a burden but something I look forward to every week. This activity and this class as a whole has given me a new perspective of looking at things. These days, I often find myself thinking about the different stories in the small ecosystem around me!

Left at 10:25 am.