I noticed that one of the large bushes on the bank of the pond had almost no leaves. This was interesting to me since I am relatively sure that it had leaves last time I was there a week ago. I did not see any leaves on the ground below it, which leads me to think this was not a recent occurrence (though there were a fair amount of clumps of tall grass around the base of the bush). What few leaves remained were shriveled and brown, barely clinging to their branches. I wish I knew when the leaves had dropped in order to figure out the timeframe — was it all done quickly, in a matter of days? Or did it take place slowly enough for me not to notice until the very end when almost no leaves remained?

When listening for sounds, I tended to focus on any birdcalls I could hear. Those were the most interesting sounds to me, with their variation. I heard plenty of pedestrian traffic with the almost constant passing of cars heading toward the distant parking lot. There was the occasional burst of speech that accompanied people walking along the road. A dog being walked let out a bark at one point. But closer to me, I tried to focus on any sounds from the pond.

On the grounds of my high school, there was a pond off of central campus. It flowered during the spring and was full of dead plants by winter. It had few trees near and was surrounded by tall grass and in the spring, daisies. But in the middle of the pond, there was a fountain that shot water up into the air and as a result, there was the constant sound of falling water. I can still hear it when calling the pond to mind. But the pond on Hollins campus is silent — there is no fountain, no running water, not even the sound of fish jumping out. To me, this was a stark difference and something I thought about while listening to my surroundings.

The app had some interesting suggestions for what species my photos may contain. I took pictures of plant, but apparently they were not good enough for the app. For one photo, the first suggestion was a pine tree, but even with my limited knowledge of plants I can say the tiny tree with round leaves is not a pine tree. Its other suggestions for this tree were those of deer, groundhogs, foxes, and hares. I’m notsure where any of these suggestions came from in a picture that clearly does not contain any animals and only a tree. The suggestions for the other plants were not quite as varied, but still offered little in terms of certainty. The suggestions were rock elms and swamp chestnut oaks. Either seems to work for the large tree, but i’m not sure if it either.

It was a rather uneventful trip, but a peaceful one. I wish I had been able to spot a few animals or more birds, but there seems to be a lack of squirrels in this particular area. Maybe one day I’ll see fish in the pond instead of only algae. I liked being reminded of home through the sounds (or lack of) the pond. The pond itself and many of the plants surrounding it are seemingly impervious to the colder weather with their defiant green leaves, while plants farther from the pond seem to be facing the reality of fall more with brown leaves.