10/12 6:05pm

When I first started getting adjusted to my 15 minutes of quiet observation, I felt like I wasn’t seeing or hearing a lot. The wind swept around me in pitches, the cold ran down my legs and into my sweater. Because of this, it felt more difficult to focus and concentrate on the environment. As time progresses, and the next visit to my sit spot approaches, I will definitely make sure to dress warmly! I took around 30 minutes of quiet observation this time, as I have stated prior, taking a longer time of quiet observation allows me to get into a more observant headspace- and I definitely need that today. I could hear the quiet, sparse calls of ravens above my head. I began to hear a few scampering squirrels running allow the branches above my head- but couldn’t get a good look at them. It was later in the day than I usually come to my sit spot, but due to other events occurring in my personal life- it felt like it was the perfect time to escape! The brown grass in front of me was blowing in the wind, and I’ve noticed the brown patches are swarming the greener patches. My attention was pulled immediately to the ground because of this, and I was curious to see how over the semester the grass would progress. I also started to wonder why the grass didn’t decompose all at once- why some patches of grass appear to be more resilient than others. If it wasn’t a localized reason- wouldn’t all grass have speckled bits of brown as opposed to larger patches? There was also a lot of human noise on campus, because tonight is the night of the fall formal. Many out of town guests are arriving, and I felt like that pulled the focus away from what I was trying to listen for.

The first thing I began to notice about my objects were the insects, or should I say, lack thereof. My spot had a sparse amount of life this evening, and I wasn’t sure if that was the dramatic change in weather from last week to this week or because of the time of day it was. Regardless, I found a few stray ants charging through the browning grass, but they were two small and too few to get a good picture of. I think I will not come later in the evening from now on, and just stay earlier in the day for my time at my sit spot for this reason. There’s a chance it could be seasonal, as it was significantly warmer when I came to my sit spot last week. This will be confirmed or denied at the next visit to my sit spot. The next thing I followed were the birds, the ravens to be exact. This was another disappointing element to my sit spot stay of the evening- the calls were also few and sparse. They were soft, and distant sounding, like the few that remained of the evening were not residing in my sit spot trees. The ravens have become dear friends and good company in my sit spot, so to not hear them, saddened me a lot! My grandmother is an avid bird watcher, and always calls to tell me of the birds she sees outside on her front porch. The birds that keep me company weekly here remind me of her, to not hear them made the spot feel much lonelier. This was an interesting observation though, as my class research project is centered around whether the frequency of the bird calls are affected by the weather. This evening’s visit definitely made me lean towards a certain hypothesis, but further observation and research will confirm if that is correct, or merely a consequence of extraneous variables. The last object was my sad, purple

plant that was my first real observation during my first visit to my sit spot. As time has gone on, it feels like saying goodbye to a friend- I know it will come back, but seeing it leave is very sad!  I’m not sure if you can tell from the picture below, but there is very little left of my sweet, once purple plant. It’s dark, wilted shell hangs sad and loose among-st the grass and other dying flowers. I do believe that by my next visit, the once purple flower will be indistinguishable from the rest of the brown and decomposing grass.

 

 

To take a moment to change gears and think about the role of water in my environment was interesting. It wasn’t something that had directly come to my mind as there are no direct or obvious water sources in eye sight of my spot. This question made me stop and think about the unseen aspects of my spot, the invisible processes that I hadn’t really considered before. Water (or lack there of) could be the reason for the brown patches underneath of the trees that sit right in front of me. As the small amount of rain we get is taken into account, the rain that does fall to hydrate the roots, and other parts of the environment, would be caught by the branches of the trees (most of it, at least), and that water would not reach the ground. This also made me go back and think of my spotted brown grass; are some areas of the grass simply having more access to water than other parts? I wondered if the wilting points of the grasses and plants nearby were affected drastically by the recent lack of water there has been, and how the water contents of the soil had been therefore affected.

The invertebrates I found were the few ants I had mentioned briefly early as well as a small worm. This worm I noticed when I first began my 30 minutes of quiet observation. It wiggled and woggled, all the way through the dead grass, past my shoes, and into the trees in front of me. I wondered if worms enjoyed the privacy underneath of the trees as opposed to the grass, I also wondered if that answer changed depending on the season. You’ll be happy to know that I resisted the urge to pick up the worm and move it to the environment I perceived that it was trying to get to. I remember the Harriet story, and resisted. In my mind, before the class, I would have probably moved it “out of harm’s way” or “to safety”, when in reality, doing that might have actually made the little worm less safe than it had been right then. Instead of meddling, I merely watched it woggle away, wondering where it was trying to go to next. Did worms prefer the sun? Are the frequency of their travels also affected by season? The ants were not of much excitement. I counted four scurrying past the base of my left shoe, in the northeast direction away from my sit spot. I’m hopeful this was just an off day, and not the winter taking away all of my company! I wasn’t able to grab any pictures of the brief encounters, as I was worried bringing out my phone would break my focus (which it tends to do), so pictures I typically have saved for the last bit of time in my stay at my sit spot. This has been effective in allowing me to resist the urge to check my phone and respond to messages, and to just be present in the moment. This meant I missed the animal/ invertebrate pictures, however it also meant I was more focused on them and immersed in the environment for when they did arrive. And I wouldn’t have done it any differently!

In conclusion, I enjoyed my sit spot time for this evening. It was much colder than I am used to, and I decided I will probably not be returning at this hour anymore. I understand that soon the weather temperature will be cold no matter what time of the day it is, but I’m willing to hold onto every last memory of summer while I can. Because it was the night of the dance, and dances can get fairly overwhelming for me, I planned to come this evening so that I had a moment ( a long moment ) to decompress and find a good mental space before going around that substantial amount of people. This also meant that when arriving to my sit spot, there was so much more things on my mind than usual. The rest of the night would be very hectic and busy, and the rest of the weekend would also be lived hour-by-hour due to the amount of things that needed to be done before Monday.

At times, my focus dwindled quite a bit, however, what really pulled me back into my spot was the sun beginning to set in the distance. The beautiful warm toned sky melted into the mountains in the distance. It made me even more so want to present in that moment. It felt like a moment that brought calm and quiet to my time at my sit spot. I can see the sunset beautifully from my sit spot, as well as what the sun looks like as it bleeds through the trees and pools between the leaves. It’s one of my favorite elements of my sit spot, and has garnered a lot of my focus because of it. The sun is something that is always there (except, obviously at night), and something I never really have concentrated on, except for ever since that I have spent time in my sit spot. As you can see from the picture above, the canopy of leaves above me is a perfect skylight. It is the first thing that draws my attention and the last thing that I want to leave when I have to move on other things following the completion of  my time at my sit spot. I have truly found that over the weeks, I have found comfort in turning off my phone and my mind (from external stressors) and tuning in to the world around my sit spot. The only thing that made it slightly more difficult this time was the increased amount of noise due to it being the night of the fall formal, as well as it being so cold. I get cold easily, which made it more difficult for me to focus. I am excited to see what more changes the cold weather will bring, as hope to see more next time (definitely much earlier in the day!).