I entered my sit spot briskly at 10:32 am on December 4, eager to finish and get out of the cold. As I approached my sitspot, I watched my step over a couple fallen branches and took a short cut, since the normal bushes were no longer in my way. I thought nothing of this until I looked ahead at my spot instead of at the ground. I stopped dead in my tracks and my jar dropped. The entire area looked like a tornado had wiped it clean. Any sign of underbrush, bushes, and vines was gone. The only thing remaining was trees and small remnants left behind in from the carnage.  As I soaked this in, I continued to where I normally sit, but with a totally different feeling. I spent most of my 15 minute focus just taking in the real loss around the space. Looking for certain plants I had come to know all semester. Once the shock started to die down, I began noticing the other typical experiences from my space. There was a smell of burgers in the air from Moody, which was killing my empty stomach. For once, I wasn’t interrupted by the drone of lawn mowers. Instead, I could hear Cardinals, Crows, 81 traffic, and the rustling of leaves.

I did not notice the breeze until I looked up at the clouds. The sky was mostly blue with large fluffy clouds, which are cumulus clouds. These cumulus clouds were moving incredibly quickly which brought my attention to the wind. I’m sure I was already freezing but it drew all of my focus to my fingers that were slowly becoming stiffer and colder as I sat. It was nice having those small, few clouds, because that allowed the sun to shine through. I’m sure it would have been much worse if there had been stratus clouds.

In terms of the objects I’ve been following all semester, not too much has changed. The biggest change is that my Pokeberry bush has been murdered. It is almost completely gone. No base or real evidence where it stood remains. The only stuff left is the branches of the bush that god discarded in the near by tree line. The dead tree is even more visible, with the bush being gone and all… The Cardinals really seem to like this tree though so I assume it provides them a nice shelter. The fountain grass is completely unchanged from the last sit spot. They’re still trimmed down to only a couple inches tall. I’m surprised they didn’t rip these out too…

I decided to spend the listening portion with my eyes closed. I heard a ton of nothing, which as quite nice. It was peaceful. Almost as if the world was standing still… Besides I-81. That’s never still. Every once in a while, the generator on the tractor trailer would cycle and make noise, scaring the heck out of me. Other than those two, it was generally just a bird here and there and some trees rustling. I thought it was super interesting that the trees rustled without any leaves.

Overall, doing this blog over the course of the semester was very rewarding. I found it became almost like meditation. It was nice to just take an hour to sit outside, away from campus, and listen to some birds. I would find it easier to breath and clear my mind in my spot. I was truly disheartened to see all of the brush cut away. I worry about all of the food and habitat that was probably ruined. It seems silly, but I think I just got attached to the space and now it feels vandalized…

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