As I approached my sit spot, I was able to find it this time. The weather felt quite nice this time to me, and I didn’t think it was too cold or too windy. I saw that a lot of the leaves has fallen, especially in the creek. This left the creek very clogged up. The small waterfall didn’t have much water falling. I was fascinated by the leaves on the ground too, so I started to go through them. I found about 4 to 5 different types of leaves around me. While looking through the leaves I saw some black gooey stuff on the ground too. It seemed kind of rotting or partially decomposed. It reminded me of the fruit right outside of my sit spot, but much smaller. I also found around me some bird poop and some feathers. Which means that there was a bird resting on the branches of the tree next to me while I wasn’t at my sit spot. While at my sit spot I found a few small critters too. I found a single ant and 2 gnats. The ant was searching through the leaves around me. The gnats left the second I saw them. I did get mildly distracted by the wind blowing the top of the trees while I was looking for something up there.

 

 

The sycamore tree I’ve been watching has seemed to have lost all but about 30 leaves on the whole tree. It looks fairly bare compared to how it looked in the beginning. The roots I’ve been watching are still covered by leaves. The roots may have a few more leaves on them. The moss on the rock seems to be a darker more neutral green than before.

 

While listening silently to the spot around me with my eyes open, I could hear the overwhelming sound of the cars on the road across campus. They seemed to be louder than the waterfall beside me this time. I could also hear the waterfall, but it is much quieter than usual due to the leaves clogging it up. I started to hear the chirping of a small bird in the distance after a minute. After that I heard an airplane go by and a car drive on the road not far from me. Toward the end of the eyes open part I could hear a bird on one of the trees to my left. I couldn’t see it due to a bush being in the way. Then I closed my eyes. I still wasn’t really into this portion of the exercise, but I went with it. When I closed my eyes the sound of the waterfall was exaggerated, but everything else sounded about the same. The bird to the left of me continued to make noise and the cars continued to drive by. Towards the end of the closed eye portion a new bird started to make noise behind me. It seemed louder than the bird beside me.

In this part I focused on the most still spot in the creek. The spot seemed to be blocked by some leaves which made the water almost completely still. I started by thinking about all the invertebrates on the rocks under the water in that spot. I also thought about what could like to hide in the leaves that blocked up the water. It made me wonder about what invertebrates could have maybe attached themselves to the leaves. While looking at this spot I noticed a pattern of how the water would ripple in this area. The water would be still for a minute or two then it would start to ripple some then it would calm back down, and it would repeat this for the entire time I watched it. It was very mesmerizing to watch.

I have come to love my sit spot. Every time I come to my sit spot I start to feel relaxed. I think it is a nice thing to do after a stressful week. The sound of the waterfall and the trees being blown by the wind helps a lot. I enjoy looking through all the leaves around me and trying to think of a story for all the interesting things I might find. The area has a very relaxed feeling to it.