One thing I want to practice is slowing down.  Doing spot sits instead of just walking or running or working on a field drawing and then moving on.  The spot sit can definitely help me see deeper and see more interesting details that I would miss otherwise.  For instance, I did a spot sit at a harbor near my house and it wasn't until the very end, 15 minutes into the sit, that I noticed some type of insect or bug dancing around on the surface of the water in front of me.  There were three or four of them and they were making great ripples on the water. They looked as though they were skating. In terms of themes, I want to make sure that I don't draw conclusions.  I can hopefully do this by noting in my journal when I'm making an observation and when I'm inferring something, that way I can check my inferrence later or i can come up with alternative inferrences to my initial one.  Fun to ask follow up questions too.

I made an indoor observation  - and ended up with a term paper on ladybugs because I went on to research the answers to my many questions!  Why and how do they enter my house each fall? What is their purpose in the great outdoors?  As a result, I am now less willing to rid the house of these beetles who have chosen our windows and ceilings as their hibernating spot for the winter.  As long as they don't wake up and land in our soup pot, they can stay put until spring!

From a fall walk. Why are maple trees blazing orange while other trees highlight yellows and browns?

On one of my walks on a bike trail, I found a Milkweed seed pod. From one of the pods were still three seeds that appear like parachutes ready to launch in the next strong wind. From this dried flower, I wanted to find out what fed on this plant and how it fit in the cycle of life. It became how important this plant was to the Monarch butterfly that is on decline. I plan on continuing my research to see about planting this flower. I know it can be poison to animals if eaten in great amounts, but I do not have domestic animals and would like to encourage butterflies. What other plants can I plant that will help wildlife?

I love this time of year when the leaves change and I especially love the Spindle tree.  The branches with their tiny pink flowers and leaves make fantastic table dressing for thanksgiving.  There's one growing in the field where my horse used to be.  He'd trim the tree back regularly.  I always wondered why and I still do as apparently it's toxic!   He passed on much later and not at all because of the Spindle tree. I also learned when researching this plant that the branches are burned to make fusain or charcol sticks for drawing!

I have gone down to the river to do a sit observe a couple of times now. It is pretty enjoyable, but I have a hard time pulling away from the big picture to concentrate on the small stuff. Anyway, I've been a lot more observant of the heron that lives close. I've scared it away so many times, and am hoping by sitting quietly It'll come into view. This exercise is helping me to be aware and learn about the Herons' habits so I'll learn more about my neighbor!

I do not yet have any journal sketches that reflect one of the themes. I do, though, notice the natural world on morning and afternoon walks with my husband, and often when looking out my kitchen window or from our back deck. Our home abuts a tidal salt marsh that is protected as a nature preserve. Our walks usually take us on a path through the preserve or on a quiet road along side a mill pond that drains to Long Island Sound. There is much to observe, especially when we slow down and make the time to inhale our surroundings. Thursday morning I noticed close to one hundred ducks swimming in the Mill Pond, almost all of them moving in the same direction. Gradually, a bunch would turn 180 degrees and ascend in flight. Maybe they were swimming with the tide, or preparing for flight by swimming in one direction to give themselves enough of a runway for taking off in the other direction. And that had me wondering if there is any intentional synchronicity to floating en masse? Knowing that they do not ride the currents as other water fowl do, does wind direction impact how ducks prepare for flight? What is the relationship of this large group of ducks to one another? What is the deal with duck families? At the start of our walk, while still in our neighborhood, we passed a tree whose branches formed an almost perfect bowl. The top half of the tree was barren of leaves; the bottom half had yellow hued leaves. I wondered if the weather impacts the canopy first because it is the most exposed. How does temperature and other weather impact the location and rate of leaf fall? Stopping to pause, observe and wonder is yoga for my senses and mind, and ultimately for my body. I have always stopped to pause and observe; adding wonder to the mixture gets my thinking juices going. And when I begin to bring my journal with me those moments will be all encompassing.

I started to walk and wound up observing five deer in the woods. I had to turn around but it was fun.

I have been fascinated by the nuthatches (at least two) that have been visiting my sunflowers. I have so many questions! 1. They’re here, in the suburbs, separated from forest by miles of orchards and tomato fields. What are they doing in my back yard? Possible explanations:

• they’re young and lost and exploiting any food source they can.
• They normally live in fir forest and there’s a fir nearby. Maybe that attracted them.
• I’ve just read that they will travel if their habitat is damaged. Last year there were massive fires throughout the state, including the nearest fir forest. Maybe they are climate refugees.

2. They are clearly nabbing the sunflower seeds. They have a pointy beak and I thought they were insectivores. But I can see them with seeds in their beaks. They grabbed a seed and zip off, repeatedly. What are they doing with the seeds?

• Maybe they also eat seeds.
• Maybe they’re caching seeds in hopes of generating bugs.
• Maybe they eat and cache seeds.

3. My more usual visitors, the finches, perch on the edges of the sunflowers and reach over for the seeds. If the seeds are too far from the edge, they can’t get to them. The nuthatches can cling to the seed head in every position and grab any seed they want. They are famous for being able to travel upside down even though bird ergonomics favor traveling upward. What’s up with the upside down stuff?

• Clearly they can exploit food the finches can’t.
• One theory is that they can find insects hiding in bark better from that angle.
• Do they also eat fir seeds? Is there something about, say, perching on top of a fir cone and working downward that would make it easy to get the seeds out?

Because it was a wet, grey day, I chose to observe the outdoors from indoors, from all four directions. North: Up the hill, I see a chipmunk, my old  'frenemy', hanging along my - or is it his - stone wall.  I can see his neck jerking, so I know he is sounding the alarm to someone out there.  Since the feeder is down by 2", there will be lots of sunflower seeds spilled onto the grass below.  He'll head over soon. South: Wispy clouds drift across my view of Mt. Sunapee (NH). Despite the weather, it is clear. East: The northern facing tree bark is covered with lichen.  What I hoped was a hole turned out to be a patch of dark green moss. West: Clouds are hurrying North along the treetops of our tall white pines, 11 of them.  the Western sky has lightened up, giving a peachy cast to the 4:00 ending of day # 3 of Standard Time.

I found this stinkhorn mushroom in my front yard. Question: what is the purpose of the nipple like opening which seem to be sealed with a gel like substance? Is that where the spore slime is discharged? The purpose of the odor is to attract flies, and it was very effective. The surface of the cap was sticky, but also deeply grooved with a net pattern of sharp ridges and shallow valleys. To keep slime from washing off before it had a chance to be picked up by fly feet? Although  well past prime, there was still evidence of a lacy indusium. My field guide suggested this was to help non flying insects access the spore slime. I was intrigued by the variety of flies, and that they were non competitive, and seemingly unaware of each other. Why was Stinkhorn solitary, but the tiny brown mushrooms two feet away in a group of 50 to 70.

This is really fun.  I love writing down my observations, explanations, and questions.  I haven't figured out my style yet, but hopefully I will before the end of this class.

I really enjoyed this project - I saw more of the intricate  details of the plants then I would have . Thanks  Chris

I am at a conference in Colorado; it is always weird to go artificially fast (airplane) from the Southern Appalachians to the Rockies.  I sat in the Vail Public Library for 30 minutes and watched snow accumulate on trees along a ravine.  It was a very enjoyable moment.  Changes: how the conifer branches took on the snow (becoming more weighted down, etc); how the snowflakes went from granular and small while I was walking outside to large and fluffy while I was sitting inside observing.  I asked myself questions about human impact on the space I was observing.  Did this ravine always exist in tis present form, or did the road/town development change its shape/volume of water going through it.  There is a footbridge with culverts over the creek.  Which plants/animals have thrived from humans and which have not?

I have noticed that the birds in my yard are most active in the morning and only a few are active later in the day. The chickadees and a wren are more bold, the sparrows stay close to the trees and are only visible in the morning. Are birds like us, needing breakfast after a long night of no food? Where do the sparrows go for the rest of the day ? Why are city sparrows so bold and my gold crown and white crowned sparrows so shy? Do birds have different personalities?

I looked at a plant that had palm-like leaves (I don't know what the name is) and noticed it's form and function. The leaves looked as though they were sliced up, causing them to have large gaps in between them, which could be due to the wind action since the leaves felt thin. Also, the stem was thick and curved downward to the roots, this could help the water slide down the leaves and reach the roots without any water being lost. It's interesting to see how plants are able to adapt to their environmental conditions and it seems that this plant was thriving since it was about 10 feet in height. 

The cooler weather is creating very obvious and not so obvious change here.  Most of the trees have not started to loose leaves or have the leaves change color yet, but the ground plants are brown and mostly dead.  The birds that come to my feeders have changed since some have started migration.  There are now many cardinals, sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees.  There is one hummingbird still coming in for a drink, and I am concerned about why she hasn't migrated with the others.  The birds are eating more now, and eating differently.  They are eating more from the suet than in the summer.  The feeders that have mealworms are the more popular now also, so the birds must be stocking up for winter.  The deer are changing from the red brown to the brown gray which is much harder to spot amongst the bare gray trees.  The deer are also not traveling in very large groups right now, and they are more skittish.  When horseback riding in the woods, the deer don't normally take much notice of me, but now they are more wary.

I never thought before about asking myself why things are like they are in nature. It has been difficult for me doing this assignment because i have not so much nature close to me, but I was observing a dove near my house, It was alone, Why? Why was that dove alone in a really small park? Was it a young male with out a partner? Probably is not time for mating. Was it searching for food? or just resting a while before completing its journey?

I observed the top portion of the trunk of a white birch that fell in my yard.  The tree is a victim of disease caused by a birch borer.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, the tree has an abundance of moss and lichens along its trunk.  I noticed that the mosses tend to cluster on bumps on the trunk.  Do they find a better grip there?  Are there more nutrients?  What about the tiny green dots that grow in irregular clusters on the trunk near where it touches the ground.  Are they algae?  Do they like being close to more moisture?  Perhaps they like being more sheltered from the  bright morning sunlight.

I was a bit aggravated when I noticed the squirrels digging in the new mulch, planting acorns around my bushes.  While standing there looking at their handiwork I saw a pattern in the squirrels digging.  This makes me wonder was this a method that they use or was it a random thing that just happened.  I will pay attention and see if it will happen next time.