15-Day Sit Spot Challenge: Days 1 and 2, November 7 and 8, 2018

15-Day Sit Spot Challenge

Day #1: Wednesday, November 7, and

Day #2: Thursday, November 8, 2018

So begins a series of posts from one spot.

First of all – what in the world is this “Sit Spot Challenge”?

Well, the Wilderness Awareness School does it every year, and this is the first year I've been able to start from the beginning. People from all over the world participate!

All a participant does is choose a spot to observe nature, and go to that spot every day for about 10 minutes to an hour – or for whatever length of time one wants or is able to spend there.

Each day, the administrator of the Challenge presents a theme, question, or other type of prompt for the day.

Participants can then post comments and photos on the event's Facebook page. It is so fascinating to follow these posts from all over the country and the world, to see where the spots are that people have chosen, why they have chosen these particular spots, and what they have experienced. Some choose their home place, or a park, or a deep natural area. Some find a spot in the backyard, or patio, or even a scenic window. Some find a spot near their workplace where they can spend part of a lunch hour. Some people, by need, change their spots now and then. Some people include children or grandchildren during their Sits, or pets.

Some write long, descriptive passages, while others are sweetly succinct. There are haiku poems and other poetic narratives, conversational pieces, the whole gamut. Someone in Australia is talking about hearing kookaburras. Some places are experiencing late autumn, posting photos of brilliant fall leaves, while others are going into summer and posting photos of bright purple flowers. On the same day, someone else shares snowy, icy scenes. Someone shares a video of a rushing stream so we can hear it, too. Others speak of the quiet. Some speak of challenges in their lives that make it difficult to find a spot and some time, but that they are grateful for the place and time, however small, that helps them cope.

I am fortunate that, right at my home place, I have so many places to choose to be. What I chose was a spot on the far side of my woods (in relation to the house). I will describe it in the Day #1 entry.

Every day, I will share the “challenge of the day”, and maybe a quote, and then what I experienced at my Sit Spot.

No one need wait for a designated Challenge, of course. We can all do this anytime, for as many days as we'd like, or even every day of our lives, when possible. But, it helps to have a designated “challenge” to keep one going, and there's the added joy of seeing what others are sharing about their experiences.

And, now, I shall share with you.

Day #1

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

It is the day after the mid-term elections, a time when everyone in the United States needs some quiet contemplation, a place and time to focus on something different – especially in this crazy year.

The prompt given for Day #1 is to choose a Sit Spot, spend time there, and get to know that spot and “who's there”.

I decided on a place on the farther side of my narrow woods, a high and dry spot that affords me views of a number of different situations and habitats. This has the potential of presenting a wider variety of wildlife and experiences. Plant density (and types of plants) varies. Topography varies. Openness varies. Thus, there are distinct differences in wind, temperature, the way precipitation falls, where micro-climates happen.

I chose a spot with an old fallen tree (for simplicity's sake, I'll call it a “log” from now on).

Some old animal claw marks on the log

An "eye" in the log, accentuated by moss

In some directions I can see the upper woodlands that tend to be composed of trees such as Black Walnut, Tuliptree, Bitternut, Chinquapin Oak, Hackberry, Sugar Maple, White Oak, Paw-paw, Red Oak, Black Cherry, Sassafras, American Hornbeam (a.k.a.: Blue Beech, Musclewood).

Looking east to the ridgetop next to the crop field

Looking west

Paw-paw

In some directions I can see the “bottoms” of my woods, the wide valley where the creek and its tributaries wind through (sometimes heavily, sometimes intermittently), where moisture spreads across the valley, supporting thick populations of Jewelweed, Wood Nettle, False Nettle, Poison Ivy, Smartweeds. The moisture and relatively sunnier conditions support trees such as White Ash, Cottonwood, Boxelder, Sycamore (my favorite), and some shrubbier species like Elderberry and Spicebush. Down there, also, is a place where water gathers so heavily around a downed Cottonwood tree that I dubbed it “Cottonwood Pond” and started a blog for it several years ago.

Somewhere down below is Cottonwood Pond

Looking down into the bottoms, toward the south

Where the top of the fallen Cottonwood rests in the fork of a Red Oak tree, not far from my sit spot

Adjacent to the upper woods, not far from my Sit Spot, there is a crop field. A soybean crop was recently shaved off of it by huge, magnificent machinery, so the ground now sits bald and brown, wide open to sun, rain and wind (until a cover crop grows).

This juxtaposition provides one of the most interesting habitats of all, seen from my Sit Spot: Edge Habitat. Here is where birds and other animals can perch in relative safety, and dart out over the open now and then for food or other purposes. Here is where vines most commonly flourish (unfortunately, many invasive vine species), providing ready fruit. Hackberry trees love this, and sometimes also Red Cedars (which is actually a Juniper, and the only evergreen indigenous to this part of Indiana). Here is where sun and shade meet in an ambiguous dividing area, where the shady woods invites one out of the heat and sun.

Just inside the woods, between my Sit Spot and the Edge Habitat, a deer trail winds through. Deer cross the road from our neighbors' place, skirt the woods along this edge, then cut across the top of some wooded slopes until they reach the old fence that they jump over to another crop field. No deer were spotted during my first Sit Spot day, though I have watched them at other times.

From here, too, I can see and hear some human activity – hopefully not too much! I can see a couple of neighbors' homes, and small sections of our country road through the trees. I can hear some of the activity of neighbors, dogs barking (including our own dogs), the occasional jet far above or smaller plane whining much closer above, some traffic from the highway less than a mile away. There is always the prospect of hearing farm machinery.

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I started my visit around 12:30 pm (Eastern Standard) while the day was cold, sunny and breezy. Autumn colors were still at peak – not many leaves had been blown off the trees by recent winds and rains, but the carpet of still-colorful leaves was building up on the woodland floor. The sun illuminated the density of golden Sugar Maple so brightly that it almost hurt to look at them.

Two of my cats came with me. The big, fluffy, marmalade-and-cream cat, Silas, sat on the log on my right. The all-midnight-black cat, Pester, was against the left side of me. Do they think they are protecting me? We all three sat quietly, and observant.

I listened to the breeze stirring the canopy well above me. In the light breeze, leaves drifted down occasionally. I watched a deep russet Red Oak Leaf, with its pointed lobes, dance down toward the floor and land with an abrupt click. A golden, curved Sugar Maple leaf floated gently, slowly down like a casual parachute, landing without a sound. Then, the breeze gusted to a light wind, and leaves rained down from the trees, plummeting to the floor.

I listened to the sounds of wildlife, also: the loud, sharp cackle of Blue Jays; the staccato of a woodpecker knocking on a tree; the humorous, repetitive call of a White-Breasted Nuthatch, and some bird calls I did not know how to identify. One was a curiously squeaky, high-pitched sound. When it came into the trees closer to me, I realized that I needed to bring along binoculars.

Did I hear a Chorus Frog in the bottoms? Just a little bit? But, this time of year, and when it is cold? Surely not, but I didn't know what else would sound like that.

A quiet rustle nearby – and a Fox Squirrel popped up on the end of my log! At first it seemed aware of us, watchful.

After awhile it became more casual, nibbling on things, cleaning its fur.

So nonchalant

Pester, a friend of all species, had become curious. He took a stalking kind of position and watched. When the squirrel seemed unaware, Pester crept carefully along the log. But, just before he got to the squirrel it leaped to a nearby tree, leaving Pester puzzled. I watched the squirrel shimmy up the tree and peek around at us.

Pester: "Wha ... where did it go?"

Squirrel: "Ha ha! See if you can find me now!"

A little more quiet time spent, and then I thought I'd better be on my way. I started back on a different route, along the high part (I had arrived via the bottom land and up the slope), spotting some umbrella-like mushrooms along the way, and an extra green sedge plant poking up through the earthy-colored leaf litter.

I exited the woods and walked along the road, then up the gravel driveway, back to a more domestic place, gathering some green cherry tomatoes from the garden before going into the house.

Note: Check out the Wilderness Awareness School and all of its wonderful resources and classes by going to: https://wildernessawareness.org

Also look for these Facebook groups: Wilderness Awareness School, 15 Day Sit Spot Challenge Group.

Day #2

Thursday, November 8

Prompt: Find the four directions from your spot. Which direction will you be facing, mostly? Where is your Sit Spot?

This morning I did my regular yoga session in the sunny kitchen. Before a morning yoga session, I usually read that day's thoughts in the book A Year of Living Your Yoga: Daily Practices to Shape Your Life; by Judith Hanson Lasater. Here is today's:

“There is no place that is not your yoga mat”

“Practicing yoga need not be confined to your mat. Imagine today that the whole world is your yoga mat, and everything that happens to you is an asana. Remember to breathe.”

Or, your Sit Spot.

I know the four directions from this spot from watching the sun rise and set over the many years I have lived here.

North:

To the right, "Krampus" is visible, an old root system of a fallen tree that, to me, resembles the large-horned, hairy monster from Alpine St. Nicholas Day tradition

Krampus, a bit closer

Krampus!!

East: 

South: 

West: 

I tend to face north while sitting on the log, but I try to face other directions now and then, too.

Today was icy cold!! It was windy, overcast, dry, somewhat dark. There was the feeling of winter coming on. Silas was with me again, sitting up against me on the log. We could hear a neighbor's dog barking. I was not able to get to the spot until evening – between 5:00 and 6:00 pm Eastern, so dusk was approaching quickly. I would not be able to stay long.

Silas

It was very quiet in the woods, but for leaves fluttering in the wind. I noticed that the wind was pushing the large Paw-paw leaves, which were still mostly clinging to their twigs, into a horizontal position, as if they were sheets of thin paper.

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Where IS my “sit spot”?

I'm not going to give fancy coordinates. I will only say I am in southwestern Indiana, in the southern portion of Knox County, in an area we refer to, tongue-in-cheek, as “rural Verne”.

Here are some map details (I much prefer paper maps):

 Indiana page of U.S. Rand McNally road map – Knox County, halfway between Vincennes and Monroe City.

 DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer, for Indiana – between Hwy 61 (thick red) and Hart St. Rd.

Big paper fold-out map of Knox County – between Lower Indiana Road and Hart St. Rd.

 Soil Survey of Knox County, Indiana (distributed in 1981 – five years before our house was built)

The pale section of the AIB2 is the crop field adjacent to our woodland. The darker part, between the crop field and the AID3 border, is where my sit-spot is located. My spot is located on Alford silt loam, 2-6% slopes, eroded. The section is described as “ … broad, convex ridgetops, long side slopes, and toe slopes of the uplands.” Though not very high elevation, our land is all in the Knox County “highlands” - it doesn't flood like so much of the county does. 

From my spot, I can see down into the AID3 area, which is also Alford silt loam, but with 12-18% slopes, and “severely eroded”. This is what I call the “bottoms” of my woodland, where the creek meanders through a valley that can be rather soggy at times, and where water collects readily in some spots. It is described as “below ridgetops and adjacent to drainageways of the uplands”. Also mentioned is that it is well suited to trees, so many of the areas are in woodland (much of the AIB2 is in crop land).

It was getting darker, and my footing would not be sure enough during that time of twilight, when perception wavers between reality and non-reality. It was time to head back down the slope, across the bottom, and up the far slope, back to the house, toward the light, to warmth, and to where Richard was making a hot supper for a cold night.