15-Day Sit Spot Challenge: Days 7 and 8, November 13 and 14, 2018

15-Day Sit Spot Challenge

Days #7 and #8

November 13 and 14, 2018

The adventure continues, of the 15-Day Sit-Spot Challenge through the Wilderness Awareness School.

Please see my first posting in this series for an explanation.

Day #7

November 13, 2018

About 8:00 am Eastern Standard

My Sit Spot log, as seen from the west

Prompt for Day #7: Focus as much attention as you can on your sense of touch. What sensations are present to you through touch?

It was a cloudy and bitter cold day, biting, with a crispy edge. The air felt like a sharp piece of ice. I could not find my warm winter vest this morning, so the cold was seeping through my clothing. A gust of wind swept my face.

We had a dusting of snow last night.

Icy snow gathered in depressions of my Sit Spot log

Snow accentuates old claw marks in the Sit Spot log

It could also be called a “wintry mix” - snowy, icy, little frozen pellets.

White Oak leaf

As I sat on the (very cold) log, I noticed a Red Oak leaf near my boots that had water droplets instead of ice or snow. It was next to a log, which had a little pocket of space that must have created a slightly warmer micro-climate. I smeared some water droplets with my fingers. The water felt very slippery on the thick, leathery leaf.

Next to the Red Oak leaf was a yellow Sugar Maple leaf, covered in tiny frozen droplets, like round, polished pieces of glass stuck to the surface. It was just out of range of the tiny micro-climate. I pressed my thumb to some of the icy drops and felt them slowly melt under the relative warmth. The maple leaf felt thin and papery, bending and folding easily under pressure.

Sugar Maple Leaf (left) and Red Oak leaf (right)

There were so many different levels of liquid and solidity in the woodland on this day.

Tuliptree leaf

Day #8

November 14, 2018

Looking north from my Sit Spot

Prompt for Day #8: Focus on sound. What are you hearing? What is the quietest sound you hear? What sound is farthest away? Notice sounds in each of the four directions.

It was another cold, overcast day, with some snow and ice crystals remaining from the day before. The sun was a hazy blob through the clouds.

Sun through the Crabapple trees in the front yard

I heard the wind rustling overhead, through the canopy, then a gathering wind blowing through.

The quietest sound that I heard was the tiny plink-plinks of leaves falling to the leaf layer on the forest floor.

Otherwise, the woodland was very quiet. But, it seemed to be a noisy day for humans. To the south, I heard an increasing roar approaching my home place. I soon realized that it was our neighbor, Fred, driving his small tractor and pulling a load of leaf mulch from his place. The roar grew louder until it was above the woods on the opposite side, and then it stopped. Fred quietly swished leaf mulch from the trailer to the pile at the edge of our woods. He had been adding to the pile, and would be adding more – a kind and generous neighbor.

Some non-natives among the natives in the leaf mulch pile: magenta leaves of Japanese Maple

To the north I could hear some faraway highway traffic, and crows cawing not quite as far away. To the west, I heard the chattering of a Red-Headed Woodpecker. As I left my Sit Spot, going down the slope, across the bottom of the woods, and then up the opposite slope, I watched the same bird going from tree to tree.