Today I sat near the south bank of the pond for 15 minutes. From where I sat, I couldn’t actually see the pond, since there were grasses blocking my vision. It took great effort (and a lot of trust in my boots) to get to the spot because of the sumac trees that grow by the pond. Because of this experience, I realized just how dense the vegetation around the pond is. When I looked at the understory, I was surprised that there wasn’t much short grass at all, but there was a lot of dense brush. The upper part of the fenced-in area almost resembles a bushy forest, except the tallest trees in the canopy are less than 15 feet tall.
Below is a simple drawing I made, which is a bird’s eye view of where I sat today. (My head is the circle in the middle)
Over more and more time observing the flora around the pond, I realize that the shape of sumac trees is almost comical, almost like how a child would draw the growth of a tree, with symmetrical leaflets coming off of branches that evenly branch off of the trees.
How the pond has changed in the past few weeks
Over the past few weeks, the pond has began to be eased into fall. The sumac trees have all turned a beautiful bright red, which makes them easy to see from all the way across the pond. The mulberry trees are both changing as well, but perhaps less beautifully. For the grapes, mulberries, and grasses, the fall colors seem to be slowly turning tan or brown, then having the leaves fall off.
here’s a photo of some browning leaves, although I believe this may be a young beech tree (the first I’ve seen around the pond)
The red leaves of the sumacs, in the cartoonish growth patterns I mentioned before.
Look how much the scenery of the pond has changed already! you can also see the dense brush under the bright red sumac trees.