While back home for the week in Memphis, Tennessee, I was able to spend some time observing and exploring a second phenology site and compare it to my own. For this secondary spot, I chose my backyard, as it is a place that I really love to simply sit and be present in, and it offers a different phenological and ecological portrait from that of my site in Centennial Woods. My backyard, with its nonnative grass and variety of landscaped bushes and shrubs differs significantly in an ecological sense from my sit spot within Centennial Woods. Since it is a very fragmented ecosystem due to fencing, and is more so a combination of plants used for human enjoyment rather than a naturally functioning ecosystem, it is very hard to even put it on the same plane as my site in Centennial Woods, as that is a place where natural functions and processes are able to be carried out without human interruption. Attached to the post is an image of my backyard and its many different quirks. Though there are certainly a good number of nonnative species present in my backyard, the presence of massive white oaks and smaller beech trees encroaching from the backyards of my neighbors are undeniable, and that is a key connection between the ecology and phenology found in and around Centennial Woods as well as in my own backyard and neighborhood. After reading the “Honorable Harvest” section of Braiding Sweetgrass , I was struck with the idea of leaving something as a gift of sorts in my own backyard. What I chose to leave, although it is not necessarily a living creature, was a piece of driftwood that I collected earlier in the week when visiting the sandbars along the Mississippi River. This piece of wood, as small as it may be, represents our connection to the vital waterways that fuel society such as the Mississippi River, and expresses my sincere gratitude for those places and provisions given by the Mighty Mississippi in my life. Finally, attached below is a link to a google maps site showing the exact location of my home phenology can be found here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/U62cSrq9ychRLSYp9

Until Next Time!

Abel Murphy