A UVM blog NR 009 Wonder Blog

Welcome to Pomeroy Park

Why this park?

Though most of Vermont is known for its endless forests and overall beauty, the spectacle of our state is diluted in residential areas like Burlington. In order to preserve a little of the land we live on, Pomeroy Park was built in the Old North End, on North Street. Situated close to the center of Burlington surrounded by a population of college students and young families, this park sees its fair share of use. To make the park more usable, the town fitted it with a basketball court and a playground. I have spent a lot of time in this park recently, observing how people interact with it, but also the wildlife that made their homes within the residential park. I watched as mothers and fathers brought their kids to the playground, college students in the masses playing basketball, pets being taken out for their leisurely stroll, and even the occasional cookout or fundraiser. I have also seen others using this park on the quiet days to read, bask in the sun, or just have somewhere to be outside. The wildlife that calls this park home is observable as well, I see beautiful flowers booming from the base of trees, squirrels chasing each other up trees, scaring the birds accumulated at the top. I really enjoy this park for its effortless merging of people and nature.

Photos

Conclusion

For this project, I wanted to do something that I felt brought attention to my chosen Wonder Blog site. For this reason I have tried to make something that emulates a brochure. In my opinion, parks like this one, situated in residential areas are not used enough. They offer a space in nature that you can truly make your own, and for me I used this place to get a good look at how our community uses parks like these ones. In the future I will return to this park, I found that doing work here was beneficial to my habits, allowing me to do work but not feel trapped in a little cubical.

Tuesday, July 5th, 2022 – 3:45 pm EST

Weather: partially cloudy today with a slight wind, temperatures lingering around 70 degrees, gloomy day to say the least

Observations

As I walked into the park today, the first thing I noticed was how empty it was. This is not as deep as it sounds though, it is simply a gloomy day, threat of rain constantly, no one is really using the park and similarly the wildlife that usually roam around here seems to be missing. The taller trees in the park are swaying in the slight wind, giving almost a “white noise” feeling as I walk through.

Natural History Mystery

When walking around the park today I made an effort to look up more, because we tend to miss things if we just look at and below our eye level, and one thing I noticed was a mixed coloration on a tree’s leaves. While most of the tree bared dark, almost purple leaves, there was one section that had yellowy – orange leaves. One explanation I had at first was that this area was getting more sun, hence more color, but then after continued observation I realized that all of the tree’s leaves were high and not blocked by anything else. The other explanation I have is that these yellow – orange leaves are just earlier or later in the life cycle, or maybe it is the first sign of Fall to come.

Five Photos

In this photo, I tried to highlight something I really enjoyed about the trees in the park. I wanted to capture the tree roots living within the ground, so I tried to position myself at the right height to be able to photograph the various roots poking out of the ground, and their position in respect to the base tree. For me, trees growing their roots around them and not just straight down screams “intertwined” to me, and that is one of the most beautiful aspects of nature in my opinion.

With this photo I really wanted to highlight the individuality of trees, like a snowflake a feel like everyone is different. One of the main ways I think trees can become unique is how they grow the branches. Some trees like to grow straight up, while ones like this have a series of branches veining upwards, allowing for almost multiple canopies rather than just one. Because it was such a gloomy day I wanted to try to get as much light in the photo as possible, so this white light that is bleeding through the holes is the “cloud light” from today, and I think it does a great job contrasting the greenery and it almost makes it deeper.

In this photo of crab apples growing on the outskirts of the park is the next feature I wanted to highlight. These crab apples, being such a bright green, is something that I did not want to be taken away by a gloomy day. So I tried my best to let the camera take in a sufficient amount of light, hoping to give the photo a slight shine.

This next photo I really wanted to single out the main aspect, the flower. I once again played with the lighting features on my camera, with the goal of singling out the flower. So I adjusted my camera to let in less light and I was rewarded with this picture of a flower that looks like it is growing out of darkness. To me, that’s cool. I really enjoy the beautiful purple emerging from this dark hole with green surrounding the ascent.

In this last photo I really wanted to depict the sanctuary a tree offers. I mentioned earlier in this piece that looking up rather than just straight and down is a great way to take everything in, and with this photo I employed the same process. I went under the tree facing up and captured what I see as a different world. A world beneath the canopy of a tree, life within the branches. I once again fiddled with the camera settings hoping to get a similar effect to that of my second photo, and the result was this whitish haze that gives a great backdrop to the little world I found.

Conclusion

I find new features every time I do one of these blogs, like today I found that purple flower, hiding on the other side of a tree. It is amazing what we can find when we adventure. This felt similar to sketching in the way that I chose an area and focused on it, doing my best to depict that feature with my camera or my hand and pencil. What felt different about this compared to sketching was the articulation. In this exercise because I was able to use a camera I feel what I am trying to get across is much more clear, whereas with sketching I felt like I could not. In all fairness though my artistic ability is nowhere near that of an iPhone X. I really enjoyed this entry though, I feel that I was very clear on what I had to do and I think I did my best to depict each feature as best I could.

Location: Pomeroy Park

Saturday, July 2nd, 2022 @ 12:30 pm

Another beautiful day in Burly, high 70s low 80s, pretty sunny and barely a cloud in the sky, although it has not rained super recently, the warmth I feel is similar to humidity rather than outright heat

Observations

Something I noticed, but did not pay attention to the first time I visited this park, is the little world that inhabits the shrubbery and mulch surrounding the park. When I adventured to the park today I started by walking the perimeter, trying to get a real grasp of the different plant and animal life. I noticed a multitude of creatures, ants interacting with caterpillars and worms, bugs and beetles, all making their tiny homes within the small plants and the shaded ground. I also noticed how certain insects inhabited certain places, while ants were basically everywhere, I observed that caterpillars all hung out on a shrub together, I watched flies zip around but always manage to get back to the same place, I almost felt like I was watching a society within this park.

Unfamiliar Species

While taking my walk around the perimeter, as I looked at the different creatures I also looked at the plant life. With it mainly being shrubs and vines, I looked for something that stood out, and I found this plant. As it looked, this plant occupied its own space, with nothing else growing around it, and it definitely stood out in the sun. The leaves are very glossy and I noticed that they all looked a little different, from the picture it is easy to tell that some were obviously eaten by either small mammals or insects, but the leaves that have for the most part been untouched are all different. Some are more bulb shaped than others, different sizes too, but they all grow from the same stem then branch off. An interesting fact that I learned about this plant is that it is native to the Old World, the Old World being Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Sketches

For me, I really liked the idea of this one flower in the park that was away from all the others, sitting under a tree in a bed of mulch. Though it is not the same as the classic “first flower after the apocalypse”, but I like that in the image I was drawing from, this was the only flower around and I was able to focus solely on it.

As I was walking around the park, I was looking up in the trees for anything that could catch my eye, and as I was almost done, I noticed a furry tail inside this snapped tree branch. Although my artistic ability does not do this animal any justice, I really wanted to focus the human impact we have on animals and where they are forced to live.

Again as I was walking around the perimeter looking for distinguishable life, I noticed a lone berry bush. I am no expert (and I definitely did not taste test) but these really looked like raspberries. Although I could not represent the beautiful color, the contrast of the bright red/pink berry against a green bushy backdrop was very satisfying.

This last scene I sketched has more of a big picture theme. I talked in my last wonder blog about the shade this park offers and I wanted to be able to articulate that here through drawing. The image in my head of this is beautiful, but I really also wanted to try to draw shade and make it distinguishable from the unshaded areas using tighter lines and criss – crossing.

Conclusion

Something that I find challenging when drawing is depth, and that is a skill I want to learn. While I am proud of these drawings, they could really be made special if I was able to add depth and a little bit of background. More importantly though, I really liked this activity, I enjoyed wandering around searching for inspiration, for something that I wanted to emulate with my own artistic ability, that was the best part of this exercise for me.

Friday, June 24th, 2022 – 2:10 pm EST

Weather: high 70s to low 80s, bright sunny day with barely a single cloud in the sky… I would say it is a beautiful day!

The spot I have chose to observe is Pomeroy Park, right across from my house on North Street in Burlington. I really enjoy this spot because it was created in such a dense part of town, with houses stacked and compressed, I am really happy the town managed to fit a small park in the area. Now by no means is this a perfect slice of Mother Nature, there is city noise and, being that it is in the middle of residential Burlington, it is place used by many residents. But that is also part of the reason I really like this spot, it allows me to watch how the population interacts with the park, how they utilize it and enjoy it. This place to me is a medium, in terms of smell I can identify freshly cut grass, but also a regular city smell. I hear many different sounds, the birds chirping are mixed with the sounds of kids playing basketball on the court, the wind blowing through the trees that surround the park mash in with the sounds of people walking by.

Questions:

1.) What type of trees dominate this park?

2.) Are there any birds nests in view?

3.) What was here before?

4.) What is this place most used for?

5.) What variety of wildlife is there?

6.) Are most animal homes up in the trees?

7.) Is the sound of nature more prevalent than city noise or vise versa?

8.) Was this park the city’s idea or the residents’?

9.) When was this park developed?

10.) How is this park maintained?

11.) Were the trees and plants planted or did they make the park around them?

12.) What types of rocks are most popular?

13.) What is the most common flower?

14.) What is the most common bug species?

15.) Are the trees older or younger, in terms of height and width?

16.) Are there any rare wildlife species in the park?

17.) How has pollution impacted the well being of the park?

18.) Does the grass look healthy?

19.) Is there an “open canopy” or is most of the sun blocked by trees?

20.) Has COVID impacted the use of this park?

21.) Who is using this park the most? (kids, parents, college students)

22.) Is this park pet friendly?

23.) How is the overall sanitation of this park?

24.) Which season is this park most popular?

25.) Is there an abundance of dead trees and plants?

Question: 19.) Is there an “open canopy” or is most of the sun blocked by trees? When I was spending some time out at the park today, I wanted to think about this question because sun and shade affects how a park is used. After taking a good look at the park and the positions of the sun, I noticed that there is little to no cover in the middle of the park, which is also where the basketball court is situated, and after feeling the court with my hands I noticed how hot it was from all the direct sunlight. Everywhere else though for the most part was pretty shaded, I had no trouble finding a place to sit with the many benches situated around the park. I think this park offers a really good balance, I could get really good sun access if I was in the right spot, and if I was overheating I could step back into the shade.

Something I would like to follow up on concerns another one of my questions, the overall sanitation. During these first observations, the park overall was very clean, even with construction and the densely populated area this beautiful park is not destroyed by human ignorance. I think that I will be following up every few days to see if any trash is compiling, or if the people around here do a good job keeping this park clean for the most part.