At first, my phenology location was just a pretty place that I chose to sit and start a school project but as I continue and continue to visit the same place, I feel more familiar with my surroundings. As I went to this spot earlier in the fall, it felt like a warm and cozy place that was a good place to get away from the busy school life. Now as I have seen my place transition towards a more winter landscape, it almost feels more intimate and that I am welcomed presence in the place. When snow falls the world goes silent to me and being in the woods as it was snowing was a silent paradise where I was just observing the world around me.
Sitting in this area looking at the trees above you, you can feel really small in this large world. I feel that when I think of life outside of my area, I feel like I’m thinking as the world as a whole because I know in the back of my head, I am sitting here for a college course. I think about how lucky I am to be taking the classes I am compared to my friends who are stuck in buildings all day. It is also apparent to me to think about what this place would’ve been like 100 years ago just because we’ve spent so much time in class talking about the history of Vermont. I’m not sure if there would be any of the plants or trees in my area back when the land was being used industrially or agriculturally. It is crazy to learn about a place and experience it in real-time but also have insight into what this place could’ve looked like decades before I was born. This ideology compels me to also think what the future holds for my spot in Centennial Woods. There is a high amount of human activity in this area and a city surrounding the woods, so this affects what happens to the woods. The activity can either degrade the land or preservationist actions can be taken to further protect the woods.
