The changes from fall to winter are much less perceptible than summer to fall. At first glance, it appears that nothing has changed. There are still no leaves on the trees. The leaves are brown on the ground. Everything seems dull and muted. There is barely any noise, save for the occasional brave chickadee and the rustle of a squirrel through the leaf litter. Today, I really had to ask myself what has really changed here? Well, for starters, it was much colder. Like 20 degrees Fahrenheit cold. If I thought that it was cold a few weeks ago then I was sorely mistaken. This caused the already subdued calls of birds and squirrels to become even more infrequent, till the only thing I heard was the sound of my boots crunching through the leaves. The ground was also starting to harden and freeze, locking up it’s moisture in solid form till the spring thaw (I took a pretty cool photo). Although it was only about 2:30, the sun’s rays were already slanting and causing the woods to have that strange half-light glow that one cannot describe, but must witness for themselves. The only thing missing is a few inches of snow, which will hopefully appear before I head home for break. I was very sad I didn’t get to witness how the landscape changes with the addition of several inches of snow.
I sat there for a while, lost in a daydream, until a dog-walker passing by jerked me out of my reverie and I realized my nose was running and I couldn’t feel my hands. So I began my trek back to campus, where I too am preparing for winter, just like the creatures in Centennial Woods. They are eating to survive the winter, I am eating to survive finals.