During the 15 minutes, I first noticed the juxtaposition of where I was sitting and the other side of the river. On the opposite side of the river, there is the town of Winooski. Anytime I’ve come down here I’ve had my headphones on, so the auditory observations I made were the most notable. There was a distant hum of cars mixed with the rush of water at Salmon Hole. I could hear cars beeping and at the same time birds chirping. Something about the giant cottonwood trees creaking and the animals rustling the leaves was freaking me out though. I can’t think of a time I’ve been able to sit without distraction for that long since I’ve been here, so it was refreshing. I did spend most of the time ripping apart leaves. By the end of the 15 minutes, I was starting to reflect on all my life choices instead of my phenology spot, so I was ready to be done.
The vegetation has changed drastically since the last time I was here. Almost everything has died, and all the trees have lost their leaves with some stragglers on the buckthorn. A little outside of the circle of my phenology spot but still within sight, the Norway maples have largely held onto their leaves. The grasses and some of the leafy vegetation has survived, but the woody vegetation has been left to sticks. Some of the bittersweet has held on as well, relying on the trees it has enveloped.