After reviewing the idea of “Sense of Place” last week it was very interesting to consider it while at my phenology place. My place in Centennial Forest is greatly defined by the brook which runs through. I have started to feel very connected to my place and when I’m there I am able to relax and enjoy the scenery. Since my first visit to the Brook, it has gone through many changes itself. The first time I visited, the brook was moving very slowly because it was clogged by leaf litter. The second time I visited, the brook consisted of overflowed and fast-flowing water with expanding stream beds, the water was so cloudy and muddy the bottom was not visible. The water in my visit today (November 11) was a regular speed with extremely clear water so that the rock covered bottom was completely visible. It also has a smaller and more manageable volume now with the water barely reaching the banks. In addition to the changes in the brook, there were also many other changes in the landscape and the surrounding ecology. I noticed that no trees had leaves left, except for the Norway Maple mentioned in last week’s visit. The tree only had 15 or so leaves on it. One thing that I noticed this week for the first time was that all the pine trees around don’t have many needles except towards the top. I thought this was weird and I was curious why this would be so I googled it and learned that it could be possible the trees were just aging so they did not have many needles left. After reading the November chapter in Naturally Curious, it said that in November there should have been migrating birds, lichen and mosses, hibernating animals, and very few trees with leaves. Three of these things were true, as there was only one tree with leaves, only one squirrel was spotted, and I did find lichen, however, I did not see any birds in the sky or even hear one in the forest. I think this could be due to the fact that it was snowing today!! There is a storm coming and by 3:45 pm when I was at my spot, snow was already rapidly falling and adding to the previous inch we got earlier in the weekend. I am really excited to see how my place changes with the new snowfall and what that will do to the brook.