Today I walked down to Centennial Woods once again, it was the perfect day for it. The air was crisp and the sun was shining, the leaves crunched perfectly under my shoes and that always makes me really happy. As I arrived at my spot, not much had changed in terms of vegetation. There were still many ferns, mushrooms, sugar maples, Norway maples, eastern hemlocks, eastern white pines, and the one classic black oak. Today though, the mushrooms I saw growing on the fallen tree were different than the ones I had seen before, these shrooms were a blueish yellow color and pretty thick.
The biggest difference in my phenology spot this week was the stream. It rained a bunch this weekend and the stream was flowing faster than I’ve ever seen it before. It was really awesome to see, it was so deep that I couldn’t even hop across it like normal, I had to walk across the fallen tree to get to the other side where my sit spot was. In the stream, there was little to no leaf litter, probably because it was rushing so much quicker than usual and the leaf litter got washed away. The leaf litter content on the ground of my site was about the same though.
Before beginning my 15 minute sit, I had to find a place that wasn’t all damp. Luckily one of the two fallen trees at the site had the perfect little dry spot for me to get comfy in. As I endured my sit, I began looking for noticeable differences at the site from my last visit to now. The biggest difference was in fact the stream’s water content. The next most noticeable thing was the leaves on the trees, they were all changing colors exhibiting beautiful shades of reds, oranges and yellows. The contrast of the changing leaves to a clear blue sky was stark and incredible to see. Sitting and connecting with this spot today made me feel really calm and peaceful. I’ve been sick this weekend too so getting this relaxing breath of fresh air and beauty was definitely a great thing for me to have.
