Nature and Culture tends to reach its maximum entropy.

How did a town of civilization emerge？How did it settled？How did it developed? After our historical and geological explorations, I got basic answers to these questions.

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The soil under our feet, might have been sand from the sea;

The air we breath every day, might have been particles inside a leaf;

The first settlers brought exotic seeds, yet their plants could be replaced;

The farms expanded and shrinked, but people moved on with grace.

More people, more laughters, more trees.

Scattered--different species & various race.

I sat on the bench again,

the cloudy sky pressed against the field.

Time flied, birds passed by, and leaves were mixed into a rainbow-colored rug.

Walking with eyes looking at the ground can gain you a lucky penny or the knowledge and history that are hidden in the rocks and ground. Redness of a rock is caused by ion. The sparkles on the rock are pieces of magnesium. The soil we walk on may travelled with the stream for a long time. The tree we see every day may come from lands miles away.

I wonder what is the history of my on-campus site. I wish rocks could tell me a story, but the only rocks I found are pebbles of limestone. I wish to dig underground like an Archaeologist, but the school would not allow me to ruin the well-weeded platform.

Have I ever tried digging in the mud? Never.

I have sat under fluorescent lights and breathed recycled air for too long, it is time to start digging.

On Saturday, I went on a volunteering trip with Bryn Mawr College Gardening group to weaver’s way farm. Like a 6 years-old child, I got so excited when encountering creatures that resides in the mud for the first time that other people may have seen hundreds of times.I never did gardening before and had no idea digging the ground and plugging out plants could be so thrilling. I discovered a penis-like mushroom that grows underground (I never knew mushrooms grow underground as well), encountered a baby snake in the mud (there are snakes in the farms! Scary! ) and caught a mud salamander (I never saw a creature like this! However, someone in the group told me the salamander is frequently seen in her garden!) What else have I been missing out?

When we took our geological tour of Bryn Mawr on Thursday, we learned a lot about rocks. Like our trip to Harriton House, we also learned about how humans manipulate their surroundings. I have, in my past observations of my on-campus site, been very tentative about harming that environment. I hesitate before I bounce a little on the branches that I sit on and tentatively brush the vine-like branches aside when I walk to the tree trunk. I try not to impose myself upon the tree.

But, today, I did something that I’ve never done before while sitting under my tree. I used an umbrella. Harriton House leases apartments to sustain itself and Bryn Mawr College diverts runoff for the township to compensate for its own. Today, I, too, added a man-made object into the equation to make myself more comfortable. As much as I like to think that the willow I observe protects me, it still manages to let a not insignificant amount of rain through. So, despite planning on letting the rain drops fall down peacefully on me, I opened my umbrella back up.

I didn’t harm the tree. I might have hurt my chances of observing nature a bit, but I also improved my overall experience. Because I used the umbrella, I don’t resent the tree for not protecting me. And the tree doesn’t resent me. Sometimes, it’s okay to supplement nature a little bit to make ourselves more comfortable. It’s really alright.

Today I changed my sit spot. My new place for musings is now behind Goodhart, at the recommendation of Zoe. (Thanks, Zoe!) I realized that I needed to freshen things up a bit, and venture to a place I have not been yet. The cloisters, while beautiful in their own mysterious way, do not offer the natural diversity that the nature behind GH affords, only green grass and gray walls. I was pleasantly surprised when I happened upon the tall arches and hights of GH, which displayed a saturated polychromatic view of dying plants.

Recently, after doing some sleuthing into BMC's earlier history, I happened upon a tumblr blog dedicated to old Bryn mawr photos. Here is the link: http://vintagebrynmawr.tumblr.com 

This website is humorous, but it also gives easy access into the lives of Mawrters past. Please enjoy this while on your hurrication from classes! The photos really made me think about how much has changed, while also how much has remained the same. For instance, aside from a few new buildings on campus, the scenery is almost identical. I think I saw one or two photos that could have easily been taken where I sat today. The timeless and uniform qualities of the architecture really struck me, especially as I sat today comparing my spot at the cloisters to my new one at GH. 

For anyone who has/will look at these photos, what sticks out at you as the biggest difference/similarity? 

Today it is cold, it is dark, but it does not seem like there is a catastrophic storm coming.  When I leave the dorm, all I hear is rumors about how classes might be canceled.  I sit outside, on my bench near the labrynth, and all I see is a gray day.  It is interesting thinking about how this place will look in about twelve hours.  The slight breezes that push the leaves today will morph into monumental gales that will make the trees look like they are on roller coasters.  I've heard that no trees will most likely fall down, but I wonder if the landscape at the labrynth will change by the next time I come here.  I guess I'll just have to enjoy the view I have for now, before all of the brightly colored leaves are blown away.  

So a Shadow, a Farmgirl, a Pilgrim, and a dark Alice in Wonderland visited the cloisters late last night. With the Halloween spirit hanging heavily in the air, creepy, scary, and downright ridiculous were the words of the night.

Visiting the cloisters with other people as well made me feel safer, since I visited them during nighttime once before, but it was still too quiet and eerie. There was inexplicable creeking of the castle, and the darkness of the grassy area of the cloisters was gloomy. But even with all that gloom, the cloisters became a place full of laughter and joy once my friends arrived and we played music and did silly dances and took funny photos. So I guess that the perception of a place really changes when surrounded by people - I usually associate places with the people that are there, and thus infuse the places with the energy the people bring with them.

On a side note: I noticed that Thomas Hall's facade included what looked like Baltimore gneiss (it was dark - that's what I could tell from the limited amount of light there was), which tells me that it was one of the older buildings on campus, since the other 2 older buildings, Merion and Taylor, also have Baltimore gneiss, but the rest of the buildings on campus have Wissahickon schist.