Observations and Tracking Wind

Last week, I was so proud of my shiny new spot with the bright leaves in warm colors. This week, it looks absolutely nothing like it did.

The tree that had provided me with a spectrum of warm colors and a little autumn paradise has moved from shedding its leaves to shedding entire boughs and branches and ironically limiting my mobility in a spot I chose in order to increase it. At first I was disappointed (although not entirely surprised) by the extreme changes, but the storm, as it turns out, didn't ruin my nature observations forever.

Last week, my observation was about the diversity of leaves that I initially overlooked and the difference between my initial perception of them and the way they appeared to me upon closer examination. Honestly, I now wish I had saved that topic for this week as Sandy has brought me a huge range of not only different colors but different leaves, needles, acorns or pinecones, entire branches, and displaced vines that probably have no business being there or anywhere nearby, but make my spot full of a lot more interesting things to discover. Looking beyond the one primary tree to the ones nearby, I can identify a lot of the new additions as parts of those, but some are strangely nowhere to be found. This implies that some of the leaves (and one branch or part of a bush) was blown into my spot from some places that are nowhere in the general vicinity of the Erdman circle. The strength of wind that this suggests is both worrisome and fascinating.

I wasn't able to include pictures this week, but I have kept some of the unidentified leaves and needles and I think next week if I can manage it I would like to try to find the origins of them to figure out just how strong the storm winds were and how far these leaves were blown before they came to a rest. I've never tracked the path of gusts of wind before and I am looking forward to potentially weird results.

I probably had my last (and first) "pretty nature" experience last week in this location and the stone steps might start to get icy and dangerous soon, but I really want to stay here. This area seems like a collecting spot for all kinds of things and I would not be surprised if I keep discovering as the season continues to change.