The End

The leaves have turned from green, to yellow, and have fallen. The grass that was once thick and green is now dying. The flowers have wilted and died in the cold. My place between the halls has halted to a slow, and all life seems to have ceased. Many changes have been seen in my place between halls, and many have been highlighted in this blog. With these deaths of the plants and beautiful life in my area, I've realized the deaths of my own on the inside, along with my goals for this year.

The trees have been stripped bare of their leaves, well the deciduous trees at least. Their once green leaves are now brown and fallen and the trees are naked compared to what they once were. They lose their leaves as a defense mechanism according to EarthSky.org. They use it as a way to survive in the harsh conditions. Many of deciduous trees' leaves are susceptible to damage by the cold and dry conditions, and the tree is less likely to succumb to the damage of the cold. The trees are the dreams I kept up with earlier in the year, but now I have lost interest in them.

The flowers have also died. Much to my sadness. The once beautiful, bright sunflower has now become a dull, wilting flower. I believe the bug had something to do with my flowers death. According to eHow: Home and Garden, bugs do have an effect on the well being of plants as well as general dry weather. Considering that we have been in drought for almost a year now, I'm surprised the sunflower was able to grow in the first place. This flower is a survivor. The one that kept going when the going got tough. It was like my dreams and goals that have persevered through tough times and have kept me going. The ones that gave me the little motivation to get through the semester.

I've learned from my place between halls. It has forced me to embrace the close observation techniques and also forced me into a state of self realization on reflection. These changes in my tract of land can be related to my goals and own life, and with that, with self realization, I end my ventures in the place between halls.

Works Cited

Thacker, Donna. "What Causes Flowers to Wilt?" EHow. Demand Media, 07 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 Dec.           2014.

Conners, Deanna. "Why Do Trees Shed Their Leaves in the Fall? | EarthSky.org." EarthSky. N.p., 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.

Pinecones:Dreams

I felt a strange connection to what I saw on the ground yesterday. Pine cones. Pine cones littered everywhere on the ground. They must have all fallen in these mad breezes that have blown through in these past days.

The pine cones are rather small, perhaps two inches wide at most, and they come from the three or four pine trees found in my place between halls. Through some research on the Truckee Meadows Water Authority website, the closest match that I could make to the trees in this area would be a sort of pine tree. The cones are small and round, but I can't seem to pinpoint the exact type of tree. The pine cones seem to cover every square inch of land underneath each tree, or at least seemed to me that was the case. They seemed out of place to me. I'd never seen so many pine cones in one place before.

To me, it was hard to walk on or near those pine cones. They seemed helpless, neglected in some way. I couldn't find the strength to crush the little guys. It seemed like their tree protector had just dropped them like a lost cause. No reason for the cause of death for them. Yet I found a similar situation to me in these neglected pine cones. To me, the pine cones are goals, and the tree is me.

Recently I've been wanting so much out of myself. Setting so many achievable goals for myself, yet accomplishing near to none of them. I've been praying to myself to find the motivation to better in all aspects of myself. Yet I won't. I drop the goals behind me and find entertaining ways to waste my time and be as unproductive as I could possibly be. Throwing my life away minute by minute. Yet I know I can do better.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I saw these and it brought all of these thoughts to my head. I love the way some of the things I find in my field of study strike me in odd ways. My mind takes odd concrete images and converts them into something completely abstract and wild, but I love it.

Works Cited

"Recommended List of Trees." Water Efficient Landscape Guide (n.d.): 1-22. Truckee Meadows Water        Authority Landscape Guide. TMWA. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

Trees

I want to write something about these trees. I really do, but I don't think I will do them the justice they deserve. Something about them, even in their weak and dying state, they thrive. Yes I know they aren't dead, but it seems like they are. I haven't seen leaves on those two bare trees in weeks, perhaps even a month or more. Now the yellow tree seems like it's just starting. The leaves are dying and they begin to fall. If I tried to describe them anymore I just couldn't capture their beauty.

This week has been very humbling to me. Recent events seem to make me turn to these trees. An image of strength in my head for some reason. One of my best friends from my 8th grade year committed suicide last week. He was a beautiful character; happy and joyful and always the life of the party. Yet now he's gone. And I can't stop relating it to the trees. In my mind, the Brenden I remember is that beautiful, flourishing tree in summer. Colorful and vibrant and loud, but then the winter came and washed it all away.

But yet trees come back in the spring and summer, stronger than ever. I've wondered where that strength lies in those who can't find it. I've seen helpless people find strength to carry on all throughout my life, yet some seem to lack the ability to find theirs. Maybe some could find it through the trees.

A Murder!

Typically by this time the bugs are non existent. No flying pests bothering you when you eat or pollinating the flowers. Yet I saw the honey bees still carrying out their duties, quite faithfully as well. Visiting every flower, transferring pollen and keeping the lavender alive. Also a bug on my sunflowers. A green stink bug according to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. He was plotting murder. My bright yellow flowers were being murdered.

The little green leaf look-a-like in the center

According to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (or OMAFRA), the bug bites into the water lines and slurps the juice out of the plant. A silent killer, he doesn't leave a trace. I must have caught him in the act of his vampiric feed. The flowers are strong, though. I'm sure one little bug won't hinder their progress. As it stands now, they've survived harsh conditions, and it's only getting worse. I wish the best for my yellow troopers.

On a brighter note, the bees are active and can regularly be found in the bed of fake rocks and lavender. they hop from flower to flower, frantically, a neverending loop. It seems like these bees go nonstop. Do they ever get rest? Actually they do. According to a study by Barrett A. Klein, Kathryn M. Olzsowy, Arno Klein, Katharine M. Saunders and Thomas D. Seeley bees sleep in short naps. Getting more or less sleep based on their position in the hive. I've never seen this, though, and I will believe that bees are busy all the time. I caught one in photo, buzzing around the flowers. 

Seen on the flower in the middle is the bee, close to the top of the flower

It was a quick photo. It turned out beautifully, with the wide aperture. At any given time in that bed I can find 5-10 different honey bees all buzzing about and gathering pollen. I actually hate bees. But these bees I have an affinity for. Their hard work and how they don't just attack me for no reason is a big part of that affinity. I wish I could work as hard as them and actually be at the place where I want to be. But such is life. It goes on.

The Survivors of the Flower Bed

This week, I've made many more observations than I did last week. I've noticed many things in the past week, but I wanted to focus on one. While it seems everything is beginning to get a brown tinge and leaves begin to fall, I found one source of life that pursued, and it seemed to come up within this last week. Sunflowers. Four to be exact. A close knit group of survivors. Color in the brown around it. She pointed them out to me. I guess maybe I'm not as observant as I once thought. As soon as she pointed them out I immediately took out my phone and snapped a picture.

They were beautiful. They reminded me of my mom. We used to have the big sunflowers in our backyard, but we don't have them anymore. These were a blast from the past and reminded me of our accents of sunflowers all around our house. The next were some purple ones that I saw before her and I realized they were just weeds. 

They bloomed in a wonderful way, though. Like a flower my mom used to plant in our front yard planters. Anyway, the second week of observations turned out great. I'm going to keep a close watch of my sunflowers and hope they don't succumb to fall as the rest of the plants have. 

Late, I Procrastinate

I spent a lot of time thinking of an area or thing that no one else would observe in detail on a regular basis. Something that may be boring at a glance, but when everything comes together and all the details are seen, it is a rather interesting place. My final decision was the walkway between B and C hall. I can see almost anything imaginable on any given day; cars, people, nature, actually that's about it... Anyway, It's a great place to make observations because of the variety of things you can see on any given day. I can focus on Reno's extreme swinging temperature, the change of nature, the people I see, etc.

The whole scope of this project is based off multiple essays my class has read in our AP English class at Earl Wooster High School. After beginning observations on a chosen thing or place, our teacher decided to make this project into a blog. On this blog, there aren't many rules. Keep it clean, professional and related to the project; the rest is all up to you. The purpose means something different to everyone. Some in my class think it is completely, utterly pointless. To me, it's an opportunity to delve deep into a subject to focus and learn. It's a fun way to learn new writing techniques and I'm looking forward to it.

The whole theme of this first blurb is going to be the extreme laziness I've had within the past week of my observations. Day by day someone is almost always there to tell me that I need to work on my project. Mainly my girlfriend. But nonetheless, I am here, writing this blog. My first week has been interesting. I've seen everything from smoke to clear weather. Warm, cold. Wet, dry. Populated, empty. I've learned a lot about my new area. A lot of things that go unnoticed. Like the way the feather light breeze blows the newly changed leaves off of the trees. The trees that fight to hold on to their last leaves like their child. The flowers that go even when the going gets tough. The bees that continue to work, even in the cold. It's a buzzing community of wildlife as well as a lively place for the passerby and groups of people that are always there. I love my little area that buzzes with new things every day.

In my future posts I will have pictures of my new area, and all the things I see. I would love to track what happens through a photo lens.