Experimenting With Words and Observing Nature

Today we started off with another short reading touching on something we would be doing today, which was going down and looking up close at a small area of ground To do this we went over to Delco park and met up with Rob Boley for a workshop before the activity we were going to do. He wanted to show us that we could have fun with writing by using words randomly from a text. First we did a Haiku using the words from some scrap pieces of magazine. The Haiku I made was from a section that was about trees, and I took pieces from almost entire opposite ends of the text. I ended up with the Haiku:

Along the trail was

Monica’s favorite tree,

A lone chestnut oak.

After several others shared theirs, we did another piece of writing where we took a sentence from the same text and used each word as the start of a sentence for dialogue. Using the sentence “Never have I been so excited about the potential for partnership!” I ended up with something that went like this:

“Never.”

“Have you seen it yet?”

“I have seen what now?”

“Been waiting all day.”

“So what is it?”

“Excited for it.”

“About a movie?”

“The great awakening!”

“Potential for a new beginning?”

“For a new life.”

“Partnership? With Trees?”

I actually really enjoyed making these random interesting pieces of writing that made only some sense. I think everyone else had fun with it too. After we did that we continued on to our “Small World” activity where we squared of a small area to observe at different levels. Initially we would look at the spot from a standing position, recording all we could while at that distance. We then kneeled down to observe it closer, and then even closer when we got on our bellies. When I was standing, I could only capture the general scene, such as the fact that there was a patch of dirt with no grass and that everywhere around it was grass and a part of the nearby tree’s roots. I could also see how the tree casted a shadow all around the patch of dirt but allowed light onto just the patch of dirt and on one side extending out of the shadow.

 As I got closer an kneeled down I was able to see more. I could see a small light gray bug, so small and round I couldn’t see it’s head. I watched it for a bit as it darted around very quickly and eventually it ran off to another place. I could also see that there were a bunch of tiny pieces of branches scattered in and around the edges of the patch of dirt. One of them I could now see had a hole going into the branch from one side, large enough to fit the small bug I saw earlier inside. 

When I got even closer, laying down on my belly, I could see little pebbles, bits of tree seeds, and small grains that resembled sand. I could also now see some ants that were so similar in color to the dirt that I was unable to see them at all from my kneeling position. In fact, I could still hardly see them. Only when they moved was it noticeable. In addition to the ants, I could see the small details in the flora. Patterns and textures were visible now. I could also see hints of purple or yellow on the tips of grass seeds. After some more observation I began to notice that the elevation in the dirt path was a decent bit lower than the surrounding areas covered in crass. I then noticed that there was moss and other plant life underneath a chip of wood, and looked up at the nearby tree to see if it was where the wood chip came from. When I saw the tree it was covered in quite a lot of moss, and satisfied my thought that the chip of wood was from the tree. By looking closely at this patch of dirt, I was able to determine some things that have happened in the past and was able to determine what those happenings originated from. Through close observation a story can be told with no words.