Piitaiki'somm 10, 3rd quarter (2026)

I visited my phenology site for about an hour this evening. Made a false start as I decided upon encountering icy conditions to go back for my cleats. The first thing that struck me was how different the evening light is from the morning light. I almost never visit in the evening, though I recall often going for walks in the evening when I was in my late teens and early twenties, and the evening light reminded my of that.

The next things that struck me was the density of plant matter on the hardened (partially melted and refrozen) surface of the snow. Stillness prevailed while I was on my walk, but we had experienced strong winds earlier in the day, especially in the morning. I noticed spruce tips with needles, spruce twigs without needles, red spruce needles, spruce cones, bits of spruce bark, and poplar bark, poplar twigs, and maple samaras making up the majority of the mix. One large spruce had clearly toppled earlier in the day, and was lying roughly parallel to the gravel trail, with a plenny of broken off twigs, sticks, and branches surrounding the trunk like a shadow. I wondered what it might feel like to have one's orientation in the world suddenly and irreversible transformed in such a manner, after having remained upright and rooted in one place for decades.

I heard a few chickadees making only the first half of the "chicka-dee" call, and a few magpies before things quitened down. Though the temperature was below freezing, the creek was flowing unhampered by any ice after yesterday's ten degrees above.