vidalka's Journal

Today, I didn't have a lot of time to go anywhere far so after I got tested again at conte, I just looked at things on the walk back to my dorm. It was a little chilly out but the sun shone brightly indicating that it was going to warm up. It was about 53 degrees Fahrenheit and since it was still early, there was still morning dew on some plants and grass. I observed a variety of things today from fungus to plants to animals. I was excited to see a little chipmunk sitting on a stump on my way back. I also realized that moss is everywhere. While I had known this before, it became much more apparent when I was looking for it and keeping an eye out. I also thought it was cool to see a little flowering plant that was unfamiliar; I seems like a weed but I am not sure.

Today I went hiking with my friends in a wooded area in Middlesex Fells Reservation. The day started off a little chilly but it warmed up very quickly and became a lot hotter than I was expecting. It was nice when we felt the occasional breeze. We decided to do one of the bigger loop trails but didn't finish it because we kept getting lost or distracted. My friends had once been involved in Geocaching and they said there was a box hidden in these woods. We actually did end up finding it and we wrote our names on the paper in the box. We also found some planks of wood with a sign on them that said "Active Testing Sites: please pick up the board, describe the biodiversity under it, and put it back". It seems like someone is doing some type of experiment. We also saw a couple of other hikers and their dogs. I found myself taking pictures of different plants just so I could learn the name of them. My friends thought the app was really cool as well. We saw a lot of different kinds of fungi, all of which were on decaying trees. Some have really cool colors and I often forget that. There was one that was fluorescent orange. The coolest fungi we found was something that almost looked like the shell of a beetle or like it had a leathery texture.

Today, I decided to go for a walk down beacon street and around the chestnut hill reservoir. It was nearing dusk when I first left my dorm building and there was a slight breeze. Despite the wind, it was still about 72 degrees out so goose bumps peppered my exposed arms but I was not cold. The sun was beginning to dip behind a tree line and the moon looked particularly large when it emerged later on my trip. The harvest moon is tomorrow so it will be even bigger and more orange then. I couldn't help but admire the yellow glow on all of nature from reflecting the sunset. Warm-colored leaves blanketed the ground in patches indicating that fall has not reached its peak yet. I had passed a few fungi on a past walk so I tried to find some of them again. All of the fungi I found appeared on or near a tree and most of them were on tree stumps. I also saw a few chipmunks and a lot of ducks which was cute. It was overall a very nice and calming walk.