Week One

Sunday: April 6, 2014
6:19 pm
Overcast, 59 degrees
Ravenna Park Boulder

            Today is my first entry for the blog that will be recording my observations of the surrounding in Ravenna Park Seattle. I will use the Erratic boulder that is in the park and is surrounded by a wood bridge and a trail that deviates from the main trail through the heart of the park. The stream running through the park is about half full at this time as you can see from the bank lines where it flows when it is all the way full and you can smell the blooming flowers of spring and hear the birds calling. I hear at least 4 distinct birds and their calls not including the crow and the woodpecker that are nearby making a ruckus. This being my first entry I do not know exactly what to look or listen for but i will just do my best to observe.
           There are a good number of mosquitoes and gnats around since i am near the stream as well as lots of people walking/running through the park. Some little kids came by and were jumping off the rock and that combined with the sounds and the smells around me reminded me of when i was a young kid and i would go on adventures in the woods. I used to be an avid mountain biker and hiker as well as spending time in the woods walking my dogs, so being in Ravenna is nice but it still feels very exposed to the city. Hearing so many people and airplanes and even the distant car even in the middle of the park it makes it quite apparent that you are near the city and by a residential area.
          On the rock face there is moss and some fungi growing, it is all damp with moisture and looks to be healthy. The ground around the base of the rock is saturated with water form the recent rains of the last few weeks. There is some english ivy and native blackberry and some sword ferns also present at the base of the rock, in addition to many dead leaves left from the winter and fall. A child's flip flop is dropped about 20 feet away its bright pink and blue suggesting that a young girl would have worn it, the rock that i am sitting on is cool and damp from the air around and the whiteness of the paper in my journal stands out and looks as sterile and unnatural as the flip flop and is blindingly night in comparison to my surroundings.
          The ripple of the creek is a slow and steady gurgle and is refreshing and a nice sound that almost counteracts the noise of the construction in the distance. Overall I feel awkward and out of place as if sitting in nature is an act far out of the ordinary for the passerby's that give me interesting glares. I feel dwarfed by the massive evergreen trees and the old maples, many of which are already on the verge of blooming as is made apparent by their large nearly neon green buds with pink highlights. Their is a tree to my left with white and pinkish leaves and i have never seen one of these before so I look forward to trying to figure out what kind it is. Also and lastly there is a significant amount of woody debris near the base of the rock that sit in the sandy bottom of the creek, the look natural but the large lump of concrete next to them is obviously not.