Hello everyone, my name is Paola and I am excited to start this journey into permaculture. The sit spot I chose is a spot that I have been coming to for about 4 years now. The area I chose for this assignment is the deck at the front of my home. Over the years I have enjoyed this sit spot and I've been able to become very familiar with the environment around me.
Day 1. 7/12/25: It is around 4:00PM and the clouds are partially covering the sun.Today I put my focus on the trees that surround me. It is very warm out and the wind is blowing, causing the trees to sway. The grass is very high and also shifting due to the wind and there are branches smacking together. Most of the surrounding trees are all very thin and many of them have fungi growing on the surface of the bark. Since it is the middle of summer, the leaves are a vibrant green and as I continued to watch I noticed some of the seeds spin down onto the ground. I can tell there are at least three different types of trees based on the differences in the bark, leaves, and shape. One seems to be a type of pine tree that is wide with a very rich dark green color. The other one is tall, straight, and has leaves that are oval shaped. The bark on the tree looks like scales and some are peeled off. The third tree is much shorter, thin, and the trunk is curved. The leaves are oval shaped as well but there are what seems to be three points at the ends of the leaf. As I noticed the different characteristics of the trees it made me wonder how their differences allow them to shape the environment and adapt to it.
Day 2. 7/13/25: It is 5:30PM, the weather is warm and a bit humid. It had rained last night and early this morning so the air smells dewy and there is a line on the grass from the water flowing downhill. After sitting for a few minutes I heard movement in the grass and I noticed a groundhog coming from the right side of the property. It was moving to the left side at a quick pace and then slowed down about a third of the way. It had a dark brown color with some light brown in the mix. When it got out of the tall grass I noticed that it had leaves in its mouth. It was in my line of sight until it went around to the back of my neighbors property. I predict it will probably eat the leaves or use them for their underground burrow. After a little while, I noticed one of the neighborhood cats walk across to the right side of the property. It walked along the tall grass and disappeared for a few moments but then I saw that it had climbed up and across a long fallen branch. The cat has thick fur with a mix of brown, orange, and grey in it. It got to the edge of the property and crouched along the side of the road, hiding in the grass for a while. I never ended up watching where exactly it went since I ended up going back inside my home.
Day 3. 7/15/25: It is 7:15PM and the weather is warm. It had rained again so the pit at the front of the property had filled up a bit with water. I can hear the faint sounds of crickets nearby and the sun is beginning to go down. I looked around for a while and noticed a small bunny to the right of me. I have noticed a lot more bunnies in my community this year and there is one that has been around my house for a while. It moved underneath my car to get to the side of the driveway where the grass is located. Its nose moved side to side as it munched on the small pieces of grass. After it finished eating a piece, it moved a couple steps and began eating again. As I observed it for a bit longer, I was able to watch as it rubbed the front of its face. Based on the size of the bunny, I believe it is still young and not a full adult. If I had to guess, it is a little less than half a foot in length. It ate for a while until it decided to hop away to the other side of my driveway, away from my line of sight.
Day 4. 7/16/25: It is around 4:30PM, humid, and hot. The crickets are a lot louder today and the clouds are partially blocking the sun. I can hear the sounds of what seems like two different birds chirping. One of the birds sounds like they are somewhere above me and the other seems further away. After listening and looking around for a few minutes, I noticed a small round bird fly from a tree above me to the back of the house. I began to glance at a hole in a dead tree trunk in hopes that I would see a bird fly inside. I have noticed that it is home to a bird but I have not gotten a very good look at it. I waited a while but decided to look in a different direction after being unable to spot the bird. A black bird flew into one of the trees on my neighbors property to the left of my sit spot. It was a lot bigger than the bird I had seen before and its chirp sounded deeper and less high pitched. Over the past couple of days I have also noticed a hummingbird. It had flown a few feet in front of me before flying off. It took me a second to realize what it was because it had been moving so fast. It's a mystery where exactly these birds call home and observing them has made me wonder how far they travel each day.
Day 5. 7/17/25: It is 3:30PM, warm, and windy. The water in the front of the property has dried up and there are indents in the grass that I believe came from the deer laying on it. When I went outside to sit down, a deer came out from underneath the deck. This has happened a couple of times this week and I assume that they are trying to get shade or privacy to rest for a while. The deer seemed to be an adult based on its size and fur. It walked towards the mound at the very front of the property and defected on the grass. More adult sized deer came along from the back of the property and three fawns came trotting not too far behind them. One of the fawns made a noise that I can only describe to be a bit similar to the sound a sheep makes. Two of the deer were eating grass and leaves while the other one kept walking along towards the neighbors property. All three fawns went along the side of the deck and ran towards the front of the property where they eventually split off going across the street.
Day 6. 7/18/25: It is 11:30AM, hot, and sunny. There are black ants crawling all around the deck and into the flower pots. After closer inspection I noticed one of the ants was using its front legs to wipe its antenna. A different ant crawled past me and it had the head of another ant attached to its body. The head was placed right where its middle leg should have been. It was definitely unexpected and had me wondering why it would be carrying around the head of another ant. The ants did not seem to be following in a line, instead they all went off into different directions. A few minutes later I was able to observe a butterfly that had landed on my hibiscus plant. It had blue, white, orange dots along the edges of its wings. It flew around the plant multiple times before landing on one of the petals. Its antennas moved around, touching the plant in different areas. It fluttered its wings a few more times on top of the petal and then flew away. I did not see it again after that.
Day 7. 7/19/25: It is 4:00PM and the clouds are covering the sky. It rained earlier in the day so the air smells like wet grass and it feels chilly. The logs along the side of the property are moist and there are droplets on the leaves. I glanced at the log wall for a while and noticed there is white fungi growing on most of them. There is also green moss or fungi growing on the trunks of the trees as well. The way the moss is spread out on the bark makes it look like mold growing on a piece of bread. Laying on the grass is a cut log that also has fungi growing on it but it looks different then the rest of them. It seems flatter and the body of it is beige with streaks of white. Observing all of the fungi and moss makes me wonder about the amount of water they are retaining in order to grow. The area does flood in multiple spots so I question if the extended time it takes for the water to evaporate allows the fungi to thrive.
