nrotondo2's Journal

For this week's nature walk, I decided to head down to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. With midterms the past week, papers, and a lot of assignments couple with working on campus, I found myself being extremely stressed and also realized that my stress got in the way of me realizing this assignment was due today and not Friday (like last week)! Despite this being a few hours late, I used this nature walk to relax and wind down for the extended weekend I have coming up and to reconnect with myself and nature. Today (10/6/22) was an unseasonably beautiful day. 72 degrees (F) and sunny, with not a single cloud out, it was a nice change from the long week of windy, rainy weather. I started my walk with a cardinal flying overhead which gave me a sense of relief and that everything was going to work out. For the past 12 years, cardinals have become a symbol in my life of my late Nonna that passed away. Her favorite animal being cardinals and coming from an urban area of New Jersey where seeing cardinals are far and few between, I take increased notice in when I see them and like to think its her flying by to tell me everything will be ok :). As I walked through the reservoir path, I noticed that there wasn't alot of fungi like mushrooms that I expected to see on the damp day. Although it was warm today, there was still alot of water sitting from the previous days of rainfall so I expected there to but lots of fungi. I mainly noticed different forms of fungi growing on oak trees, or moss that were growing on the stones along the path, but it wasn't until I started heading back to my dorm when I cut through some a neighborhood adjacent to campus that I saw different forms of mushrooms growing on people's lawn! It was interesting to see the various forms of fungi in the local surroundings and it made me think about how closely related all these types of fungi are, and what it would look like on a phylogenetic tree. I really appreciated this week's nature walk, despite being stressed out for missing the deadline, and know now to relax a little more during exam weeks, and keep better track of tasks throughout the week.

For my 3rd Nature Walk, I went back to the Pine Tree Preserve next to campus. With the changing weather and cold fall temperatures starting to set in and become the new normal, I decided it would be interesting to take a look at the vegetation and plant life at the preserve to see how much it has changed since I went there at the beginning of the semester when it was still summer time. I was shocked to see within the span of two months how quick the plants have changed due to the cooler weather. The full oak, birch, and maples that I observed earlier in the semester were beginning to lose all of their leaves, as the pines were still holding their needles, which is expected from these species of plants. This also made me think about how fast this semester has been going by which was another surprising thought. Out of the 4 major plant groups: Bryophyta, Polypodiopsida, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms, I was able to identify all except for Bryophyta on my nature walk this week. Although it was cold out, the air was dry and not a lot of moisture was present in the air which makes sense as to why I didn't seem to find any mosses that are typical of Bryophyta. This nature walk was extremely peaceful to go on as the seasonal stress of midterms being right around the corning is starting to sink in and it gave me the peace of mind to relax a little, soak in the world around me, and refocus on the things important in life.