Sunday, January 20th
Impressed with what everyone observed about their diorama. Identifying trees and pinpointing the causes of changes in the landscape. Discussed hobbies over dinner – lighthearted. Played Egyptian ratscrew, mafia, spoons.
Monday, January 21st
Long walk. Saw mouse tunnels. Learned about the purpose of the farm at Harvard Forest – to see how the land changes. Practiced identifying first and second generation tree growth like that we observed in the dioramas. Had free time to walk around field and observe quietly. I found a chrysalis and a mouse shelter. We saw land that Harvard Forest is buying and learned about its mission to protect the areas around the forest since they influence the forest itself. Met Harvard cows. Walked on marsh and ate fermented cranberries. Slid. Identified plants. Found British Red Coats, saw Leather Leaf. Saw moose/deer exclosures. Practiced tree identification. Red Maple, Ash – parallel twig growth vs. staggered. White pines. Beeches. Deirdre collected yellow birch for tea that we ate Tuesday night.
Afternoon. Met up with people tagging and measuring trees for 30 year study. Such an intense, detailed job. One tree in a stand of something else. Really have to be alert. Then Core extraction. Lasted a long time. Ate dirt. Laughed at one another – messy. Went 525 centimeters = 15,000 years. Glacial period. Took four hours. Hands froze, couldn’t curl fingers. We were all entranced the whole time though. Amazed at color variations. Gurgling bog. Squishy frozenness. Had to wait to analyze core until Wednesday.
Leopold. Discussed land ethic. I was impressed at his mistakes – gave me hope. Shared stories of our strongest, earliest nature memory. Touching.
Tuesday, January 22nd
Lots of questions about Adelgid. Brainstorming solutions. What makes wings grow? How could we help the trees generate stronger defenses – make stronger trees. Interest in things community can do – no birdhosues in hemlocks. Looked at branches outside. So many adelgid it was like snow on the branches. It was sad. No needles inside of the branches – just on the outside. Also saw scale. Looked at parasites under the microscope. Saw tube coming out from stomach to feed from tree. One’s leg was moving. Can’t believe they continue functioning in such cold weather. Too bad it doesn’t get as cold here anymore. Trees might get more resistant…or at least their progress would be slowed.
Got to see weirs and try to figure out how to measure water flow. Learned about geometry and equations for water height through spillway. Saw warmed land plots where research was done. Climbed prospect hill tower. Stunning on top of 100 feet with hemlock forest at eye level. Built 8 years ago and was above canopy, now in it. Amazing how quickly they grew. I wanted to be a bird and fly through sparkles. Sparkles more in winter because needles are clean. Howled like wolves on tower. Scientists were so fun. Answered great questions and shared information about carbon release and uptake and how it balances out usually. Saw equipment used to analyze chemicals in air and the purifiers that send just those molecules into the electronic readers. Learned about symbiotic relationship between microbes on trees’ roots and how the trees release sugar to feed them then they die and feed tree.
Amazing discussion about fixing foster care and education. In dining hall until 7:30 – got there at 5:30. We closed the place up. “We belong.” Discussed value of differing opinions.
Saad’s birthday. Brownie plate at lunch with burner. Chocolate cake with lightbulb at night. Spoons, human pyramid, twister.
Wednesday, January 23rd
Learned about Foster’s work on accessible scientific literature. Courage of he and peers to publish conservation/martha’s vineyard book. Drew faust’s support. “special place” Cecilia. Looked at core extracts. Laughed about sparkles, leprauchans, tacos, etc. Seriously, learned about and saw movement through time from lake to grasses to shrubs to trees. Identified similar seeds within 500 years of each other. Saw some bug legs, spores, etc. Great note-taking and practice with microscopes and analysis. Had to think of descriptive words. Went through most of our pre lunch break. Had such a good time we didn’t want to stop. So involved we still have a couple samples we could analyze.
Lunch: Read our favorite poem allowed. Brief discussion.
Lit analysis with Clarisse. Shared new insights with one another. Fun to hear each other’s perspectives and think about the purpose of the writing. Thoreau vs. Bryson. Nature poems vs. poems about people with the land.
Went home and wrote. Some outside with hot coco, many drank tea. Peaceful.
Dinner: Ate and continued to write.
Workshopped each other’s writing with Clarisse. Short stories, poems, factual analysis. Great variety. Highly supportive environment. Lots of snapping. Left with a safe feeling. Everyone felt supported and did beautiful work. Nice to see evidence of learning in some of the writings – drawing on info about settlers to the area etc.
Came home and worked on website design. Nice conversation about religion and extraterrestrial life’s effect on conservative Christians etc.
Thursday, January 24th
Enjoyed talking with Elizabeth before class. Inspiring that she was told she didn’t have talent but she’s amazing. Beautiful combination of expertise and approachability. Laughed a lot with ten second drawing times – she posed for us. She brought in amazing trinkets, turtle shell, wood, seed pod. Passed around her journal. Moved up to one minute of drawing time, then 5 minutes. Felt like an eternity. Impressed by talent in class. We kept drawing after we were dismissed. Drawing plants from around Forest Admin building (Shaler Hall).
Lunch: discussed home and garden improvements, the animal we would freeze as a baby if we could.
Discussed picture taking techniques with Roberto. Depth. Contrast. Angles. Getting on level. Closer tends to be better. Took pictures of each other from low angle, high angle, and unexpected angle. Met up, headed outside to take pictures. Met up in classroom and viewed one another’s pictures on large screen. Commented and offered constructive advice. Genuinely impressed with talent.
Dinner:
Discussed video techniques. Saw Roberto’s videos. Moved. Poetry in motion (magic hour). Practiced by interviewing one another. Conscious of angle, background, audio quality. Concluded with talking about moving during video.
He answered questions about his work and what inspired him to focus on landscape. Ironically, writing and history.
We went home, finished off group game. Sat in living room and added each other on FB. Asked about FB photos. Had lots of snacks – beautiful table setting. Saad did nice fruit plate. Some ppl read or worked, some joked, etc. Nice mix.
Friday, January 25th
Wrote our favorite villages, roads, and cities. Interesting lecture. Such a well-educated man. Learned about pods and movement patterns.
Went to Petersham and learned about sense of community. The influence nearby water has on town’s size. Elementary school as indicator of town’s vitality. Laughed. Saw snow elephant, took pictures from hill – experimenting with angles. Identified septic systems and how to use those to predict water level (4 foot rule). Used type of houses to infer income level – moderately high. Saw cat tails and (non-native plant). Saw beaver dams and fox footprints.
Ate lunch with Forman.
Went to Gardner area. Discussed guard rails on highways and their effects on animal movement. Discussed traffic noise. Identified silt deposits, beaver-dammed drainage systems. Saw wind mills that power community college. Discussed re-using buildings (factory – apartments). Saw seagulls. Saw tree chewed by porcupine. Learned to infer past landscape by tree growth – wide branches near tree’s base = open land when it was growing (100 years ago or so). Stopped at mill restaurant and laughed at seagulls and ducks eating. Cute. Identified eco-friendly bridge that allows for animal movement.
Returned to Shaler. Discussed forest types out of windows as driving. Played orange Cadillac. In building, drew improvements for cities or towns we saw that day or others we knew of. Commended and critiqued oen another’s plans.
Packed up.
Closing dinner. Clarisse distributed t-shirts. Green was popular color. Held it up in front of ourselves and laughed about which ones we liked, comments we gave on color’s influence on skin tone & features etc.
At dinner, heard Forman’s cool stories about bears, Yosemite, remote roads. Discussed our favorite parts of the trip – what it meant to us. Said one word each that described it for us. Clarisse shared possibility for reunion.
Loaded van. Made video. Played with singing call me maybe rewrite. Drove home and played orange Cadillac with Audrey. Enjoyed connecting with her & talking about work, tv shows, games, etc. Laughed. Group hug in Harvard square. Plans to reunite.
Impressed with what everyone observed about their diorama. Identifying trees and pinpointing the causes of changes in the landscape. Discussed hobbies over dinner – lighthearted. Played Egyptian ratscrew, mafia, spoons.
Monday, January 21st
Long walk. Saw mouse tunnels. Learned about the purpose of the farm at Harvard Forest – to see how the land changes. Practiced identifying first and second generation tree growth like that we observed in the dioramas. Had free time to walk around field and observe quietly. I found a chrysalis and a mouse shelter. We saw land that Harvard Forest is buying and learned about its mission to protect the areas around the forest since they influence the forest itself. Met Harvard cows. Walked on marsh and ate fermented cranberries. Slid. Identified plants. Found British Red Coats, saw Leather Leaf. Saw moose/deer exclosures. Practiced tree identification. Red Maple, Ash – parallel twig growth vs. staggered. White pines. Beeches. Deirdre collected yellow birch for tea that we ate Tuesday night.
Afternoon. Met up with people tagging and measuring trees for 30 year study. Such an intense, detailed job. One tree in a stand of something else. Really have to be alert. Then Core extraction. Lasted a long time. Ate dirt. Laughed at one another – messy. Went 525 centimeters = 15,000 years. Glacial period. Took four hours. Hands froze, couldn’t curl fingers. We were all entranced the whole time though. Amazed at color variations. Gurgling bog. Squishy frozenness. Had to wait to analyze core until Wednesday.
Leopold. Discussed land ethic. I was impressed at his mistakes – gave me hope. Shared stories of our strongest, earliest nature memory. Touching.
Tuesday, January 22nd
Lots of questions about Adelgid. Brainstorming solutions. What makes wings grow? How could we help the trees generate stronger defenses – make stronger trees. Interest in things community can do – no birdhosues in hemlocks. Looked at branches outside. So many adelgid it was like snow on the branches. It was sad. No needles inside of the branches – just on the outside. Also saw scale. Looked at parasites under the microscope. Saw tube coming out from stomach to feed from tree. One’s leg was moving. Can’t believe they continue functioning in such cold weather. Too bad it doesn’t get as cold here anymore. Trees might get more resistant…or at least their progress would be slowed.
Got to see weirs and try to figure out how to measure water flow. Learned about geometry and equations for water height through spillway. Saw warmed land plots where research was done. Climbed prospect hill tower. Stunning on top of 100 feet with hemlock forest at eye level. Built 8 years ago and was above canopy, now in it. Amazing how quickly they grew. I wanted to be a bird and fly through sparkles. Sparkles more in winter because needles are clean. Howled like wolves on tower. Scientists were so fun. Answered great questions and shared information about carbon release and uptake and how it balances out usually. Saw equipment used to analyze chemicals in air and the purifiers that send just those molecules into the electronic readers. Learned about symbiotic relationship between microbes on trees’ roots and how the trees release sugar to feed them then they die and feed tree.
Amazing discussion about fixing foster care and education. In dining hall until 7:30 – got there at 5:30. We closed the place up. “We belong.” Discussed value of differing opinions.
Saad’s birthday. Brownie plate at lunch with burner. Chocolate cake with lightbulb at night. Spoons, human pyramid, twister.
Wednesday, January 23rd
Learned about Foster’s work on accessible scientific literature. Courage of he and peers to publish conservation/martha’s vineyard book. Drew faust’s support. “special place” Cecilia. Looked at core extracts. Laughed about sparkles, leprauchans, tacos, etc. Seriously, learned about and saw movement through time from lake to grasses to shrubs to trees. Identified similar seeds within 500 years of each other. Saw some bug legs, spores, etc. Great note-taking and practice with microscopes and analysis. Had to think of descriptive words. Went through most of our pre lunch break. Had such a good time we didn’t want to stop. So involved we still have a couple samples we could analyze.
Lunch: Read our favorite poem allowed. Brief discussion.
Lit analysis with Clarisse. Shared new insights with one another. Fun to hear each other’s perspectives and think about the purpose of the writing. Thoreau vs. Bryson. Nature poems vs. poems about people with the land.
Went home and wrote. Some outside with hot coco, many drank tea. Peaceful.
Dinner: Ate and continued to write.
Workshopped each other’s writing with Clarisse. Short stories, poems, factual analysis. Great variety. Highly supportive environment. Lots of snapping. Left with a safe feeling. Everyone felt supported and did beautiful work. Nice to see evidence of learning in some of the writings – drawing on info about settlers to the area etc.
Came home and worked on website design. Nice conversation about religion and extraterrestrial life’s effect on conservative Christians etc.
Thursday, January 24th
Enjoyed talking with Elizabeth before class. Inspiring that she was told she didn’t have talent but she’s amazing. Beautiful combination of expertise and approachability. Laughed a lot with ten second drawing times – she posed for us. She brought in amazing trinkets, turtle shell, wood, seed pod. Passed around her journal. Moved up to one minute of drawing time, then 5 minutes. Felt like an eternity. Impressed by talent in class. We kept drawing after we were dismissed. Drawing plants from around Forest Admin building (Shaler Hall).
Lunch: discussed home and garden improvements, the animal we would freeze as a baby if we could.
Discussed picture taking techniques with Roberto. Depth. Contrast. Angles. Getting on level. Closer tends to be better. Took pictures of each other from low angle, high angle, and unexpected angle. Met up, headed outside to take pictures. Met up in classroom and viewed one another’s pictures on large screen. Commented and offered constructive advice. Genuinely impressed with talent.
Dinner:
Discussed video techniques. Saw Roberto’s videos. Moved. Poetry in motion (magic hour). Practiced by interviewing one another. Conscious of angle, background, audio quality. Concluded with talking about moving during video.
He answered questions about his work and what inspired him to focus on landscape. Ironically, writing and history.
We went home, finished off group game. Sat in living room and added each other on FB. Asked about FB photos. Had lots of snacks – beautiful table setting. Saad did nice fruit plate. Some ppl read or worked, some joked, etc. Nice mix.
Friday, January 25th
Wrote our favorite villages, roads, and cities. Interesting lecture. Such a well-educated man. Learned about pods and movement patterns.
Went to Petersham and learned about sense of community. The influence nearby water has on town’s size. Elementary school as indicator of town’s vitality. Laughed. Saw snow elephant, took pictures from hill – experimenting with angles. Identified septic systems and how to use those to predict water level (4 foot rule). Used type of houses to infer income level – moderately high. Saw cat tails and (non-native plant). Saw beaver dams and fox footprints.
Ate lunch with Forman.
Went to Gardner area. Discussed guard rails on highways and their effects on animal movement. Discussed traffic noise. Identified silt deposits, beaver-dammed drainage systems. Saw wind mills that power community college. Discussed re-using buildings (factory – apartments). Saw seagulls. Saw tree chewed by porcupine. Learned to infer past landscape by tree growth – wide branches near tree’s base = open land when it was growing (100 years ago or so). Stopped at mill restaurant and laughed at seagulls and ducks eating. Cute. Identified eco-friendly bridge that allows for animal movement.
Returned to Shaler. Discussed forest types out of windows as driving. Played orange Cadillac. In building, drew improvements for cities or towns we saw that day or others we knew of. Commended and critiqued oen another’s plans.
Packed up.
Closing dinner. Clarisse distributed t-shirts. Green was popular color. Held it up in front of ourselves and laughed about which ones we liked, comments we gave on color’s influence on skin tone & features etc.
At dinner, heard Forman’s cool stories about bears, Yosemite, remote roads. Discussed our favorite parts of the trip – what it meant to us. Said one word each that described it for us. Clarisse shared possibility for reunion.
Loaded van. Made video. Played with singing call me maybe rewrite. Drove home and played orange Cadillac with Audrey. Enjoyed connecting with her & talking about work, tv shows, games, etc. Laughed. Group hug in Harvard square. Plans to reunite.