Week #2

For this weeks phrenology visit, I went at night to get a sense of what my place was like at a different time of day. Being in the woods at night is always a really amazing experience and the contrast of stepping off the well light street and onto the dark path was intense. Since it was so dark I didn’t really focus on specific things I could see at my spot but instead just tried to be aware of the different mood of the forest at night. Being deprived of your main sense makes you acutely aware that you are out of your element in the forest, especially knowing that for many of the unseen creatures around you are more comfortable in the dark. It is unnerving but I also find it thrilling, a sort of return to a more primal condition, when there were things out there to be afraid of in the dark. Walking to my spot I found myself stepping carefully and as silently as possible and straining to listen to the sounds around me. In the rustle of the trees in the light wind I imagined unseen movement in the shadows around and startled at the sudden creak of a branch. My spot is in a fairly open area and as I stepped out from the tree line I saw how much my eyes had adjusted, as the snow gleamed white under the stars that seemed so much brighter than they had under the streetlights. I stood for a while at looked for constellations but I don’t really know any and only recognized Orion above the jagged tops of hemlock and pine swaying in the wind.