Months as a Stream

by Caroline Schmale

September

I picked this site in September because I loved the soft stream and the old bridge, but mostly because it was a place I could sit not on the ground near my dorm. In the beginning of my work with field notes, they were an assigned walk outside and aesthetically pleasing note taking. I was excited to have a different type of homework and I spent a lot of time perfecting my exactly one page of field notes. I took field notes on a wide variety of topics this month, but I feel like what I learned most was how to look closely and respectfully at nature. Water flowed through the stream down a clear path with rocks, sticks, and a few leaves covering it. Near the rocks and sticks, the water would make bubbles as it tried to move past obstacles. By September 27^th there were 53 fallen leaves on the ground near my spot.

In September, the loudest sound at my site was the high almost shriek that summer bugs make. There were also many different sounding types of birds around my site. Every once and a while a car would drive by.

October

In October, I neglected the personal connection to my site that I had made in September. I visited my site twice in October, both times after sunset because I had so much work to do in all my classes and wasn’t prioritizing effectively. I think if I had taken the time to visit my site intentionally and during the day, it might have helped me center myself and work through the growing challenges of college. This month, more leaves fell and began to seemingly clog the stream. I know water ran through since the stream was still thin and relatively contained, but it was less flowing and babbling so much as seeping through the leaves.

November

November was the month I really connected with my site. I got a concussion the first week of November, and since walks outside and quiet contemplation were just about the only things I could do, I visited my site many times and took extra field notes this month. November was when I felt like this spot was really mine. I sat on that bridge many times beyond field notes: the night before the election for a good cry, a chilly quiet period day for a long talk with a friend, and before I left Kenyon, a partly cloudy almost warm afternoon to say goodbye to a place I knew and that knew me. I remember one of the last times I walked up to the bridge, I immediately jumped down and noticed that the bubbles were moving differently than they were the day before and I was genuinely excited. I was so excited to notice a how bubbles were floating! Because there was something different! At my little place!

By November, the leaves were dry, and the stream was clear again. There was an island almost of leaves under the bridge, but the water was still flowing around it. Maybe it was just how nice the weather was this November, but I noticed the beauty of my site more than I had been. I also noticed crawfish in the stream for the first time. I think they live under a rock I had been sketching all semester.

Something that I wondered while doing my field notes for human disturbances is how the stream is affected by the road and farms so close by. For three months I didn’t see any visual indications of human disturbance like litter or oily sheen on the water, but the highway is easily heard from this site and there are many farms in this area. Because of this increased traffic nearby I would predict that there is more particulate matter near and in the stream than if it weren’t close to a busy road (Rutledge, 2012). I would also assume that there is harmful runoff into the stream. From the highway, runoff could contain harmful chemicals from car exhaust or spilled gasoline, and from farms nearby, there could be fertilizers or pesticides in the runoff (Rutledge, 2012). I think the latter is especially likely since a farm with livestock is uphill from the stream, so rainwater would carry those pollutants directly to the stream.

References

Rutledge, K. (2012, October 09). Runoff. Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/runoff/

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