growland's Journal

This was our last day in the field. It was sunnier and a little warmer than previous days, which was very nice. It was still very, very wet though, but one of my lab partners were nice enough to give me a piggy-back ride across the flooded walkway.
By the time we reached our biocube, two ticks had been found climbing on my pants; a male and a female. I put them both in a small container to bring to the tick lab for testing. Before we left the farm, I would find two more ticks on me- one on my hand, and one on my chest- and the ones in my container would be mating.
A lot of our time would be taken up with videos for our project, but there was still moments of peace and quiet in between. Moss was springing up among the wet leaves. Small ferns and shrubs climbed from the damp mud. A bright red insect scaled a small sapling. All around me, new life was beginning. Plants, insects- there were sounds of birds in the fields and forest.
I'll miss Foxcroft Farm. It's a beautiful place, with lots of different animals and ecosystems. I really enjoyed walking across the fields and forests, even when it was cold, even when it was soaking wet. I'll always love being in nature.
Even though I came across far too many ticks during this lab, it's only emphasized how much I love being out in the field. I know I'll always look back fondly on this lab.

It's been raining on and off, so the ground is over saturated and there are standing puddles. My boots are designed for wet and mud, but this is a little over the top- my socks are soaked. I can hear the water sloshing in my shoes, as well as my partners' shoes.
There's life in the little puddles, however. I spotted a tiny spider that seemed to dance over the surface of the water and, despite its diminutive stature, spun to face me as soon as I crouched by it. I'm sure it was preparing to fight me if I came too close.
I also spotted a little meadow slug, dark brown in the shade and lighter brown in the sunlight, and sat still as it crawled over my boot. Some of the organisms really don't care what we are, do they? It doesn't matter that we're humans, or how big we are, or what we look like- to some, we're an enemy or predator, and to others we are just an obstacle in their way.
I almost sat in a patch of thistle. This has happened far too many times in my life, so I should know better than to just sit on something that's green, but that's just how life is sometimes. Painful. Luckily, I avoided it- I took a picture and moved on to a sturdy looking stick on the ground. It promptly broke as soon as I sat down, but again, that's just how life is.
I stood in the middle of a few trees a fair distance from my group this time. I just stood there, listening to the little peepers peeping and birds chirping. The wind was quite strong, and made the trees and barbed wire squeak where they rubbed together. I can't help but notice how some of the trees have grown around the barbed wire until it's embedded in them; it would do more harm than good to try and remove it, at this point. Sometimes I feel like that- like the barbed wire. Like I've just grown in this little space I occupy that I don't belong in at all, and everyone has just gotten used to me and grown around me. It'd be too much trouble to change that now.

The ground is wet and a little cold. The wind whistles through the thin, bare trees around me. I can smell decaying leaves and warming mud. The sun is too weak to reach me. Birds sing and hop from branch to branch, avoiding me and my group and watching with beady eyes. They wonder what we’re doing, when we’ll be gone. We don’t belong.
Someone goes jogging by on the walkway near us. I wonder what they’re thinking- do they see some teenage punks who should be in school messing around in the woods? Do they think we live in the area? Do they not even notice?
Mud is smeared on my jeans and boots. I know my dogs will smell it on me when I return home; I wish they were with me, because my yellow labrador Ellie loves the woods and water. She’s a hunting dog, and would love to run through the fields and chase the birds. My beagle, Agnes, has never been in the woods before. She’d probably be terrified of everything.
It smells nice out here. Crisp and cold, but there’s the scent of warming air. I know spring is here, but it’ll take a while yet for the buds and flowers to appear. I miss spring and summer, with life everywhere you look. I like looking.