Beautiful Colors

Green, green and green is all that you see during summer. But Autumn has came along and everything changes. At least this was my mind set. I wanted to see the changes fast but that wasn't happening. But this week I really enjoyed being outside and observing. I finally saw the changes I wanted to see. There are so many beautiful colors all over the place. Either still on the trees or on the ground. I'm very excited to say that my apple tree is finally changing color. The leaves aren't all changed but there's many of them that are yellow. My apple tree took the longest to change color and honestly I was getting so impatient and frustrated because I wasn't seeing any changes with my apple tree. I was getting inpatient. I tried to research the reason for this but nothing came up. I'm thinking the reason for this is because my apple tree actually grew many apples and my other two fruit trees didn't grow anything but leaves. Below is a picture of my apple tree's leaves.

(Picture taken by Allison Sandoval)

                                   

My apple tree's leaves weren't the only ones changing. There are many other plant's leaves that are changing as well. A couple weeks ago those leaves were absolutely green and I just couldn't wait to see a change. Behind my apple tree is where they are located and they creep into my yard from my neighbor's yard. They are a orangey, redish color. But they stand out like no other. I'm not sure what kind of tree these leaves belong to because like I already said they come from my neighbors yard(I'm glad I have some of there leaves in my yard). Below is a picture of these leaves.

(Picture taken by Allison Sandoval)

                                       

 

My mother's roses used to be a pure red color. Now they are changing into maybe a little black and red. Most of the petals are falling off and this process took a very long time. Why does everything take so long? I just get really frustrated because I wish the changes would be fast.

Below is a picture of my mother's roses.

(Picture taken by Allison Sandoval)

                                

There is more beauty in my backyard. There is a tree that has been planted by my father for about a year now. I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but all I know is that it grows many green leaves that are now various colors of yellow. Most of them are on the ground now but I think this looks so beautiful. I love seeing different colored leaves all over the place. It just gives everything the Autumn feel. But why does it all take so long?

(Picture taken by Allison Sandoval)

                                 

After observing this week I noticed that I need to have patience to see the beautiful colors in Autumn. Autumn isn't my favorite season but it sure is amazing. The leaves falling from the trees, the red, yellow and orange colors everywhere, rose petals falling. All this I find beautiful. But for this to happen it took a while. I guess patience is what I need to have. I advice everyone to stay calm and have patience because everything is worth it in the end.

                              

Noticing Something

It's getting colder and colder by the day. My apple tree leaves are mostly all still there but some are slowly falling off. The other tree's and plant's leaves around my apple tree are yellow and orange. It's beginning to rain more and the dirt feels cool and moist. The sky looks cloudy and gloomy more often. But this week as I sat under my apple tree I noticed something that I haven't been paying attention to my whole life. Something that can be seen anywhere in the world. Something that shines so bright. Something so magical. Something that one day can look like a banana and the other like a half pizza. But it gets better, it can be a whole pizza too! "What is this something she's talking about?", many of you might be asking themselves. Well this something is the Moon. After watching the moon change shape I started wondering why this happens. I found out on the website of Grid Club that the reason this happens is because half of the Moon that points toward the Sun looks bright because it is lit by sunlight. The Moon appears to change shape because we see different amounts of the lit part as the Moon orbits Earth. When the Moon is between Earth and the Sun, the lit side is hidden from us. After reading this I remembered there was some days that when the Moon wasn't fully there I could actually see the outline of the Moon. It was like an invisible curved line. Below is a picture I found online that shows the Moon's phases.

(Picture found on the website of planetforkids.org)

 

After researching this more questions came to my mind so I kept researching and I came upon the website of Nine Planets. Here I learned a lot of interesting facts like the moon is Called Luna by the Romans, Selene and Artemis by the Greeks, and many other names in other mythologies. Also that the Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. The moon is such an interesting "something." There is much to learn about the moon than I thought. If you would like to know more visit the website of http://nineplanets.org/luna.html

Below Are some pictures I took of My Own.

(Picture Taken By Allison)

(Picture Taken By Allison)

 In all my sixteen years of living not once have I observed or even became close to being curious about the moon. I always saw the moon as just something else in this world. But it's actually more important than I thought. Observing my apple tree has brought me to discover other great things. I need to start paying more attention to my surroundings because I've noticed that every week I get into observing some new that I never paid any kind attention to. I would like to advice everyone to see a little closer and observe a "something." Good luck Everyone!                            

                        

Work Cited

"The Moon." Nine Planets. N.p. n.d. Web. 2 November 2014

The Unseen

This week as I was observing I realized that I try too hard to focus on a big change that I don't let myself enjoy nature's little things. I don't let myself think outside the box. Everyday I go outside and look around expecting a huge change with my apple tree or it's surroundings. I have been observing for a couple weeks now and I realized there's things I don't pay attention to. I usually observe what I can see. But what about the things you can not exactly see? But only hear and feel. When trees and different plants sway from side to side it's usually because there is wind. That's the only way we really know there is wind because it can not be seen. I never pay attention to wind. Wind is just wind, Right? Well wrong. One day as I was observing, the sky was cloudy and the sun was hidden. It was pretty cold, I could hear the whistling sound of wind and I could see how fast the trees were moving back and forth. Suddenly I became very curious about the wind. I asked myself "What causes wind?" So I started doing some research on the website of Weather Wiz Kids and I found out that wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure. When a difference in atmospheric pressure exists, air moves from the higher to the lower pressure area, resulting in winds of various speeds. On a rotating planet, air will also be deflected by the Coriolis effect, except exactly on the equator. I was amazed that I thought the wind is something very simple. But in reality it is much more than I expected. I kept researching and reading more and more about the wind and I found out that there are many kinds of wind like a downburst, a jet stream, a monsoon and many others. I thought wind was just wind. I didn't think that the speed or the amount of wind really mattered. To me it was all the same. Just wind. To learn more about the wind and the many kinds of wind visit the website of http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-wind.htm
Below is a video of the wind that I took while observing.
 

 

Things that are not seen and only felt and heard are as important as things that are seen, felt, and heard. We try to focus on things that are right in front of us because those are the things that are the most obvious and we know are there for sure. This reminds me of the so called thing, love. I'm not a expert and I don't claim to know everything about love but I do know that love is something that can only be felt. You can't see love just like you can't see wind. Observing has taught me to think outside the box. Some of us never pay attention to the unseen. But from now on I will try to keep an open mind and I recommend everyone to do so as well.

 



                                                       Work Cited

 Wicker, Crystal. "Wind." Weather Wiz Kids. N.p. n.d. Web. 26 October 2014

Changes

People, plants, animals, weather and everything changes in a way. This week I realized that things can change in just seconds. One day it can be "this" and the next day it can be totally different and be "that." Sometimes I don't quite understand why things change but they do and either like it or not I try to see the good and appreciate the beauty of those changes. Just a couple weeks ago my apple tree was filled with red apples and the leaves were a beautiful darkish green. The days that I have been going to do my observations I thought that this wouldn't change any time soon since my tree has been the same for a while but I was completely wrong. In about a week my apple tree had only a couple of apples. The rest are on the ground all dried up and they are getting eaten. I noticed that birds eat my apples because one day that I was out observing there was a bird eating them. I wanted to take a picture but when I took out my phone the bird flew away. My apple tree has now begun to change little by little. I'm excited too see how my tree is going to continue to change. My prediction is that it will lose all it's leaves. But I will continue to observe to find out. Below Is a picture of how the apples are becoming to look.

(Taken By Allison) 10/19/14


 But my apple tree isn't the only tree that is changing. Very close to my apple tree is my pear tree. This is a weird tree because every year it grows leaves but it never grows pears. I wonder why this happens. Well the pear tree was full of beautiful green leaves just like my apple tree. But little by little, as the days pass by the leaves became to fall and some way they disappear. The tree is now almost completely out of leaves. There are still some leaves that continue to hang on but there isn't very many. I think it's beautiful how this happens. This process reminds me of a snake. A snake's skin falls completely off and then it grows a new one. The tree is pretty similar because the tree grows leaves, loses the leaves and grows them again. Down below is a picture of how my pear tree looks now.

(Taken by Allison) 10/19/14

 

I also noticed a small tree that grows tiny purplish, bluish berries changing. The color of the leaves are changing. Before all the leaves were green and now they are red, orange, yellow and some leaves still remain green. Down below is a picture of the berry tree.

(Taken by Allison) 10/19/14

After seeing all these leaves changing I asked myself "Why do leaves change color?" Well I did some research and I discovered that the reason why that the color of leaves change is because of a mixture of red, purple, orange, and yellow result from chemical processes that take place in the tree as the seasons change from summer to winter. There are four leaf pigments that are responsible for leaf color and it's changes in autumn which are chlorophylls, carotenoids, tannins, and anthocyanins. To learn more about this visit the website of  http://www.butler.edu/herbarium/fallcolor/leaveschange.htm Changes can be very beautiful. Nature is full of surprises and we just need to appreciate the changes.

Life

Little by little things start to dissapear, they start to get old, and they might even get damaged. I'm talking about material things or in this case the apples on my tree and on the ground. My apples were one day a beautiful flower and they grew to be this big red round thing that we all call an apple. They usually stay like that for a long time. Some apples fall to the ground and I realized that those apples little by little start to dry up, get eaten and some way just dissapear. There also are apples on my tree that aren't even apples any more. They are more dried up than anything and they lose their round shape. They also get kind of yellowish. This reminded me of how we humans are. We start off as babies, little by little we grow and then one day we all sadly have to dissapear. I realized that this is a life cycle that all living things go through. It's crazy and amazing how all this happens. I took a picture of how a perfectly round red apple looks  and a picture of how a dried up apple looks and it's actually a huge difference. These pictures are below.

       (Taken By Allison) 10/11/14

    (Taken By Allison) 10/11/14

I been realizing that when I observe closely I actually realize the little things in life. My apple tree isn't just a apple tree, it's much more than that. My apples aren't just apples, they are much more than that. I always saw things with such simplicity and when I would hear the word "Life" I never stopped to think everything that word includes. "Life" isn't just a word, it is much more than that.

Looking Closely

We as people sometimes don't pay attention to the little things in life. it's like we see but we actually don't see. We see things everyday but most of us don't stop to look closely and observe. We might think that since it's something so small it might not be important but we're wrong. Everything in life is important and everything has a purpose, even the smallest things because we all hold a place in this world. One day as I was sitting under my apple tree observing I noticed something moving in the dirt. As I got closer I realized there was hundreds of black ants running around. I was so amazed because I thought that they might not be able to carry much because of their size. But I was wrong because a lot of the ants were carrying something. I'm thinking it was probably food. These little things run so quickly and they seem to travel as a group. To learn more about ants visit the website of

http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/a/10-cool-facts-about-ants.htm

Also I took a video of the ants running around which is below.

 

Another thing that I found fascinating was that my apple tree has little slanted lines all over it. It's crazy because I have had this tree for years in my backyard and I have never noticed this. It's as if the tree has it's own little design. It almost seems like someone came and actually did that on the tree. Below are some pictures of the design.

(Both Photos Taken By Allison) 9/5/14

It's amazing all the great things we can all find in even the smallest things. This world is made out of so much that has not been discovered. So see a little closer, hear a little better, smell and feel and we can all find something that has not been discovered. 

Exploring

This week has been full of lots of amazing things. I never thought that I would discover so many things with observing my apple tree for 10 minutes.  I noticed many things like the apples on the ground are starting to dry up and they are getting smaller and smaller by the day. There's many holes on the apples so I realized that there's bugs that eat the apples but they move so quickly when you're close to the apples that it's hard to take a good picture.

 

(Taken By Allison) 9/28/14

I have never stopped and observed at how amazing the sky could look at different types of weather. This week it was pretty smokey and it was hard to breath. It looked foggy and it didn't smell very nice at all. Although it was foggy the sky wasn't filled with many clouds. One day that I was out doing my observations I realized that the sun was bright red in the middle of all the smoke. Down below is one of the pictures I took of it. 

(I taken by Allison) 9/28/14

Later on this week the smoke went away and it started raining and getting a little chilley outside. Again I went out to do my observations and I realized that the sky was super cloudy. I compared the picture of the smokey day and the rainy day and I realized that the weather or the smoke does have a impact on how the sky looks. The picture below is how the sky looked that day.

(Taken By Allison) 9/28/14