Sunday, October 26, 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

Sunday, October 19, 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.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

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.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

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.