Nostalgia

Winter Wonderland 

By Joseph T. Renaldi 

There are strange and mysterious sounds

When the winds of winter blow,

The long nights are crystal clear and cold,

And the fields and meadows are covered with snow. 

The stars are frosty against the sky,

And the winds whistle is shrill,

As of the snow blows against the house

And drifts against the hill,

Yet, I like to see during the winter

A white carpet on the ground,

To plod aimlessly in the deep snow,

Where deer tracks abound. 

I like to feel the stillness 

Of a crisp winter's night,

Watching a full moon rise over the horizon,

Exposing a winter wonderland beautiful and bright.

 

                            ***

These past few days I felt like this poem has related a lot to the weather we've been having lately. Especially today. Today Mother Nature got my hopes up. I wouldn't necessarily say for nothing because the sight of it was beautiful for as long as it had lasted. It snowed, it had finally snowed and for a while I had thought the the ground like Joseph T. Renaldi said would resemble a white carpet. Well you could say it did for a while but it didn't last long. 

This had made me realize how much I've missed the snow and nostalgic memories began to fill my mind. Very old memories that were kept in a box and overlooked for years began to slowly pour out like the snow of today. Memories of snow when I lived in Pennsylvania and how it never failed to begin snowing at the right time, as if Mother Nature was making sure we had enough snow for Christmas Day. 

Winter was great in Pennsylvania, nothing compared to how white the streets and sky looked when it was winter over there. I remember some years we would get blizzards that would bring more snow than we could handle. We would get inches of snow in just one night! Now winters are great here in Reno too. The beautiful sight of the snow covered mountains and having the privilege of living close to Mt. Rose. Unlike over there in Pennsylvania. You had to travel quite some ways to able to go shred the mountains (well at least from where I lived, which was Norristown Pennsylvania). 

I'm glad that I had the chance to do this observation project. It has taught me that sometimes you have to take a closer look in order to really see something. Not only has it taught me that, but it has also made me learn a lot about myself and has enabled me to remember some beautiful memories. 

Works Cited:

"winter Wonderland by Joseph T. Renaldi" Poem Hunter. Web. 15 Dec. 2014

The Sycamore Tree

       On November 4th while observing my apartment complex I noticed most of the trees had completely lost their leaves, except for one tall tree located towards the front of the apartments. This tree has a huge whitish trunk that is surrounded by large golden yellowish- green leaves. Although there are a lot of leaves surrounding the tree, this tree manages to still have a good amount of it's leaves on it. The leaves looked beautiful and big laying on the ground that I decided to pick a few up and take them home with me. On my way home I came across the question, "what type of tree was that?" so I decided to do some research.

Here's a picture of how the tree trunk looks
(pictures are not taken by me)

      On November 6th I discovered that the tree turns out to be a North American Sycamore tree. These type of trees are one of the oldest species of trees on earth, and are known for their longevity and hardiness. Sycamore trees produce large leaves that can grow up to 6 inches long. They can also grow branches that can reach up to 175 feet tall (Roberts).

North American Sycamore Tree

     Sycamores are highly resistant to pollution and salty soils. There are three types of sycamore trees. The Northern American sycamore which is most common in the United States and parts of Canada. This type is known as the largest species and for its range of bark color (gray-green to whitewashed). The Middle Eastern Sycamore is found mostly in Eastern Africa and is smaller. Last but not least the British Sycamore is native to Europe and thrives in moist conditions. This variety's young leaves have a pink tint (Roberts).

Middle Eastern Sycamore Tree

British Sycamore Tree

       I hope you found this information about Sycamore trees as interesting as I did. I never thought that by doing some research on a very large and beautiful tree that I would find out that there are others of its kind. It's interesting to see what you can find out about something with just some simple research and now I have learned that.
   


Works cited: 
Roberts, Heath. "Facts About Sycamore Trees." SF Gate. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.





         

Prelude to December

December comes with many changes. The weather is chilly, the sky is gloomy, there’s no leaves on the trees, the days are shorter and the nights are longer. It’s quiet and calm, and for a while the world seems dull. Until it starts to snow.

Some people during the winter season are more likely to stay inside. Warm and toasty in front of a fire place drinking hot chocolate or tea reading a wonderful book.  While others see an opportunity to practice their favorite winter sports when the change in weather occurs. For example, Skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, and hockey. This time also brings families the opportunity to build a snow man, go sledding, play in the snow, take wonderful pictures of the children having fun, or go camping in a cabin up in the woods.

          When December starts you begin to see Christmas decorations everywhere and you get a glimpse at people's creativity. During this time families tend to get together and spend more time with each other, but it also means the commencement of Christmas music. Now some may think it's still too early to play Christmas music at the very beginning of the month or that a few people can only tolerate Christmas music a couple of weeks before the actual day. I disagree. I think it's never too early to start playing Christmas music, although maybe it is a little crazy to hear Christmas music when thanksgiving hasn't even passed yet. Well anyways my point is like I said December comes with many changes, this is a time to enjoy the cold weather, spread the joy, and embrace your close ones more than ever.

Here's a picture of a beautifully decorated house I saw in Sparks.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

         It was a normal day just like any other, well at least that's what I thought. On November 25th at 8:58 pm, I was in my room catching up on some reading when I smelled something weird, like if something was burning. At first I didn’t know where it was coming from so instinctively I got up and checked if it was coming from the kitchen. When I got there I saw everything was fine so I went back to my room. When I got there I noticed the smell got stronger so I looked outside my window and there it was… a fire behind the fence where the small creek is located. It was very smoky outside and there was a few firemen trying to put the fire out with apartment management alongside of them. In just a few minutes the fire was out. It wasn’t a big fire. When the fire was out I noticed how weirdly the smoke was rising from the ground. It was rising in squiggly lines along the fence with a space in between each one.

The smoke looked something like this. (field notes)

Then shortly after sparks started and the fire began again.  9:03 the fire was completely out. I wonder what could’ve started the fire or who? After the whole incident died down and the fire men left I turned on my TV and hoped to see something about the fire on the news at 11 since there was a reporter at the site when the firemen were putting out the fire. It was late of course so I decided to record the news and watch it the next day. Later when I went back to see the news I noticed it didn’t mention anything about the fire, so that led me to think it would say something about it today (Nov. 26th). Once again it didn’t mention anything about the fire. I thought this was odd so I decided to do some research. I didn’t manage to find any information about the fire on the internet so I left it at that. I guess the fire wasn’t that big of a deal for it to be mentioned on the news or have an article written about it and posted on the internet. I guess it’s just another mystery unsolved.

Here's a picture of a fire man putting the fire out.
(all pictures taken by me)

(continued)

Picture of when the fire started again.

Fire truck located in front of apartment building.

Here's a picture of where the fire was located.
(taken a day after)

Autumn.

I love this time of the year because everything seems to get a bit more beautiful even though the leaves are falling off the trees indicating winter is coming. "6:40 the sky almost looks dangerous around this time of day. There are thin clouds roaming around the sky that are contrasted against the sunlight. As the sun starts to go down the clouds look a really dark blue, almost black color. This reminds me of Lake Tahoe, when I can see the deep and shallow parts of it which make it look dark and light blue." (Field notes 10/5/14).



Picture of the clouds I see while observing.

light contrasting off of the clouds while the sun goes down

Picture of Lake Tahoe showing what I mean by dark and light blue

Intro: The First Look

For my observation project I will be observing the environment around my apartment complex. I originally started observing a stream located behind my apartment building but decided to change it when I realized there wasn't much "action" back there. On September 26 and 27th while observing this environment the day finally felt like fall. It was raining, the ground was wet, the smell of rain was in the air, and the weather was chilly. "As I was walking around I noticed there was a huge puddle in the parking lot from the rain before. I stared at this puddle and came to the conclusion that it looked like a mini Lake Tahoe. It sort of follows the shape of the lake and it's pretty big too. Has it always looked like this?" (Field notes 9/27/14). I am hoping that by choosing this environment as a subject for my observation I will notice things I have over looked for the past few years I've lived here.