It’s fitting that the warmest day yet in January saw the
most movement along Wood’s Creek, a brief respite from the cold and the
Seasonal Affective Disorder. With everyone out and about, it was interesting to see the differences in activity along different sections of the trail. On campus,
students hustled to and from class. And as the trail wandered through backyards,
the crowds dissipated into pets and their owners. I briefly wondered whether it
was the leashed dogs or their owners who were enjoying time out of the house
more, before again moving on. A runner bursts by me, and then another, before I
stumble into a children’s park, mothers pushing their toddlers’ swings while
catching up after a long week. I spot three kids, surely under ten years old, sliding
on the still-frozen creek. They each wield sticks as long as themselves, testing
the limits of their human dominance over nature by breaking the outermost slabs
of ice. I follow the now homeless pieces of ice down the river back to my
starting point, and then back home.
We have been doing some research in terms of the wheels/tires we will use for our storage bench. We are looking at both the environmental affects, durability, and ability of the tires/wheels to work in the mud. After seeing the tires (from a tricycle) that we had planned to use, does anyone have any input? Peter thinks that the current tires will be perfectly fine and we had planned not to buy any of our materials, but if we can't use these wheels we will have to buy bigger, more durable tires. However, this will effect the height of our bench and therefore, may delay our progress.
Jeremy, you did a great job in describing who you saw on the Woods Creek Trail. It felt as though I was there with you. Consider next writing about the colors you see, whether the birds have come back yet, what kinds of animals are around, and the sounds you hear when no people are around. I also wonder how the mood and feeling of the trail changed when you came on a cold day versus the pleasant day you wrote about.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rossella! And definitely I plan on providing more sensory details in next blog entries. Next week I want to start uploading some of the quick videos I take. Thanks for the feedback!
DeleteHi Jeremy, as somebody who is also doing an alien week along Woods Creek, I've also been wondering how to capture people's relation to the place, while understanding that I (the observer, the alien, the artist) am meant to be an outsider to the place. I also wonder if there would be some way for us to look closer in order to differentiate people's interactions with the trail in our different sections, even though we generally view Woods Creek as a single entity.
ReplyDelete