Blog Entry 1

Date and time of visit: 10/14/2020 4:00pm
Weather Conditions: 95° F, Dry, and Slightly windy

The site is located in my backyard, in Windsor CA. During my visit to the sight, I saw no animals and very little insects (there are usually at least some birds). The first thing I checked was the trees in the back portion of the yard, orange and lemon trees. The orange tree currently has fully developed fruit on it, while the lemon tree has fruit that has not yet completed forming. After checking on the trees I moved onto the smaller plants which were mostly shrubs, as well as some potted plants and hedges. During my initial lookover, I noticed a couple of small mushrooms growing towards the back left corner of the yard, which normally appear to break down leftover organic material. As this is the first visit there are not many things that I immediately notice are different, the grass is kept at a low level as it is regularly cut, and not plants have been removed or planted recently. Interestingly enough the one thing new I did notice is a small plant has started to grow out of the wooden supports for the upper part of the garden. These wooden planks support the rock and earth in the upper part of the yard and although it shows that the structural integrity might be flawed, It is interesting to see the plant growing out of such a strange area, and I wonder how it started to grow in there. The temperature today was average for this time of year, but during the heat, a lot more insects seem to be out and about in the yard compared to the colder seasons. There were not many clouds in the sky so the plants have been getting a lot of light, but on the other hand, some of the plants towards the back may be getting too much light as they are wilting slightly.  

I wonder how much of a change the plants that still have flowers budding are going to go through in the coming months due to the change in weather. 

Some Landscape photos of the site:

Some interesting pictures of the site:

    Plant growing from the wood supporting the upper level of the yard.

    Mushroom growing in the back left of the site.

    Plant growing on the left side of the site, very small and has thin leaves.

Some sketches of some interesting leaves and flowers:

    Leaf from the orange tree, no visible veins on the top and has a crenate margin.

    

    The stalk of a flowering plant, still in the flowering process.

    Leaf from a plant to the left side of the site, has a large terminal bud alongside the leaf.
    (appears on most leaves)