camp rd washed out

oops all berries

one more tree to ID

many lighted place

catreedral

neon light is cool

this old shed

throwback

to that time I fell asleep on the ground under a bunch of towels

where o where

loaf

down by the bay

autumn olive

baerie

trees. learning. thrills.

I really want to learn trees. I want to be able to look at a tree and know it's name. There are a few routes I run that have little tree identification markers and I've started paying attention to them. Yesterday I was running at this place I've run regularly for 2 years and it was the first time I stopped and read all the ID plaques.

GUESS WHAT?! All the trees in this one little area were different kinds of OAKS! And I was super excited about it! White Oak. Black Oak. Red Oak. Pin Oak. Something called a Shumard Oak. A SWAMP white oak. It blew my mind. Every time I read a new one I was like "NO WAY! That's so awesome that you're that!" I was giddy.

Last night I said, "This is 2018. Surely there is an app that exists that will let me take a picture of a leaf and then tell me what kind of tree it's a part of."

And this futuristic present is disappointing in a lot of ways, but this time it came through with flying colors.

Pl@ntNet. My new obsession. Username is princess_pat because I'm IDing all the trees at camp and that's camp related.

Today I learned that the trees that I park under that drop all those annoying spiky balls are American Sweetgums. And next to that is a Dogwood. And there's an American Linden outside cabin 3. And the tire swing is attached to an oak. I think it's a Red Oak. And I think there's a Willow Oak right outside the Annex. And a Red Cedar just up the hill. A Red Maple by Cabin 2. A Pear tree. An Apple Tree. And a Japanese Zelkova. All outside Cabin 1. And a NORWAY MAPLE by Cabin 5.  

And this is just day one. I'm telling everyone about it. I'm learning all the trees. LET'S. GO.

about the author

he likes plants I guess

cleaned out a pool shed

found a snake skin

i ate tachos for the first time in 8 years

tater tots + nachos

a train themed restaurant???

I chew-chew choose you!

fflowerff

busses in cville

moms violets

storm droppings

bad ideas on my shoulder

bloblipop

a cool message to get

why aren't YOU doing this?

Early morning Saturday

I woke up at like 3 or 4 in the morning on Saturday and right before I woke up I'd been having this extended dream where I was going down staircases, like metal, industrial stairs with my friend Michael. And we are standing on a landing at the top of some stairs and Michael jumps and does a front flip and clears all the stairs but then over rotates and lands on his head at the bottom of the next set of stairs that are going up.

Side note: as I'm writing this I'm remembering that I remember A LOT of dreams about stairs. I'm sure that's some dream archetype, I'm too lazy to look up what it tends to mean.

Anyway, Michael hits his head on metal stairs and for a while I just stand and stare and my only thought is 'he's dead. Oh my god. He's dead."

And then I go over and he's not dead. And he's able to talk and actually stand up and our plan is to get him to the hospital or something. We have to get out of the building we're in. So we start walking with him leaning on my shoulder for balance. And we're walking around and I'm starting to feel better but I'm also freaking out because this is a really serious injury and then we get outside and it's dark and we're walking really slow.

Then I woke up and my pillow was like exactly positioned where Michael's head was in the dream and my arm was around it and falling asleep. And then I had this weird dread and fear where all my thoughts were circling around times I've been injured, like when I fell out of a bunk bed and landed on my head, I think?, or times I was almost injured and I kept replaying these moments and couldn't fully convince myself that I wasn't dead or really injured. It was a scary feeling and I couldn't get back to sleep.

Anyway, so still without really thinking I got my phone and I searched for andy ristaino's YouTube channel. He's an artist for Adventure Time and his videos are him drawing and painting while he calmly narrates his thoughts and meanders from topic to topic. I've never searched for these videos before since the time I stumbled upon a few like several months ago.

I picked one that was 10 minutes long and as soon as his voice started I was asleep again within like 30 seconds. And I think I chose new videos at least 3 or 4 times because I'd wake up when they ended.

But it was mostly interesting to watch my brain scare itself, and then on semi auto pilot find something to soothe itself. I felt like I wasn't fully in control for most of it and was spectating a good portion of it.

I'm fine now and I'm assuming Michael is too.

mug up

casual stroll

It's 80 in my house

fantastic

Splorin