Diario de seobinyoo

Today I walked around Newton and the woods around Newton Campus. It felt as though the weather had warmed up just in time for my walk. The morning was really chilly, but just as I began my walk, the sun came out and warmed up the rest of the day. It was nice discovering a part of my campus that I honestly didn't know existed until today. I wasn't alone today; two dogs and a friend joined me which made the trek a little more beautiful than it would've been. It didn't seem as though there was as much variety of plants or animals as in Houghton Gardens (possibly due to the close proximity to a school and soccer field) , but nevertheless it was beautiful. This week we discussed how on land, plants had to adapt to the gravity and still grow upright through the addition of vascular tissues. I couldn't stop thinking about this when I saw even the thinnest plants standing upright and sturdy. Additionally, the path was littered with acorns, and I was reminded of how plants had to suddenly adapt to the land and spreading their offspring in new ways, as seen through the acorns.

I visited Houghton’s Garden again, because I find the walk there from Boston College’s main campus a comfortable length for alone time and just thinking about my day. The sun was shining which allowed for the sunny spots of the gardens to be really warm while the shadier areas were a little more on the chilly side. There wasn’t a big difference between the foliage from last week when I went on my last walk, yellowing leaves beginning to fall as the weather gets chillier. The walk itself was very nice and healing as it was time I had for myself with only myself, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I wouldn’t be able to continue these walks due to the quickly dropping temperature. Surprisingly I saw many more animals like chipmunks, squirrels, and birds than last time even though the temperature is dropping. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see any of the key groups of fungi, they must have been hidden under the fallen leaves, but I was able to see many lichens on the rocks and branches of the trees. Ironically, after my walk I went to my friend’s room and was able to still see a form of fungi today, asexual sporangia or food molds, on some leftover food they neglected to take out/ clean. Although absolutely disgusting, I like to say my walk was successful in seeing some fungi.

I walked through Houghton's Garden, approximately a 10 minute walk from McElroy. The weather was perfect; it was sunny but windy enough to cool me off. Although it wasn't cold like the Fall should feel like, the air had the earthy smell of Fall. It made me nostalgic for the times I would walk around my neighborhood park with my family when the days would begin to get cold. I saw the leaves begin to yellow and fall revealing a golden path of leaves; it was hard to distinguish between the path and what wasn't due to the abundance of leaves. I saw many squirrels and chipmunks fighting for territory and squirrels. As I was walking I also noticed a pond covered with algae, a unicellular eukaryote. A more obvious microbe I saw in the garden was the fungi growing on the trees. To connect the class and my walk, I also was able to recognize that the fungi are heterotrophs as they cannot produce their own food; this may be why it was found exclusively on another tree.