Connecting deeply: the places we call home

Deeper connections are formed through quality time. Developing friendship is similar to building a relationship to the land and nature, it’s the time spent with a person or a place that grounds these bonds over the course of our life. While the year of a pandemic has come with many challenges, it also has come with the opportunity to explore the animal and plant community in our neighborhood more frequently.

A practice called the “sit spot” is becoming a key element of many nature programs and enthusiasts throughout the world. It simply means adopting a place in nature close to home that you go to sit in silence every day, even just for a little bit. Experiencing the same place at different times of day, in every season and weather helps us get to know its plants and animals, smells and feels really well, like a friend that is willing to listen to us throughout the ups and downs of the year.

SPL’s most favorite “sit spot”

As the snow accumulates and announces the winter season the view from the Strathcona Lookout Trail shows the white, open spot we at SPL simply call “the bog”.   The Bog is a place very close to our home, that we seek as a quiet place to sit by ourselves, with friends, and family. A place of such familiarity, that it evokes a feeling of being at home. A place that announces the changes of the seasons for us with such certainty that it provides us with a strong anchor to nature’s cycles and rhythms.

Let the following pictures give you a glimpse of a season in our bog:

Frozen water holes announce that winter is coming:

And soon the snow arrives:

Until it slowly thaws and  baby hemlock cones promise that spring is coming:

Even in a place of so little nutrients all these inhabitants know how to nourish themselves to turn lush and green:

The time of bloom lies ahead of us. Making the bog a favorite place of all sorts of small insects:

The sundews lure our noses in close to the earth, and provide nature’s perfect metaphor of finding one’s perfect niche:

And the fall sets in with its calming glow:

To be extinguished by the fall rain that allows all to settle down for another winter:

Find your spot in nature to visit frequently. Get to know it like a friend! Find an anchor in its presence!

Julia Tashiro, CO-COLT Director