In visiting my site multiple times over the past few months I have seen it transition from winter to spring. When the ground first started to thaw it struck me that the ice and snow remained much longer in the very bottom of the bowl that forms at the convergence of the hills. When everything had finally melted a small pond remained for almost a month longer. In a sense the bottom of these hills seemed to have a slightly different climate than the higher ground that surrounds it. This separation got me thinking about isolating the bottom of the hills even further, separating it completely by closing it off from the outside world.
My proposal is an ambitious one. At the end of the summer season I would like to seal off the area by placing a glass sheet over the top of the basin formed by the hills. Part greenhouse, part terrarium, the bubble formed would isolate and insulate ideally allowing life to flourish within throughout the winter. Burrowing animals might emerge inside the bubble, and the moisture in the ground could condense and form a new pond on the inside. Even if no new growth occurs the covered landscape would certainly be in a different state of decay when the glass bubble is removed in the spring. With either outcome I believe this project could be a beautiful experiment.
