Thank you! I'm hoping to avoid the Birthday Sads this year - it's a week away and so far so good. Last year I turned 40 and probably annoyed everyone for weeks with my Birthday Sads complaining.
Beautiful life, beautiful work, Sarah! Thank you for sharing how you experience the complex details of the world! 😁 I deeply appreciate the microdosing of wonder and specificity that powers your delight in nature. 🌱💝 Thank you for the precious images and identifications of these tender companions.
*Definitely* work through a key "backwards"! Find a species you know and work backwards and forwards, learning the key characters for that genus. Then using your unknown species, try the same in that genus key (or family key, though that is harder). I do it all the time!
I have to admit, looking at the Weakley keys to figure out how to describe Symphyotrichum kentuckiense made me consider giving keys another try. Those are good keys.
I think I had an epiphany while writing, that I need to try working a key backwards a few times.
I have a copy of the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas that I used during a field botany class in college. I’m definitely a bit rusty and have grown accustomed to using iNaturalist or my iPhone to ID plants/ wildflowers. Your essay has inspired me to get back to the basics.
I really enjoyed this essay and the way you wove what autism means to you with a joyful fascination of the natural world. And, the cedar glades seem to lend the perfect setting for relating the relief (and grief) that comes with that final proclamation, as you call it, and all the ways it has helped you adapt/ find refuge and make things whole. Wow.
Beautiful, in every conceivable way! All of this and what you have written.
Thank you!
Lovely read. Thanks for sharing. The birthday sads are so relatable and I too avoid dichotomous keys. lol.
Thank you! I'm hoping to avoid the Birthday Sads this year - it's a week away and so far so good. Last year I turned 40 and probably annoyed everyone for weeks with my Birthday Sads complaining.
Beautiful life, beautiful work, Sarah! Thank you for sharing how you experience the complex details of the world! 😁 I deeply appreciate the microdosing of wonder and specificity that powers your delight in nature. 🌱💝 Thank you for the precious images and identifications of these tender companions.
Thank you!
*Definitely* work through a key "backwards"! Find a species you know and work backwards and forwards, learning the key characters for that genus. Then using your unknown species, try the same in that genus key (or family key, though that is harder). I do it all the time!
Also, it makes me miss keying out plants!
I have to admit, looking at the Weakley keys to figure out how to describe Symphyotrichum kentuckiense made me consider giving keys another try. Those are good keys.
I think I had an epiphany while writing, that I need to try working a key backwards a few times.
I have a copy of the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas that I used during a field botany class in college. I’m definitely a bit rusty and have grown accustomed to using iNaturalist or my iPhone to ID plants/ wildflowers. Your essay has inspired me to get back to the basics.
I really enjoyed this essay and the way you wove what autism means to you with a joyful fascination of the natural world. And, the cedar glades seem to lend the perfect setting for relating the relief (and grief) that comes with that final proclamation, as you call it, and all the ways it has helped you adapt/ find refuge and make things whole. Wow.