Every day I walk around our property - the two acre yard and all that is beyond, and I am constantly amazed at the small and large world I see. Here in the pink Muhlie grass I see some new wild coreopsis with tiny yellow flowers, different from so many other wild coreopsis that may have red or brown centers. In the dark center of this photo is a gopher tortoise burrow and I think there is another entrance about twenty feet away in the old asparagus bed.
Hardly anyone I know is interested in paying attention to these small wonders; they see the splashy reds and oranges of the huge zinnias that are now blooming in the garden. These hardy flowers are out to please us all. A few days ago I brought in a fistful of zinnias for the table. I also included a couple of flowering dill heads (I love their smell). A couple of days later I noticed that there were the tiniest of black specks on the table, and then, on closer inspection I saw that these specks were caterpillar frass. The dill blossoms were hosting several small caterpillars, probably queen butterflies. Each day I love to watch them plump out as I eat my cheerios and blueberries. Tomorrow I will take them outside so that they can find the right places to construct their cocoons.
All my life I have been interested in these small and large natural wonders, and now I can spend time in observing everything around me here in a remote part of central Florida. I am becoming somewhat expert in knowing the wildflowers here, the shrubs and trees in the woods, some of the mushrooms, and every day I am quiet enough in my solitary rambles to see deer, wild pigs, bobcats. I am good on the larger birds and the water birds on the pond, but, so far, I am defeated in the identification of warblers. Mostly, they are LBJ's (little brown jobs). I check out the footprints of the critters who have been around, and I have recently been consulting a book on scat.
Some nights, after I have watched the bats start out, I love to put on my headlamp and walk to the pond to observe the red eyes of the alligators and the white eyes of the frogs. And I also love to train my light on the thousands of spiders making their webs in the grass which, by morning, if the dew is right , will be a magical carpet of silvery web.
As I brush my teeth at night I watch the dozens of green squirrel tree frogs hunting on the big window. When some of them get inside I am adept at catch and release.
I am interested when I discover a yellow rat snake inside the fertilizer container. He's fat and bumpy, having gorged on the frogs who usually live there. I am interested that a coral snake hangs out underneath and I don't bother it.
I think my life has been heading this way since I was very young. I still know where the snowdrops bloom in the town I grew up in in upstate New York and I could tell you where the butterfly plants grow in New Hampshire and where the best fiddleheads are in Providence, R.I. and where one can find lady slippers in the woods of western Connecticut. I noticed those things in a concentrated way. I did not notice anything architectural. When I was young and accompanying my father on his archeological digs what I noticed were the lizards and insects and the tiny wild flowers growing on the sites.
Being a teacher gave me a lot of scope to explore the natural world. I have been happy that so many of the students I have taught decided to make their way into science and ecology.
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