One of the many things I admired about both of my grandmothers was their ability to identify wildflowers, cultivated flowers, birds and wildlife. While a bit of it did stick with me over the years, when they passed, I no longer walked with anyone who knew these things, and so many of the flowers around me went unidentified.
It was six years ago when I was pregnant with Rosie and we moved back here, to my childhood home. There's definitely a difference between how you see the land when you're a kid, and then when it's yours as an adult. I could not believe the multitude of flowers that sprung up everywhere around the yard, and how very few I realized I knew by name.
So, I had good intentions. The next spring I took photos of the flowers as they popped out, and since I didn't have a flower reference book, I compared to photos on the internet. I had some luck, but others I could not find. My project was shortly abandoned.
Fast forward to now. Our family friend, Jon, happens to be a plant and soil sciences major. He knows most all of the wildflowers, like my grandmothers did! With his help, after 6 years, I'm finally identifying the flowers on our property: Siberian squill, Bloodroot, Lesser celandine, and Creeping Charlie, to name a few. We've identified 12 in total so far, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
I want to share this knowledge with my kids, like my grandmothers did with me, and if I have the pleasure of living to a well-ripened age, I'll share with my grandkids, too.
It's a very small goal that I am happy to be making progress on once again.
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