Sunday, September 16, 2012

Advanced Naturalist Disorder

So, you have probably heard of Nature-Deficit Disorder, coined by Richard Louv in The Last Child in the Woods.  How about Advanced Naturalist Disorder?

I believe that is what happens when you know just enough to be dangerous and you look at everything- plants, birds, dragonflies...

Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice on an aster
and butterflies- even when you are attending an outdoor wedding.  Its not my fault, if they wanted me to pay attention they would have held it inside!

One of Ohio's rarest habitats, a lakeside alvar.
  With a lakefront view like this to compete, is it any real surprise I was using my camera for a few botany pictures?  These tiny asters were growing out the the water scoured rock ledges along Lake Erie.  This is one of Ohio's rarest habitats, called an alvar.  This aster is the very rare Pringle's Aster, Symphotrichum pilosum var. pringlei one of the alvar species.

The Weedpicker at a wedding.
We arrived about an hour early and I entertained myself bird watching and butterflying. I did put my binoculars away when the other guests arrived.


This was one of the simplest, yet most beautiful weddings I have ever seen. The sun was shining in a cloudless blue sky  as the waves splashed the rocks just beyond our seating area. Lake Erie was picture perfect and as beautiful as any Caribbean wedding ad.  

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Comings
Congratulations to the couple, Christina and Michael!   I am wishing you a lifetime of happiness- and butterflies.
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4 comments:

  1. ChrisSeptember 17, 2012 at 9:54 AM

    Cheryl,

    I thought I was the only one. I went to my nephew's outdoor wedding in N. Carolina last April, and my sister asked me to take some pictures. I had as many pictures of butterfies and dragonflies from before the wedding as I did of the wedding:')

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    1. Weedpicker CherylSeptember 17, 2012 at 10:01 AM

      I hear you Chris-

      But, if it is a disease- I don't want to be cured!

      Delete
  2. the Native Plant NeophyteSeptember 17, 2012 at 12:48 PM

    Hah - Cheryl - great picture of you and your binoculars. Even before I became a environmentalist I had to give up golfing. I was just so much more interested in the wildlife on and around the courses, I couldn't pay attention. (It had absolutely nothing to do with my golfing skills. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Ask the squirrel who I knocked out of a tree. He seemed surprised but not injured.) - Hal

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    1. Weedpicker CherylSeptember 17, 2012 at 1:56 PM

      Now, golf is a disease that needs a cure...

      Good to hear from you Hal!

      Delete

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