Monday

Today I saw a bull frog that always hangs out in my parents pond (a natural pond not a created one).
But-- was it the same bull frog I've seen before?
How do naturalists tell such things apart?
I will have to hone my observational skills.
I'm also learning to recognize plants with a wonderful plant app called, appropriately pl@ntnet
What I've learned so far is that an app is not a replacement for experience.  The smells, tastes, sensations of a plant leaf often help me to identify the plant more than memorizing the contours of the leaves.  It's the whole that helps to make sense of the parts; and context, the size, place of a plant also helps me to first identify it and then understand it better.
A dear mentor who has great knowledge of plants once told me that if I wanted to get to know the medicine of a plant well I had to spend time with the plant.  Learn about how it grows differently in different conditions, learn to ask myself questions about where it is likely to be found, the different ways the plant presents itself. And to use the medicine as many different ways as possible to understand and come to know it in many contexts.
This deep knowledge is experiential and not something that can be conferred by an app.
This should perhaps lead me to wax eloquent about the importance of preserving traditional knowledge, but-- I have a path to walk.  Another part of this project is to walk the same length of path at the same time of day and then report on my results.
To the river path!