100-species-challenge

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my year of excellent essayists

January 15, 2009 in 100-species-challenge, my year of essayists, writing | 6 comments

my excellent essayists

So I’m beginning this blog project with a bit of trepidation, knowing it may well bore the hand-knit socks off many of you. But I also realize that if the topic bores you, you can quite easily hit your back-button and move along to the next blog in your subscription. And I promise that my next post won’t be so pedantic. (Yep, I used my thesaurus for that one.)

But before I start a new project, I think I should retire another that’s been languishing. That would be the 100-Species Challenge. It’s a fine idea for a project, but I liked the idea of doing it with my kids. And my kids, you may remember, weren’t particularly interested. They’re happy enough to learn plant names, but the photography and the documentation were up to me. And I really didn’t want to put that much effort into something I didn’t need. Because plant names–both common and Latin–are one of the few things that stick in my meager brain.

Plant names and the words to just about every commercial jingle from the 70′s.  Don’t get me going on the Fig Newton song…

So, one project retired, and a new one begun. The idea of studying essayists came to me in late December, when I was reading some writer’s list of favorite writers. And I realized, with plenty of despair and loathing, that although I’ve been reading and writing essays for thirteen years now, I would have a hard time coming up with a list of favorite essayists. I could give you a couple names, but a couple is a set, mere salt and pepper shakers. Not a list.

It isn’t that I haven’t read many essayists. I’ve read hundreds over the years, for classes I’ve taken, for writing inspiration, for sheer entertainment. The trouble is, I haven’t read most of those essayists in depth. I haven’t lingered with them, and studied them.

Well, I did study one essayist. A few years back I became smitten with the work of Adam Gopnik. I read his books with a green highlighter in my hand. I striped his books, you could say. I wrote down lines I liked in my journal, and went so far as to write down why those lines worked, and why they spoke to me.

And guess what? I can tell you a thing or two about Adam Gopnik’s writing. I can tell you that he writes like the valedictorian in your high school class–with smarts that force you to reread sentences, and occasionally make you want to tell him to stop showing off. He writes with a poet’s ear; sometimes his lines sashay and sing. And what I may love most: beneath his considerable brain beats a heart as sappy as a 70′s Kodak commercial (the ones that featured Paul Anka singing “The Times of Your Life.” And yes, I can sing it.) Gopnik wants to impress you with his smarts, but he also wants to knead your heart just a little–and he’ll do it, unfailingly, in the last lines of his last paragraph.

I feel justified listing Gopnik as a favorite because I can verbalize why he’s a favorite. Why he’s an influence. And I’d like to be able to do that with other writers.

My plan is to read the work of one essayist each month, highlighter in hand–or a journal nearby, for library books. I’ll share some admired lines with you, and tell you what I learned from the essayist’s work. Nothing too studied: I don’t want to lose interest in the project because it’s become too consuming, and I certainly don’t want you losing those hand-knit socks.

I’d planned to start off with Virginia Woolf because it seems one ought to have read Virginia Woolf–and I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed the few Woolf essays I have read. But then, in a frustrated morning with my own writing I remembered an idea I had for an essay: an essay about parenting with the eyes of Annie Dillard. So Annie Dillard it is–and maybe I’ll even get an essay out of it.

I’m giddy with the notion of a year-long project, giddy like those knitters who vow to knit a sweater a month. (Insanity!) Giddy with the thought that at the end of 2009, I’ll be able to rattle off a list of favorite essayists-with reasons, even. And maybe–no, surely–my own writing will have improved through simple osmosis.

I told you I was an egghead.

Got any essayists to recommend? Any long-term projects to share?

species #3

October 9, 2008 in 100-species-challenge, books | 1 comment

Well, we are just ripping along with the 100-Species Challenge. At this rate, we’ll get to our 100th species about 75 months from now, which puts us at the beginning of 2015. That’s actual statistics, not hyperbole.

I’ll try to do better.

This was a fun one though, so I thought I’d share it here. Usually I’ll just post them on the 100-Species-Challenge page in the sidebar.

3. Sunflower ”Mammoth Grey Stripe”

 

Latin name: Helianthus annuus

meaning: annual sunflower

Our sunflower house never quite grew a roof. Probably due to my neglectful watering of the morning glories. (Oh, how I hate to water by hand.) But the sunflowers thrived, and are now a sad cluster of heavy-headed, hump-backed old men.

This photo was taken a month ago. They are much more droopy and pathetic-looking these days.

Interesting facts: Mr. T and I had a fun time dissecting a head, and looking at it under a microscope using Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study .*  We learned that the large flowers are actually “heads” made up of many florets–one for each eventual sunflower seed. There are special ray or banner florets at the edges of the head, each providing a single petal for the large flower-head. The florets open and ripen from the outside of the head first, then toward the middle, in concentric rings.

It’s fascinating to examine how the florets are arranged in groovy radiating spirals, which have something to do with fibonacci numbers. Also how each single floret has all the flower parts–stigma, anther, corolla… There are hundreds of them on each sunflower! No wonder the bees love them!

We also found some cool little unidentified metallic beetle-ish creatures in the heads. And then we discovered a virtual nursery of ladybug larvae on several of the leaves! Tiny ones, huge ones, discarded exoskeletons, as well as spanking new ladybugs. Wish I had a camera with a nice macro lens.

Lots of fun from one packet of sunflower seeds–even if we didn’t get a house in the deal.  And we’ve got a whole lot of seeds to roast.

* This is a popular book among Charlotte Mason fans. (Can I call them Masonites? Or does that make them sound like wooden boards?) I just found a used copy this summer, and I’m impressed. There are thousands of entries of animals, plants and “earth and sky”. Each gives a thorough description of the item, as well as a series of questions to consider as one studies it. Such as, “Describe the shape of the open corolla. Look at the brown tube with a lens. How many little points projecting at the top and bottom on each side of the tube?” There are even poems included for many species! The book, however, was published in 1911, so you should balance your research with other sources. For example, Comstock writes that the sunflower is part of the family Compositae–it’s since been shifted to the Asteraceae family. There’s so much good stuff here, though, that it’s still a fabulous resource, even after almost 100 years.

here we go!

August 16, 2008 in 100-species-challenge, learning | 2 comments

After whining about how one of my children did not share my boundless enthusiasm for the 100-Species Challenge in my last post, I decided it best to proceed on my own. Once I did that, of course, interested family members began to sprout up as quickly as the unnamed plants themselves. Mr. T gladly ate one of our Pink Pearl apples so I could photograph its stunning salmon-colored flesh for my first entry.

And my charming husband, after catching up with my blog at the office, took pity on me and my lack of enthusiastic family members and promised to search out a few species himself.

Hoo ha!

I’ve decided to post our (presumably) growing list as a page in the A Little Background sidebar at right. I won’t share every new species as a blog post-I’m trying real hard not to bore you silly here-but I’ll post occasional, (again, presumably) intriguing entries as posts from time to time. Those posts will be linked under the category 100-species-challenge at right.

I’m following scsours’ Official Rules. With a little tweaking, of course, cause that’s what homeschoolers do best.

A little drumroll please, Mr. Shaffer…

1. Pink Pearl Apple

Latin name: Pyrus Malus

Interesting facts: I chose this tree, even though it’s growing right in our backyard*, because I’m always mixing up it up with the Pink Lady apple. I wanted Mr. T and me to get it right once and for all. We googled to be certain and discovered that the Pink Lady is the one that is pink on the outside; ours with the pink interior is the Pink Pearl.

According to California Eating, Pink Pearls are unique to the West Coast, which makes it all the more interesting to have this tree growing in our yard. They’re also rare in supermarkets because they don’t keep or travel well. I love how California Eating’s author, Amy, calls their color “positively vampy”. She also says the apples “taste of raspberries and lemon custard.” Tempting! Ours are still a bit under-ripe but I’m looking forward to tasting for that lemon custard. Mr. T is impatient; he likes them sour, says they taste like Sour Patch Kids.

And check out the Pink Pearl blossoms pictured in Amy’s post. Our blossoms really are that pink and gorgeous in spring. Positively vampy.

* Not the best photo ever. Our two apple trees are espaliered against a fence, and they have the clean lines and elegance of dancers most of the year. But right now they look as if they’re sprouting limbs from their stomachs because it’s summer and because the sunflower house has stepped right in front of them on the stage and we can’t get to them to give haircuts.

the 100 Species Challenge meets the challenge of raising kids with minds of their own

August 12, 2008 in 100-species-challenge, learning | 3 comments

Okay, so I came across this challenge on Melissa Wiley’s blog. It originated here, when scsours contemplated a quote that most people can’t recognize 100 plant species within a mile of their home. The challenge is to go out and learn the names, and a bit more, of 100 plants in your neighborhood.

Ooh, I loved this idea immediately. I’m pretty good with plant names, especially garden plants, and herbs and other edibles. Many of the Latin names even manage to velcro their way into my brain. I’m sure there are plenty I don’t know, though, especially trees. And wouldn’t it be fun to do with the kids?

Apparently not. When I mentioned it to one of my children, who shall remain nameless, she (ahem) rejected the notion as quickly as I had fallen in love with it. “I don’t want to do that,” she said. “I just want to do life science.”

Oh, life science. Silly me, suggesting plants.

When will I learn that my kids’ desire to do anything is inversely proportional to my suggestions that they do it? In plain English: If Mama thinks it’s a good idea, it must be a bad idea. Sometimes I think they say no simply because I’m suggesting it, without considering the suggestion at all. I guess they’ve spent years having to fight off my Boundless Excitement over Learning Opportunities. Mr. T. is still young enough, at six, that he’s often willing to get caught up in my enthusiasm, but he has such a creative way of looking at the world that he usually veers off my path pretty quickly. 

I probably should have quietly started this myself. I could have asked the unnamed child to figure out how to put her camera in macro mode and take a picture for me. I could have looked up a Latin name and researched its meaning in this this cool book. Then I could have casually mentioned it to a nearby child. Latin names are very Harry Potterish, you know, and I think Mr. T would dig that. 

There’s a part of me that hates the notion of having to be sneaky about what I want to share with my kids. But I guess that’s better than being told flat-out that they’d rather do life science.

I see that Sandra Dodd, unschooler extraordinaire, is taking on this challenge. Check out her subtitle: “In Which Sandra Dodd Follows the Lead of Others in Trying to Identify by Name 100 Local Plants”. Notice that no kids are mentioned. This is her quest. I’m sure I could learn something from that.

But I keep thinking how fun it could be to make plant trading cards, you know, Pokemon-style, with Latin names and cool facts…no, no, stop me!  Remind me to keep it to myself for now! Remind me to play with the idea of this challenge, think about how I might do it myself–and maybe strew a few enticing crumbs along the way.

If you want to take on this challenge yourself–alone or with kids who are more cooperative than mine–you can read the Official Rules and sign up here.