My blogs

About me

Introduction	I am not a trained field botanist or master gardener. Rather, I am trying to teach myself the joys of botany as I amble through Reston, mostly from my residence (on Charter Oak Court) to my place of work (on Robert Fulton Drive), but also on occasion to grocery stores or other nearby places. For the most part I seek to avoid using an automobile (given concerns over both global warming and peak oil), and instead rely on public transit and my two feet to get around. This slows me down sufficiently so that I can actually pay attention to the many glories of nature around me, which abound even in this ecologically impoverished suburban setting. In essence, my argument is the same that Henry David Thoreau made 150 years ago: even when you live simply, eschew modern means of travel, and confine yourself to a tightly circumscribed fragment of an ordinary landscape, you can still find exquisite beauty and endless diversity, if you will but pay attention to what is around you.

Introduction

I am not a trained field botanist or master gardener. Rather, I am trying to teach myself the joys of botany as I amble through Reston, mostly from my residence (on Charter Oak Court) to my place of work (on Robert Fulton Drive), but also on occasion to grocery stores or other nearby places. For the most part I seek to avoid using an automobile (given concerns over both global warming and peak oil), and instead rely on public transit and my two feet to get around. This slows me down sufficiently so that I can actually pay attention to the many glories of nature around me, which abound even in this ecologically impoverished suburban setting. In essence, my argument is the same that Henry David Thoreau made 150 years ago: even when you live simply, eschew modern means of travel, and confine yourself to a tightly circumscribed fragment of an ordinary landscape, you can still find exquisite beauty and endless diversity, if you will but pay attention to what is around you.