September 12 2024
Huddled together in small working groups, we attempt to identify our mystery plants. Fluorescent lights overhead, and local plant specimens in front of us.
Are the leaf edges smooth?
Does anybody have more than one fruit?
Is this a composite flower?
A kindergarten teacher is working across from a university professor. A dentist and a doctor mix with a Navy officer and a yoga instructor. We’ve driven from Chincoteague and Cape Charles and all points between to arrive at VIMS this morning. Some of us have been on the shore barely long enough to receive a utility bill. Others have generational history and family names on streets. All are here because of a love, a hunger, and a yearning. A love of nature, a hunger to learn, and a yearning to connect. To volunteer. To engage.
We hear cheers from the groups as they converge on an identification.
Oh yes, it’s definitely persimmon.
Week two, and we are unraveling the mysteries of Flora of Virginia. This afternoon, we’ll soon move onto Merlin, and eBird. Seek and iNaturalist are just around the corner.
Two weeks in and the table is set for application and adventure. Two weeks in and we’ve grown enough familiarity to be comfortable in our space — clear on where the bathrooms are and certain that the porch is the only place to have lunch. But still new enough to enjoy the novelty of the unknown, and to be very grateful for extra-large fonts on our nametags.
Two weeks in and it’s time to go out. Off to Brownsville next week.