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Spent 3 hours last Saturday hunting a rare fern in the Hocking Hills and only found it after I quit looking
I drove out to Hocking Hills State Park with my field guide and a thermos, dead set on finding a walking fern for my life list. After two hours of flipping over every rock along the gorge trail I sat down on a mossy slump to eat my sandwich, and there it was, growing right at my feet on the sandstone. I had walked past that exact spot twice because I was staring at the ground ahead of me instead of the seepy rock faces. It got me thinking about how much of plant hunting is just slowing down and reading the habitat instead of checking boxes. Does anyone else have a species that only turned up once you gave up trying?
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betty_kelly918d ago
Stopped searching for my car keys in the couch cushions last week and found them sitting on the kitchen counter where I swear I already looked three times. Same thing happens when I lose a word mid sentence, the harder I chase it the further it runs, but the second I move on to something else it pops right back. Reading the habitat instead of checking boxes is real, my grandma used to say you catch more fish when you stop worrying about the stringer. The best stuff in life seems to show up when you quit gripping so hard and just let your eyes relax.
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