Martha O'Kennon

Joined: Aug 29, 2016 Last Active: Mar 18, 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since November 2020

One of my oldest friends says she remembers me best with torn pedal-pushers and a butterfly net. I was fascinated with insects. In junior high school, we were supposed to write a paper about our career aspirations. The teacher provided pamphlets put out by the government. The one on entomology turned out to stress fields devoted to killing insects, and that was that. But now that I've retired I'm back to the kid with torn and stained clothing - no butterfly net - I prefer to watch them in nature and only infrequently break off a leaf to carry them to a sunnier spot.

About 9 years ago, I asked a neighbor to dig me a pond for my goldfish Seymour. I added another pretty fish to be a companion for him, and immediately Seymour bloated up and started laying eggs. The pond started attracting all kinds of things and soon became just like a natural pond. Water striders, aquatic spiders, tadpoles, dragon/damselflies, the works. It has attracted more and more things to the yard. I never mow any part of my yard and rarely weed except at the peripheries where there are a few greenhouse plants. Now I feel I have wasted a day if I haven't wandered around out there and taken a few pictures. I'm learning more and more how to use a camera.

In addition to bugwatching, I enjoy inlay woodworking and designing/building automata, weaving, popup art, sewing, painting some scenes from my nature photographs, playing the flute, working on online translators for less commonly taught languages, and yakking with my friends. Not all in the same day or month.

For the past four years I've written a weekly (or biweekly in the winter) blog showing people what critters come to my backyard with photos and text explaining what the critter in question is doing at the time. It is to be found at

http://mokennon.albion.edu/backyardblog.htm

PS. My former work was mostly in online translation of less-commonly-taught languages.

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