Nymphaea

lily pads

Leaves afloat, always right side up, exchanging air on top unlike nearly all other plants.

Flowers pristine and bright, beckoning pollinators from afar.

We marvel that a plant rooted in ooze can make flowers so clean and white.

For Nymphaea, it is growth as usual. They do it every year.

Owen Sholes

My wife and I live on five hectares, mostly wooded, in central Massachusetts where I cut firewood, tend the garden, read Robert Frost and other poets, and observe the land, the sky and the living things nearby, often with camera in hand. I retired from Assumption College in Worcester, MA, last year. I taught biology and environmental science, and oversaw the design and construction of a new science building. I grew up outside of Chicago, the son of a teacher and a statistician. I started to pay close attention to the natural environment as an undergraduate, and continued on to graduate work in ecology. My fieldwork on plant-insect interactions has taken me to New York, California, Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. My latest book explores the intersection of poetry and natural history: Stopping by Woods: Robert Frost as New England Naturalist. Watch this site for pictures and posts about the pond at the end of my road, plus thoughts about my life.

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