"Trish Brown" wrote in message

(snip) I think these things all come down to a
thirst for knowing things. People who like to know stuff never cease
learning, IMHO.

I thinks so too. Curiosity is a wonderful learning aid.

I've always said that we (should) learn and continue to develop all
through life and I wouldn't mind betting that your parents did just that
even if they left school with a good education in just the basic 3Rs.

Oh yes! My Dad could add a column of figures in his head much quicker than
I could do it on a calculator (and he always described himself as 'only a
butcher'). My Mum is 86 and she keeps her dictionary and her atlas nearby
at all times. It irritates her that political boundaries keep changing and
she has to keep re-learning the names and cities of all the countries
mentioned in the daily news. :-D

I know jsut what she means!

I think it's interesting to note that Latin names for plants are easily
understood by most of us and leave no doubt as to a plant's identity
when various common names might be in use...

:-)) The trouble with Latin names, is that when I use them and I tend to
do so a lot, I always seem to be accused of being a snob or a know it
all. I used to explain to people that the more interested one in plants
and gardening, the more likely one is to seek out the sort of
publications that use botanical names and that reading such documents
leads to using the correct names. That explantion doesn't seem to wash
with many people though so I don't bother doing that so much these days.
I just think 'Idiot!' to myself. I'm getting old and intolerant.
Ah, join the club! Whenever we go bush, I spend most of my day walking
along with my nose either on the ground looking at plants or in the air
looking at birds. My continual muttering of Latin names used to irritate
the family, but they've learned to tolerate it and even join in on the
easy ones. Of course it must be annoying to those who don't know the
Latin, but it's just my way of consolidating them in my mind and making
sure I continue to remember them. I majored in Taxonomy at Uni and it's
still hugely important to me to be able to classify things. LOL!

I wish I could classify things! it must be wonderful to be able to do that!
About as much as I can manage is to get out my Horticultural Dictionary and
look at individual leaf shapes and tree shapes and then try to identify
things from there. Very unsatisfactory and frustrating.

You might be interested in a book that I have found to be simply
fascinating. It's called "Life on forty acres" by Barry P. Moore. He
trained as a chemist but has an interest in biology and entomology and I
think his wife was a botanist. Tragically she was killed.

This book is about his 40 acre block and I wouldn't have believed that
anyone could make a book about 40 acres not too distant from Canberra, the
least bit interesting. If anyone had asked me, I'd have descibed it as
scrofulous boring country but that isn't how he sees it or describes it.

He covers everything on his block from the smallest insect to the Wedge
tailed eagle. And in such superb detail. I never thought I would be
interested in insects but he writes about them so well that I now look at
bugs in my own garden with a magnifying glass.

(Also, I think it's pretty neat that I'm using names assigned by people
like Sir Joseph Banks and Carl Solander over two hundred years ago...)

:-)) A true link with our past.