An unidentified purple flower the first to bloom from the butterfly-friendly wildflower seed mix the girls and I planted this spring. One of the only gardening projects we actually completed. (Updated: Bachelor’s Buttons. Thanks, Jenn!)
I’ve always called these clover but this week I learned it’s really wood sorrel. I got some wildflower books out from the library and we’ve learned to identify a few new species. Evidently these are edible.
I like moths when they’re outside and not in my pantry.
I really should figure out what this tiny pink flower is. Bella frequently adds it to her bouquets.
Some kind of cocklebur?
I wish I’d got a picture of these purples the other day. They weren’t so wilty-droopy, the petals stood out in a pretty star. (Updated: Deadly Nightshade/Belladonna. Thanks, Marie. I think this will be uprooted soon, alas. I don’t want anyone snacking on the berries though.)
Along came a spider.
Bella picked these. Definitely not the same as the wood sorrel though about the same size and color blooms.
A tiny waspish insect on a teeny-tiny flower.
Only one positive identification in the lot; but we’re enjoying the process of slowly growing our knowledge. To my mind the step of asking What is it? is just as important as identification. I love that my children are curious and always learning and I don’t ever want to see that light go out.
I wish I had time to sit and sketch these little wonders but for now my camera will have to do.
Martha, I think it’s important to remember that ADHD is a disorder, and not a disease. The current diagnostic criteria may not be discriminating between several different attention problems. I would love to read a meta analysis of allergies between the different ADHD subtypes.
This does not track with my experience. I have 2 very different children, both with ADD, and while one has some hypersensitivities, the other has none. None at all. Neither have any food allergies. Neither have sensitive skin. And the one who is more sensitive was not at all alert as a newborn. (hey, he’s not that alert now, either, come to think of it… crazy smart though.)
I have taught a lot of kids with ADD, and the statement, “People with ADD are hypersensitive,” is so incredibly over-generalized, I think I just have to go ahead and say it’s wrong. Just my 2 cents, and I hope the book is correct about other things.
I don’t think we were originally speaking to just ADD but to easy distractibility as well as to other things such as over sensitivity – perhaps even “deer in the headlights” kind of reactions and how so many individual sensibilities (so often a physical/neurological component playing its part) play their roles.
Often when people are emotionally/physically protective – esp. within new situations where they have to outwardly take a risk, but where inwardly there remains the need to control, those circumstances may alert hypersensitive nerves to overload. With that emotional makeup there follows the physical/neurological reactions. And thus follows a kind of inability to relax enough to forget other stimuli and concentrate like those who do not suffer from such sensitivity.
So, if you hurt in any way that is ongoing or chronic, be it myofascial (nerve/muscle) aches, over-emotional protectiveness, or the really painful fibromyalgia, all that can be multiplied by nature’s own annoyances if so effected. And of course children don’t as yet understand all of those underlying reasons.
How many people suffer in such ways stoically (maybe due to nurturing that encourages that as some kind of “virtue”) and thus appear strong to others while gradually wearing out and living rather heroically – they may even keep more to themselves due to those things. I think of Leonie, St. Therese’s sister who suffered from horrible skin disorders, impulsive nature, over sensitive reactions without the ability to even realize she was being taken advantage of. She was of course a cross to others who loved her but not nearly I would think as much as she was to herself whose determination to change so often met with failure and thus great disappointment. It was a real martyrdom for her to gradually gain control over her natural reactions and was especially helped after Therese’s death. There are reported quite some miracles from her gravesite given to just those types of humans who need that kind of understanding and intercession. And isn’t that just how most of us learn compassion…after suffering through undesirable conditions we never chose for ourselves but given for our own personal “narrow way” in this life of ever learning about ourselves.
Thank you Melanie for responding to my earlier comment. I haven’t been back here for a peek-in for a while!
Kris,
I think a part of the problem in any discussion of ADD is that it’s not really a diagnosis as much as a description of a collection of symptoms that probably have many different overlapping and inter-related causes. There probably is not one neurological map of ADD, not just one cause, which is why I’d think that you might actually find a range of ways in which people who have been diagnosed as having ADD manifest their individual problems.
I think Mate argues that ADD is actually more of a developmental deficit than a condition so yes people could still be over-sensitive and distractable while not actually being diagnosed with ADD and would fall into the same general category. It’s really about individuals not hitting certain developmental milestones (for whatever combination of environmental or hereditary reasons). Thus for some ADD-like distractability might indeed be rooted in physiological causes. I think Mate argues that the emotional sensitivity may also be rooted in a physical sensitivity as well. It seems to me that it might become a feedback loop as physically sensitive infants have a harder time having their emotional needs met and thus become emotionally sensitive.
Interesting to know that about Leonie. Maybe I should refer my sister to her.