The wildflower project has come about through a combination of things. The best of these is that I’ve really wanted to know more about the plants that I walk past on our relatively regular ‘business meeting walks’ for quite a while but I get insanely irritated by not being able to be sure what things are. It annoys me profoundly that I am so ignorant of nature, especially having come from an initial educational setting that prized nature knowledge so highly. Being able to look up a plant on your iPhone helps, but then I want to know ‘all the things’ and I have a terrible memory and 20,000 images on my phone. So I never remember to find out about the things I photograph and even if I do, I immediately forget it.
The I found myself really wanting and needing to learn how to use AI workflows and how to express myself to it in a way that meant I got to the outcomes I wanted quickly and efficiently and I wanted a relatively joyful project to spend time honing my skills in that regard. And along side that I happened to be really needing to have a reason to get away from my desk and go to new places – Max and both wanted to make more opportunities to be out and about exploring and spending quality time together. I just really needed something to do that occupied my increasingly erratic perimenopausal side quest brain late at night and was making me feel warm and squishy.
So we started with flowers… teach me about wildflowers, Potato (don’t ask, I don’t know and now it is too late) and before we knew it, off we went on a ‘create a set of botanical info cards’ and then it was 60 now suddenly I’m compelled by an imaginary Potato to go on a quest all year to find 60 plants on nature reserves set out like I’m Frodo and Sam off to save Middle Earth and I don’t even know what’s going on any more. More later. Here is the Potato. Oddly he’s very reminiscent of the line drawing cartoon character me and my best friend used to draw pictures of in school – she was artistic, I wasn’t, line drawings were where it ended for me and I still nearly got a detention in maths once when I got caught passing a drawing of him to another friend. Honestly, ChatPotato gets me in less trouble. And I don’t think he’s going to end the world. Yes, he’s a he. Yes, I know you shouldn’t name the AIs. Do I care? No. No I don’t.
