I come from a family that were amateur naturalists - we had many of the Golden Nature guides in our home library, as well as provincial and federal government guides to identifying weeds. Although I follow birds and aquatic life to some extent, and am an advanced amateur astronomer (have a home observatory, and have 2 observing certificates, Messier list of 110 and Herschel 400 list and a credited asterism, Thompson 1), my primary interest is botanical - Wildflowers and Weeds. Some of the 2016 observations were done on a day outing sponsored by the Ottawa Field Naturalists on Petrie Island.