Well, let's see...how did my brain get so crammed full of information? First of all it comes from living in the southeast, where we have so much open environment to spend a lot of time in the outdoors, where intellect and hobbies develop best. I've been fishing since I was about 1 year old or so, and since the family fishes so much a lot of weekends we'd spend cooking the fish freshly caught that day, along with crabs that we'd catch in crab traps and shrimp we'd tow nets for on occasion. From about age 10 or so I started hunting whenever I could, so there'd be a good bit of deer, dove, and duck to be had for cooking in as many interesting ways as we could come up with. Alabama is so rich with recipes for deer and fish that you could live an entire lifetime eating them every other day or so andd not get bored of it at all. Also, my dad went to college at Tulane which is in New Orleans in addition to being an avid hunter and fisherman all his life, so he developed an intense enthusiasm for good food that I picked up on.
I started reading when I was about 3 years old or so, since my family has subscribed to National Geographic since I was born. I always loved picking it up and looking at the pictures, and I'd get curious about what I saw cause it looked so cool so I'd want to learn about it. My dad always had stacks of books laying around that he'd read in a day, so there'd be an abundance of stuff for me to get a little knowledge out of and further increase my appetite for learning. Of course my mom is also a huge factor, with tons of local knowledge that never ceases to amaze me. There is hardly a plant, bird, insect, or bit of local history she doesn't know; that spurs me on to try to get as familiar with the world around me as she has become, as even the very grass we walk on every day has a million little curiosities that the vast majority of people don't even think about. My hunting in the fall and spring gives me opportunity to observe hundreds of different shrubs, trees, flowers, birds, lizards, bugs, etc. Fishing lets me see different varieties of coastal birds, fish, weather patterns, turtles, and heaven knows what else.
Just go out and see the world and keep your eyes open. A simple hour in the woods or on the water can teach you more than days spent in a classroom learning pi out to ten decimal places or where the treaty ending the Hundred Years' War was signed.
) Anyways, thats interesting **** where did you learn. Never heard of any of those words in Canuck Country...
