Welcome to the Weekend Mini Challenge with
Kim from Writing in North Norfolk.
A couple of Saturdays ago I visited the Natural History
Museum in London. Saturdays are always very busy, especially in the dinosaur
section, so we wandered into the Darwin Centre, where we found the Cocoon, a
huge space dedicated to the collecting and naming of new species. Having
studied linguistics at university and being a retired English teacher, as well
as a writer, I was drawn to this section (apologies for the photograph).
Some of
the names given to flora and fauna are little poems on their own, such as
Everlasting friendship and Robin-run-the-hedge, as found on this display. I
have found some fantastic names given to insects, such as Blue moon butterfly,
Dewdrop spider, Tumbling flower and Whirligig beetles. A velvet spider has been
named after Lou Reed and scientists have called a prehistoric
crocodile Lemmysuchus obtusidens, after Motörhead frontman Lemmy.
I was intrigued by the ways scientists choose names for
their discoveries and thought it would make a nice prompt. So today I would like you to write a new poem about how you named something or someone: a
child, a pet, a plant - whatever it is you have given a name, tell us about how
it came about.
Join in by clicking on Mister Linky and filling in your name
and url – not forgetting to tick the small ‘data’ box. And please remember to
read and comment on other toads’ poems.