Once, when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I had a heated discussion with my dad about whether or not I would enjoy Power Rangers as a grown-up.
He was probably trying to make a point about how our tastes change as we get older, about how the things which fascinate or entertain us as children - or even as adolescents - eventually lose their grip on us. I loved Power Rangers at the time, and I disliked the notion that my likes and dislikes could change so drastically, and in a way that was beyond my control.
I vividly remember the conviction with which I resolved to prove him wrong.
Sadly, in the specific case of Power Rangers, my dad’s prediction proved to be accurate. But the older I get, the more I realise how powerful our childhood interests can be.
When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I discovered carnivorous plants. It started out with a Venus Flytrap on my bedroom windowsill, and developed into a modest collection of sundews and pitcher plants. I remember poring over Peter D’Amato’s book The Savage Garden and dreaming that I could cultivate the monstrous, rodent-eating pitcher plants that grew in the jungles of Borneo. Here I am at Kew Gardens in the 90s, standing next to a fairly nondescript pitcher plant but looking rather pleased with myself:
My collection grew and shrank over the years, and by the time I became a teenager it was non-existent. But last year I felt an inexplicable urge to start growing these plants again. Eventually I gave in to the impulse and bought a few, and even constructed an elaborate glass terrarium (climate-controlled with a Raspberry Pi) in which to grow them. The terrarium now lives in my living room, and the tutorial I wrote last year about automation has been viewed over 15,000 times. I’m now constructing a second terrarium for more plants.
Why do old interests sometimes resurface like this? My instinct is to attribute it to nostalgia, that same force which drives us to revisit our favourite books or films for easy entertainment. But that doesn’t quite fit. I definitely don’t feel nostalgia for carnivorous plants; I just find them fascinating, in a way I struggle to articulate. And I’m drawn to certain species in exactly the same way I was as a child. The only difference is that now I’m an adult with a disposable income and some free time, so I can indulge my hobby however I like.
Anyway, on that note I’ve just launched a new website dedicated to this rediscovered interest: Tom’s Carnivores, at tomscarnivores.com. I intend to build this site into a modern resource for today’s growers.
It’s also a web development exercise - I’ve opted for a JAMstack approach, using the static site generator Hugo. Code is hosted on GitHub and deployment via continuous integration is handled by my web host Netlify. Look out for my Highcharts-powered data visualisations, which are launching imminently.