A botanist's best friend...

is a hand lens. This is an inexpensive plastic version, that I received in a conference registration bag a few years back, that I've never used (I have a fancy 20x, metal and glass version), and just sits upon my bookshelf. I'm in the process of beginning to organize my thoughts for the upcoming teaching season and thought that I'd try something fun with the unused lens.

This could have also been called:

"Get the blip out of the way early."

"Cracking open the leaf gall was a bust."

"I's rather be outside than stuck in my office/lab."

"Man, are the windows ever dirty!!!"

The added bonus is that it provides insight (albeit minimal and vertically flipped) to what I see out my office window every day.