Morning Song

Morning Song

by Marcia F. Brown

Here, I place
a blue glazed cup
where the wood
is slightly whitened.
Here, I lay down
two bright spoons,
our breakfast saucers, napkins
white and smooth as milk.

I am stirring at the sink,
I am stirring the amount of dew
you can gather in two hands,
folding it into the fragile
quiet of the house....

read the rest of this gorgeous, gorgeous poem where I first discovered it, on The Writer's Almanac, August 5th, 2010

Dahlia & Echinacea

Dahlias & Echinacea are in season.
Warm reds & pinks go well with peaches & apricots, I think.

Lavender i love you lavender

I admit it. I kept this photo on the front page far too long (2 months) as In season is supposed to change with the times & feature seasonal flora & food at their peak.

But the lavender needs a rest now so I'll move the photos and text here:

Lavandula angustifolia  'Hidcote' blooming on the balcony in June.

July 26th, update - Though waning, the lavender still has a few blossoms. So I'm going to keep these photos on the front page a few more days. I do think every garden needs at least one lavender plant -- for sight, scent, touch, taste and yes, even sound (bzzzzy bees visit it often).

"Green I Love You Green"

Poetry and the endless, elegant cycle of nature

by Nalini Nadkarni

My work in this world is to understand forests through the approach of science. “Science” comes from the Latin scio: “to know as thoroughly as possible.” When I visit my forest field sites in Costa Rica, I don mountain-climbing gear to ascend tall trees to study the rarely seen plants and animals that live high in the forest canopy. I then design experiments, gather data, and report quantitative findings to my scientific peers.

However, with the increasing environmental threats of human activities on forests—such as harvesting, fragmentation, and climate change—the definition of science must also include dissemination of information and extending a sense of mindfulness about trees to non-scientists. This communication must particularly include those who are unaware or only dimly aware of the importance of trees and nature, i.e., people who rarely visit a botanical garden or watch a nature documentary. To many of those people, the language and style of scientific communication are rarely compelling. What other vocabularies might scientists use to engage the public with the importance of nature and the enterprise of science?

“Poetry is prayer and good medicine,” wrote a colleague of mine, Craig Carlson, when I asked for input on a book I was writing about the relationships between trees and humans. He was right....

 Continue reading this essay in the July/August 2010 issue of Poetry.

My favourite clematis

Clematis montana