The Use of Flowers

The Use of Flowers
Mary Hewitt
1799-1888

God might have bade the earth bring forth

        Enough for great and small,
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree,
        Without a flower at all.
We might have had enough, enough
        For every want of ours,
For luxury, medicine, and toil,
        And yet have had no flowers.

Then wherefore, wherefore were they made,

        All dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
        Upspringing day and night: --
Springing in valleys green and low,
        And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness
        Where no man passes by?

From:  The Gardener’s Book of Poems and Poesies.  Compiled by Cary O. Yager.  ©1996 by Contemporary Books, Inc. Two Prudential Plaza, Chicago, Illinois 60601-6790.

 

Stars

If I had to navigate by the stars I’d be lost . . . all the time.  I marvel at people who can look to the night time sky and see, name and recite the history of the constellations.  Sometimes I can find the big dipper.  Sometimes.

Stars in general are cool.  I learned that the only star in the good old Milk Way is the sun.  So all the sparkle in the night sky comes from (to quote George Lucas) “a galaxy far, far, away.” Wow.

Remember I love to use my imagination.  I wonder if planets around those stars have our sun in their constellations.

A bright star is closer to us than a star that doesn’t shine as bright.  I know, duh.  But a star shines uniformly in all directions so, imagination again, think of all the galaxies that can see Polaris (the North Star), and that use it for their navigation.  Now that sounds like a good story idea.

I read two great books while researching this blog.  I always put my sources at the end of the blog but I have to recommend one here.  Janice Van Cleave’s Constellations for Every Kid.  (John Wiley and Sons, ©1997, Janice Van Cleave).   It was very informative and it had all 88 recognized constellations, when and where in the sky they appear. 

Another fun thing I discovered, there is an observatory on top of the library in a town near mine.  The telescope takes pictures that are posted on their website.  (www.pewaukeeastro.com)  They also have public presentations once a month.  Maybe they can help me find the big dipper.

Pack out what you pack in.

Sources:

Janice Van Cleave’s Constellations for Every Kid, John Wiley and Sons, © 1997, Janice Van Cleave.

Explore the Solar System – Earth and Earth’s Moon © 2011 World Books, Inc., Chicago, IL 60601

Yes this is the moon.  It was too early for the stars to shine. 

Access

There’s talk of paving a popular bike trail near my home.  Right now the trail is lined with pea gravel.  It’s nice to ride on if you have a trail bike – one with wide knobby tires.  But not everybody does.  Paving the trail will make it easier for those with only road bikes – ones with skinny sleek tires.

It would also make the trail more accessible to those with limited mobility.  People who use wheelchairs and walkers need access to the great outdoors just like anyone else.

Bugline Trail
Just outside Menomonee Falls, WI.

Providing paved trails is important but I’m not advocating paving all trails.  The Seven Bridges trail is fastly becoming one of my favorites but I would not insist on putting in ramps and paving all the trails there.  Not only would it be expensive but it would also take away from the beauty of the trail.  Paving the trail near my house wouldn’t do that.

Folks who use wheelchairs and walkers do have choices, limited as they may be, to enjoy God’s creation.  It takes some research and planning but it can be done.  Look for beginner, level trails, call and ask a ranger if the state park you are visiting has paved trails.  Many of the bike trails in the area are paved.  Check with local bike shops to find a level trail.  Yes, I’m asking you to stay away from the web here.  Talking to people who use the trail gives you a more accurate assessment of that trail.  City parks are more apt to have paved trails.  Call your parks department to find out.

Everyone should have access to nature and all should enjoy its quiet simplicity. 

Pack out what you pack in.

The Innocent Spring

The Innocent Spring

Edith Sitwell
1887-1964

In the great gardens, after bright spring rain,

We find sweet innocence come once again,
White periwinkles, little pensionnaires,
With muslin gowns and shy and candid airs.

That under saint-blue skies, with gold stars sown,

Hide their sweet innocence by spring winds blown,
From zephyr libertines that like Richelieu
And d’Orsay their gold-spangled kisses blew;

And lilies of the valley whose buds blonde and tight

Seem curls of little school-children that light
The priests’ procession, when on some saint’s day
Along the country paths they make their way;

Forget-me-nots, whose eyes of childish blue,

Gold-starred like heaven, speak of love still true;
And all the flowers that we call “dear heart,”
Who say their prayers like children, then depart

Into the dark.  Amid the dew’s bright beams

The summer airs, like Weber waltzes, fall
Round the first rose who, flushed with her youth, seems
Like a young Princess dressed for her first ball.

Who knows what beauty ripens from dark mould

After the sad wind and the winter’s cold? –
But a small wind sighed, colder than the rose
Blooming in desolation, “No one knows.”

 

From:  The Gardener’s Book of Poems and Poesies, Compiled by Cary O. Yager, © 1996 by Contemporary Books, Inc.  Two Prudential Plaza, Chicago, IL 60601