Leaping Greenly

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” – George Santayana

As the days shorten and the shadows lengthen, I am frequently struck by what I call the urge to “nest”. It happens every fall. That urge to bake pies and make preserves…to have a pot of something savory simmering on the stove and fresh bread or biscuits in the oven…to start or finish a quilt.

Autumn is a season of preparation, in my mind at least. And I wonder if that doesn’t come from some centuries-old place in which people had to do such things just to survive the coming winter — from some internal, primordial clock that signalled that it was time to ready for cold weather.

Here in Nova Scotia, cooler weather has settled upon us unexpectedly — we morphed from hot and humid days only a week or so ago to having frost warnings at night. The crickets’ chirps have slowed and some of the maples display hints of crimson at their leaf tips. It’s the sort of weather that conjures images of hot chocolate, warm sweaters, and books in front of fireplaces. September is a fickle month, however, and probably holds some surprises for us yet, but the urge to “nest” is still as strong.

Seasons do change and with the first meagre hints of Autumn, I get the urge to clean house, so to speak. A perfect time for decluttering closets and drawers before the sweaters and scarves come out to stay.

And also a good time to declutter my blogging shelves. Leaping Greenly, as you will notice from the header, has morphed into All Nature, My Garden. I had a separate blog in which I had hoped to chronicle some trips around the perimeter of the province, something I still hope to do, but rather than keep that blog sitting idly as it waits for such a post, I decided to combine the two into one, and took the All Nature, My Garden title for this blog as it seems to suit me better.

Those who had faved the original All Nature, My Garden, I hope you’ll become a regular reader of this blog and I apologize for pulling the older blog without notice. I hope you’ll find a little bit of something here for every taste, whether it be a floral photo essay or a savoury recipe. As always, I welcome your comments!

When I wrote my first post in July of 2004, I thought the word Soliloquy was a perfect name for my blog. At the time, my posts were simply a random collection of thoughts, often focused on writing, and even more often, meandering aimlessly down unfocused paths. This blog post, in reply to a question Gail at Clay and Limestone had tossed out to us, explains in greater detail how I came to choose the word, Soliloquy.

Since then, the focus of my blog has been on all aspects of Nature and gardening, with the odd post about family events or Life, in general. Soliloquy just doesn’t seem like a good fit any more. It is hard to pronounce, often misspelled, fussy to type, and has little to do with Nature or gardening. So, I’ve decided to re-christen my blog: Leaping Greenly.

The phrase “leaping greenly” is taken from a poem by E. E. Cummings, which I quote below in its entirety:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

E. E. Cummings, by the way, according to his widow, did not have his name legally changed to “e e cummings”. He did, in fact, write to his French translator that he preferred the capitalized version. Just as a point of interest.

Cummings exhibited “transcendental” leanings his entire life and was a very spiritual man. He would pray in his journals for inspiration for his poetry and art work; he also “prayed for strength to be his essential self”.

Two of Cumming’s beautiful paintings.

I, too, have felt the leaping greenly spirits of trees and revere “…everything which is natural. which is infinite…” In fact, I sometimes, literally, leap greenly! (When nobody’s watching, that is.)

I hope that this name change doesn’t deter my regular readers. I’ll post with both names for a while until my blogging friends are used to the change.

My site URL is the same, my blog feed is the same, and everything on Blotanical should be the same — the only thing you’ll need to change, if you wish, is the name.

Other than that, as Jon Bon Jovi wrote, “It’s all the same, only the names will change…” :-) Come leap greenly with me!