Nature's bright ideas
Crocuses in spring (Photo by CBT/NCC staff)
Fall may be a time of endings — the end of summer, the end of the field season, the end of the veggie patch for another year. But as leaves begin to fall and nature turns dormant, it's also a time of planning for new beginnings — and of looking ahead to springtime.
Here's a poem I wrote on that theme a few years ago about my front garden in Halifax, Nova Scotia:
Nature's bright ideas
find gardening gloves
dust off the trowel
pull out brown-bagged bulbs from
the cold
room
under the stairs
where they've spent the summer
in the garden
relish rare rays of sunshine
warm on arms and back
brush aside dry leaves and twigs
dig shallow holes
startle blind worms
squirming in moist dark earth
plant bulbs
tiny onions
cover them over for a long winter's rest
now wait
blankets of white will fall
we'll huddle inside on cold nights
in a few months
eagerly scan the warming ground
for bright green exclamation marks
poking out from melting snow
nature's bright ideas
About the Author
Christine Beevis Trickett is the director of editorial services for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
