WHAT’S WRONG WITH US February 16, 2007
Posted by thenaturalist in Interesting, Nature/Natural History, Phenology, Time.add a comment
D. H. Lawrence wrote: “Blood knowledge…Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of Love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and setting of the sun, and cut off from the magical connection of the solstice and equinox. This is what is wrong with us. We are bleeding at the roots.”
RATIO OF DAY TO NIGHT September 1, 2001
Posted by thenaturalist in Nature/Natural History, Phenology, Time.add a comment
In his new introduction to our co-written revision of The Vermont Life Guide to Fall Foliage (2001), Charles Johnson says: “Plants base two of their most fundamental yearly cycles, flowering and dormancy, on the length of days and nights. The amount of daylight they receive is the only true constant in their passage through the years, in their evolution over eons. Everything else is changeable, less predictable, such as weather, soil conditions, even long-term climate. These they may adapt to, but the ratio of day to night is the rhythm of their existence, the great timekeeper.”
THOREAU ON SEASONS AND HEALTH July 4, 2000
Posted by thenaturalist in Nature/Natural History, Phenology, Thoreau.add a comment
In Thoreau’s late natural history writings, he became passionately attentive to the natural world. A selection of these late writings, published as Wild Fruits in 2000, ends with an interesting prescription for staying healthy: “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each…. For all Nature is doing her best each moment to make us well…. Why, Nature is but another name for health.”
