On Saturday morning, Tim created a painterly bouquet of tulips and daffodils cut from our garden. Watching it slowly unfold and evolve has been like watching a ballet. I thought I would share a few images of this quiet 72-hour extravaganza with you.

Context for Poem “Allegiance to Language”:

This morning, I dipped in again to one of my favorite books, The Lost Words: A Spell Book, a multi-layered collaboration by wordsmith Robert MacFarlene and painter Jackie Morris. First published in 2017 to protest the excizing of natural words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary.

I wrote about this five years ago, HERE but today became enchanted with it afresh, and wanted to share it again with you. I was interested to learn that in both 2022 and 2024, Robert MacFarlane was named as an outside contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature (had I been on the selection committee, he would have won.) I see that his first book, Mountains of the Mind, which I have not yet read, takes its title from a poem by Gerard Manly Hopkins and explores the fascination that mountains hold for humans. Indeed, he is a true Renaissance artist–inventor, librettist, critic, and philosopher and explorer of inner and outer landscapes.

As I compose this, I am confirmed in my dawning realization this year that, for me, rereading can be even more rewarding than reaching for a new release. Though the siren’s song of new work, especially by an author I like can be impossible to resist…! Would you rather reread an old favorite or dive into something new? Or do you, too, seek to balance old and new in the all-too-fleeting moments available for reading?

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE