It’s mid-June and I’ve just come in from planting cosmos and repotting coleus. How chilly and uninviting this old watercolor, 26/100+ Trees, looks today— but the children’s verse for it is serious fun and quite timely. It’s about endurance through adversity—a character trait I’m still working to build. (FYInterest for family—many, many years ago part of the tree line at Walkup’s Woods in CL IL looked a tad like this one.)
The north wind doth blow
and we shall have snow
and what will poor robin do then?
Poor thing. (Traditional)
The north winds do blow
and now we have snow
and what will the ducklings do now?
Dear things.
“Swim, swim,” said the duckling,
“Swim, swim—
till the pond freezes over
we’ll paddle around
and then seek out shelter
upon the dry ground.”
(And me playing with familiar childhood rhymes)
