gardens

*at the edge of the woods and his own backyard

 Dave sits in one of his wife's gardens

 as he talks with his mentor and muse, Titania*

Dave: *looking from garden to lawn*

      "I've always thought lawns

      to be rather strange things.

      "I mean, power mowers didn't even exist

      until 1830; then in 1868,

      Frederick Olmsted invented

      the American lawn concept,

      and in 1870, Frank Scott decided

      to promulgate this idea on a grand scale.

      I've read that 50,000 square miles

      of this country is covered

      in manicured lawns."

      *tries to hand her an article*

[which can be seen here:

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/why-mow-the-case-against-lawns/ ]

Titania: *waving away the article*

      "Pah!  I knew them both,

      and the span of a century

      has lessened their arrogance

      not a whit.

      "Look at that border..."

http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2012/05/border.html

      "...on one side

      flowers grow as God intends;

      on the other, you fertilize grass to grow

      only that you might smash it down

      before it can ever come to bloom;

      better would it be fed to goats and calves;

      lawns are but an abuse of your free will,

      your vain attempt to feel as if

      you can control Nature,

      when only Nature's God controls it.

      "Consider rather what your wife does...

      "All life began in a garden;

      your wife listens to the trees

      as they whisper the faint reverberations

      of the Song of Songs

      when the One sang all things into being,

      and the angels, firstborn of all Creation,

      picked up the melody

      and clapped their hands

      and sang with joy.

      "Her heart hears the echoes of the Song,

      hence, she partners with the Creator

      to try and get back to the simplicity

      of the garden.

      "And for that,

      she is rewarded with this beauty."

http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2012/05/beauty.html

      *Once again, the Faerie Queen

      speaks to Dave of the things that were,

      the things that are,

      and the things that must yet

      come to pass*