#nature is what we see

The little green dragon had a fearsome expression on its face, as it was feeling both perplexed and frustrated. It could not understand why the flowers in the box had changed colour and shape, for when it had first seen them they had looked entirely different. It had little understanding of Nature, despite being a most remarkable natural phenomenon itself, and as botany was rarely studied in the dragon’s arid homeland of faraway Patadragonia, the funny wee creature knew nothing at all about the cultivation and lifecycles of flowering plants.

And it was greatly frustrated as well… When Algy pointed with delight to some beautiful blue hyacinths in the centre of the box, the little green dragon simply frowned, for try as it might, it simply could not glow in that colour. It was happiest glowing in varying hues of green, orange or red, and it could manage yellow reasonably well, as least for a short period of time - or even a reddish kind of purple if absolutely necessary - but blue was the one colour which completely defied it.

It sighed a loud and heartfelt little-green-dragonish sigh, disturbing a large bumblebee which was happily inspecting the fragrant blue hyacinth, and as the bee buzzed away to find other attractive flowers, the dragon followed it with a resentful eye.

Algy laughed, and tried to comfort his friend. “Don’t be like that,” he said. “We can’t always glow in the all the colours we want to! Look at me… I can’t even glow at all! I’m just fluffy. Don’t try to combat Nature - just enjoy the flowers!”

“Nature” is what we see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse—the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—
Nature is what we hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—
Nature is what we know—
Yet have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.

[Algy is quoting the poem Nature is what we see by the 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson.]