"Let us be much with Nature"

I saw a lark the other day, for the first time in my life. It flew down in front of the car, as a friend and I were driving along, and landed in the edge of the field next to us.
What lovely birds they are! Understated, yet elegant, they serenade the skies with their joyous trilling as they hover high up in the blue, calling us to revel with them in summer glory.

Two weeks ago, when we were having long hot days of pure blue skies, I thought that was my favourite kind of weather, but last night we had some rain, and now I'm not so sure. I do love the countryside on a morning after rain. Outside in the garden, a strong wind is chasing itself through the trees and hedges, and above, huge cotton-wool clouds - about three times their usual size - are scudding across the sky. Everywhere there is a feeling of freshness and rejuvenation.

"Let us be much with Nature [....]
Discerning in each natural fruit of earth
Kinship and bond with this diviner clay.
Let us be with her wholly at all hours,
With the fond lover's zest, who is content
If his ear hears, and if his eye but sees;
So we shall grow like her in mould and bent,
Our bodies stately as her blessed trees,
Our thoughts as sweet and sumptuous as her flowers."

Extract from 'On The Companionship With Nature' by Archibald Lampman