0. Intro 🐢

The premise this time is simple. Really simple, and it comes in the shape of a rhetorical question:

Why flog ourselves with yet another (hard-hitting) blog? Reading—and, by extension, writing—shouldn’t be a slog, amirite?

Heh.

What follows, then, is a leisurely foray into the long-forgotten art of leaning back, relaxing, and basking in the rejuvenating power of nature, allowing it to work its regenerative magic on us mortals. You—and, by extension, I—have nothing to do now but let nature take its course.

But of course.

Here goes.

1. Ducks Unlimited 🏄

From the looks of it, these ducks are building a stairway to heaven. Good luck pals (Especially as I note that you’ve already nestled into repose, falling sound asleep on the seventh and eighth stair-step, respectively!)

2. A Computational Duck 🗿

“So what else does nature have in store for us?“, you rightly ask?

Well, let’s see…

Ah, a rather petrified-looking duck, I see, has clambered atop that magnificent tome—it has appeared elsewhere in the past and is today standing upright like one of those eerie Stonehenge columns in rural England—calmly surveying a lush spread of tape-flags. (Who plastered them to the pages of the tome remains a mystery to this day; I’m chalking it right up there with the unknown builders of the Stonehenge columns, their origins lost to antiquity.)

3. Fish Ahoy! 🐳

An oh-so adorable bonsai nestling up to that memorialized drawing—now that’s one unprepossessing fish if ever I saw one—which adorns a deep dive into the guts of all things databases.

4. The Allure Of An Alcove 🍄

Things looking up: If ever I want to be some place to witness the rejuvenating power of nature on moi, that placid bay it will be. Shall I—and, by extension, you—let nature take its course, whisking us through some decidedly nonlinear transformations? (Something like that, anyway.)

A word to the wary, in that

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

(And good luck with that Memento design pattern, you all, should you subsequently hanker for restoring yourselves to a previous state…)

5. Nature On The Prowl 🐯

“Hey, kitty, kitty… Real careful with this nature specimen now.”

Where angels fear to tread, fools rush in: Need I say more, Elsinore?

6. Somebody Invented Nature?! 🐌

Is that a bold statement or what? This elemental take on nature has appeared elsewhere on our digs.

7. Nature Comes Into Relief 👒

We may need to dig deeper into this one… Stay tuned, won’t you?

8. Those Ducks… Again! 🎃

As best as I can tell, those ducks sure have a long way to go before their stairway to heaven is all built (for them, from the looks of their progress so far.) For crying out loud, they’ve not so much as ruffled a feather since we last checked in with their quacky quarters in nature.

Calling the hotline for Bob the Builder: “Hello, we need immediate assistance to get some ducks going… Yes, really.”

9. Exuent, Fishy Story 🎬

“Exeunt Hamlet and Polonius“; um, excuse me, “Exeunt Bonnie the bonsai and Coe the coelacanth” is what I had meant to say.

Hey, either way, it’s time for us—and all those nature critters we’ve befriended today—to say: “Nice to see you. And won’t you come and play with us again?”

And for anyone who has the slightest problem with us having some unsullied fun today with escapism during these COVID-19 times—home-bound and not going anywhere anytime soon—I can only say, “Please lighten up.”

That’s not you, and I know that. You, dear Reader, continue to rock my world.