Last autumn I watched my wife and two helpers at work in our garden. I watched from a safe distance, from an upstairs window. It looked far too brutal for my liking.

They were grabbing at branches and whacking at beds, knocking Mother Nature into shape and cutting her down to size. When they were done we were left with a rather subdued looking garden. The shrubs and other plants appeared shrunken, as if they wished for a blanket of snow.

But now, with spring here, what a difference. The cut down to size plants are all stretching and reaching for the sky. The knocked into shape flower beds are beginning to push their boundaries and borders again.

Oh, to be able to recover like that every time I get knocked into shape and cut down to size!

Wait a minute. Maybe I can. Who said I couldn’t?

Not Mother Nature.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.