“To look upon everything with a tranquil mind”—some autumn photos taken on the way to and in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden

This afternoon Susanna and I took a stroll across town to visit the Cambridge University Botanic Garden on a beautiful, sunny day where we took time to linger tranquilly in the sun; Susanna reading Rebecca Solnit's recent book, “A Field Guide to Getting Lost” and me reading the poetry of Lucretius and A. R. Ammons. For those interested in such things the connection between these last two writers is very real, indeed, the American poet and translator Richard Howard once said that “Ammons is our Lucretius, swerving and sideswiping his way into the nature of things.”

Anyway, as we sat in the life giving sun contemplating the beautiful garden a few lines from Book Five of the De Rerum Natura struck me as particularly apt:

Piety is not to be seen often with head covered 
turning towards a stone and approaching every altar,
nor to lie prostrate on the ground with open palms
before shrines of the gods, nor to sprinkle altars
with a profusion of the blood of beasts, nor to join vow to vow.
It is rather to be able to look upon everything with a tranquil mind.

(Lucr. 5.1198-1203, trans. Walter Englert)

So, here are a few photos from that walk and visit. They were all taken with a Fuji X100F.

Just click on a photo to enlarge it.