This is delectable writing, I was a hooked by this book as I am by any thriller, murder or romance book. I think we can all identify with the weather,This is delectable writing, I was a hooked by this book as I am by any thriller, murder or romance book. I think we can all identify with the weather, we all experience it, we have all been out in it. It is one of life’s sensory wonders and this book just hits its note perfectly....more
This is Persephone book number 66 first published in 1938. Muriel Stuart was the daughter of a Scottish Barrister and worked in publishing. Her poetryThis is Persephone book number 66 first published in 1938. Muriel Stuart was the daughter of a Scottish Barrister and worked in publishing. Her poetry was called ‘superlatively good’ by Thomas Hardy. After having children she stopped writing poetry and concentrated on her main love which was gardening. She published Fool’s Garden in 1936 about creating a garden and then this collection followed.
This is a lovely collection of garden writing, which I spent a quiet hour with after finding it in my local Oxfam. I do love garden writing, it is thoughtful, informative and can shine a light on history in a different way to dry history books
There are some lovely bits of nature writing and gardening tips which I love in this. It’s a hotch potch collection and I can imagine Stuart sitting in the evening or out in her garden during the day jotting down her thoughts, little facts and plants that are interesting for ‘the adventurous gardener.’
Here are a few of my favourite quotes but in all honesty the more I sit with this book, the more I find!
‘At this hour is heard the small, rebukeful sound of the wood pigeon, sitting high in the old tree, complaining as though someone had wronged her.’
‘Many delightful and innocent looking plants are murderers.’
‘A penny placed at the bottom of the case revives flowers marvellously.’
‘Riot of colour’ is a garden cliche.’
‘Every Iris that has a beard wants full sun.’...more
This guide by the zine creators Weird Walk takes you through Albion’s strange and ancient landscapes, standing stones, pagan rituals and connections tThis guide by the zine creators Weird Walk takes you through Albion’s strange and ancient landscapes, standing stones, pagan rituals and connections to folklore, the seasons and nature.
Each season you can walk a different landscape, from the well known Avebury and Stonehenge to the lesser known (certainly to me) Bix Bottom and The Devil’s Arrows. Packed with information and walking notes and stunning photography it’s a fabulous book. I really enjoyed it, especially the little walking note extras. Something a bit different, happy to walk on the weird side!...more
This book is compact, filled with beauty and takes you back to old ways. It is about survival and feels powerful and quiet in its intensity. Pears is This book is compact, filled with beauty and takes you back to old ways. It is about survival and feels powerful and quiet in its intensity. Pears is a talented storyteller that is certain.
There is a desolation and an isolation to this and reminds me of the landscape around the Sycamore Gap tree. Huge skies, cultures meet and join together to escape
‘If you don’t close your mouth,’ she said, ‘you’ll catch a horse fly, and then you’ll be sorry.’….’Did that really happen?’ He asked,’ Did we really see that?’
‘We live in the time we are given, this moment, but our ancestors are here with us always.’
An exquisite thought provoking tale, full of nature and sadness. Loved it. ...more
This book is simply mesmerising. It is an evolutionary history of life on the wing. When you actually stop and think about it flight is mind boggling.This book is simply mesmerising. It is an evolutionary history of life on the wing. When you actually stop and think about it flight is mind boggling. Birds, insects, butterflies, bats; they all do it with ease, flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. It’s a bit of a miracle really and has evolved in hugely varied ways.
Within its pages, we encounter fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, from hummingbirds, to the dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. And my favourite, the pigeon.
This is hugely detailed, accessible and written with Parikian’s easy style that makes you smile, he is just so enthusiastic! I have been out and looking up far more at all the flying animals big and small and just glorying in the wonder of it. Flight, is amazing. ...more
Diving into the mycological world with Aliya Whiteley is just wondrous. This book is so engaging, beautifully written and so easy to read. With gorgeoDiving into the mycological world with Aliya Whiteley is just wondrous. This book is so engaging, beautifully written and so easy to read. With gorgeously lyrical writing, you can really tell how much she loves her subject. It is full of incredible facts, you will not be in the least bit disappointed!
‘I had been given one inviolable command - don’t touch- but I loved to look at them.’
Just to have a glimpse into the incredible and largely unknown world of fungi is a joy and I promise you won’t look at mushrooms the same way again. I spent a lot of time googling images of various fungi, the one of pilobolus discharging it’s spores is incredible, one of the most powerful forces in nature and mesmerising! It grows on cow poo and so has to be flung far from said poo for the spores to land on grass, which is then eaten and starts it’s lifecycle again…nature is cool ...more
After a traumatic lockdown Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it off to a strip of neglected woodland. This is an intimate journal across aAfter a traumatic lockdown Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it off to a strip of neglected woodland. This is an intimate journal across a summer, embracing the challenge of how to live well when emotions threaten to tumble. How to help nature flourish, with friendships made, finding solace and hope and how to live life with imagination and bravery.
‘It was believed lightening would not strike a house that held a thunder stone. And so these fossils were placed on top of clocks, under floorboards, over stable doors…But there are some storms that thunder stones cannot prevent..’
This book is full of raw emotion, illness goes off like a hammer blow, the grief, the honesty of being stuck in the pandemic and the all consuming fear of helplessness are laid out for the reader
‘The Howl is an animal that stalks me now. A silent, unpredictable, chest-wrenching, bent-double, dribbling-out-of-the-mouth-that-will-not-close sorrow.’
It was for me an extremely powerful, heartwrenching and truthful read. It is not all doom and gloom however, don’t get me wrong! Some of this felt joyous to me, there are so many little wins in this book and the beauty of nature and living in it and having it surround you was wonderful too.
‘Thunder strikes and forges a new star on a stone. The urchin nestles deeper in the silt. Seas rise and ice retreats, and a woman finds a fossil in the rubble and places it in her pocket.’
This book is a keeper, quietly powerful, calming and eloquent. The lyrical beauty of the words wash over and through you as you read. Not to be missed.
This beautiful illustrated book was my new year treat to myself. I have had my eye on it for a while, I really love Angela Harding’s work which I firsThis beautiful illustrated book was my new year treat to myself. I have had my eye on it for a while, I really love Angela Harding’s work which I first came across on the cover of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.
Angela uses a combination of Lino and vinyl cutting and silk screen to create wonderful imagery and a very distinctive look.
This book moves through the seasons, taking inspiration from the natural world. There are fields, skies, waves and water with birds and wildlife; snapshots of the English countryside that are so calming to look at.
I have a real soft spot for nature writing, literature and illustrations. I’ve spent a few evenings slowly looking through this book and it is one that I will return to through the year. ...more
‘Trauma can change you, whether it’s losing your house , getting divorced or just being betrayed by someone. It’s all thThe Wild Silence - Raynor Winn
‘Trauma can change you, whether it’s losing your house , getting divorced or just being betrayed by someone. It’s all the same: it leaves a scar.’
This is the follow up to one of my top ever reads The Salt Path. I’ve read it several times and although I have had this one on my shelf for a long time. I couldn’t bring my self to read it. I was partly saving it and partly worried it wouldn’t live up to my expectations as I’d loved the previous book so much.
I really needed have worried. This book is still about Raynor and Moths Journey, after the Salt Path ends and also before, taking us back to when they first met and their history and Raynor’s family more specifically her mother. It is a very personal and poignant narrative, taking us to the hospital bed of her mother who is dying. Raynor’s worry about Moths illness and deterioration since their South West coast path walk and how to hold on to each other for as long as possible. It is about love, resilience, living in the moment and following your heart, things work out. They still do some walking this time in Iceland which was just fascinating to read about as well as moving to look after a farm and rewind the land. Honesty lifts from every page, the words capturing perfectly everything from a raging storm in Scotland to volcanic lands in Iceland to the love between Moth and Raynor. It really squeezed my heart but made me feel joyful and positive as well as a tinge of sadness of what the future holds for these wonderful people.
The writing is sincere, beautiful and utterly entrancing. This joins The Salt Path in my top 10 ever reads and will be on my re read list too.
We like to divide things up as a species and the year is no exception. Here we have four seasons but in the aLight Rains Sometimes Fall - Lev Parikian
We like to divide things up as a species and the year is no exception. Here we have four seasons but in the ancient Japanese calendar it is divided into 72 microseasons. Five days each, with the occasional six-dayer to even it up. Each have beautiful names, specific to Japan’s island climate such as ‘east wind melts the ice’ and ‘frogs start singing’. In this book the author uses the micro seasons to look at the natural world in his local patch, the familiar and the everyday.
Just a couple of fabulous moments from this book that I have loved:
I started this book in the middle as I thought I would read about the season I am currently in. ‘Fruit falls to the ground’ 23-27 August was my first micro season. I was immediately caught by ‘two simple truths: there’s a lot more out there than anyone sees, and you can’t see without looking.’ This really resonated with me, it’s not until you really start looking that you do in fact see so much more, this micro season in my little patch revealed huge numbers of butterflies, tortoiseshells and my favourite Peacocks, hugely abundant, warming themselves on the brick wall by our back door, it has been a simple pleasure to sit and watch them so close up.
I found myself smiling as I read with the observations, the open mouthed magic and wonder of looking at intricate spiders webs, and then a dead pigeon on the grass and the magic is somehow forgotten…this book has given me real joy. The way the author writes is so natural, it’s like he is just chatting with ease and reading makes you feel good and also keen to get out and about and have a look, I certainly am going to look for Ivy Bees with their ginger fuzz in my overgrown patch of garden now!
The more I read, the more I wanted to read and to be honest I could pick out so many fabulous little moments from this book it would be the worlds longest review - so I’ll leave it at that.
This is the perfect book to have to hand to pick up and dip in and out of. The warm humour and observations shine through, a wonderful companion to the evenings closing in and to journey through our glorious seasons, all 72 of them
Thanks to Elliot and Thompson for my copy of this book...more
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