CLOSE TO HOME: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door by THOR HANSON

 CLOSE TO HOME: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door  by THOR HANSON (Pgs 304)

In Close to Home, biologist Thor Hanson shows how retraining our eyes reveals hidden wonders just waiting to be discovered. In Kansas City, migrating monarch butterflies flock to the local zoo. In the Pacific Northwest, fierce yellowjackets placidly sip honeydew, unseen in the treetops. In New England, a lawn gone slightly wild hosts a naturalist's life's work. And in the soil beneath our feet, remedies for everything from breast cancer to the stench of skunks lie waiting for someone’s searching shovel.   
 
Close to Home is a hands-on natural history for any local patch of Earth. It shows that we each can contribute to science and improve the health of our planet. And even more, it proves that the wonders of nature don’t lie in some far-off they await us, close to home. 

THE SERVICEBERRY: ABUNDANCE AND RECIPROCITY IN THE NATURAL WORLD by ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

 THE SERVICEBERRY: ABUNDANCE AND RECIPROCITY IN THE NATURAL WORLD by ROBIN WALL KIMMERER (112 PAGES)

As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love.

Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

I did not read the description before I read this book, and it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it. I thought it was going to be more about the tree itself, and this book ties in with the authors' philosophical ideas about the connections between ecology and our economy. 

BEATRIX POTTER'S GARDENING LIFE: THE PLANTS AND PLACES THAT INSPIRED THE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S TALES by MARTA MCDOWELL

 BEATRIX POTTER'S GARDENING LIFE: THE PLANTS AND PLACES THAT INSPIRED THE CLASSIC CHILDREN'S TALES by MARTA MCDOWELL  (340 PAGES)

There aren’t many books more beloved than The Tale of Peter Rabbit and even fewer authors as iconic as Beatrix Potter. Her characters—Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck, and all the rest—exist in a charmed world filled with flowers and gardens. In Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life , bestselling author Marta McDowell explores the origins of Beatrix Potter’s love of gardening and plants and shows how this passion came to be reflected in her work.

The book begins with a gardener’s biography, highlighting the key moments and places throughout her life that helped define her. Next, follow Beatrix Potter through a year in her garden, with a season-by-season overview of what is blooming that truly brings her gardens alive. The book culminates in a traveler’s guide, with information on how and where to visit Potter’s gardens today.

Beautifully Illustrated! I enjoyed reading about the countryside where Beatrix Potter grew up, and all the struggles she encountered and overcame in her life. 

LIFE IN THE GARDEN by PENELOPE LIVELY

 LIFE IN THE GARDEN by PENELOPE LIVELY (Pages 199)

The two central activities in my life - alongside writing - have been reading and gardening.

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today.
It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.

I also enjoy gardening and reading, and felt a kinship with the author. It was lovely reading about her gardens in places that I will never be able to visit, which is why I especially take pleasure in reading her story.

THE SOUND OF A WILD SNAIL EATING by ELISABETH TOVA BAILEY

 THE SOUND OF A WILD SNAIL EATING by ELISABETH TOVA BAILEY (PGS 208)

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris —a common woodland snail.

While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world.

Intrigued by the snail’s molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer, providing a candid and engaging look into the curious life of this underappreciated small animal. 

Told with wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence and provides an appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.

I found this to be a clear-cut and interesting read.

THE BOOK OF STILLMEADOW by GLADYS TABER

 THE BOOK OF STILLMEADOW by GLADYS TABER Pgs 273

"The ancient house speaks to us. Footfalls sound on the steep stairs, doors open softly, floorboards creak, echoing lives lived here long, long ago. And I think echoes of the lives of our family will be here, too."

When Gladys Taber and her friend Jill bought the shabby seventeenth-century Connecticut farmhouse, they saw it as a weekend escape from the city for their husbands and children.

But eventually they lived there year round, in the old country house they worked hard to restore. This is a book about them and their beloved Stillmeadow: the flow of the seasons, the garden produce, the neighbors who came to visit, and the children who loved Stillmeadow. It all comes to life in this round-the-calendar record of the changing seasons of the land and of the heart.