nigelswift
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Re: OT:Land Lines - finding UK's favourite nature book
Nov 09, 2017, 08:53
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Mr Gove as a good guy who won't stab you in the back is a difficult concept to wrestle with.
Hurrah for the bees, but he recently said we should slash EU regulations on wildlife protection and drug safety trials after Brexit“ so I dunno ....
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moss
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Re: OT:Land Lines - finding UK's favourite nature book
Nov 09, 2017, 10:56
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Rhiannon wrote:
Yes Gove has taken it on board thank goodness ;) And perhaps I was a bit gloomy yesterday, must be Will Selfs' lugubrious face. And landscapes do change with time, but the moors sulk in melancholy brown most of the year, home to sheep and grouse, who will be shot as soon as they are well grown. The curlews disappear gradually as well as the predatory birds..
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tjj
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Edited Nov 13, 2017, 18:17
Re: OT:Land Lines - finding UK's favourite nature book
Nov 13, 2017, 18:14
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That time of year again ... shorter walks and reading about nature. Finally picked up the as yet unread book by John Lewis-Stempel "Meadowland - the private life of an English field". Lewis-Stempel is a farmer as well as a writer so there is nothing sentimental in his writing.
I started fairly near the end at 'November'. There is a very touching passage where he describes the death of Margot his Red Poll cow who had been arthritic for the previous two years. That morning she fell and there was "no Lazarus moment, no miracle" - she can't get up. He resists the impulse to call the vet to euthanize her and lets her die naturally. "Margot. My lovely, cantankerous old cow, a true beast of the field".
In the next passage he talks about cattle in prehistory and how originally they were also used for locomotion - to quote: "There are cattle bones in Neolithic sites showing stress induced damage that comes from hauling and ploughing"
A lovely book (even if I do read it backwards). He quotes William Wordsworth in the Preface:
"Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things
We murder to dissect"
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tjj
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Edited Jan 11, 2018, 23:03
Re: OT:Land Lines - finding UK's favourite nature book
Jan 11, 2018, 22:59
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Here is the final ten shortlist.
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/favouritenaturebooks/
Some excellent choices including Nan Shepherd's Living Mountain and Chris Packham's Finger's in the Sparkle Jar. Was delighted to see the Selected Poems by John Clare - a hitherto under-rated 19th century poet.
All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal: and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books ....
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thesweetcheat
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Re: OT:Land Lines - finding UK's favourite nature book
Jan 14, 2018, 12:10
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Not a book, but a blog that I think many of you would enjoy reading:
https://notesfromasmallcroftbythesea.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/winter-blues-and-the-magic-of-light/
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tjj
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Re: OT:Land Lines - finding UK's favourite nature book
Jan 14, 2018, 16:53
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thesweetcheat wrote:
Have just read that TSC, it is beautifully observed and written. The photos are exquisite too. Thank you for posting it here.
(I much related to the final few sentences)
And just by the hedge the sharp spears of snowdrops have thrust upwards through the ice-bound ground. What prompts their spark into life? I wonder if somehow, after the solstice, light penetrated the soil and sent a secret signal to their slumbering cells or made a cobweb dance.
I’m certain the crows know the nature of the secret signal; they look smug, and taunt me with tales of spring.
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