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Wild Moments
For more than 30 years Ted Williams has been hailed as one of the foremost nature writers in the United States, with articles and columns that appear in a wide range of national magazines--from Fly Rod & Reel to Audubon . His eloquent advocacy for a host of environmental and wildlife conservation issues have won him prestigious awards. The National Wildlife Federation presented him with their Conservation Achievement Award; his conservation writing won him the Federal Wildlife Officers Association Award; the Outdoor Writers Association of America recognized him with their highest honor, the Jade of Chiefs; and the Coastal Conservation Association of New York named him "Conservationist of the Year."
Wild Moments is a collection of Williams's beautifully crafted seasonal observation columns that is sure to be prized by Ted Williams's fans and to attract a broad new readership. The text is complemented by the illustrations of John Burgoyne, himself the winner of more than 150 awards in the United States and Europe.
Williams explains the weather conditions that bring out the brightest reds in autumn leaves, when to watch for the massive migration of northern flickers, how hungry wolf spiders catch their prey, and why American goldfinches wait until July or August to build a nest and start breeding.
Although Williams's home is in Massachusetts, his columns describe the action of the natural world all across North America, with a few forays to other parts of the globe. So readers will learn why there are so many aspens in Yellowstone National Park and the extent of the burrowing owl's habitat (from southwestern Canada to Argentina).
Written in an inviting, accessible, and entertaining style, these brief columns are packed with in-depth information on a broad range of topics. Anyone who loves the natural world will find this book irresistible.
Wild Moments is a collection of Williams's beautifully crafted seasonal observation columns that is sure to be prized by Ted Williams's fans and to attract a broad new readership. The text is complemented by the illustrations of John Burgoyne, himself the winner of more than 150 awards in the United States and Europe.
Williams explains the weather conditions that bring out the brightest reds in autumn leaves, when to watch for the massive migration of northern flickers, how hungry wolf spiders catch their prey, and why American goldfinches wait until July or August to build a nest and start breeding.
Although Williams's home is in Massachusetts, his columns describe the action of the natural world all across North America, with a few forays to other parts of the globe. So readers will learn why there are so many aspens in Yellowstone National Park and the extent of the burrowing owl's habitat (from southwestern Canada to Argentina).
Written in an inviting, accessible, and entertaining style, these brief columns are packed with in-depth information on a broad range of topics. Anyone who loves the natural world will find this book irresistible.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 24, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
September 11, 2020
This forthcoming book condenses and gathers some of the natural history writing Ted Williams has done for Audubon over the years, joined with gorgeous illustrations by John Burgoyne (also known for his Cooks Illustrated covers.) The micro essays are organized by season. Now I feel more confident about my swamp adventures, since I can now identify an alligator nest!
The publisher provided me a copy through NetGalley; this comes out September 29, 2020.
The publisher provided me a copy through NetGalley; this comes out September 29, 2020.
April 16, 2020
Beautifully written, this book describes the plants, animals, insects, and inhabitants of the earth in a way that is both poetic and educational. Divided into seasons, the Earth Almanac tells in beautiful detail many interesting facts about the plants and creatures you might encounter during each season. If love animals, plants, or just love good writing, you will love this book.
I received a free copy of this book from Storey Publishing and Netgalley. My review is voluntary.
I received a free copy of this book from Storey Publishing and Netgalley. My review is voluntary.
October 1, 2020
I loved this book!!
This book is a beautifully written gift for any reader who wants to learn and be more inspired by our surroundings and the beauty and miracle of nature.
Ted Williams’ brilliance is how he captures intimate details of plants and the creatures that inhabit the earth - you will learn a lot and the information in the book will leave you in awe of what we miss in nature that we have never took time to notice, see it pay attention to.
This book is best read and enjoyed slowly over time. Your eyes will start to see the beauty in every plant, bird, creature and insect no matter how small - you will start paying attention and begin to see the world a little different just from reading this book.
I hope you consider adding this book to your TBR - makes for an amazing gift too.
This book is a beautifully written gift for any reader who wants to learn and be more inspired by our surroundings and the beauty and miracle of nature.
Ted Williams’ brilliance is how he captures intimate details of plants and the creatures that inhabit the earth - you will learn a lot and the information in the book will leave you in awe of what we miss in nature that we have never took time to notice, see it pay attention to.
This book is best read and enjoyed slowly over time. Your eyes will start to see the beauty in every plant, bird, creature and insect no matter how small - you will start paying attention and begin to see the world a little different just from reading this book.
I hope you consider adding this book to your TBR - makes for an amazing gift too.
January 15, 2020
This is so amazing! I must admit the front cover really drew me in, and it did not disappoint.
This book describes natural things, divided in the four seasons. Trademark events are explained for plants and birds. The information is interesting, well-researched and detailed, but not so much that you feel like you're reading a scientific article.
The illustrations/drawings are just amazing! They are so lively and life-like.
This is not a book you read in one go - the information gets lost if you try to take it all in at the same time. Leave it around, and read a few pages every day/every few days. You'll learn a lot from this book about the natural world.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in trade for an honest review.
This book describes natural things, divided in the four seasons. Trademark events are explained for plants and birds. The information is interesting, well-researched and detailed, but not so much that you feel like you're reading a scientific article.
The illustrations/drawings are just amazing! They are so lively and life-like.
This is not a book you read in one go - the information gets lost if you try to take it all in at the same time. Leave it around, and read a few pages every day/every few days. You'll learn a lot from this book about the natural world.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in trade for an honest review.
May 4, 2020
I thought this was a well written book about the various flora and fauna through the seasons. Nice pictures supported the author's narrative about the plants and animals he saw during this travels.
March 19, 2020
This book will be a treasure for nature lovers. Divided into the four seasons, Williams offers interesting and poetic looks at all kinds of animals, birds, plants and other aspects of wildlife as they occur through the year. Beautiful artwork accompanies some of the entries. This would make a wonderful book to open each morning while enjoying a cup of tea on the deck or by the window before starting the day. It will also be a great addition to any nature study library. It took me forever to review because I didn't want to just sit and read it, but wanted instead to enjoy it as the seasons changed. It's definitely a book to savor all year long. As an added bonus, you'll learn a ton of interesting information about the wildlife that we share our backyards and the planet with.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
September 24, 2020
Have you spent a lot of time outdoors, watching birds fly by, squirrels run up and down tree branches or vines growing around pillars or weeds growing on untamed meadows? Have you marvelled at the natural world around you and sought peace and quiet away from the din of the everyday human lives? If yes, this is for you.
Earth Almanac is a sort of a nature guide in the form of a collection of small essays. Filled with beautiful illustrations, and coloured pages according to the four seasons it is divided into, the author takes us on a journey through the snow and forests and plains and deserts across the vast geographical landscapes, seascapes and skyscapes of North America.
I learnt strange facts about various birds and fish and flowers and berries, porcupines and vultures, rattlesnakes and crabs, beavers and moths and of course hundreds and hundreds of flora and fauna species. It is witty and easy to read. I wish I had a book like this when I was in school. It would have made biology and environmental studies so much more fun.
It took me a while to finish this book but, it was totally worth it. I would certainly advise buying the physical copy because the electronic form won't be as good.
This is an important book to have on your shelf or coffee table. In these current times of climate emergency, so much lives are lost everyday without our knowledge. It's time we look out see what is around us and what will continue to be, with or without the interference of humans.
Thank you Netgalley and Storey Publishing for the e-ARC. I look forward to reading more books like this one.
Earth Almanac is a sort of a nature guide in the form of a collection of small essays. Filled with beautiful illustrations, and coloured pages according to the four seasons it is divided into, the author takes us on a journey through the snow and forests and plains and deserts across the vast geographical landscapes, seascapes and skyscapes of North America.
I learnt strange facts about various birds and fish and flowers and berries, porcupines and vultures, rattlesnakes and crabs, beavers and moths and of course hundreds and hundreds of flora and fauna species. It is witty and easy to read. I wish I had a book like this when I was in school. It would have made biology and environmental studies so much more fun.
It took me a while to finish this book but, it was totally worth it. I would certainly advise buying the physical copy because the electronic form won't be as good.
This is an important book to have on your shelf or coffee table. In these current times of climate emergency, so much lives are lost everyday without our knowledge. It's time we look out see what is around us and what will continue to be, with or without the interference of humans.
Thank you Netgalley and Storey Publishing for the e-ARC. I look forward to reading more books like this one.
August 17, 2022
great bedtime read. like a lullaby from the earth mixed with national geographic. what a genre.
March 25, 2020
Earth Almanac es un ensayo sobre la biodiversidad que podemos encontrarnos a lo largo del año en el hemisferio norte. Dividido en cuatro partes (las estaciones) nos detalla con comedia, poesía, dibujos, datos curiosos y recetas de cocina la apariencia y las sensaciones que cada etapa del año y sus protagonistas.
El libro cuenta con ilustraciones preciosas. La edición esta muy bien hecha y es muy confortable la lectura gracias a eso.
Hay un montón de cosas que me encantaron de este ensayo, pero lo principal es que es perfecto para la lucha contra la ecofóbia. Todos tendrían que tener este libro u otro parecido (sobre su región biogeográfica) en sus bibliotecas familiares o personales. Incluso lo consideraría como un libro para leer con los niños.
Me encantó que aborde los siguientes temas: migraciones en el océano, cambio climático y el daño que les puede llegar a hacer a los ecosistemas, relación de pueblos originarios con algunos ejemplares descritos, la introducción de especies exóticas y los daños que estas puede hacerle a la biodiversidad local y la comparación entre individuos de distintas especies que podrían ser confundidos.
Me entretuve mucho pensando en la fauna y flora autóctona de Argentina mientras leía.
El libro cuenta con ilustraciones preciosas. La edición esta muy bien hecha y es muy confortable la lectura gracias a eso.
Hay un montón de cosas que me encantaron de este ensayo, pero lo principal es que es perfecto para la lucha contra la ecofóbia. Todos tendrían que tener este libro u otro parecido (sobre su región biogeográfica) en sus bibliotecas familiares o personales. Incluso lo consideraría como un libro para leer con los niños.
Me encantó que aborde los siguientes temas: migraciones en el océano, cambio climático y el daño que les puede llegar a hacer a los ecosistemas, relación de pueblos originarios con algunos ejemplares descritos, la introducción de especies exóticas y los daños que estas puede hacerle a la biodiversidad local y la comparación entre individuos de distintas especies que podrían ser confundidos.
Me entretuve mucho pensando en la fauna y flora autóctona de Argentina mientras leía.
November 24, 2019
This is a beautiful book. Not only the illustrations but the content. Divided into 4 seasonal chapters this covers everything from nature in your back yard or traveling to exotic places. A wonderful gift for yourself or any nature lover you know. There are tidbits from tree color to spiders and deer. A little something for everyone. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair an honest review.
December 3, 2020
A gift to be treasured by anyone interested in nature. This beautiful book written chronologically through the seasons, by Ted Williams, is a book to enjoy and re-read. He is erudite and his respect for nature shines through. Based on his experiences in the north eastern area of the United States, his observations are insightful and very interesting. The illustrations are captivating. Thank you to Ted Williams, Net Galley and the publisher, Storey Publishing for an ARC.
October 23, 2019
This is a beautiful book put together with obvious care organized by season with great descriptions and beautiful illustrations. Every detail is attended to -- color, font, design and layout, art, and the artful language is almost poetic. Highly recommended for nature lovers or those that want a to develop a greater appreciation.
I really appreciate the NetGalley advanced copy for review!!
I really appreciate the NetGalley advanced copy for review!!
September 29, 2020
For more than 30 years Ted Williams has been hailed as one of the foremost nature writers in the United States, with articles and columns that appear in a wide range of national magazines--from Fly Rod & Reel to Audubon. His eloquent advocacy for a host of environmental and wildlife conservation issues have won him prestigious awards. From winter candy and spring quackers to summer’s scarlet farewell and autumn reveilles, noted nature writer Ted Williams invites readers along on a year-long immersion in the wild and fleeting moments of the natural world. This beautifully crafted collection of short, seasonal essays combines in-depth information with evocative descriptions of nature’s marvels and mysteries.
Earth Almanac is a collection of Williams's beautifully crafted seasonal observation columns that is sure to be prized by Ted Williams's fans and to attract a broad new readership. The text is complemented by the illustrations of John Burgoyne, himself the winner of more than 150 awards in the United States and Europe. Williams explains the weather conditions that bring out the brightest reds in autumn leaves, when to watch for the massive migration of northern flickers, how hungry wolf spiders catch their prey, and why American goldfinches wait until July or August to build a nest and start breeding.
With the eye of a naturalist, the curiosity of a journalist, and the heart of a poet, Williams beckons us to walk with him through the year, to peer with him into ponds and nests and up at the night sky, and to bear witness to nature's ephemeral moments and miracles. In the tradition of Thoreau, Carson, and Leopold, Ted Williams’s writing stands as a testament to the delicate balance of nature’s resilience and fragility, and inspires readers to experience the natural world for themselves and to become advocates for protecting and preserving the amazing diversity and activity found there.
This is a stunning book and an ode to the beauty and majesty of the natural world which is helpfully organised by season. Both poetic and informative and accompanied by the most exquisite illustrations, this is a must-read for those who appreciate mother nature. Many thanks to Storey for an ARC.
Earth Almanac is a collection of Williams's beautifully crafted seasonal observation columns that is sure to be prized by Ted Williams's fans and to attract a broad new readership. The text is complemented by the illustrations of John Burgoyne, himself the winner of more than 150 awards in the United States and Europe. Williams explains the weather conditions that bring out the brightest reds in autumn leaves, when to watch for the massive migration of northern flickers, how hungry wolf spiders catch their prey, and why American goldfinches wait until July or August to build a nest and start breeding.
With the eye of a naturalist, the curiosity of a journalist, and the heart of a poet, Williams beckons us to walk with him through the year, to peer with him into ponds and nests and up at the night sky, and to bear witness to nature's ephemeral moments and miracles. In the tradition of Thoreau, Carson, and Leopold, Ted Williams’s writing stands as a testament to the delicate balance of nature’s resilience and fragility, and inspires readers to experience the natural world for themselves and to become advocates for protecting and preserving the amazing diversity and activity found there.
This is a stunning book and an ode to the beauty and majesty of the natural world which is helpfully organised by season. Both poetic and informative and accompanied by the most exquisite illustrations, this is a must-read for those who appreciate mother nature. Many thanks to Storey for an ARC.
May 23, 2023
Lovely lyrical nature writing, in short easy to read essays. The essays are broken into the four seasons. The art is lovely and adds to the text.
I enjoyed reading Earth Almanac, but think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd read a few essays a day. Reading them all over a few days got a bit numbing.
Two things that I noticed. I don't know when the essay on "Flying Lanterns" on page 152 was written, but the author writes, "For reasons not well understood, fireflies are in decline in much of the nation." I think the reasons are pretty well understood. Habitat loss, light pollution, and pesticides. People putting poison all over their lawns so they have pretty grass with no weeds (or bugs).
One page 206 I found out that chimney swifts are related to hummingbirds! Who knew. I wish chimney swift towers were as easy to find as bluebird houses.
I enjoyed reading Earth Almanac, but think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd read a few essays a day. Reading them all over a few days got a bit numbing.
Two things that I noticed. I don't know when the essay on "Flying Lanterns" on page 152 was written, but the author writes, "For reasons not well understood, fireflies are in decline in much of the nation." I think the reasons are pretty well understood. Habitat loss, light pollution, and pesticides. People putting poison all over their lawns so they have pretty grass with no weeds (or bugs).
One page 206 I found out that chimney swifts are related to hummingbirds! Who knew. I wish chimney swift towers were as easy to find as bluebird houses.
January 1, 2021
This book makes me feel warm and hopeful. It was precisely what I needed in 2020.
April 28, 2020
Earth Almanac by Ted Williams is a free NetGalley ebook that I read into early April.
Seasonal paragraph-sized observations of nature from North America framed by extremely detailed sketches of flora and fauna. … Yup, that’s pretty much it.
Seasonal paragraph-sized observations of nature from North America framed by extremely detailed sketches of flora and fauna. … Yup, that’s pretty much it.
March 13, 2021
"While not immune to spring induced giddiness, we are far more afflicted with a previously undescribed malady called fall fever. We feel the first symptoms on those crisp mornings, just prior to the autumnal equinox, when morning glories open on the latticework along the south garden wall, when our lake falls silent save for the lapping of waves and the gabbling of northern ducks, when aspens and tamaracks go smoky gold, swamp maples blaze, and the azure sky is one shade richer than at any other time of year."
"Impoverished is the soul unstirred by the voice of the male bullfrog when first it breaks the silence of the May twilight. The deep, resonant “jug-o’-rum” — felt as much as heard — is a call from Earth’s distant past, ages before the dinosaurs, when the first amphibians staggered out of Devonian seas to dominate the land for 70 million years."
Simple, with some wit and some surprises, the pleasure is in reading all this life, page after page, of the community of life we orbit the sun with and depend on. I am so in love with nature, it is so hard to understand how others aren’t. I am watching dense sheets of snowflakes fall down outside my window after walking this morning in a deceptive spring rain as prelude to a giant storm expected to drop 4 feet in the mountains, 2 feet in Denver. It is better than any show on tv. I have been immersing myself in nature writing and finding some gems, some boring letters on pages, and the feeling is a fraction of what I receive on a hike, but even a fraction is something to live and die for.
“I write about nature often, and yet it always feels like a summing-up to me — never close enough to the hair and skin, to the bark and soil. I reserve a special envy for the naturalists and writers who dwell among the particulars, who come back from the field scratched and bloodied with precise knowledge of how things are out there. Thoreau is the great model here. It is vastly easier to grasp his literary achievement than it is to judge the accuracy and the particularity of his observations of the natural world. Most of us know what a metaphor looks like, after all, but not, as he did, the right kind of day for finding arrowheads.”- Verlyn Klinkenborg
The “dead of winter” is an oxymoron. Never is winter “dead”; it only looks that way to those who don’t get out into it. Snow is not sterile; it sustains complicated ecosystems from algae that live on its surface, to algae-grazing springtails that burrow up from forest duff by day, to ruffed grouse that roost in it, to chubby-faced meadow voles that scamper through it.
Fishlight: In the “dead” of winter, Pacific Northwest rivers come alive. From Monterey Bay in California to the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, candlefish, a species of smelt, sweep in from the rich Pacific, staging in vast, shimmering shoals at river mouths before they start their short spawning run to low-elevation tributaries. Now all manner of life-forms converge to swill this protein in spectacular orgies — harbor seals, sea lions, cormorants, mergansers, loons, grebes, bears, eagles, beluga whales, and humans.
Snooping on Song Dogs: Coyotes are larger and more wolflike in the East, where they were first noticed in the early twentieth century. They may have hybridized with wolves on their way from the West or they may have been present all along, mistaken for small wolves by early settlers. In the West and Midwest coyotes frequently hunt with badgers. A badger will sourly reject a coyote’s invitations to romp but will allow it to rest beside it and even touch it, and when the badger approaches a coyote the coyote will wag its tail and roll on its back in delight. The partnership is no anomaly; in fact, when some coyote researchers see a badger in spring or early summer, they instinctively look for its coyote companion.
Solar-Powered Birds: Like several other desert birds, a roadrunner saves energy by lowering its body temperature at night. But it is almost unique in using the rising sun to jump-start its metabolism. Watch for it on winter mornings — back to the east, tail dropped, speckled feathers lifted to expose a “solar panel” of black skin.
The coatimundi seems to proclaim its attitude by carrying its long, ringed tail straight up and curled at the tip. Now, in Mexico and our Southwest, coatis are mating and, though it hardly seems possible, even more active than usual. Females, which travel in troupes of 5 to 20, admit one dominant male for breeding. At 15 pounds, he is nearly twice their size; but he is submissive. Still, when confronted by a rival male, he’ll rear up, puff up, raise his snout, and display his impressive canines in a protracted grimace that can induce laughter in even the most clinical biologists. After the male impregnates the females, they throw him out of the troupe.
The name “springtail” derives from the appendage under the abdomen, which, when released, can catapult the creature six inches into the air — the equivalent of a human leaping over a four-story building. Unlike most insects, springtails lack compound eyes. They live in leaf litter, bark, and decaying logs in unimaginable numbers — sometimes 100,000 per cubic meter of surface soil.
Throughout our northern states, strange beasts are being sighted in town and country, often in trees. They are dark, almost black, with the face of a cat and the body of an otter. Adult males may be three and a half feet long and weigh 20 pounds, but they look much bigger than they are — the size of a dog or cougar, according to wide-eyed suburbanites. Fishers, giant weasels that were nearly trapped out of existence in the contiguous states because of their luxuriant fur, are making an impressive comeback throughout their range. They’re even colonizing new range to the south and northwest. But most bobcats are barely twice the size of house cats (with which they occasionally mate, producing strange, stump-tailed hybrids with tufted ears).
In the northern hemisphere’s temperate seas, late winter is pupping time for harbor seals — probably the most wide-ranging and abundant of all pinnipeds. The cat-size pup, delivered on land or in water, can swim almost immediately. Sometimes it rides on the spotted back of its big-eyed mother. When it wants attention it slaps the water with its front flippers and, in perfect English, cries “Maaaa.”
Once they are glutted on fish, frogs, crayfish, or rodents, the main mission of river otters is sport. In winter they coast down snowbanks, chattering and whistling at their companions, then bound back up and coast again. They maintain holes in the ice through which they extract fish, sometimes with great difficulty because one of their clan, below the surface, has the other end of the fish in its mouth. An otter will pluck a pebble from the bottom of a river or lake, surface with it, drop it, swim under it, catch it on its forehead, flip, and turn back to the surface with the pebble still in place, then start the game anew.
Sapsicles — those shards of frozen sap that hang from broken branches of hardwoods — seem made for consumption by kids and by adults with kids’ hearts. If you close your eyes and concentrate, you can taste the coming spring. Sapsicles are sweeter than liquid sap because the sugar has been concentrated by evaporation. Look for them on warm, late-winter days after night temperatures have dipped below freezing. According to some connoisseurs, black-birch sapsicles have a faint wintergreen flavor; butternut sapsicles are vaguely reminiscent of cider. While red maple and box elder sapsicles are superb, the best are produced by sugar maples…
Some scorpions were the size of crocodiles when, about 400 million years ago, the order exited the sea to take its place among the first earthbound arthropods.
If you thought the first bright wildflower of spring was a small dandelion, look closer. It’s probably coltsfoot — a diminutive, look-alike relative from Eurasia and Africa that’s now naturalized in most of America. Officially, it’s a weed, but in the bleakness of early spring one has difficulty generating much antipathy toward the gaudy, golden blooms bravely pushing through mud and snow. Both flower and leaves have been used as cough medicine for at least 2,000 years.
Robert Frost called them “sky flakes” and “flowers that fly and all but sing.” When the last corn snow is a puddle on the greening earth, they start emerging from overwintering pupae to skip through woodlands, fields, prairies, and backyards from Pacific to Atlantic and Gulf to tundra’s edge. They are azures — quarter-size butterflies, usually dusted with cobalt scales.
Black-tailed prairie dog, a ground squirrel, whose “dog” name derives from its bark, is called a keystone species because it provides food and/or habitat for at least 59 vertebrate species — 29 birds, 21 mammals, 5 reptiles, and 4 amphibians. The elaborate subterranean design of a prairie-dog town includes bedrooms, latrines, birthing and nursing chambers, pantries, even cemeteries. In May look for youngsters as they stumble up into the sunlight for the first time in their six-week lives. Soon they’ll be roughhousing, grooming each other, and greeting neighbors with chirps, hugs, and open-mouthed “kisses.”
Who’s been eating the canoe paddles, the boat transoms, the truck tires, the work boots, the workbench, the outhouse floor? If you live in or around a forest, there is one likely culprit: the orange-toothed, squint-eyed, nearsighted porcupine, alias quill pig. Now they crave salt, especially the females, who are losing sodium through the production of milk for the single pups. Virtually any item touched by human sweat or urine is greedily devoured, even glass. Because their only serious enemies are fishers and cougars, porcupines are docile when confronted by humans. Press them, though, and they’ll turn their raised backs toward you, protecting their heads against a tree or under their chests. The barbed, loosely attached quills, which the animals appear to “shoot” with swift swipes of their tails, are drawn into a victim’s flesh by muscle action. They can kill by migrating to the heart or brain.
Almost everywhere in our nation, summer seems to smell better than other seasons. My favorite fragrances are those of new-mown hay, rose hips, tidal marsh, dried kelp on granite, sun on old creosoted planks, pond water that’s bathtub warm and blooming with clean native algae. And best of all, the sweet pepperbush — a.k.a. summer sweet — that perfumes the lakeside breeze, intoxicates butterflies and bees, and for almost three weeks seems to halt Earth in its orbit.
Gaudy as confetti, painted lady butterflies waft north or south, depending on hemisphere, following the wave of new bloom. After the drabness of winter and mud time, these vast migrations would be tonic enough, but for those dispirited by the plights of specialized species, they provide a different, much-needed perspective. How refreshing to contemplate a lovely creature thriving all over the world — not because it was superimposed on native ecosystems or because humans have destroyed its competitors, but because it is adapted to virtually every moderately open tropical, temperate, and subarctic landscape on every continent save Australia and Antarctica.
Ghost Flowers In the wet shade of the deep woods hide the ghost flowers of high summer. Throughout most of the United States and southern Canada, they stand in a clump with bowed heads, white and waxen, a vision from Fantasia. Note the raised nodules along the stalks. They’re vestigial leaves, no longer needed by the Indian pipe because, unlike plants outside its tiny genus, it has no chlorophyll. Instead of manufacturing its food with nutrients and the energy of sunlight, the Indian pipe apparently steals it from fungi in the soil. Pick a flower, and it will turn black.
The poet David McCord, after explaining that real stars “are all so far away for creature kind that hide by day,” aptly described fireflies as “little lanterns sailing by, / Like stars across a mimic sky, / Just high enough — but not too high.
Any morning now you’ll hear the song of high summer. When the July sun heats the earth to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, there’s a rattle that progresses quickly to a rising buzz, beginning in one hardwood tree and — when a second percussionist picks it up — finishing in another. This haunting pitch issues from drum tissue stretched over the thorax of the male annual cicada.
Annual cicadas, of which there are about 70 species, occur most everywhere in the United States save its northwest corner. The dark, translucent-winged adults, two-thirds the length of the average human thumb and just as thick, live only about two weeks. Females lay their eggs in slits they cut in branches. Nymphs fall to the ground, burrowing quickly to the roots, where they subsist on sap, usually for two to five years. Then they tunnel to the surface, climb the tree, and emerge as adults through a split in the back of their larval skin.
Nymphs of the closely related periodical cicadas remain in the ground 13 or 17 years. Look for skin casings on tree trunks, then the five-eighths-inch hole in the earth from which the nymph emerged.
The earth is fat in fall, dripping milk and honey into the mouths of wild creatures and into the souls of humans, who will soon be entering their own form of hibernation in front of flickering fires and flickering screens. It seems that all the other seasons have been building up to this one. As nature writer Hal Borland put it: “It was for ripeness in and all around us that winter passed and spring and summer found us."
From Newfoundland south to Delaware and northwest to Alaska, the round, dancing leaves of the quaking aspen — our most widely distributed tree — glow neon yellow as they catch the rays of the low-arcing sun. Tree texts have it that quaking aspen is short-lived. “Old at 50,” says one. Aspens, however, should be thought of not as trees but as root systems. The “trees” are really clones sent up by the main part of the organism. Inject a radioactive isotope into one clone, and it will show up in another 10 feet away. A single root system may underlie a whole hill and weigh 32 tons to the acre. Aspen doesn’t do well in dry habitats such as Yellowstone National Park, so why is there so much of it there? Botanist Roy Renkin thinks aspen may have gotten started in the park when the climate there was cold and wet — i.e., during the Ice Age. If so, aspens could be the oldest living things on Earth.
Not all dragonflies die with summer. In late September one of our largest and fastest, the green darner, masses for migration. Watch for large flights over sunny fields throughout North America. No one knows where or how
"Impoverished is the soul unstirred by the voice of the male bullfrog when first it breaks the silence of the May twilight. The deep, resonant “jug-o’-rum” — felt as much as heard — is a call from Earth’s distant past, ages before the dinosaurs, when the first amphibians staggered out of Devonian seas to dominate the land for 70 million years."
Simple, with some wit and some surprises, the pleasure is in reading all this life, page after page, of the community of life we orbit the sun with and depend on. I am so in love with nature, it is so hard to understand how others aren’t. I am watching dense sheets of snowflakes fall down outside my window after walking this morning in a deceptive spring rain as prelude to a giant storm expected to drop 4 feet in the mountains, 2 feet in Denver. It is better than any show on tv. I have been immersing myself in nature writing and finding some gems, some boring letters on pages, and the feeling is a fraction of what I receive on a hike, but even a fraction is something to live and die for.
“I write about nature often, and yet it always feels like a summing-up to me — never close enough to the hair and skin, to the bark and soil. I reserve a special envy for the naturalists and writers who dwell among the particulars, who come back from the field scratched and bloodied with precise knowledge of how things are out there. Thoreau is the great model here. It is vastly easier to grasp his literary achievement than it is to judge the accuracy and the particularity of his observations of the natural world. Most of us know what a metaphor looks like, after all, but not, as he did, the right kind of day for finding arrowheads.”- Verlyn Klinkenborg
The “dead of winter” is an oxymoron. Never is winter “dead”; it only looks that way to those who don’t get out into it. Snow is not sterile; it sustains complicated ecosystems from algae that live on its surface, to algae-grazing springtails that burrow up from forest duff by day, to ruffed grouse that roost in it, to chubby-faced meadow voles that scamper through it.
Fishlight: In the “dead” of winter, Pacific Northwest rivers come alive. From Monterey Bay in California to the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, candlefish, a species of smelt, sweep in from the rich Pacific, staging in vast, shimmering shoals at river mouths before they start their short spawning run to low-elevation tributaries. Now all manner of life-forms converge to swill this protein in spectacular orgies — harbor seals, sea lions, cormorants, mergansers, loons, grebes, bears, eagles, beluga whales, and humans.
Snooping on Song Dogs: Coyotes are larger and more wolflike in the East, where they were first noticed in the early twentieth century. They may have hybridized with wolves on their way from the West or they may have been present all along, mistaken for small wolves by early settlers. In the West and Midwest coyotes frequently hunt with badgers. A badger will sourly reject a coyote’s invitations to romp but will allow it to rest beside it and even touch it, and when the badger approaches a coyote the coyote will wag its tail and roll on its back in delight. The partnership is no anomaly; in fact, when some coyote researchers see a badger in spring or early summer, they instinctively look for its coyote companion.
Solar-Powered Birds: Like several other desert birds, a roadrunner saves energy by lowering its body temperature at night. But it is almost unique in using the rising sun to jump-start its metabolism. Watch for it on winter mornings — back to the east, tail dropped, speckled feathers lifted to expose a “solar panel” of black skin.
The coatimundi seems to proclaim its attitude by carrying its long, ringed tail straight up and curled at the tip. Now, in Mexico and our Southwest, coatis are mating and, though it hardly seems possible, even more active than usual. Females, which travel in troupes of 5 to 20, admit one dominant male for breeding. At 15 pounds, he is nearly twice their size; but he is submissive. Still, when confronted by a rival male, he’ll rear up, puff up, raise his snout, and display his impressive canines in a protracted grimace that can induce laughter in even the most clinical biologists. After the male impregnates the females, they throw him out of the troupe.
The name “springtail” derives from the appendage under the abdomen, which, when released, can catapult the creature six inches into the air — the equivalent of a human leaping over a four-story building. Unlike most insects, springtails lack compound eyes. They live in leaf litter, bark, and decaying logs in unimaginable numbers — sometimes 100,000 per cubic meter of surface soil.
Throughout our northern states, strange beasts are being sighted in town and country, often in trees. They are dark, almost black, with the face of a cat and the body of an otter. Adult males may be three and a half feet long and weigh 20 pounds, but they look much bigger than they are — the size of a dog or cougar, according to wide-eyed suburbanites. Fishers, giant weasels that were nearly trapped out of existence in the contiguous states because of their luxuriant fur, are making an impressive comeback throughout their range. They’re even colonizing new range to the south and northwest. But most bobcats are barely twice the size of house cats (with which they occasionally mate, producing strange, stump-tailed hybrids with tufted ears).
In the northern hemisphere’s temperate seas, late winter is pupping time for harbor seals — probably the most wide-ranging and abundant of all pinnipeds. The cat-size pup, delivered on land or in water, can swim almost immediately. Sometimes it rides on the spotted back of its big-eyed mother. When it wants attention it slaps the water with its front flippers and, in perfect English, cries “Maaaa.”
Once they are glutted on fish, frogs, crayfish, or rodents, the main mission of river otters is sport. In winter they coast down snowbanks, chattering and whistling at their companions, then bound back up and coast again. They maintain holes in the ice through which they extract fish, sometimes with great difficulty because one of their clan, below the surface, has the other end of the fish in its mouth. An otter will pluck a pebble from the bottom of a river or lake, surface with it, drop it, swim under it, catch it on its forehead, flip, and turn back to the surface with the pebble still in place, then start the game anew.
Sapsicles — those shards of frozen sap that hang from broken branches of hardwoods — seem made for consumption by kids and by adults with kids’ hearts. If you close your eyes and concentrate, you can taste the coming spring. Sapsicles are sweeter than liquid sap because the sugar has been concentrated by evaporation. Look for them on warm, late-winter days after night temperatures have dipped below freezing. According to some connoisseurs, black-birch sapsicles have a faint wintergreen flavor; butternut sapsicles are vaguely reminiscent of cider. While red maple and box elder sapsicles are superb, the best are produced by sugar maples…
Some scorpions were the size of crocodiles when, about 400 million years ago, the order exited the sea to take its place among the first earthbound arthropods.
If you thought the first bright wildflower of spring was a small dandelion, look closer. It’s probably coltsfoot — a diminutive, look-alike relative from Eurasia and Africa that’s now naturalized in most of America. Officially, it’s a weed, but in the bleakness of early spring one has difficulty generating much antipathy toward the gaudy, golden blooms bravely pushing through mud and snow. Both flower and leaves have been used as cough medicine for at least 2,000 years.
Robert Frost called them “sky flakes” and “flowers that fly and all but sing.” When the last corn snow is a puddle on the greening earth, they start emerging from overwintering pupae to skip through woodlands, fields, prairies, and backyards from Pacific to Atlantic and Gulf to tundra’s edge. They are azures — quarter-size butterflies, usually dusted with cobalt scales.
Black-tailed prairie dog, a ground squirrel, whose “dog” name derives from its bark, is called a keystone species because it provides food and/or habitat for at least 59 vertebrate species — 29 birds, 21 mammals, 5 reptiles, and 4 amphibians. The elaborate subterranean design of a prairie-dog town includes bedrooms, latrines, birthing and nursing chambers, pantries, even cemeteries. In May look for youngsters as they stumble up into the sunlight for the first time in their six-week lives. Soon they’ll be roughhousing, grooming each other, and greeting neighbors with chirps, hugs, and open-mouthed “kisses.”
Who’s been eating the canoe paddles, the boat transoms, the truck tires, the work boots, the workbench, the outhouse floor? If you live in or around a forest, there is one likely culprit: the orange-toothed, squint-eyed, nearsighted porcupine, alias quill pig. Now they crave salt, especially the females, who are losing sodium through the production of milk for the single pups. Virtually any item touched by human sweat or urine is greedily devoured, even glass. Because their only serious enemies are fishers and cougars, porcupines are docile when confronted by humans. Press them, though, and they’ll turn their raised backs toward you, protecting their heads against a tree or under their chests. The barbed, loosely attached quills, which the animals appear to “shoot” with swift swipes of their tails, are drawn into a victim’s flesh by muscle action. They can kill by migrating to the heart or brain.
Almost everywhere in our nation, summer seems to smell better than other seasons. My favorite fragrances are those of new-mown hay, rose hips, tidal marsh, dried kelp on granite, sun on old creosoted planks, pond water that’s bathtub warm and blooming with clean native algae. And best of all, the sweet pepperbush — a.k.a. summer sweet — that perfumes the lakeside breeze, intoxicates butterflies and bees, and for almost three weeks seems to halt Earth in its orbit.
Gaudy as confetti, painted lady butterflies waft north or south, depending on hemisphere, following the wave of new bloom. After the drabness of winter and mud time, these vast migrations would be tonic enough, but for those dispirited by the plights of specialized species, they provide a different, much-needed perspective. How refreshing to contemplate a lovely creature thriving all over the world — not because it was superimposed on native ecosystems or because humans have destroyed its competitors, but because it is adapted to virtually every moderately open tropical, temperate, and subarctic landscape on every continent save Australia and Antarctica.
Ghost Flowers In the wet shade of the deep woods hide the ghost flowers of high summer. Throughout most of the United States and southern Canada, they stand in a clump with bowed heads, white and waxen, a vision from Fantasia. Note the raised nodules along the stalks. They’re vestigial leaves, no longer needed by the Indian pipe because, unlike plants outside its tiny genus, it has no chlorophyll. Instead of manufacturing its food with nutrients and the energy of sunlight, the Indian pipe apparently steals it from fungi in the soil. Pick a flower, and it will turn black.
The poet David McCord, after explaining that real stars “are all so far away for creature kind that hide by day,” aptly described fireflies as “little lanterns sailing by, / Like stars across a mimic sky, / Just high enough — but not too high.
Any morning now you’ll hear the song of high summer. When the July sun heats the earth to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, there’s a rattle that progresses quickly to a rising buzz, beginning in one hardwood tree and — when a second percussionist picks it up — finishing in another. This haunting pitch issues from drum tissue stretched over the thorax of the male annual cicada.
Annual cicadas, of which there are about 70 species, occur most everywhere in the United States save its northwest corner. The dark, translucent-winged adults, two-thirds the length of the average human thumb and just as thick, live only about two weeks. Females lay their eggs in slits they cut in branches. Nymphs fall to the ground, burrowing quickly to the roots, where they subsist on sap, usually for two to five years. Then they tunnel to the surface, climb the tree, and emerge as adults through a split in the back of their larval skin.
Nymphs of the closely related periodical cicadas remain in the ground 13 or 17 years. Look for skin casings on tree trunks, then the five-eighths-inch hole in the earth from which the nymph emerged.
The earth is fat in fall, dripping milk and honey into the mouths of wild creatures and into the souls of humans, who will soon be entering their own form of hibernation in front of flickering fires and flickering screens. It seems that all the other seasons have been building up to this one. As nature writer Hal Borland put it: “It was for ripeness in and all around us that winter passed and spring and summer found us."
From Newfoundland south to Delaware and northwest to Alaska, the round, dancing leaves of the quaking aspen — our most widely distributed tree — glow neon yellow as they catch the rays of the low-arcing sun. Tree texts have it that quaking aspen is short-lived. “Old at 50,” says one. Aspens, however, should be thought of not as trees but as root systems. The “trees” are really clones sent up by the main part of the organism. Inject a radioactive isotope into one clone, and it will show up in another 10 feet away. A single root system may underlie a whole hill and weigh 32 tons to the acre. Aspen doesn’t do well in dry habitats such as Yellowstone National Park, so why is there so much of it there? Botanist Roy Renkin thinks aspen may have gotten started in the park when the climate there was cold and wet — i.e., during the Ice Age. If so, aspens could be the oldest living things on Earth.
Not all dragonflies die with summer. In late September one of our largest and fastest, the green darner, masses for migration. Watch for large flights over sunny fields throughout North America. No one knows where or how
July 18, 2017
***Actual Star Rating: 3. 75 Stars***
Come explore the wildlife and plants of the North American landscape in an intimate style that allows Americans to finally be proud of what we have to contribute to the natural world. Although not a completely detailed nor in-depth look of all that we have to share, this book will introduce readers throughout the seasons to those organisms that we are either quite familiar with, that we know by sight but nothing us or even to those that we wouldn't have even recognized if we had come face-to-face with it.
Due to the information was taken from magazine articles most of the entries are short and bite-sized while the writing style varies with some pieces more educational and others seemingly bordering on prose. Furthermore to reflect the scope of his knowledge some readers may have problems with some of the more scientific words or need at least a quick look-up in the dictionary to understand what the author may be talking about.
Otherwise the book was well-organized into each season and that was about as much organization as you could find in the book as a timeline. Otherwise each article was separated from the others while boldly headlined with a title that may or may not have given away the creature, plant or other nature subject to be explored. And furthermore the pages were interspersed with black-and-white drawings for some of the subjects.
What I didn't like was is just basic triviality of the above. Since this is one of the so few books to explore the North American natural world in both its plants and animals I would have preferred each entry to have had a colored picture of the subject. As such since I was curious I would look up in my reading on the web the different subjects I didn't know while surprisingly finding names for plants I had lived with for 9 years without ever knowing their actual names.
And the other thing that I would have changed was the fact that the content of the articles didn't focus singly. As mentioned some were educational peeks into episodes of nature with explanations of behavior, appearance or sounds. But others were more focused on human influence or how to submerse yourself like making wild grape jelly or laying on your back to view the heavens, which was a throw off of subject matter to me while upsetting the actual reading of the book itself. At the same time the reader accepts some folklore or is more embracing about keeping some around while flatly denies other pieces straight out as being pure folly spouted out by unknowing minds.
All in all, though, I highly enjoyed the book for what it offered in helping to introduce me to the natural world in which I find myself surrounded about on a daily basis. Meanwhile for those who have young families it is a beautiful call to include them more in nature-based activities and to help them learn to enjoy the world of nature even as they grow into more mature beings.
Come explore the wildlife and plants of the North American landscape in an intimate style that allows Americans to finally be proud of what we have to contribute to the natural world. Although not a completely detailed nor in-depth look of all that we have to share, this book will introduce readers throughout the seasons to those organisms that we are either quite familiar with, that we know by sight but nothing us or even to those that we wouldn't have even recognized if we had come face-to-face with it.
Due to the information was taken from magazine articles most of the entries are short and bite-sized while the writing style varies with some pieces more educational and others seemingly bordering on prose. Furthermore to reflect the scope of his knowledge some readers may have problems with some of the more scientific words or need at least a quick look-up in the dictionary to understand what the author may be talking about.
Otherwise the book was well-organized into each season and that was about as much organization as you could find in the book as a timeline. Otherwise each article was separated from the others while boldly headlined with a title that may or may not have given away the creature, plant or other nature subject to be explored. And furthermore the pages were interspersed with black-and-white drawings for some of the subjects.
What I didn't like was is just basic triviality of the above. Since this is one of the so few books to explore the North American natural world in both its plants and animals I would have preferred each entry to have had a colored picture of the subject. As such since I was curious I would look up in my reading on the web the different subjects I didn't know while surprisingly finding names for plants I had lived with for 9 years without ever knowing their actual names.
And the other thing that I would have changed was the fact that the content of the articles didn't focus singly. As mentioned some were educational peeks into episodes of nature with explanations of behavior, appearance or sounds. But others were more focused on human influence or how to submerse yourself like making wild grape jelly or laying on your back to view the heavens, which was a throw off of subject matter to me while upsetting the actual reading of the book itself. At the same time the reader accepts some folklore or is more embracing about keeping some around while flatly denies other pieces straight out as being pure folly spouted out by unknowing minds.
All in all, though, I highly enjoyed the book for what it offered in helping to introduce me to the natural world in which I find myself surrounded about on a daily basis. Meanwhile for those who have young families it is a beautiful call to include them more in nature-based activities and to help them learn to enjoy the world of nature even as they grow into more mature beings.
January 28, 2020
A charming book that you can dip in and out of at your leisure. It covers all the seasons and has an entry for every occasion. It's full of facts that range from OMG I didn't know that! to interesting to soothing, and males a good case for conservation just by presenting these plants and animals in such neat little profiles. The illustrations were also lovely.
A very cozy sort of book to curl up with while sipping your morning tea or coffee.
A very cozy sort of book to curl up with while sipping your morning tea or coffee.
October 17, 2019
We recently moved to a farm and have been eagerly learning the seasonal differences in our surroundings. Earth Almanac tracks those differences with lovely illustration and narration from a man who obviously loves being outdoors, no matter the season. I spent several hours browsing this book and I'm setting it next to my window seat so I can compare Ted Williams' visions with mine.
May 31, 2007
My Daddy's book- Collection of Earth Almanac essays from Audubon magazine
May 25, 2017
Love Ted's writing about every aspect of nature..entertaining, enlightening, full of humor and descriptions not easily forgotten.
October 1, 2020
Earth Almanac, Ted Williams
Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews
Genre: non fiction, outdoors and nature
I love books like this and even though its about US nature and I'm in UK, it doesn't matter, there are parallels and I found it easy to enjoy Ted's wonderful way of telling about what he sees. There are quirky little illustrations that added to the story, and I loved the way it followed the seasons, each leading naturally to the next.
I've loved nature and outdoors all my life, my early years would see me taking solitary walks in the woods and commons close to where I lived. Thinking back how far I wandered at under ten years old its quite scary, but my friends weren't as nature minded and often I was left to explore alone.
Reading Ted's book brought back some of that joy, the fun in tracking snowy footprints, of finding the first primrose, of watching catkins turn to hazel nuts, seeing the horse chestnuts sticky burst burst into leaf. Careful and observant nature lovers see the day to day changes and enjoy the gradual transition of seasons. Spring was always my favourite, and still is but autumn fruits and winter melancholy, the call of passing geese on a cold frosty morning, the dead looking branches that are really just in deep winter slumber, have their own magic.
Its easy to see Ted's love of nature from the way he writes, showing the reader little things often not noticed, that only nature lovers would see.
Books like this are ones best in hardback physical form I feel where the illustrations can be properly appreciated. I love my kindle but most non fiction reads doesn't really transition so well I think, and seeing and flipping through these books to certain parts works best in real life, not ebook.
Stars: Five, glorious book charting the transition of US seasons but which can be appreciated worldwide by true nature lovers.
ARC supplied by Netgalley and publisher
Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews
Genre: non fiction, outdoors and nature
I love books like this and even though its about US nature and I'm in UK, it doesn't matter, there are parallels and I found it easy to enjoy Ted's wonderful way of telling about what he sees. There are quirky little illustrations that added to the story, and I loved the way it followed the seasons, each leading naturally to the next.
I've loved nature and outdoors all my life, my early years would see me taking solitary walks in the woods and commons close to where I lived. Thinking back how far I wandered at under ten years old its quite scary, but my friends weren't as nature minded and often I was left to explore alone.
Reading Ted's book brought back some of that joy, the fun in tracking snowy footprints, of finding the first primrose, of watching catkins turn to hazel nuts, seeing the horse chestnuts sticky burst burst into leaf. Careful and observant nature lovers see the day to day changes and enjoy the gradual transition of seasons. Spring was always my favourite, and still is but autumn fruits and winter melancholy, the call of passing geese on a cold frosty morning, the dead looking branches that are really just in deep winter slumber, have their own magic.
Its easy to see Ted's love of nature from the way he writes, showing the reader little things often not noticed, that only nature lovers would see.
Books like this are ones best in hardback physical form I feel where the illustrations can be properly appreciated. I love my kindle but most non fiction reads doesn't really transition so well I think, and seeing and flipping through these books to certain parts works best in real life, not ebook.
Stars: Five, glorious book charting the transition of US seasons but which can be appreciated worldwide by true nature lovers.
ARC supplied by Netgalley and publisher
October 1, 2020
You will want to shelve it beside your copies of Walden, Sand County Almanac, and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Ted’s Williams’s new book Earth Almanac, A Year of Witnessing the Wild, from the Call of the Loon to the Journey of the Gray Whale, is a compilation of his beloved glimpses into wild wonders from backyard to backcountry which appeared regularly for a time in Audubon Magazine. It is a rare species of book best sipped, savored, and reflected on in crystalline doses. Open it beside a cozy winter fire, in spring twilight as the peepers tune up, on a summer morning as you sip coffee on your deck under a singing tree, or at your favorite retreat with the scent of Autumn leaves coloring the air. Williams speaks with the heart of a poet, while unfolding some of nature’s secrets with the heart of an environmentalist. There are moments of astonishment: If you don’t want to use dung or carrion to attract a question mark butterfly on a mild winter (yes winter) day, you might lure one with the sap flowing from a broken maple twig! There are hints about living with nature—not apart from her: “To be chosen by eastern phoebes means that you and your dwelling have not pressed too harshly on the living earth.” And glimpses of pure beauty: “Never will you be quite ready for the silver fish that hurtles into the cold, wet air and hangs across black conifers or gray sky.” You will laugh at the unexpected and feel both awe and hope. It is a gift to be shared with young and old, who either love nature and want to know more or need to learn a few of her mysteries in order to begin to thirst for what they have been missing. The illustrations by John Burgoyne, both accurate and beautiful, and the design by Alethea Morrison help make this book a treasure.
October 3, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for kindly providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.
I’ll be honest, living in the U.K., I’m not going to be able to use this book in the way that it suggests- as a guide for when you step out into North American nature throughout the seasons. I’m just not going to be seeing the same things (although I have learned that the UK does have some wild Siberian Chipmunks, which I didn’t know were a thing here so there’s that!) However, for anyone that doesn’t live in North America- we can still certainly use this book as a wonderful educational tool. After all, there’s books about space and the planets on my shelves, and I’m not going there any time soon either!
The book walks through the seasons and discusses the flora and fauna that might be found in a particular place within that season. Winter is the season with which we begin and even though I don’t like being in winter, it is a season that fascinates me. I’ve discussed many a time my deep desire to be able to hibernate, and I’m most jealous of those animals that can! The adaptations that plants and animals are capable of going through to survive truly astounds me, and I never get tired of reading about it.
I can’t talk of this book and not mention the artwork. It is beautifully exquisite. Some images are simple pen and ink type drawings, while others are fully coloured and in quite a bit of detail. The cover brings to my mind images of Victorian curiosities, and that’s always going to make me want to pick up that book. A truly lovely thing to have and read and I would definitely recommend.
I’ll be honest, living in the U.K., I’m not going to be able to use this book in the way that it suggests- as a guide for when you step out into North American nature throughout the seasons. I’m just not going to be seeing the same things (although I have learned that the UK does have some wild Siberian Chipmunks, which I didn’t know were a thing here so there’s that!) However, for anyone that doesn’t live in North America- we can still certainly use this book as a wonderful educational tool. After all, there’s books about space and the planets on my shelves, and I’m not going there any time soon either!
The book walks through the seasons and discusses the flora and fauna that might be found in a particular place within that season. Winter is the season with which we begin and even though I don’t like being in winter, it is a season that fascinates me. I’ve discussed many a time my deep desire to be able to hibernate, and I’m most jealous of those animals that can! The adaptations that plants and animals are capable of going through to survive truly astounds me, and I never get tired of reading about it.
I can’t talk of this book and not mention the artwork. It is beautifully exquisite. Some images are simple pen and ink type drawings, while others are fully coloured and in quite a bit of detail. The cover brings to my mind images of Victorian curiosities, and that’s always going to make me want to pick up that book. A truly lovely thing to have and read and I would definitely recommend.
October 3, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for kindly providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.
I’ll be honest, living in the U.K., I’m not going to be able to use this book in the way that it suggests- as a guide for when you step out into North American nature throughout the seasons. I’m just not going to be seeing the same things (although I have learned that the UK does have some wild Siberian Chipmunks, which I didn’t know were a thing here so there’s that!) However, for anyone that doesn’t live in North America- we can still certainly use this book as a wonderful educational tool. After all, there’s books about space and the planets on my shelves, and I’m not going there any time soon either!
The book walks through the seasons and discusses the flora and fauna that might be found in a particular place within that season. Winter is the season with which we begin and even though I don’t like being in winter, it is a season that fascinates me. I’ve discussed many a time my deep desire to be able to hibernate, and I’m most jealous of those animals that can! The adaptations that plants and animals are capable of going through to survive truly astounds me, and I never get tired of reading about it.
I can’t talk of this book and not mention the artwork. It is beautifully exquisite. Some images are simple pen and ink type drawings, while others are fully coloured and in quite a bit of detail. The cover brings to my mind images of Victorian curiosities, and that’s always going to make me want to pick up that book. A truly lovely thing to have and read and I would definitely recommend.
I’ll be honest, living in the U.K., I’m not going to be able to use this book in the way that it suggests- as a guide for when you step out into North American nature throughout the seasons. I’m just not going to be seeing the same things (although I have learned that the UK does have some wild Siberian Chipmunks, which I didn’t know were a thing here so there’s that!) However, for anyone that doesn’t live in North America- we can still certainly use this book as a wonderful educational tool. After all, there’s books about space and the planets on my shelves, and I’m not going there any time soon either!
The book walks through the seasons and discusses the flora and fauna that might be found in a particular place within that season. Winter is the season with which we begin and even though I don’t like being in winter, it is a season that fascinates me. I’ve discussed many a time my deep desire to be able to hibernate, and I’m most jealous of those animals that can! The adaptations that plants and animals are capable of going through to survive truly astounds me, and I never get tired of reading about it.
I can’t talk of this book and not mention the artwork. It is beautifully exquisite. Some images are simple pen and ink type drawings, while others are fully coloured and in quite a bit of detail. The cover brings to my mind images of Victorian curiosities, and that’s always going to make me want to pick up that book. A truly lovely thing to have and read and I would definitely recommend.
April 27, 2020
This collection of short, seasonal essays, explores a wide selection of the flora and fauna of North America.
The essays are beautifully written, mixing amazing facts with poignant observations. There are many more types of plant and animal in America than I ever realised, and as different species are found in different parts of the vast continent, this is a fascinating book for Americans and non-Americans alike. I enjoyed the lyrical descriptions of plants, trees and various creatures and their habitats. I also liked how the essays included personal insights and experiences of the writer.
There are some lovely mono-colour sketches to accompany some of the essays. I thought it was a shame that there were not more sketches or photos as many of the species were unfamiliar to me and probably would be to many readers outside, and possibly inside, North America. And while the essays are written in a lovely style, it wasn’t always clear from the title or introductory paragraph whether an animal, bird, insect or plant was being described and I had to read on to discover the species in question. In these cases, pictures would have helped to avoid confusion.
This is a lovely book and I recommend it to anyone who loves nature writing and the outdoors.
Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this title.
The essays are beautifully written, mixing amazing facts with poignant observations. There are many more types of plant and animal in America than I ever realised, and as different species are found in different parts of the vast continent, this is a fascinating book for Americans and non-Americans alike. I enjoyed the lyrical descriptions of plants, trees and various creatures and their habitats. I also liked how the essays included personal insights and experiences of the writer.
There are some lovely mono-colour sketches to accompany some of the essays. I thought it was a shame that there were not more sketches or photos as many of the species were unfamiliar to me and probably would be to many readers outside, and possibly inside, North America. And while the essays are written in a lovely style, it wasn’t always clear from the title or introductory paragraph whether an animal, bird, insect or plant was being described and I had to read on to discover the species in question. In these cases, pictures would have helped to avoid confusion.
This is a lovely book and I recommend it to anyone who loves nature writing and the outdoors.
Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this title.
August 5, 2020
Earth Almanac is an outdoors and nature book by author Ted Williams.
First, I must say I love the illustrations on the cover and inside the book. This is my first time reading this genre and I loved my introduction to it. This is one book I’ll reread again and again as the seasons change. Earth Almanac was originally named Earth Calendar.
It was interesting to learn that with all the negative talk floating around about the earth there is a lot of positive happening because people care. Maybe, more positive than negative. A couple of things I found interesting is a common jelly fungus called “witches butter” makes a great base for soups and that skinks can be quite colorful.
In conclusion, I would suggest this book to nature lovers. My only complaint is that the book mentions old earth and I believe in the new earth theory. God created the earth in a literal six days. I did appreciate that the reader need not be a scientist to understand the writing.
Disclaimer: I receive complimentary books from various sources, including, publishers, publicists, authors, and/or NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review and have not received any compensation. The opinions shared here are my own entirely. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
First, I must say I love the illustrations on the cover and inside the book. This is my first time reading this genre and I loved my introduction to it. This is one book I’ll reread again and again as the seasons change. Earth Almanac was originally named Earth Calendar.
It was interesting to learn that with all the negative talk floating around about the earth there is a lot of positive happening because people care. Maybe, more positive than negative. A couple of things I found interesting is a common jelly fungus called “witches butter” makes a great base for soups and that skinks can be quite colorful.
In conclusion, I would suggest this book to nature lovers. My only complaint is that the book mentions old earth and I believe in the new earth theory. God created the earth in a literal six days. I did appreciate that the reader need not be a scientist to understand the writing.
Disclaimer: I receive complimentary books from various sources, including, publishers, publicists, authors, and/or NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review and have not received any compensation. The opinions shared here are my own entirely. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
August 29, 2020
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Earth Almanac is a fascinating and engaging glimpse into an environmentalist's observations recorded over the course of a year by Ted Williams. Due out 29th Sept 2020 from Storey Publishing, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
The book is full of unadorned small vignettes full of observations about nature, wildlife, and plants. The author's recollections are grouped roughly by season: winter, spring, summer, and fall. The writing is gentle, accessible, self-reflective, and comforting. This would make a superlative read in odd moments sitting by a wood fire.
The text is enhanced by small monochrome illustrations of birds, flowers, insects, and other nature subjects. The book also includes an abbreviated resources and links lists along with an index.
Five stars. Recommended for smallholders, readers of natural history, nature lovers, and anyone who needs a quiet comfort read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Earth Almanac is a fascinating and engaging glimpse into an environmentalist's observations recorded over the course of a year by Ted Williams. Due out 29th Sept 2020 from Storey Publishing, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
The book is full of unadorned small vignettes full of observations about nature, wildlife, and plants. The author's recollections are grouped roughly by season: winter, spring, summer, and fall. The writing is gentle, accessible, self-reflective, and comforting. This would make a superlative read in odd moments sitting by a wood fire.
The text is enhanced by small monochrome illustrations of birds, flowers, insects, and other nature subjects. The book also includes an abbreviated resources and links lists along with an index.
Five stars. Recommended for smallholders, readers of natural history, nature lovers, and anyone who needs a quiet comfort read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
March 27, 2020
At first, the cover caught my attention because I like the illustrations and the fonts on the cover. But I have no idea what this book about. (Well, I only could guess this is something about nature) So I dug in and I found something new. This book is not my typical kind of book I usually read. Thank you Storey Publishing for allowing me to read this book and experienced something new.
If you want to read this book, I suggest finding somewhere quiet and calm so you can really imagine what's in the book trying to describe. This book speaks about wildlife and nature, I learned new things from it. I never experience such things myself, but thanks to Ted, I could imagine and know what is it look and feel out there. I think this is something that we often forget (or at least to my case).
I salute to the writer, Ted Williams, for writing this beautiful book. The words describe in detail and easy to digest, but still you need to take your time to appreciate the writing and eventually you could see the nature in Ted's perspective.
If you want to read this book, I suggest finding somewhere quiet and calm so you can really imagine what's in the book trying to describe. This book speaks about wildlife and nature, I learned new things from it. I never experience such things myself, but thanks to Ted, I could imagine and know what is it look and feel out there. I think this is something that we often forget (or at least to my case).
I salute to the writer, Ted Williams, for writing this beautiful book. The words describe in detail and easy to digest, but still you need to take your time to appreciate the writing and eventually you could see the nature in Ted's perspective.
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