Meadowland

What really goes on in the long grass Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow s life from January to December, together with its biography In exquisite prose, John Lewis Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren,the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others Their births, lives, and deaths are stories that thread through the book from first page to last.In Meadowland Lewis Stempel does for meadows what Roger Deakin did for woodland and rivers in his bestselling books Wildwood and Waterlog. Best Read [ Meadowland ] By [ John Lewis-Stempel ] – kino-fada.fr A few months ago, a GR friend reviewed this book and it sounded like just the sort of thing I d love Sadly, when trying to locate a copy I found out it isn t readily available in the U.S I m still baffled as to why an e book isn t available, but I also know nothing about copyright and publishing laws and business arrangements When I traveled to the U.K a few weeks ago this book and a few others were top on the list of souvenirs to bring home This book was a pure joy to read John Lewis A few months ago, a GR friend reviewed this book and it sounded like just the sort of thing I d love Sadly, when trying to locate a copy I found out it isn t readily available in the U.S I m still baffled as to why an e book isn t available, but I also know nothing about copyright and publishing laws and business arrangements When I traveled to the U.K a few weeks ago this book and a few others were top on the list of souvenirs to bring home This book was a pure joy to read John Lewis Stempel is a keen observer who has the patience and the passion to see in nature what so many others would miss He has a deep rooted connectedness to the land throughout every season His writing is exquisite, and by use of all of his senses he transports his readers to that English meadow in Herefordshire In an a...4.5 John Clare found his poems in a field Sometimes I find words There is nothing like working land for growing and reaping lines of prose Lewis Stempel is a proper third generation Herefordshire farmer, but also a naturalist with a poet s eye His day job might involve shooting rabbits, cutting hay and delivering lambs, but he still finds the time to notice and appreciate wildlife He knows his field s flowers, insects and birds as well as he knows his cows he gets quiet and close enoug 4.5 John Clare found his poems in a field Sometimes I find words There is nothing like working land for growing and reaping lines of prose Lewis Stempel is a proper third generation Herefordshire farmer, but also a naturalist with a poet s eye His day job might involve shooting rabbits, cutting hay and delivering lambs, but he still finds the time to notice and appreciate wildlife He knows his field s flowers, insects and birds as well as he knows his cows he gets quiet and close enough to the ground to watch a shrew devouring beetles.After Robert Macfarlane s Landmarks, this is my second favorite nature book read this year It s similar to a couple others I read but works much better For instance, it s a rough chronological diary of a year in the meadow, but unlike Mark Cocker s Claxton it doesn t keep slavishly to its schedule or read like a bunch of short entries pieced together Whereas Rob Cowen s Common Ground anthropom...It just looks like a regular field It has a hedge around it, and it is full of grass with some muddy patches near the feeding troughs and the gate.And you would think that is it But it isn t, trust me on this, it really isn t This field is teeming with life.There are the red kites feasting on wild and domesticated animals, the badgers that patrol the field, the playful fox cubs, the hidden moles, visible only from their mounds, that try and consume the thousands of earthworms that populate th It just looks like a regular fiel...This is a gorgeous homage to the traditional English meadow I was trying to read this book slowly and follow Lewis Stempel through his year on the Lower Meadow of his home in Herefordshire However, I could only stretch it out two months because it s such a pleasure to read Lewis Stempel is a man of the land and a poet at heart He...The old ways do not seem so mad in an ancient landscape where I can barely see one electric light,and I can hold in my cupped hand the eternal peace of night This book is so beautifully written that I know I will be tracking down his other books.Some writing is so beautiful that I am gripped with an urge to read sections out loud, just so that I can hear the jewel like words as well as see them, somehow maximizing the pleasure and sharing the joy with others This is one such book Vividly described, and wonderfully written, Meadowland gives a unique and intimate account of an English meadow s life from January to December John Lewis Stempel s passionate love for his land comes through as he describes the passage of the seasons from co Some writing is so beautiful that I am gripped with an urge to read sections out loud, just so that I can hear the jewel like words as well as see them, somehow maximizing the pleasure and sharing the joy with others This is one such book Vividly described, and wonderfully written, Meadowland gives a unique and intimate account of an English meadow s life from January to December John Lewis Stempel s passionate love for his land comes through as he describes the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay cutting of summer and grazing in autumn Through his affinity with nature we get to know the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren, the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others We fall in love ourselves with the rustling grasses and winter rattling leaves This is no flowery, romanticised ode to nature though, it is steeped in the harsh realities of life and death in the wild and is all theevocative and touching for it This is a ...When I heard that this book was chosen over Helen MacDonald s H is for Hawk for the Thwaites Wainwright prize, I had to read it This cannot be a rational review, as the neurons in several parts of this nature lover s brain kept triggering the release of pleasure neurotransmitters sentence after sentence John Lewis Stempel uses farmer s tales, poetry, Middle English words, fol...Eternity would not be long enough if it was composed of English summer eves like this A year in the life of one unremarkable, magical Herefordshire field, as told by the man who farms it There s a fashionable hot take which decries modern nature writing as the recreation of jaded urbanites, but his family have been on this land for generations, and here he combines that deep relationship with theusual miscellany of quotes, folklore, history and observations From ire at the cruelties o Eternity would not be long enough if it was composed of English summer eves like this A year in the life of one unremarkable, magical Herefordshire field, as told by the man who farms it There s a fashionable hot take which decries modern nature writing as the recreation of jaded urbanites, but his family have been on this land for generations, and here he combines that deep relationship with theusual miscellany of quotes, folklore, history and observations From ire at the cruelties of modern farming as when the law forbids burying a dead cow in the field she grazed , to an eerie yet joyful experience at Midsummer, this is about as close as one can approach to the whole picture I made a point of only reading it outdoors, in places at least approaching na...All back cover blurbs be damned, this really is one of those rare and precious things, a remarkable book Herefordshire farmer and historian John Lewis Stempel gives us a year in the life of an ancient hedge ringed meadow on his family farm with all its flora, fauna, and meteorological visitations If this sounds to you like a dull sort of story, you re mistaken All the dramas and wonders of human and animal life play themselves out in this space Lewis Stempel writes like an adult, with prose All back cover blurbs be damned, this really is one of those rare and precious things, a remarkable book Herefordshire farmer and historian John Lewis Stempel gives us a year in the life of an ancient hedge ringed meadow on his family farm with all its flora, fauna, and meteorological visitations If this sounds to you like a dull sort of story, you re mistaken All the dramas and wonders of human and animal life play themselves out in this space Lewis ...I really love good nature writing like this Maybe you d think nothing really happens in a meadow during a year that could ever fill a book you d be so wrong Lewis Stempel is a farmer with all the practicalities that role brings and a nature lover The two don t always go hand in hand He fully admits that he has a spiritual connection with his land that has nothing to do with religion On a beautiful summer s evening, as he walks in his meadow, he says that there couldn t be enough eveni I really love good nature writing like this Maybe you d think nothing really happens in a meadow during a year that could ever fill a book you d be so wrong Lewis Stempel is a farmer with all the practicalities that role brings and a nature lover The two don t always go hand in hand He fully admits that he has a spiritual connection with his land that has nothing to do with religion On a beautiful summer s evening, as he walks in his meadow, he says that there couldn t be enough evenings like this in the whole of eternity to satisfy him.I like the way he is so easily distracted from his chores fence mending etc in that he will stay motionless for hours to observe the animals and birds all around him Very few of us have the patience for that but then again he sees things that the re...

• English
• 20 March 2017
John Lewis-Stempel
• Hardcover
• 293 pages
• 0857521454
• John Lewis-Stempel
• Meadowland