The writer encourages nature in her own backyard through benign neglect she doesn’t use chemical fertilizers on the grass and grows only what can survive biweekly lawn mowing. All are fodder for Holmes’s meditations on natural history, zoology, and the current American landscape. She’s determined to immerse herself in the workings of her patch of ground, and though it isn’t a lot of land, it turns out to be more than enough to nurture many varieties of insect, bird, and mammal species. Now she’s compromised between the two extremes, setting up house on two-tenths of an acre in suburban Portland, Maine. Raised on a farm, the author left country life far behind when she moved to New York City for several years. (Mar.With infectious enthusiasm and faith in nature’s doggedness in the face of encroaching humanity, science writer Holmes ( The Secret Life of Dust, 2001) follows the four seasons as they play out in her own micro-habitat. By the end of her year, Holmes has gently taught us that the American lawn is a pesticide-laden patchwork that's increasing by a million acres every year, that heating a house can produce five tons of pollutants annually and that stewardship of our own backyards is our responsibility. Science and humor serve as well-managed launching points for environmental lessons. With their help, she includes plenty of facts about the habits of common crows, insects, squirrels and even trees. That small mammal is just one of the many creatures to whom Holmes gives names and personalities, but she keeps her naturalist credibility intact by inviting scientists and other experts to join her in her lawn chair vigil. "I'm a bit embarrassed to report that Cheeky has become the sun around which my world revolves," she confesses about her resident chipmunk. 's Marlin Perkins and the laconic glee of Garrison Keillor. ) turned her attention to her suburban backyard, she discovered a community of wildlife desperately trying to survive in a sprawling world of "Wal-Marts and White-Crowned Sparrow Estates." Holmes manages to find signs of hope and humor amid the spread of civilization, and she reports animal activities in her yard with the fervor of Wild Kingdom When science and travel writer Holmes ( The Secret Life of Dust
0 kommentar(er)
