The Green Issue
Taking Care of the Natural World
Taking Care of the Natural World
As it is the last day of COP26, BooksfromScotland decided to keep the Green conversation going with this latest issue. We have fiction, memoir, travel writing, nature writing and children's books to recommend this month, all with the message of the beauty of the natural world and how we should work together to treasure and sustain our planet.
FROM SUNNY, SUSTAINABLE DAYS
Spin a Scarf of Sunshine – Dawn Casey and Stila Lim
Nari lives on a small farm with hens and bees and apple trees, and cares for a little lamb of her own. The seasons turn and Nari’s lamb grows into a fine sheep with a fleece that is ready to shear. Nari and her family use traditional skills to transform the fleece into a cosy scarf, a...
‘Work up an appetite with a 3km jog around the mega roast chicken. It would just about fit in Central Park.’
Birding in an Age of Extinctions
‘World listers, meanwhile, have prompted an explosion in avian tourism and in the support that this provides for local conservation, particularly in developing countries.’
The Peatlands of Britain and Ireland
‘We are now beginning to understand the full costly consequences to society of our peatland legacy. Global leaders herald their importance and action is being taken to conserve them.’
Joan Eardley: Land and Sea – Life in Catterline
‘Many of her landscapes were painted less than thirty paces from her front door.’
‘I think in general culture hasn’t fully reckoned with the climate crisis yet – both in real life as an industry that is contributing to the crisis, and as a means of telling stories.’
‘I’m shocked at how thin I look, how old, how tired. A ghost of a man.’
‘Here everything’s hard, dry, spiky, covered in dust.’
‘‘When we merfolk realised we could live forever, we wondered what we should do with our time. We chose to live our lives caring for the creatures of the shore and the sea.’’
‘She will go hungry today, but that will only sharpen her schooling. The wigeon will soon face a formidable adversary.’
‘Capitalism moves fast. We need time to slow down, reflect, remember, resist and make space for what really matters.’
‘We are called, therefore, into participation and intra-action. It is true that, for better or worse, we always participate in life’s flow.’
‘Growing your own can teach food comes from, patience and nurture, the ability to think and plan long term, and the rewards of creating something from almost nothing.’
‘Once more I saw the Universe for what it is, infinite and pitiless; I could feel the sting of death in the barren frost, and yet was utterly happy.’