A Year in the Meadow by Benjamin Perkins.

 Benjamin Perkins has known Lapwing Meadows in rural Suffolk for many years and takes the reader through the changing seasons there showing him local flora and fauna that he illustrates beautifully and plentifully in watercolour. It is an authentic account of living in the country, come rain or shine, and allows the reader to imagine a slower pace of life off the beaten track. I have always admired Benjamin Perkins’s paintings at exhibitions, so this book allows me to visit the unspoilt meadowland and landscape that has inspired him for so many years.

A Country Naturalist’s Year by Colvin McElvie

 Based in Dumfriesshire, but not exclusively, we visit the countryside through the seasons in the company of a very knowledgable guide. The book is lavishly illustrated by Rodger McPhail. This is a book to take to Scotland to sit by a log fire and read after a long day on the moors, along the woodland edge or by the river bank. And next day to enjoy looking further afield for all that has been missed: an osprey nest on a Highland river or the wild haunts of peregrine falcons and merlins, perhaps. All becomes possible when these pages are turned and savoured as we long to learn more.

Shorelands Summer Diary by C.F. Tunnicliffe

 I have always loved Tunnicliffe’s illustrations when I borrowed hardback books of essays by Alison Uttley from my local library. This diary, first published in 1952, explores his love of drawing and painting estuary birds between April to September from his home in Anglesey. The text is close to an autobiography and the many illustrations are sublime. Shorelands is the name of the bungalow whereTunnicliffe lived from 1947 until his death in 1979. This is a perfect book to take to a holiday cottage in a similarly remote place and pass time with binoculars, on walks or through the kitchen window,  identifying different species of estuary birds to be found there. Or during this time of Covid, to imagine such a place, living there and immersing oneself in its sense of place, hoping that one may return one day.

The Shell Nature Book

 Published in 1964, with beautiful illustrations by Edith and Rowland Hilder and other fine artists, this book takes me back to my childhood. It is not unlike the Ladybird nature series I enjoyed then, with text by Geoffrey Grigson. I know the illustrations well as some of them, printed in poster form,  I used as a primary teacher to accompany my classroom nature table throughout the changing seasons. There is something very comforting about these scenes, although one would have to be very lucky to see so many species of birds on a bird table or seashore. But that is why I love it, as I did those Ladybird illustrations; it lifts me into a perfect world, a rural idyll and I am quite content to bask in its loveliness. 

Gracelaced by Ruth Chou Simons

Discovering timeless truths through seasons of the heart

This is a beautiful book I dip into often to draw close to God - the seasonal illustrations are truly sublime but the text is equally inspiring, linked to familiar quotations from the Bible scripted in calligraphy to accompany the beautiful original artwork. 

‘And Jesus comes to us today - as He did 2000 years ago - offering an unburdened soul to us who lay our baggage at His feet and take up the yoke of rest He provides.’

‘The invitation and welcome is yours: to come as broken, hopeless and burdened...and to find peace for your soul.’

I was drawn to this book by chance - I have always loved nature diaries like ‘The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady’ by Edith Holden, and on of my favourite nature books is The Shell Nature Book - I used to use its reproduced posters to illustrate my classroom nature table when I started teaching over 40 years ago.

Similarly I love books of calligraphy - Bible quotations or poetry such a ‘Springs of Joy’ by Evelyn Scaramanga, ‘The Golden Thread’ and ‘Images of Christmas’ by Dorothy Boux.

But ‘Gracelaced’ takes me further - it urges me to takes in its spiritual teachings more deeply and for that I am very grateful. As George Harrison said, ‘Everything else can wait except for the search for God.’