Next to Nature: Book Review

Between our trips, back and forth to New Glasgow, I found the time to read Ronald Blythe’s book, ‘Next to Nature’. Four hundred and seventy-two pages describing a lifetime in the English Countryside.

From the inside cover,
“Ronald Blythe lived at the end of an overgrown farm track deep in the rolling countryside of the Stour valley, on the border between Suffolk and Essex.’

“His home was Bottengoms Farm, a sturdy yeoman’s house once owned by the artist John Nash. From here, Blythe spent almost half a century observing the slow turn of the agricultural year, the church calendar and village life in a series of rich, lyrical rural diaries.”

The book includes an introduction by Richard Mabey, followed by twelve chapters, one per month, January to December. Each chapter includes an introduction by an English writer. Of particular note, is the Introduction by Robert MacFarlane for the month of July.

It starts:

‘The idiom of modern cartography speaks of ‘ground-truthing’. To ‘ground-truth’ is to verify in person, often on foot, information gathered by remote-sensing technologies such as aerial photography or satellite imagery; to test theory against things we might say. I’ve often thought of Ronnie Blythe as a ground-truther, in many senses. For decades, he fathomed place as deep rather than wide, and did so by walking, talking, listening and watching.’ p.233.

“Off we go to walk again” he wrote in one of these vividly sun-soaked, rain-soaked, thought-soaked entries from July; companionable, habitual, the phrase could be a motto for his work as a whole.”

What would it be like to fathom place in the Annapolis Valley?

Perhaps Ernest Buckler understood?

And we could add maps too!

I highly recommend the book ‘Next to Nature’. Imagine an equivalent book for rural Nova Scotia.

Reference

Ronald Blythe, 2022, Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside, John Murray, 472 pp.

Acknowledgement

Heather continues to share our life in Middleton, rural Nova Scotia, overlooking the floodplain of the Annapolis River. In our earlier house in Paradise, we were able to enjoy the unique view of North Mountain.

Postscript

We walked the Lawrencetown nursery to Hunter Orchard loop. Just over an hour. The white May flowers were out. Spring is here.