I got this handsome ex-library hardcover from an online seller after enjoying other books by Mitchell, including The Wildest Place on Earth and A Field Guide to Your Own Back Yard. This book was published by Vermont's Countryman Press, and features beautiful illustrations by Suzan Osborn.

Later: Very enjoyable read, with personal anecdotes in among the gardening descriptions and the visits with wildlife. (He even reports sightings of bobcats - and a mountain lion, something very, very rare in these parts.) I believe the author's plot of land is in Littleton MA, roughly half an hour's drive from where I live, and a place I visit regularly to leave books at LFLs or to dine at restaurants in the new complex there. Since part of the book addresses the rapidity of the area's building boom - with the resulting loss of some wildlife habitat - it is a bit poignant; indeed, I think part of that boom was the tech bubble in the 1980s, and my own former employer DEC may have been partly responsible, as they built office buildings all over the area.

But the author also points out the ways the land has changed long before industrial boom/bust cycles: the colonists and even some of the indigenous peoples would clear-cut areas for crops, and when those areas were left alone again they'd go through new cycles of meadows-to-forests, each with its own ecological niche. Embracing the changes while finding ways to encourage native species of flora and fauna seems to be the way to go - and I found myself wondering whether this will be the year that I tackle my own yard!

The author does tend to meander, which is enjoyable to read, especially when his musings on his local crickets leads to Japanese myths about the creatures - and a nod to Irish expatriate turned Japan-ophile Lafcadio Hearn, a favorite author of mine. I also enjoyed the description of the pagan/multicultural/delightful-sounding wedding that took place on the author's grounds near the end of the book.

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in my new Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2020 April Showers/May Flowers challenge. ***

This one's been in the LFL for three months with no takers, so I'm swapping it out to release elsewhere.

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the Little Free Library on this drizzly day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2021 April Showers/May Flowers challenge. ***