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The Meadow: Kashmir 1995 – Where the Terror Began

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Even Trevor Dines, Plantlife’s botanical specialist, was taken by surprise when he created his own meadow on a small field he bought near his home in north Wales in 2015. The field had been what farmers traditionally describe as “improved” – its grass fertilised and grazed so intensively that delicate wildflowers disappeared. The field had about 20 species of plant. (Many intensively farmed grass fields are now sown with just one rye-grass species.) Dines stripped off this sward to expose the soil and spread fresh hay containing local wildflower seeds from a flower-rich meadow six miles away. This “natural seeding” technique has been a key principle of the coronation meadows, of which his is one. The individuality of different meadows is their strength. On Landseer park, in the heart of urban Ipswich, wildflower-rich chalk banks created by the charity Buglife and an inspiring young conservationist, David Dowding, an Ipswich borough council ranger, are now home to scarce butterflies such as the dark green fritillary. Off the busy A19 between York and Selby is Three Hagges, a “woodmeadow” created in 2012 by Ros Forbes Adam, whose family has farmed the area for 350 years. Finally, Taber’s world is a remarkably honorable life however this doesn’t mean I wish to read every last minutiae of her and Jill waxing their furniture each Spring. It was deeply moving to learn how much Taber exponentially appreciates the beauty of nature and all living creatures aside from cows strangely enough. I too live a simple, often mundane life as she did therefore I don’t care to read humdrum details about it. While there are moments the book was quite charming in warmth of heart, all in all it wasn’t the type of bookcraft to swoon me. It would be desirable if all the more wondrous descriptions in her publications could be extracted into a single volume so one wouldn’t have to muddle through as it were. Most meadow-makers buy wildflower seeds for the initial creation. However, Baczkowska explains, commercially produced seed is grown to be harvested on the same day, so new knapweed flowers, for instance, will flower together and go to seed in the same week. Hand-collecting local seed – as Norfolk Wildlife Trust does in partnership with Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, a charity run by farmers – gives meadows a much longer flowering season, making them more useful to pollinators, and more beautiful. “Keeping local seed types going will give you this resilience to climate change. It’s not just the diversity of species; diversity of genetics is really important,” says Baczkowska.

Galvin writes with such admirable attention to detail that I decided to read an excerpt from the book to my creative writing class as an excellent model of indirect characterization. The powerful images and drama in the episode kept a roomful of ninth- and tenth-graders silent and focused. After the reading, I asked them to tell me what kind of man App, the adult character in the chapter I read, seems to be; they were spot on because his actions in the episode had so clearly revealed him. Further, Taber often used the word, that, when it was unnecessary and the layman’s word, whole, to describe the whole earth, the whole field, etc. while other more polished words might be considered as a replacement such as the word, entire. She also used the word, foam, several times to describe certain aspects which weren’t particularly foamy. The loathsome word, like, was additionally a bit overused. In general her wording is a little too simple at moments for my taste.A prolific author whose output includes plays, essays, memoirs and fiction, Gladys Taber (1899 – 1980) is perhaps best recalled for a series of books and columns about her life at Stillmeadow, a 17th-century farmhouse in Southbury, Connecticut. connections to Kent Haruf's books, Train Dreams, Annie Proulx' western stories, Honey in the Horn, Angle of Repose, Housekeeping ...

Finished last night with this excellent book. The prose was lovely and NOT too poetic and vague, as I'd feared it might be. There is no plot to it, so don't expect that. By this time, she had separated from her husband and was living at Stillmeadow, a farmhouse built in 1690 in Southbury, Connecticut, sharing the house with Eleanor Sanford Mayer, a childhood friend who was often mistakenly identified as her sister. Beginning with Harvest at Stillmeadow (Little, Brown, 1940), Taber wrote a series of books about her simple life in New England that possessed homespun wisdom dolled out with earthy humor and an appreciation for the small things. She published more than 20 books related to Stillmeadow, including several cookbooks. Lyle's family moves to the farm in the meadow less than 20 years before we moved to Boulder(1957). Lots of changes during that time. Clara's diary selections are from only 8 years before we got there.

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James Galvin works magic with The Meadow, and he successfully weaves together multiple strands of family history. This book is technically a novel, but it pulses with a frictionless reality. Any lawn or verge can be rewilded. Some remove turf and top-soil before sowing. Or just scuff up existing sward with a spade and a rake to make space for new seed. I use Emorsgate Seeds for native wildflowers, but if you can find a local seed source, that is even better. This is a quiet, thoughtful read for those of us who have a strong heart connection with the high sagebrush country of the inter-mountain West. It follows about a century's-worth of people's doin's in a mountain meadow at 8,500 feet in southern Wyoming. The life requires great hardiness and ingenuity to withstand the isolation and trials of snow, wind, fire, hunger, disease, and financial uncertainty.

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