Meeting S. Smith – Earth Day Every Day Part Three
I couldn’t have had a more perfect day. It all started with an amar
yllis bloom opening and an email. S. Smith had arrived in Houston and was looking to hang out before her first Half Price Books signing tomorrow.
Today I finally had the pleasure of meeting S. Smith, the author of the Seed Savers series. I never thought this day would actually come, as I am a book reviewer in Texas and she is a young adult fiction writer from Oregon. But lo and behold! She had a reason to come down south and booked a Texas Earth Day tour starting with Houston.
I was delighted that she wanted to go for a walk in the woods by our house. It was a joy picking along the trails, chatting, with my daughter and her husband in tow. We talked about the difference in the woods of Texas from where she lives in the Northwest.
Below, kiddo, Sandy, and her husband stopped for a rest on a fallen log.
Sandy will be at the Half Price Books in Clear Lake tomorrow from 1-4 pm, Good Books in the Woods on Friday evening, Half Price Books Humble on Saturday from 1-3 pm, and the Montrose HPB store that evening from 6-9 pm. Her books are works of fiction for young adults about a dystopian society where growing your own fruits and vegetables is illegal, a fitting discussion topic for an Earth Day celebration.
Literary Journal Monday – Earth Day, Every Day Part Two
It’s April, it’s spring time, it’s RAINING! To bring May flowers, of course. So, I jumped head first into an April 1968 edition of Blackwood’s Magazine, more specifically, Roy Neal Williams’ Mushroom Weather.
I’ve never heard of Roy Neal Williams before today, but I definitely can say I’ll remember him. His memoir about his grandmother and their adventures foraging in the woods for mushrooms with his german shepherd mix, Shep, is right up my alley. His prose is nice and playful, easy to get right in step with the spring time atmosphere he is describing from his childhood.
The time spent in the woods and the property with his grandmother is looked back upon so fondly. I hope that my daughter remembers her time with me in the woods as well. And I like his grandmother,
“She stopped and looked at the flowers. All was quiet. There was only the sound of the water as it rushed along its way, cutting round stones and making miniature waterfalls from a flat rock or a fallen limb. An occasional bird would chime in and, in the distance, we could hear Shep yelp now and then.”
He explains how they collected mushrooms, morel mushrooms, and then took them home and soaked them in preparation to eat the next day. As he slept that night he would dream of the delicious dish that awaited him the following day.
The forager in me couldn’t help but come home and search the web for images of these tasty treats. Below is a picture of morel mushrooms that serves as a link to the Morel Mushroom Hunting Club. How exciting – and odd – is that?
Earth Day Every Day 2014 – Part One
Spring time… the sun is out, the animals are about, it’s time for spring cleaning and for our family to start hitting the trails every day again. It also means April is here, and so my environmental awareness is in high gear. Earth Day and Arbor Day means Earth Day events at the bookstores and local libraries. It also means I start seeing my favorite color (green) plastered all over displays, and books with pretty leafy covers come out of the woodwork. Thus begins the Earth Day reading highlight reel.
Title: The Green Book
Authors: Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Genre: Nature – Environmental Conservation & Protection
Length: 201 pages
This is a handy little book that is easy to read and full of celebrity pep talks for going green. The writers have pointed out a lot of easy to remember ways to readjust your existing lifestyle to recycle more and waste less. I liked it.
It was published in 2007, so some of the information feels a little outdated. It also gets a little repetitive for those who have the ability to apply one concept to multiple aspects of their life, but it’s a good little book nonetheless.
My favorite tidbit from this book – being a cyclist – is this:
“Try to recycle your old bicycle tires and inner tubes instead of throwing them away. You’ll prevent about two pounds of rubber from being landfilled and may help provide materials for a new handbag, a pair of hiking boots, or even a bike path itself. If one in fourteen American cyclists were to recycle his or her bicycle tires each year, the rubber saved could pave the current route of the Tour de France.”
Worth checking out from the library or downloading to an e-reader. The only time I could see wanting a physical copy would be for your child’s library – and even the authors think you should buy these books used.
This photograph is a Joel Robison piece. I love all his work, it has been awhile since I’ve shared it, though. However, some of his earthy pieces seem extremely appropriate this time of year as we’re reminded to enjoy our world and treat it kindly. Click the image to visit his blog.
