Well at last I’ve got going with my 20 Books of Summer (intro post here), and in fact I’m part-way into Helen Ashton’s “The Half-Crown House”, too, so feel like I’ve made a proper start. The lovely Bookish Beck sent me this one in her 2020 December parcel, something of a tradition now; this had been better edited than some in that parcel (I think this is actually the last one from it) and there are fewer pencilled corrections!
Ruth Pavey – “A Wood of One’s Own”
(24 December 2020, from Bookish Beck)
What pleasure there is in learning another landscape, and the stories that have grown from it. (p. 12)
In this charming book, Ruth Pavey decides she wants to buy a piece of woodland to look after and cherish and in which to plant trees, after she realises this is what she wants to do but finds other places, like allotments, too temporary to do so. She returns to the land of her ancestors, Somerset, the bit near Bridgwater, to do so, and we read about her purchase of, settling into and work on the wood, as well as her relationships with her neighbours and various working people of the countryside.
It’s all very practical though with some romantic notions (she develops the idea of a mediaeval owner of Sugg’s Orchard before discovering what zuggy actually means, and has notions of keeping ancient apples going that are floored when no one can decide what varieties they are). She is resourceful and relatively fearless, installing herself for a number of years in a little wheeled workers’ wagon before moving to spend nights in a cottage. She bonds with various brothers and cousins, which is lovely to read about, especially exciting when some Overds are mentioned, as I’m descended from Somerset Overds myself! I also loved how all sorts of people gave her trees they’d grown when they found out she had a wood. There are only a couple of “Nature red in tooth and claw” moments and one page of unpleasantness – not bad for a modern nature book!
While she’s unable to explain to a friend what all this is “for”, she obviously gets huge pleasure from the wood and her efforts in it. She makes improvements and leaves all the various animals and insects alone in it, though she does feel that they melt away when she’s there and return when she goes. The long-term nature of it is highlighted and the impossibility of finishing it:
And, or so I try to comfort myself, it is not in the nature of this project to yield instant results. (p. 169)
This was number 1 in my 20 Books of Summer 2022!
This was also TBR Challenge 2021-22 Quarter 3 Book 8/41 – 33 to go.
Laura
Jun 11, 2022 @ 08:07:07
This sounds lovely! I’ll need to recommend to my sister who dreams of owning her own land and planting trees!
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Rebecca Foster
Jun 11, 2022 @ 11:59:49
When we were buying our house, we thought half-seriously about whether we’d have enough left over to buy a parcel of woodland to save from development. The problem is they tend to be random bits of land in faraway places and then you have to find the time and go there by car; not ideal.
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Laura
Jun 11, 2022 @ 18:24:10
Yeah I think her long term dream is to buy land and build a tiny house 🙂
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Liz Dexter
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:35:21
That’s so cool, you need to get her this book if she hasn’t read it already!
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Rebecca Foster
Jun 11, 2022 @ 11:58:30
How neat that you found a personal connection! Glad you enjoyed it. The sequel, which I’ll send you anon, goes a little more political/environmentalist. (And yes, this being a finished copy rather than a proof, I found less to correct!)
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Liz Dexter
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:36:34
Yes, it’s cool about the name and I’m going to send it to my Dorset cousin who keeps the family tree stuff going to have a look at. I don’t mind political and environmental of course as it needs to be done, and also adds an extra dimension (I really enjoyed an ultra running book I read which discussed the eco concerns around that hobby).
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Jun 11, 2022 @ 16:06:29
Well done on book 1, and it sounds a treat. I love the idea of owning a bit of land and rewilding it etc. As you say, something not necessarily for instant gratification but to give something back to the planet.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:37:04
Yes, indeed, and she’s very strong on temporary stewardship, looking after it and keeping things going, which is lovely.
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JacquiWine
Jun 12, 2022 @ 07:56:59
Sounds lovely, Liz. It’s interesting how COVID has given many of us a whole new appreciation of the natural world and our own surroundings, and while I realise this book was written before the pandemic, I’m sure it will resonate all the more strongly with readers now.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:41:07
Yes, there’s definitely an appetite for slower and more nature orientated books – it was actually quite nice to read one published well before the pandemic that therefore didn’t feel it had to mention it!
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heavenali
Jun 12, 2022 @ 18:03:56
Ooh this sounds lovely, just the kind of nature book I would like, despite having read so little non fiction this year. It’s the kind of life people dream of but never actually do.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:42:09
Yes, it’s really good to read about that and indeed, so few people manage to do it. I can lend this one to you but need to send it on to my cousin at some point for the family history connection!
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heavenali
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:51:27
No, don’t worry, no idea when I’ll get to it, so will make a note to buy it myself at some point.
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wadholloway
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:19:57
Just how red in tooth and claw does nature get in Somerset? My daughter and her family have just moved to 80 acres of (mostly) native bush on the Western Australian south coast. It has a small pine plantation which my son in law has ambitions of felling and milling and then they’ll ‘restore it’ – ie let the bush grow back, which it will without any encouragement.
And just to make you envious. A friend with a semi rural block near Melbourne has just this month had koalas move into the trees in the back paddock.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 13, 2022 @ 10:43:37
Well remembering how feeble I am, the predators even if smaller than some people’s, and an extended scene on the progress of a late deer was not one I cared to linger over! I am envious of the koalas! I’d love to read about rewilding in other places, your sil should write about it! I only really know much about the UK and northern Europe!
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thecontentreader
Jun 14, 2022 @ 13:54:38
A good start no doubt. Good luck with your reading. Hope the quality of the first book continues through your list.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 16, 2022 @ 08:04:24
Thank you! I’m a bit iffy about the current read (third one in; got one to review still) but Ali liked it so I’m sticking with it!
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thecontentreader
Jun 17, 2022 @ 08:05:35
Well, I have never heard about the author or the title, so can’t advice you. I looked it up and I think you will not be disappointed.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 17, 2022 @ 08:09:10
I’ve read a number of the author’s other books and usually like them (she wrote the famous “Cold Comfort Farm” but I’m enjoying it more now I’ve got right into it anyway.
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mallikabooks15
Jun 15, 2022 @ 17:01:25
Sounds lovely and the kind of thing I’d have liked to venture into, if I had it in me to brave it. Also glad to hear that the upsetting bits were very limited.
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Liz Dexter
Jun 16, 2022 @ 08:04:53
I’m bad enough with my own garden, I don’t think anyone should let me loose on a wood!
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mallikabooks15
Jun 16, 2022 @ 13:24:18
Same here, I’d just let it do what it liked🙂
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