A Year with Nature

A Year with Nature: An Almanac by herpetologist, naturalist writer and professor of biology Marty Crump is a celebration of all that nature has to offer. Each entry is devoted to a particular animal, an important day or discovery in the life of a scientist or conservationist, a plant, poetry, laws, the founding of the National Parks, U.S. celebrations, international celebrations such as Australia's Wombat Day, and celebrations that cross borders such as World Wildlife Conservation Day.

These were some of my favorites:

January 22nd features an excerpt from Lord Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"
 "Pleasure in the Pathless Woods
There is pleasure in the pathless woods,/
There is a rapture on the lonely shore/
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and music in its roar:/
I love not man the less, but Nature more,/
From these our interviews, in which is steal/
From all I may be, or have been before,/
To mingle with the Universe, and feel/
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."

Lord Byron was born on January 22nd, 1788 and was a Romantic poet and nature lover.

May 6th is about Fairies Cups or lies of the valley which is one of my favorite flowers. Lillies of the valley are said to be cups from which fairies drink fairy wine, or they are bells that ring each time a fairy sings. Alternatively, they are also called "Mary's tears", from a legend that says when Mary cried at the Crucifixion, her tears turned into lilies of the valley. A different legend says the white flowers represent Eve's tears that fell upon her expulsion from the Garden of Eden. In the language of flowers popular during the Victorian Era, lilies of the valley convey the message, "You have made my life complete" (133).

August 24th is devoted to the Mother of Nature Education Anna Botsford Comstock. Comstock graduated with a degree in natural history from Cornell University in 1885 and became the first female professor at Cornell in 1897. She is the founder of the Nature Study Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The goal of her approach to studying nature was, "to cultivate the child's imagination, love the of beautiful, and sense of companionship with life-out-of-doors"  (249)

October 6th is Mad Hatter Day. This day was created in 1986 by computer technicians in Boulder, Colorado, who thought people would do less harm by being silly for a day instead of working. The day is named after the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; the illustration of the character depicts a hat with the words "in this style 10/6" (292). On this day, spend time with the quirkier animals, plants, and insects in nature.