Vitamin N(ature) for your night stand
Dear Readers,
My kid and I prescribed ourselves some extra doses of Vitamin N* this month because there’s an extra layer of chaos on the seven-layer dip of our back-to-school reality (which is a full and gratifying reality, but often messy).
We are so lucky to have the tree-lined, serpentine greenways that runs through town, so I want to give the Davidson Lands Conservancy a shout-out today. One of the pillars of their work are our greenway paths. If you’re a runner, consider their hallmark fundraising event, the Run for Green 5K/10K whose course showboats these paths and whose proceeds support their work.
To inspire and inform those of you who find comfort outdoors, I’ve got five book recommendations from our staff for each K in the Run for Green 5K!
Cheers,
Adah
Five books inspired by the Run for Green 5K
1. The Arbornaut: A Life Spent Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us
Staff Pick: Jan
Arbornaut is the story of globe-trotting canopy explorer and scientist, Meg Lowman, who self-professed shyness and introversion led her to the tops of the trees, but whose unwavering passion for tree conservation spurred a 40-year+ career pioneering tree canopy research and recreation.
by Meg Lowman | published August 2021
2. The Wild Trees
Staff Pick: Adah
Scientists didn’t begin studying the redwood canopy until the 1990’s because they couldn’t get into them.
A couple of college students decided to use their rock climbing gear to give it a (wholly terrifying) go of it, and opened one of the last natural frontiers in the United States for scientific observation and learning.
This book is a fascinating profile of the very odd ducks that pioneered redwood canopy climbing and research.
Read this before you read Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson, and you’ve got an incredible book pairing.
By Richard Preston | published February 2008
3. Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women
Staff Pick: Jan
On the power of moving on foot outdoors, Abbs share biographies of creative women who engaged in deep work on foot - Georgia O’Keefe across flatlands of Texas, Simone de Beauvoir through the forests of France, and Nan Shepard across the mountains of Scotland.
Abbs herself had an unusual “experimental” upbringing in the Welsh countryside with the principles of Rousseau as her father’s parental North Star.
Incredibly engaging and well-written.
by Annabel Abbs | published August 2021
4. The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light
Staff Pick: Jennifer
For millenia humans have looked up to the stars to create the stories of their humanity and origins, and now that experience is relegated to niche moments like summer camp and destination travel because light pollution from human development drowns out visibility of sky objects
This is a thought-provoking tour of the night sky and our relationship to it.
by Paul Bogard | published July 2014
5. Seed to Dust: Life, Nature, and a Country Garden
Staff Pick: Jan
As a sensitive kid facing life in the coal mines of Northern England, Marc Hamer chose homelessness over conforming to that brutal life.
He found his way to gardening and tells the story of the stoic, poetic life he makes for over 20 years tending the English garden of a wealthy, charismatic woman dubbed Miss Cashmere.
Beautiful, beautiful, wise, intriguing and beautful!
by Marc Hamer | published May 2021