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Reading Roger Deakin’s book Notes from Walnut Tree Farm was a great joy. The book is composed of excerpts from notebooks he kept during the last six years of his life. He wrote in them almost daily his observations, impressions, thoughts, feelings and doings. So while the book is strung across the course of a year from January to December, the entires are pulled from six years of writing. They are not dated with a year and on any given day there might be multiple entries from various years. It sounds complicated and disjointed but it really isn’t. I had intended to read the book a month at a time, to move through the year along with the entries. But I couldn’t stop reading, I was enjoying myself far too much to be able to dribble the goodness out over an entire year.
Deakin has a keen eye and a great knowledge of the history of the land. He is a fan of the commons and the wild, an advocate for stewardship. He loves cats and birds and holds a great respect for all living things including the insects that make their way into his study since it seems his window screens are either non-existent or of such a large mesh he is guaranteed to be visited by something while sitting at his desk:
I think, yes, it really is another world, this microscopic insect world, a world apart. But almost at once I realize that to put insects into ‘another world’ or ‘a world apart’ is dangerous. In fact it is the rationale for exterminating them with pesticides. If theirs is ‘another world’, it has nothing to do with us. It is unconnected, and, whatever we choose to do to it, we ourselves are unaffected. The very reverse is the truth of course. Unless we realize we share a single world with the insects, and that if we harm them we harm ourselves and the rest of nature, we will end up destroying ourselves — committing suicide, in fact.
I think we are beginning to discover this with the bees and people are starting to speak out about it. But it has taken far too long to get to this place and we have a long way to go. It is easy to feel sorry for a dead honeybee, not so easy for people to be sorry about ants or flies.
If I can be enchanted by my cat, rolling in joy on the brick terrace before me, why can’t I be enchanted by a green shield bug in my vegetable garden, or two ants meeting and exchanging information with a flourish of their antennae? Or the billowing fizz of cow-parsley in full flower?
But Deakin isn’t all nature yes and civilization no, bugs good, people bad. It is possible to have a balance.
I blame the Romantics for all this self-consciousness about landscape and inspiration. Wandering lonely as a cloud may be the last thing you need sometimes. Going round the corner for breakfast in a steamy cafe may be much more like it.
Deakin has much to say about trees. I learned quite a lot about pollarding and coppicing, two things that seem to be a dying art, as is creating and properly maintaining hedgerows. He is also a person who enjoys working with wood and has considerable skill at turning felled trees into bookshelves or even sculptures. He is the kind of person who respects the tree and the wood, which I believe must infuse his work with respect, passion and love.
How wonderful it must have been to be Deakin’s friend and walk with him around his farm in Suffolk and the surrounding area. Deakin died in 2006, but he has left us his notebooks curated into the beautiful Notes from Walnut Tree Farm through which we may walk with him anytime no matter the weather.
What a nice book to know about–
will keep it in mind.
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booksandbuttons, it’s really nice if you are looking for something calm and nature-y 🙂
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I like books like this occasionally.
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Jeanne, it’s a good one. Very relaxing reading
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I happened across an explanation of coppicing on Wikipedia recently (which led me to an article on pollarding as well), and realized that even though I am quite familiar with the word coppice referring to a group of trees, I had no idea what it meant. I wanted to read more, and I’ve long been fascinated by the British hedgerow, so this book sounds perfect for me!
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biblioglobal, I had to look up coppicing and pollarding too. I was familiar with both relating to trees and pruning but I didn’t know exactly what they meant. Deakin doesn’t explain how it is done but he talks about it and complains a lot about it being done wrong.
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Wonderful review! This seems like such a peaceful balancing book….adding to my TBR!
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cirtnecce, thanks! Definitely a peaceful balancing book. It was really nice to read in the evenings after a long day at work.
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This sounds absolutely wonderful – I shall be ordering a copy today! Terrific review.
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widget85, thanks! I hope you enjoy it!
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I read Deakin’s book Wildwood three years ago and enjoyed it. I have Walnut Farm, but we can’t read everything we want to all at the same time, can we? This book seems to be a good fit with the two Dave Goulson books I’ve just read: A Sting in the Tale, about bumblebees, and A Buzz in the Meadow, about the insects and plants and animals that, together, make our lives possible, and how we’re, as Deakin says, committing suicide by trying to control the environment without understanding how it works.
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Joan, glad to know you liked Wildwood because of course now I’d like to read that one. You’re right though, we can’t read everything we want to at the same time so I have no idea when I will get to it. Ooh, those Goulson books sound really interesting!
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I suppose I will always remember Roger Deakin and this book for the gentle reminder to observe when I’m walking rather than think.
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Cath, and I will always be grateful to you for sending it to me 🙂
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One might not smile benignly upon all insects after they see the damage termites can do to a home – their home. We had to rebuild my mother’s kitchen and dining room from the studs and rafters out. Over $30k worth of damage. The termite guy said in 30 years it was the worst damage he’d ever seen. Not sure what was holding up the roof. When he found an active nest, did we exterminate them? You bet. But I agree about the beneficial insects, the bees and butterflies and dragon flies and mantas. They are cute and easy to love. But there are insects that are not cute or nice and I say, off with their heads! (Of course, if they mind their own business and leave me alone, I think I can live in peace with them,,,or try to.) But if they chose to dine on my house, it will be war!
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Grad, I’m sure Deakin wouldn’t appreciate termites eating his house but in spite of the damage they can do, they do have a place as do all the other not nice insects. It’s a shame all the damage they did to your mother’s house. Those are expensive repairs!
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I’m glad that you had this as a good read to leaven the load a little after the disastrous Pearl. I do love a book that you can dip into like this. Almost like a good cut and come again cake that keeps on giving pleasure.
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Alex, oh yes, it helped me through the slog that Pearl became! Definitely a book you can dip into. I like your cake analogy! 🙂
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I rather like notebooks by writers. I see them, I buy them, then I put them aside for another day. I’m telling myself that it is time I started reading them.
I do love the sound of this one.
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whisperinggums, I do too, they are great observers. They are hard to pick up though for some reason but when I do get to them I am always glad.
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I enjoyed his book Wildwood too, but I think I learned about coppicing from reading Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders. It’s a great way to keep trees smaller but multi stemmed. In the UK we don’t have screens on windows or doors, we don’t have anything worse than the odd wasp or bluebottle invading us!
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piningforthewest, glad to know Wildwood is good too. I will definitely be reading it sometime. It is nice to have something I know I will enjoy to look forward to. Perhaps I should read Woodlanders to learn more about coppicing! I can’t imagine not having any screens. My house would be filled with all sorts of bugs especially mosquitoes!
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One for my list – I remember when Danielle read it and loved it, too. I never thought of myself as someone who’d love nature books, but I did adore The Morville Hours and I love anything by Neil Ansell. If it’s any consolation, a lot of trees get pollarded around my area – perhaps its an East Anglian thing to do!
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And Belgians pollard willows and limes like it’s going out of fashion!
I loved this review. I’ve been meaning to read some Roger Deakin for years, I really must get on with it.
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Helen, I wonder if pollarding is a European thing? It isn’t really done in the US. Glad you enjoyed the review. Do get to Deakin as soon as you can, he is really marvelous! 🙂
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litlove, for calm and relaxation this book can’t be beat. I’ve never to my knowledge seen a pollarded tree. It is not something that is done here very often.
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I *loved* this book, too. Doesn’t Roger Deakin seem like he was a most lovely man? I wonder if there is more material from those journals and if another book would ever get published. Reading this made me think about nature in a totally different way! This is a keeper and a book I will reread some day.
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Danielle, I know you loved this book. Your various mentions of it made me eager to read it and when Cath sent it to me for my birthday, well I knew I was in for a treat! I would think six years of his journals would have quite a lot of material. I wonder who is the current owner of them? I will be returning to the book in the future too 🙂
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