A Year of Country Living, Spring to Spring

By Hal Borland, illustrations by Peter Marks

Hal Borland, whose nature essays graced the Sunday New York Times for almost 4 decades, transported readers to a simpler time and place by his intimate perspective on weather, flowers, birds, and the changing seasons. After being hospitalized with a dangerous bout of appendicitis and reassessing his values, he and his wife decided to retreat to a farm in the Berkshire Hills of northwest Connecticut. From that place—for 36 years—he composed the essays which provided a calming rejuvenation for his legions of avid followers.

Borland describes his process: “We came here, not to a cabin in the wilderness but to a farmhouse beside a river. I have spent the months and years since, living with this small fraction of the universe and trying to know its meaning—to own it, that is, in terms of observation and understanding.”

This Hill, This Valley ushers us eloquently through a year on the farm in an area known as Weatogue: Spring: (“The apple trees are in bloom, and a magnificent sight”); summer: (“One of the most difficult of all sounds to put down on paper is the song of a bird.”); autumn: (“October is the fallen leaf, but it is also the wider horizon more clearly seen.”); winter: (“The sparrows make Winter a pleasanter time for any countryman.”)

Deeply satisfying, these classic vignettes may be enjoyed for just a few minutes or all afternoon.

332 pages, 108 illustrations

ISBN:

9781635619119 (Hardcover)

9781635619102 (Paperback)