Winter Reading
~ by Jim Eagleman
Like for many, winter months give me opportunity to delve into the nature books, articles, newsletters, and magazines neglected all year. Warmer days were enjoyed outside and I always thought to do it later. Now there’ s time to enjoy articles, or revisit favorite books, journals— even poems. Reading by the woodstove on long winter evenings has become most enjoyable. I even make time to scan academic articles with statistics, charts, and graphs— suggested reading by a supervisor.
A book friends and I always take down from the shelf at this time is The National Wildlife Federation’ s December Treasury and its companion edition, Wildlife’ s Christmas Treasury. While holiday themes prevail, topics also deal with wildlife, survival, and winter accounts by biologists. I am sure more current work has been compiled since these volumes were published in 1985, but the art prints, photos, and entries help recall for me my youth in hilly, southeastern Pennsylvania. A nostalgic sap, I seem to think Robert Frost’ s poems were written just for me, or that Grandma Moses prints depict our favorite sledding hill. I look close and see a house I knew, a passage brings back the smell of wet wool. The snow, the fires at impromptu hockey games, and the biting cold comes back. I am a kid again on my new Flexible Flyer sled. Snow days meant no school and snow forts took precedence.
How gifted these past poets and authors— the stories paint a mental image. I marvel at word choice, cadence, and how they recount the natural world’ s chilly time. When young, I may have memorized an entire passage or line for an assignment, but never had the appreciation how carefully words were crafted, sentences assembled. Like a favorite song we know by heart, works by writers like Longfellow, Dickinson, Hal Borland, Ernest Thompson Seton, Sigurd Olson, Leopold, Edwin Teale, and others come easy. They tell a story and charm the ear. All are nature observers, lovers of wild places now in winter, noting“ nature’ s music” for all to hear and enjoy. They seem to say:“ Why not invite all who read to see for yourself— bundle up, look for tracks, signs.”
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36 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2014