Nature
The Autumn ValleyA Different Sort of Time
by Miriam Darlington
Miriam Darlington
£6.95
Round a bend at the end of a deep lane where trees “lean in over the track” we find ourselves in a hidden Gloucestershire valley. This richly lyrical essay by leading naturalist Miriam Darlington brings us owls and wrens, hibernating ladybirds and an old orchard where windfall crab apples melt into the soft earth.
Humans and animals alike are hunkering down ready for the cold season ahead. Tasks such as sweeping leaves and clearing gutters are woven into the parallel rhythms of the natural world, so that indoors and outdoors are brought into intimate harmony:
“Another dusk. Rain-mist muffles everything, softens the valley’s curves. It’s a different sort of time here. Leaf-slip time, brown and gold and copper leaves, of whitebeam, beech, alder. A churring comes from somewhere. A deer barks, and the night becomes creaturely again, breathes at the lit windows.”
Written with loving attention to the lives of plants, insects and animals, these words are best enjoyed by a blazing fire or curled up in a favourite armchair after the curtains have been drawn.
Poems by Ronnie Goodyer and Stanley Plumly.
Cover illustration by Simon Palmer.
