Pre Christmas Blogging Break

Micro Review Goals

I am hoping to get to 50 Micro Reviews by the end of the year but what with Christmas preparations, reading projects and trying to make the most of any good weather on these short December days, I might not get there...

However I am still reading lots, and looking through my reading diaries ready to pick my top books of the year. Thanks to Net Galley I may also have already read one the books that makes next year's top books!

In the meantime I am adding photos to my Flickr stream and the most recent pictures there are from our midweek trip to see the seal colony at Horsey. For wildlife lovers I promise these were all taken from a distance with a long lens (and when we could get a little closer this was all monitored by the amazing Friends of Horsey Seals volunteer wardens).

30 Days Wild and time off work

 

The annual 30 Days Wild initiative from the Wildlife Trusts has become a real highlight of my year, and while this past year has seen us going out for walks on most days and noticing our surroundings, this month long focus really marks the start of summer for me.

This year the start of June has also coincided with us taking some time off work, seeing family and spending a lot more time outside than we do usually.

This has been dreadful for my reading (although a new project is about to start which will see me reading more and to a deadline!) but the glorious weather means being outside is more of a pleasure that curling up with a book.

I do regularly update my Flickr account (www.flickr.com/norfolkbookworm) and you can see some of my favourite shots there, but here are just a few from the past few weeks. I will try to start reading and reviewing again soon but as we're off for another wildlife/photography jaunt next week don't expect too much!

Rewilding Myself

 

2020 has been an unusual year to say the least but the often good weather and restrictions on travel have had some plus points - Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have made the effort to get out together for a walk (admittedly of varying length) every day bar a handful since lockdown was introduced in March.

While we often spent our free time pre-Covid outside these daily excursions have made us far more aware of the incremental changes that happen in nature and watching the seasons pass in regularly visited spaces has been a pleasant side effect.

The amount I've been reading has fluctuated wildly through the year, as have the subjects, but Rewild Yourself by Simon Barnes is a book that really stuck with me. His 23 ideas for noticing the world around you on a small and practical scale are definitely sensible and achievable, not hand-wavy or impossible.

I enjoy bird spotting while out and about  but I consider myself to be a poor and often frustrated birder - far too many of my pictures are classed as 'lbj' (little brown job) as I have no idea what they actually are. Barnes came to the rescue with the suggestion that butterflies are (mostly) easier to identify and also with just 50 or so commonly seen species in England it is possible to 'see' them all.

I've been keeping a track of what we have seen this year and incredibly we've seen 21 positively identified species in Norfolk, and I have managed to get a photograph of nearly all of them. The whites and blues have been the hardest to snap and identify but it has been so much fun walking in the countryside and then taking the time to identify them. Unlike my images of birds and dragonflies I have been able to ID them without asking for help from other naturalists on Twitter!

I post many of my images from our excursions on Flickr (www.flickr.com/norfolkbookworm) but below are some collages of our spots this year. Highlights are always going to include the elusive swallowtails but this year is is also the green and white hairstreaks that feature. Next year I really how to be able to see the rarer white admiral and purple emperor butterflies, and I'd love to see some of the more exotic moths too.

I really recommend Simon Barnes' books - he writes about Norfolk and nature in wonderfully evocative ways.

Excuses, excuses

Time for me to post a confession - please don't think that the slow down in book related posts has anything to do with the Kentishbookboy - he's as busy reading as much as a busy nine year old can. The slow down has all been me.

I've just started a new round of my secret reviewing work which comes with deadlines that I find harder to meet now. I've also been out and about making the most of the nice autumn weather when possible - I'm not sure if you can store up sunshine and vitamin D against the winter but I'm certainly trying!

Finally I've also been doing more recently - there was the excellent trip to the O2 for the 2nd Space Rocks day (oh and book browsing after with Kentishbookboy as we look for our next contemporary read), I've been to a great author talk with Armistead Maupin and then this weekend Mr Norfolkbookworm and I are back off to Pontefract to meet astronaut Jack Lousma.

I will try to catch up with some of our reviews in the next week or so - there's a couple of books we've both read a while ago, and then there will be out thoughts on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

For now here's a couple of my pictures from the past few weeks - I love the wildlife and landscapes of East Anglia!

The nature cure and volunteering

Since early 2018, when I started to recover from the brain hemorrhage, Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have spent a lot of time outdoors whenever the weather has been half way decent. We generally go out and about in Norfolk or Suffolk, usually taking the camera and binoculars, and just spend time in the fresh air walking, taking pictures and generally just looking around.

I am sure that this has helped my recovery to some extent, for us being out in the natural world has meant we are becoming far more observant and we are definitely far more connected with the seasons and the wildlife around the county. The rare weekends that haven't been nice enough to get out really do have an impact on my mood for the following week so there is surely something in the idea of a nature cure.

June is the Wildlife Trusts #30DaysWild, where people are encouraged to sign up and connect in someway to the natural world. We had a busy weekend - we walked at Ranworth Broad, Strumpshaw Fen and Cley Marshes, and we were lucky enough to see one of Norfolk's rarities - the swallowtail butterfly.

While seeing a special breed is nice we had just as much fun watching the domestic dramas of the avocets and wagtails from the inside of a hide and sharing these things with other people.

However we can't get out and about like this every day (work gets in the way!) but connecting with nature is still possible even in our city house. This morning while hanging out the laundry I was watching the swifts wheel about over the house, dozens of bees feeding on the privet hedge and a ladybird exploring the cornflowers - nature really is everywhere and taking just a moment to look at every day is so easy and something I intend to carry on doing after June is over.

Another activity that has kept me as sane as I can be is volunteering. Before I fell ill I had just started volunteering at the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum, and once I was well enough going back to this was a real boost. The museum was responsible for curating the main Armistice exhibition in the main city museum and the wonderful curator, Kate, was brave enough to allow a lot of this to be written and illustrated by volunteers. My areas included agriculture, POWs and conscientious objectors and to be trusted with the research and writing for the exhibition despite a broken brain was a real boost.

There have been many upheavals with my paid employment in the past 6 months but the one good thing with a different job and fewer hours is that I have some more time to myself. I have recently started a new volunteer role within the Norfolk Wildlife Trust - which links back in nicely to #30DaysWild and our passion for the outdoors!

I mention this now because the first week of June is also #VolunteersWeek and I wanted to share just how much being a volunteer has given me. We often hear a lot about what volunteers offer to organisations but I'd just like to say thank you to those who have given me so much by letting me volunteer with them.

To bring this back to books just for a moment - if you are looking for some simple ways to get back in touch with the natural world then can I suggest Rewild Yourself: 23 spellbinding ways to make nature more visible by Simon Barnes. A friends recommended it to me and so I'd like to pass this on. It is full of simple ways to take more notice of the world around you, and each chapter starts with a quote from some wonderful children's books!

The nature cure

As the days have lengthened and the weather improved we've been spending a lot more time outside in beautiful Norfolk (and Yorkshire). Rather than just reading about natural wonders we've actually been seeing them first hand.

Recent trips have included seeing the nesting seabirds at Bempton Cliffs - including dozens of puffins, and then also the wader spectacular in the Wash. We've also explored 'secret' gardens closer to home and taken a boat trip out on the Broads.

Even allowing for pub lunches in sunny gardens all of this fresh air has been exhausting and by the time everything is sorted and I can curl up with a good book I'm finding I'm dozing off.  My reading has definitely slowed down again - although for the healthier reasons!

One book that really did capture my imagination recently was The Girl from Yamhill by Beverley Cleary. I can't remember who or where this was recommended but I am so glad that I got a copy from the library with ease.

Cleary wrote the Ramona books which I enjoyed these as a child indeed when I flicked through a few of the books recently I was surprised at how much I remembered from them. The Girl from Yamhill is an autobiography of Cleary's childhood and was utterly wonderful - I think that it was written for a younger audience but it didn't shy away from some harder hitting plot lines, nor did it wrap everything up with happy endings.

Cleary was born in 1916 and so this is very much a book about America post WW1 and during the Great Depression. I think it taught me more about this era than any other history book has done. Cleary also grew up in an area of America that we have visited so I think that made it even more visual for me. The culture clash of moving from a rural life to a city one is also very well shown.

The book has echoes of both the Little House on the Prairie and Betsy Tacy books, although these series are set earlier than Yamhill, and as these are longtime favourites of mine it is easy to see why this one appealed so readily.

It isn't particularly profound, just very human and full of happiness, wonder and sadness all in the right proportions.

Now it looks as if the weather is returning to more normal conditions I expect I will have more time for reading again - although I will miss the fresh air. I think that my tbr piles from NetGalley and the library will appreciate the attention however.

Another long pause

Oh dear another large gap between posts. I am a terrible blogger right now.

I do have three good reasons (I refuse to call them excuses)...

I've been reading books for another project and so can't share them with you. As ever they've been a mixed bag and definitely taken me out of my reading comfort zone.

I've been out and about enjoying the lovely long, warm autumn that we've been lucky enough to be enjoying. It has felt very nice to get back out with my camera - I've put some of my pictures at the end of this post.

My final reason for the lack of posts (and books read) has been the culmination of a crazy 18 month project.  I've been working on WW1 commemorations since 2013 and after planning a real celebration for the start of the war in August 2014 (this may sound odd but in 1914 the UK really did think that the war would be quick, decisive and was a really patriotic moment) I wanted to end the centenary with a far more sober, reflective project.

My idea was to commemorate all of the men and women listed on Norfolk's War Memorials with a poppy.  It took several months to work out this figure - and we settled on 15,500 as being the best guess. Some men are commemorated on more than one panel or memorial and short of physically visiting every plaque, grave and memorial this best guess was decided on.

Well over the last 18 months poppies have been arriving for me at the library and I've been sorting and counting carefully.  As of this week we reached our target, all of the poppies are ready to go and even more amazingly a city centre venue for the 15,500 poppies has been offered.
After this en-masse display then the garlands will be split into smaller displays and sent to all of Norfolk's libraries (including the mobile vans) so that people can get just a small idea of how many people from Norfolk lost their lives between 1914 and 1919.

I am so pleased that despite having a brain hemorrhage the project was still shared widely while I poorly and that counting poppies and creating the displays is something I've been able to do while recovering.

If any of my readers are in Norwich later this month then all the poppies will be on display in St Peter Mancroft Church from around 11am on 22nd October until 29th October.

30 Days Wild and beyond

The Wildlife Trusts have an initiative every June called 30 Days Wild - this encourages people to get out and about connecting with the natural world.

I have certainly found that on the days I get out and about in the fresh air I really do feel better, I'm calling it the nature cure which isn't terribly original but who cares.

While walking for the sake of walking is great I do prefer to mix a walk with some nature watching and living in Norfolk we have no shortage of places to go. I also like to take the camera with me and I've been pretty pleased with a lot of the pictures I've snapped this spring/early summer.

I post a lot of my pictures on Flickr, you can find me at www.flickr.com/norfolkbookworm but below are a few of my favourites.

There is one downside to all this fresh air...I'm generally too tired to read  so I'm not sure how my reading stamina is progressing as I'm either outside or just too sleepy!

August Reading Round Up

August saw me reading fewer books that in recent months but this was a for a great reason - Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have been on an American road trip.

We've visited Seattle, taken an overnight Amtrak train and then spent nearly 2 weeks in National Parks (Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons) with the culmination of the trip being the 2017 Solar Eclipse.

The whole trip was amazing - we did visit bookstores and I did find a theatre! The highlights however have to be the scenery, the wildlife and of course the eclipse. I can't pick a 'top' thing from our experiences and you can find my photos (edited - we took 5000+ between us!) on my Flickr pages.

Thanks to the long flights and also to the unhurried itinerary I did still read 19 books in August. It wasn't a stellar month for books but there were a few standouts...

Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar - this was sent to me for review and I loved it so much I'm part of the blog tour later in September.

Logical Family by Armistead Maupin - I've loved Maupin's books for years and the chance to read his autobiography in proof form was a great way to get over the holiday blues.  It is very frank and won't be for all but I enjoyed it a lot and was moved and amused by it.

Whitstable Hightide Swimming Club by Katie May - this was another book provided by the publisher for review and again it just hit the spot. My review will be out as part of a blog tour in September.

There were no duds in the month, and a couple of re-reads but most of the books have faded into the background because of our trip!

Fishermen and Kings Exhibition

Fishermen & Kings: The Photography of Olive Edis, Castle Museum, Norwich. October 2016.

As a photographer I am always interested in discovering new (to me) photographers and this exhibition was sold to me particularly by the fact that Olive Edis was the first official female war photographer.

She was however more of a portrait photographer and this is one area that I really struggle with (unlike my sister who is incredible at taking pictures of people) so I wasn't sure what I'd make of most of the exhibition.

I needn't have worried, Edis had such skill when it came to taking pictures of people - whether they were fishermen or kings - and in every image there is something that catches your eye and means you spend ages looking closely each picture. It really all is in the eyes with Edis, I wonder if she was telling saucy jokes to her sitters to get that twinkle!

The exhibition has been themed cleverly and while I was looking forward to the War section I was most intrigued by Edis' images of influential women involved in the Suffrage movement (and after) I came away with a whole list of people to look up and learn more about.

The section of war photos was as moving as you'd expect, and again her skill as a photographer shines through - you can instantly see which photos were taken before the sitter had seen action at the front and those taken when the men had seen action just from a glance at their faces. I also liked the choice of locations she visited, just a very slightly different perspective than other photos from the era that I've seen before.

Interspersed with the photos are panels explaining Edis' techniques and some of her cameras and inventions for looking at her colour images but one of the nicest touches was the small alcove in which all of Edis' images are projected on to the wall. How wonderful to be able to just sit and see all of the images in a large format. (For those who can't get to the exhibition Norfolk Museums have put the images online for everyone to see).

I went to this exhibition with my dad, the man who taught me how to take photos, and we were both blown away - much to our surprise.  We've both been to other photographic exhibitions by photographers we knew much better and come away a disappointed but this one by an 'unknown' exceeded all our expectations. From the layout, the labels, the images chosen it felt wonderfully curated and I know that I will be going back at least once more before it closes.

Happy Birthday Yosemite

Exactly 150 years ago today (June 30th 1864) President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill creating the Yosemite Grant. This was the first instance of American land being set aside for recreation and protection and paved the way for the creation of the first National Park (Yellowstone) in 1872.

I was lucky enough to visit Yosemite earlier in the month and I am so glad that even during the American Civil War protection of the wilds was considered important.

Visiting Yosemite was like visiting a old friend as a lot of the scenery was familiar to me thanks to the work of my favourite photographer Ansel Adams and the highlight for me was the chance to visit the Ansel Adams Studio and also to take a guided photography walk run by the gallery.

It wasn't a particularly long walk but we went to some of the iconic destinations and I learned a lot about how to use my camera better, how to compose shots and also how to convert picture to black and white.  I am very happy with a lot of the images I took and I can see an improvement in my photos already.

On our trip we also visited many other amazing places and saw some of the most incredible things ever - if you want to be bored by my holiday snaps then they are all visible on Flickr. Of course travel like this does mean no time for theatre and apart from the loooooong flights not too much time for reading, however when you see a bear while out for a walk other past times are forgotten!