For readers of Late Migrations and H is for Hawk
A stunning meditation on gardening and the wisdom of plants, ’ that rare book that will appeal to nonfiction readers everywhere. . . Candid, tender, thoughtful and absorbing.’—Shelf Awareness (STARRED Review)
’With chapters. . . [that] shimmer like lantern slides, lit with luminous imagery. . . Seed to Dust is an invitation to read this world as Mr. Hamer does—with a close eye to what changes, and what does not.’—The Wall Street Journal
Marc Hamer has nurtured the same 12-acre garden in the Welsh countryside for over two decades. The garden is vast and intricate. It’s rarely visited, and only Hamer knows of its secrets. But it’s not his garden. It belongs to his wealthy and elegant employer, Miss Cashmere. But the garden does not really belong to her, either. As Hamer writes, ’Like a book, a garden belongs to everyone who sees it.’
In
Seed to Dust, Marc Hamer paints a beautiful portrait of the garden that ’belongs to everyone.’ He describes a year in his life as a country gardener, with each chapter named for the month he’s in. As he works, he muses on the unusual folklores of his beloved plants. He observes the creatures who scurry and hide from his blade or rake. And he reflects on his own life: living homeless as a young man, his loving relationship with his wife and children, and—now—feeling the effects of old age on body and mind.
As the seasons change, Hamer also reflects on the changes he has observed in Miss Cashmere’s life from afar: the death of her husband and the departure of her children from the stately home where she now lives alone. At the book’s end, Hamer’s connection to Miss Cashmere changes shape, and new insights into relationships and the beauty and brutality of nature emerge.
Just like all good books and gardens, Seed to Dust is filled with equal parts life and death, beauty and decay, and every reader will find something different to admire.
Innehållsförteckning
Prologue
January
White
Beginnings
Peppered Moth
February
Returning
Ice
Jasmine
Another Gardener
Climbing Hydrangea
A Story
Cyclops
Code-breaker
Wood Pigeon
The Old North
‘I’m Here, Are You There?’
She Needs a Stick
March
Grass Sprouts, Trees Bud
Cosmos
March Frost
Pruning Roses
Snow
Peonies
Potatoes Rattle in a Pan
Cherry Buds Appear
The Middle Way
Sparrows Begin to Nest
Bees
Daffodils
Narcissus—Are You There?
Minotaur
April
Distant Thunder
A Vase of Cherries
Dahlias
Girlish
Love Is . . .
The Window Cleaner
Tulpen
Swifts Arrive
Song
World Sings
A Broken Heart
Mouse
Mowing in the Rain
Floating Islands
May
Peonies Bloom
Gulls Rip Grass
Holy Thorn
Mercedes
An Endless Stream of Days
Fossils
Night Scents
Burning Books
Sun!
Heart
Maybug
Rain, No Rain
June
A Dumb Labourer Visits
A New Path
Cold Returns
Solstice
In Your Garden
A Round of Applause
Aphids
July
Stoics
Wabi-sabi
Pelargoniums
Flying Ants Day
Swifts Leave
Pine Cones
Carp
Green Flames
August
Cofiwch Dryweryn (Coffee-ookh Dre-weh-rin)
Umbellifers
Fountain
Cats and Dogs
Distant Sounds
Pond Scum
Laurels
A Break
Gathering Seeds
September
The Waste Land
‘Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird’
The Many-Forking Path
Colchicums
Scything the Meadow
Autumn Equinox
October
Go Now, Bonnie Boy
October Mist
Birthday
Whisky
Molecatcher
Our Lady of the Flowers
Apples
First Snow
November
Hop-tu-Naa
Frost
Anemone to Zantedeschia
The Great Riddle of the Self
Haiku
Gipsies
The Lily Gardens
Lifting Dahlias
Leaving
December
We Barely Spoke, I Tell Myself . . .
Back to Work
The Floating World
Home
Flowers
Postscript and Acknowledgements
Om författaren
MARC HAMER was born in the North of England but has lived in Wales for more than thirty years. After spending a period of time homeless, then working on the railway, he returned to education and studied fine art. Hamer worked in art galleries and taught creative writing in prisons before becoming a gardener and mole catcher. He is the author of How to Catch a Mole.
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