Rewild Yourself
23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
'Such a simple, clever book.' Rosemary Goring, The Herald
We're not just losing the wild world. We're forgetting it. We're no longer noticing it. We've lost the habit of looking and seeing and listening and hearing.
But we can make hidden things visible, and this book features 23 spellbinding ways to bring the magic of nature much closer to home.
Mammals you never knew existed will enter your world. Birds hidden in treetops will shed their cloak of anonymity. With a single movement of your hand you can make reptiles appear before you. Butterflies you never saw before will bring joy to every sunny day. Creatures of the darkness will enter your consciousness. And as you take on new techniques and a little new equipment, you will discover new creatures and, with them, new areas of yourself that had gone dormant. Once put to use, they wake up and start working again. You become wilder in your mind and in your heart. Once you know the tricks, the wild world begins to appear before you.
For anyone who wants to get closer to the nature all around them and bring it back into focus, this is the perfect read.
'Barnes describes the wonders of nature with an infectious enthusiasm' Guardian
'Such a good idea' Chris Packham
'Barnes, a passionate writer on wildlife...is an endearingly boisterous guide' Daily Mail
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Barnes (How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher) reminds readers to take time out to pay full attention to their natural surroundings in this earnest and accessible how-to guide. Encouraging his audience to get back into "the habit of looking and seeing and listening and hearing," Barnes offers sound advice and educational information. Some of his tidbits are scientific he discusses how to identify butterflies by nearby trees, for instance, or how to know which animals are in the vicinity by recognizing their droppings. Other information is more pragmatic, as when he declares that all aspiring amateur naturalists should own their own pair of waterproof trousers, so "you are free to step out in a downpour and not just survive. You can actively enjoy it." Barnes recommends a good set of binoculars, too ("Take them with you whenever you go for a walk... You never know what might turn up") and says one should keep the lens caps off one's cameras during jaunts, so as to be ready in an instant to capture a special sight. Informative and useful, his manual should prove a valuable resource for any novice nature-philes interested in reveling in the "wildness in us all.")