Product Description

After years of teaching nature classes and workshops, Hallowell felt people were looking for more than guidebooks on identification and location. They wanted a book that would answer some of the simple questions about the trees, flowers, birds, and animals they saw in the mountain environment. Using a month-by-month format, Hallowell, in her own warm and wise voice, offers over 80 vignettes packed with interesting and useful information.

For example, did you know that the average one-acre garden has an estimated 50,000 dirt-eating worms? That by the time a robin is 12 days old, it can consume 14 feet of earthworms in one day? That a square foot of soil can support three healthy dandelion plants, which will produce 18,000 seeds? That a tree can add height or length only at its tips?

Do you know how birds keep warm in winter? How you can tell the temperature by looking at rhododendron leaves? How you can tell the difference between a bee, a wasp, and a hornet? All of this and more can be found in Mountain Year

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1645863 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 289 pages

About the Author
Barbara Hallowell wrote the "Nature Notes" column for the Hendersonville (NC) Times-News in the 1980s. She also taught classes in basic nature study at Blue Ridge Community College. Her book, Cabin: A Mountain Adventure, is now in its fifth printing. She currently lives in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

A Mountain Year comes to Life
Barbara Hallowell has certainly done it this time; written a wondrous book about life in southern Appalachia. The life she writes about is that which we step on, the ground, the worms and insects, trees, flowers, fern and birds. She has charted the book monthly so one can know what to expect at each time of the year, and she takes you through the depths of winter, to the glories of autumn, stopping off for a good look at spring and summer. Did you know there were orchids in 'them thar mountains,' and what to do about snake bite? Did you ever wonder what the early days of a baby robin might be like or what a ghost forest is? Hallowell has taught nature classes and workshops for many years and has now turned her knowledge into this informative book with beautiful photographs for those of us not part of her classroom. And I am grateful. It's a wonderful book for any nature lover to cherish; almost encyclopedic with information yet delightfully readable.

Pleasant, informative reading
Mountain Year is a nicely produced, easily read compendium of two-page journalistic articles about nature in the southern Appalachians, often including appropriate photographs. Hallowell's genial tone of wonder reminds me of the biblical book of Esther, where although God is never mentioned, He appears on every page for those who have the eyes to see Him.