The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Written by Margaret Renkl 
Illustrated by Billy Renkl

I think Margaret Renkl could be considered a patron saint of nature!  This is a beauty of a book, from the writing, to the topics, to the illustrations—all are wonderful.  Renkl writes with poignancy and grace about the wonders and delights of the natural world while not ignoring the sorrows and challenges plants, animals, and insects face.  Her writings have encouraged me to slow down, be more observant, look more closely at the outdoor world, and be appreciative.  The essays follow the seasons, a few pages for each.  Each essay is accompanied by a beautiful collage.

This is a sampling of Renkl's beautiful use of words.

In writing of the remnants of snakeroot plant flowers, she called them “fluffs of botanical celebration.”   p.xv ¶2

“ I fell in love with the way the peeling bark and bare limbs of the sycamore reveal a ghost tree reaching for the sky....”   p. 30 ¶3

It “might have been snow in the diamond air” of a winter morning.   p. 35 ¶1

“In the avian world, a grub is an engagement ring.”   p.l48 ¶1

Who knew?!  “Just a whiff of it [the wet soil of the drenched garden] will flood you with a feeling of well-being.  The microbes in freshly turned soil stimulate serotonin production, working on the human brain to same way antidepressants do. ”   p. 78 ¶2

“... In a wet world, deadfall and soil erupt into fungi.   Delicate whorls of polypores make a bouquet of fallen pines.  Bright elf cups are scattered across the leaf litter as though a parade has passed by.  Glowing angel wing mushrooms fruit on the hemlock like a bridal veil trailing along the path.   Chicken of the woods make yellow and orange ruffles fit for a square dancer’s skirt.  Oh, their marvelous fungi names!  Firerug inkcap, turkey tail, witch’s hat, stinkhorn, jelly fungus, shaggy scarlet cup!”   p. 162 ¶4

An insight on an aging body:   “The accruing indignities of a body that is no longer predictable makes it hard not to ponder what other burdens might lie ahead.”   p. 190 ¶2

"Autumn light is the loveliest light there is.  Soft, forgiving, it makes all the world a brightened dream.  Dust motes catch fire, drifting down from the trees and rising from the stirred soil, floating over lawns and woodland paths and ordinary roofs and parking lots.  It’s an unchoreographed aerial dance, a celebration of what happens when light marries earth and sky.”   p. 203 ¶1

On growing older:  “Now I understand that every day I’m given is as real as life will ever get.  Now I understand that we are guaranteed nothing, that our days have always been running out.”   p. 204 ¶3

“In light, the horizon extends before us, a tableau of endless possibility, while darkness allows all manner of doubts to burble up....  How much easier it is to give in to gloom, even dejection, when it is the darkness that feels endless.”  
p. 252 ¶2

Enjoy!
nm