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6+ Obras 35 Miembros 5 Reseñas

Obras de Karen Lloyd

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Women on Nature (2021) — Contribuidor — 20 copias

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Summary: A collection of essays describing both the loss of and recovery of abundance in the natural world, where people have caused harm and brought renewal.

Karen Lloyd is a border stalker. In this collection of essays, she describes her journeys throughout the UK and Europe at the border of where human activity is intersecting in the natural world–both for ill and for good. She describes her project using the ornithologist’s term of “getting your eye in”:

“When I turn on the news or read a newspaper, I am assailed by all the losses in the natural world. The natural world is being flushed out. In the natural world, there are no rites of passage to cope with this. Sometimes, frequently in fact–I am overwhelmed by all the losses and the reporting of all the losses, and what I want to do is get my eye in, in a different way. I want to use my binocular vision to look at and think about abundance and what that might mean. I want to take my binoculars into the field and see if it is still possible to see abundance–or something like it” (p. 14).

She begins her journey with the “murmurations” of starlings over East Cumbria and their response to the attempt of a peregrine falcon to penetrate the flock Her travels take her to the Netherlands, and attempts to site some of the wolves and jackals that are gradually returning and the debate over protecting these animals in what was once a natural habitat. A trip to Extremadura in southern Spain leads to sightings of vultures, harriers, and an abundance of bird species in a national park also devoted to wool production and lumber production serving the human population while preserving the natural environment allowing vultures to soar thermals and others to thrive.

We follow her and friends attempting to save a bird with a broken leg in eastern Hungary while chronicling the loss of the slender billed curlew, last sighted there. She describes efforts in Scotland to preserve beavers, that had slowly been eradicated by farmers and hunter. She witnesses the architecture of beaver lodges and dams, and the balance struck of running “beaver deceivers” through dams to pipe excess water through to regulate pond levels without disrupting the beavers efforts.

One of the more creative chapters was “Eighty Fragments on the Pelican” a “weird and perfectly adapted species. The most riveting chapter describes her time in the Carpathian forests of Romania, forests under threat of logging and an endangered habitat for bears. She takes us on a hike following bear tracks with a guide as well as her son, learning along the way not to get between a mother bear and her cubs, a hopeless situation.

As she observes the efforts of those seeking to balance human and natural interests and preserve abundance, she identifies their work as “cathedral thinking”–an attitude of planning and working that thinks in terms of future generations, even for centuries. She tells a wonderful story of Hatidze, a sixty year old woman in a rural village in Macedonia, who keeps bees, is never stung though not wearing protective gear, taking half a comb for her family, leaving half for the bees, exemplifying an ethic of respect and reciprocity.

This is a moving collection of essays. I felt I was present with the author on her travels. I was watching out for those bears, and reveling with her as she watched the vultures ride the thermals. She captures the joy of those working on the front lines to preserve and restore abundance and the love of these creatures. LLoyd articulates something often lacking in our environmental debates–the recognition that we must love what we seek to preserve and that there is a joy to be found in natural abundance.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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BobonBooks | otra reseña | Dec 19, 2021 |
This is a very thought provoking book. It’s not a narrative but rather a collection of essays dealing with the changes that climate change has wrought. Ms. Lloyd writes in a clear and beautiful way about topics that are sad and scary to contemplate.

She has experienced the changes that are occurring in her home in Cumbria; when the waters rise they flood in places they hadn’t in the past. I’ve seen this happen on the island off of New Jersey where I grew up. The coastal flooding it experiences is more common and more extreme.

Of greater concern is the extinction of flora and fauna for once something is gone it can not come back. And we are losing both animals and plants.

These essays will make you think about the present and the future of this world we inhabit. It’s a book to keep close to read to keep your eyes looking forward and on the right track with our climate future.
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BooksCooksLooks | otra reseña | Nov 9, 2021 |
Mention of the name Morecambe and most people will think of the late great Eric Morecambe. But it is also a town on the west coast of England, and a huge bay. This 310sq km natural feature shot to fame back in 2004 after a number of Chinese cockle pickers drowned after the tide swept in. It is a treacherous place, full of shifting channels, quicksands and rivers that can change course by six, yes six miles within 24 hours. The quicksands have been known to swallow vans and tractors amongst other things and even today it still claims lives.

However, this deadly bay is also a place of rare beauty and a haven for wildlife and ironically one of the best ways to experience it is on foot around and across the bay. Crossing here by foot could be the last thing that you ever did if it wasn't for locals who know the sands like the back of their hands. The Queen's Guide to the Sands is a role that was created in 1548 and takes years of experience to learn the way that the sands shift every day. At the moment he has no successor and it is a knowledge that could be lost forever if no one steps up.

The Gathering Tide is Karen Lloyd's journey around and across this dynamic sea and landscape. Her evocative writing weaves together the physical journey on and around the sands, across the dunes and out to the islands and one kingdom, that poke their heads above the 10m tides. There are glimpses back into her past, fond memories of growing up in the area and meeting up with people whose livelihood depends on this coastline. A chance meeting with a friend that she hadn't seen for a long while opens the memories once again as they catch up with events that had happened in their lives. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read of a coastline whose beauty belies the deadly effect of the tides.
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PDCRead | 2 reseñas más. | Apr 6, 2020 |
An interesting and beautifully written book about walks, wildlife and scenery and history and people and geography around Morecambe Bay. Karen Lloyd weaves stories from her own childhood with the places she visits and people she meets, giving the book a feeling of honesty and grounding it as being from someone who knows Morecambe Bay well. She is interested in the small things and the details and has so much enthusiasm for the landscape, describing the sea and sands in the different lights, the water turning from slate grey to bright blue sometimes on the same day. Her parents had moved to Morecambe Bay and her mother never considered it the real sea but Karen Lloyd knows that is what it is but it is also a special and yet dangerous place of tides and quick sands. A must read for anyone who loves Morecambe Bay. I learnt so much from this book and I am sure I will read chapters of it again and again.… (más)
 
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CarolKub | 2 reseñas más. | Jan 1, 2020 |

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Obras
6
También por
1
Miembros
35
Popularidad
#405,584
Valoración
½ 4.4
Reseñas
5
ISBNs
10