Autorentext

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.

Klappentext

"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."--

Inhalt

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