Spring Rain

A Life Lived in Gardens

Marc Hamer

• Publisher: Greystone Books
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781778400285
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Essays zu Natur

"Marc Hamer knows how to live—simply, sparely, reverently, abundantly. Spring Rain is a tonic for the soul."—Sy Montgomery, author of How to Be A Good Creature From the beloved author of How to Catch a Mole and Seed to Dust comes a highly original memoir of childhood, old age, and the restorative power of gardens. Best enjoyed in a single sitting under the shade of a tree, this inventive and curative book captures the moment when an adventurous young boy who traveled the world in his mind meets the old man he becomes. Together, they build a new garden from a neglected plot behind his house on the edge of town.Retired professional gardener Marc Hamer has always found the answers to life's questions in the natural world, whether as a child watching ants, as a young man living homeless in the countryside, or as a professional gardener creating places of calm and restoration for others. Now in his sixties, he is finally creating a garden for himself, at his home in Cardiff, Wales. This moving memoir follows his process as he shares what he's learned, from the spring of youth to his autumn years, and reflects on how we reconcile our childhoods with where we end up.In Hamer's own words, " Spring Rain is about the joy of your own back garden. It is a story about the joy of small things, the world in a grain of sand, a universe in a small garden, with love for all the insects and slugs and flowers and weeds and seeds and roots and boundaries and shade and weather that the garden contains."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Other Books by Marc Hamer
• Title Page
• Contents
• 1 | Rain: An adventure at sea, treasure island, a little wooden hut
• 2 | Gardener: Gerberas, umbrella, zinc, guilt, bow tie
• 3 | Rain: Tools, seeds, a cleaning song, books and a train to nowhere
• 4 | Gardener: Arranging flowers, skeleton birds, a broken shed and letting go
• 5 | Rain: Alburnum to Chamomile
• 6 | Gardener: Venus, Lucifer, jellyfish, sunshine, crackly voice
• 7 | Rain: Horse farm, Antaeus, wolfsbane, a dying wasp
• 8 | Gardener: Ship of junk, memories, happiness, Thor
• 9 | Rain: A knife, a feather, starfish and a magpie’s tongue
• 10 | Gardener: A new Eden, fear of the wild
• 11 | Rain: Ant hills, molehills, pigtails, poison
• 12 | Gardener: A length of string, a blue wheelbarrow
• 13 | Rain: Tin-can radio, Slow the slug
• 14 | Gardener: A walk down by the eye-spikes, a dog, a ghost, a green man
• 15 | Rain: Rhubarb leaves and monkshood, Grandma’s cows and dowsing
• 16 | Gardener: I need three hands, a list of plants, sorting seeds, sparkling water
• 17 | Rain: A kiss, beautiful scars
• 18 | Gardener: Feelings, desire and suffering, a concert
• 19 | Rain: Growing vegetables, a lost box
• 20 | Gardener: Free will, choices, Paradise Lost
• 21 | Rain: Tea for three, Blackpool rock
• 22 | Gardener: Witness, enjoying the movie, hedgehogs
• 23 | Rain: Elephants, powdered horses, half a lady, people from Glasgow
• 24 | Gardener: Forget-me-nots, Zen monks, colour and scent
• 25 | Rain: Winter, hand of glory, Gipsy Rose Lee leaves, rust
• 26 | Gardener: Paradise lost
• 27 | Rain: Settling dust, booze, mother, vagrancy
• 28 | Gardener: Paradise regained
• Author’s Note
• The Encyclopaedia
• The Illustrations
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Copyright