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City Nature: Tales of Ornery Plants, Opinionated Birds, Gardening Triumphs and Tragedies, and Capturing It All Through a Lens by Martha Retallick
Narrator: Lynn Norris
Category: Home and Garden, Memoir, Audiobook
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Kirkus Reviews:
Retallick explores her passions for bicycle touring, water management, gardening, birdwatching, and photography in this illustrated miscellany.
The author (who has had an eclectic career in publishing, commercial photography, bicycle repair and maintenance, and web design) here expounds on a number of interests and adventures, starting with her love affair with bike riding, which took her on long tours around the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River, and eventually through all 50 states during her 20s. She finally settled down in Tucson, where she landscaped her yard with cacti, mesquite trees, and other native desert plants; installed swales, mulched basins, and berms to absorb water and avoid flooding during occasional rainstorms; installed a 1,500-gallon cistern to collect rain running off her roof, and saved greywater from her laundry and dishwashing, using all of this stored water to irrigate her vegetable garden and fruit trees. (Retallick incorporates the food she grows into a number of offbeat dishes for which she provides recipes, including salsa dip and cookies made from mesquite flour.) From this catalogue of intriguing projects, the author emerges as an endlessly inquisitive Renaissance woman who is raptly attuned to the world. The book includes brief, engaging tutorials on everything from hydrology to photographic technique; Retallick also observes the rhythms of nature in droll, evocative prose. (“He was picking up twigs, dropping them, choosing different twigs, and, man, this is exhausting,” she writes of the male in a white-winged dove nesting pair. “I couldn’t help thinking that this guy married the birdie equivalent of Martha Stewart. Because he couldn’t fly up to the nest with just any twig. It had to be the perfect twig.”) Retallick’s color photos, mostly taken in her yard, are full of homely but vibrant images: delicate cilantro leaves glowing deep green beneath dew-drops; ripening pomegranates vomiting their lurid red innards through an opening; a curve-billed thrasher perched insolently on a rusty fence, lean and hungry, its arcing proboscis ready to dig.
A beguiling ramble full of captivating DIY information and arresting visuals of flora and fauna.
Retallick explores her passions for bicycle touring, water management, gardening, birdwatching, and photography in this illustrated miscellany.
The author (who has had an eclectic career in publishing, commercial photography, bicycle repair and maintenance, and web design) here expounds on a number of interests and adventures, starting with her love affair with bike riding, which took her on long tours around the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River, and eventually through all 50 states during her 20s. She finally settled down in Tucson, where she landscaped her yard with cacti, mesquite trees, and other native desert plants; installed swales, mulched basins, and berms to absorb water and avoid flooding during occasional rainstorms; installed a 1,500-gallon cistern to collect rain running off her roof, and saved greywater from her laundry and dishwashing, using all of this stored water to irrigate her vegetable garden and fruit trees. (Retallick incorporates the food she grows into a number of offbeat dishes for which she provides recipes, including salsa dip and cookies made from mesquite flour.) From this catalogue of intriguing projects, the author emerges as an endlessly inquisitive Renaissance woman who is raptly attuned to the world. The book includes brief, engaging tutorials on everything from hydrology to photographic technique; Retallick also observes the rhythms of nature in droll, evocative prose. (“He was picking up twigs, dropping them, choosing different twigs, and, man, this is exhausting,” she writes of the male in a white-winged dove nesting pair. “I couldn’t help thinking that this guy married the birdie equivalent of Martha Stewart. Because he couldn’t fly up to the nest with just any twig. It had to be the perfect twig.”) Retallick’s color photos, mostly taken in her yard, are full of homely but vibrant images: delicate cilantro leaves glowing deep green beneath dew-drops; ripening pomegranates vomiting their lurid red innards through an opening; a curve-billed thrasher perched insolently on a rusty fence, lean and hungry, its arcing proboscis ready to dig.
A beguiling ramble full of captivating DIY information and arresting visuals of flora and fauna.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A Whole Earth Catalog for our time, this book addresses all the important things: food, water, cookies, flowers, bees, and bicycles. Part practical guide, part personal diary, many parts gorgeous coffee table book, City Nature is for anyone looking to learn how to be a better steward of one’s own backyard, as well as a visual celebration of what grows from dirt when we take the time to nurture it. A must for the preservation of our dwindling resources, presented with positivity and
clear instructions!
A Whole Earth Catalog for our time, this book addresses all the important things: food, water, cookies, flowers, bees, and bicycles. Part practical guide, part personal diary, many parts gorgeous coffee table book, City Nature is for anyone looking to learn how to be a better steward of one’s own backyard, as well as a visual celebration of what grows from dirt when we take the time to nurture it. A must for the preservation of our dwindling resources, presented with positivity and
clear instructions!
Martha Retallick
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Martha Retallick is an award-winning documentary photographer and writer. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Michigan and has done additional coursework in graphic design and building and construction technologies at Pima Community College.
Martha’s eclectic life experiences include bicycling through all 50 of the United States, plus a bit of Mexico and Canada, and publishing two books about her adventures. While pedaling more than 15,000 miles, Martha met such on-the-road challenges as traversing the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains and the Southwestern deserts. She also experienced many off-the-bike adventures, including a visit to former President Jimmy Carter’s residence, a brief stint as a Kansas wheat farmer, and a night in an Arkansas jail; she was looking for a place to stay in a small town, and the police chief offered floor space in the visitors’ room.
In addition, Martha has helped to produce two different magazines, volunteered to rebuild houses damaged during Hurricane Katrina, and created an urban water harvesting oasis.
Martha’s publishing credits include articles in The Washington Post, Edible Baja Arizona, and Michigan Today.
In addition to her workaday activities, Martha is:
Website: https://westernskycommunications.com/
Instagram: @marthanaturephotography
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martharetallick/
Purchase the book here: https://proaudiovoices.com/
Martha Retallick is an award-winning documentary photographer and writer. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Michigan and has done additional coursework in graphic design and building and construction technologies at Pima Community College.
Martha’s eclectic life experiences include bicycling through all 50 of the United States, plus a bit of Mexico and Canada, and publishing two books about her adventures. While pedaling more than 15,000 miles, Martha met such on-the-road challenges as traversing the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains and the Southwestern deserts. She also experienced many off-the-bike adventures, including a visit to former President Jimmy Carter’s residence, a brief stint as a Kansas wheat farmer, and a night in an Arkansas jail; she was looking for a place to stay in a small town, and the police chief offered floor space in the visitors’ room.
In addition, Martha has helped to produce two different magazines, volunteered to rebuild houses damaged during Hurricane Katrina, and created an urban water harvesting oasis.
Martha’s publishing credits include articles in The Washington Post, Edible Baja Arizona, and Michigan Today.
In addition to her workaday activities, Martha is:
- Mastering the art of mead making. A combination of water, honey, and yeast, mead is the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage.
- Monitoring Tucson weather with RainLog.org, CoCoRaHS, and the National Weather Service’s SkyWarn program.
- Making sculptures and collages with found objects.
Website: https://westernskycommunications.com/
Instagram: @marthanaturephotography
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martharetallick/
Purchase the book here: https://proaudiovoices.com/