Welcome to Litsy!

Quintessential nature writing and my favourite nonfiction of 2024 so far. I‘m so glad I finally got around to reading Nan Shepherd‘s classic about the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. Her exquisite prose is so evocative that I was frequently transported off into reveries of my own encounters with the natural world.

To one who loves the hills at every season, the blossoming is not the best of the heather. The best of it is simply its being there—is the feel of it under the feet. To feel heather under the feet after long abstinence is one of the dearest joys I know.

Touch is the most intimate sense of all. The whole sensitive skin is played upon, the whole body, braced, resistant, poised, relaxed, answers to the thrust of forces incomparably stronger than itself. Cold water stings the palate, the throat tingles unbearably; cold air smacks the back of the mouth, lungs crackle.

“How could we imagine flavour or perfume without the senses of taste and smell? They are completely unimaginable. There must be many exciting properties of matter that we cannot know because we have no way to know them.”
[This passage reminded me of Ed Yong‘s wonderful book on animals‘ perceptions.]

Friday Reads May 17: Asian Heritage Month; mythology; nature writing; art; picture book biography; Indigenous authors and more in this week‘s YouTube episode:

https://youtu.be/Zo93j5HoVKo

Day 22 To The Mountains
#bookmoods
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I've just finished listening to the beautiful narration by Tilda Swinton. The prose is just exquisite, helping you stand alongside Nan Shepherd as she explores the Cairngorms over her lifetime. As a bonus there's also an hour long summary of Nan Sheperds legacy and influence by Robert Macfarlane

....Azoides, that clusters like soft sunshine in their lower reaches, cannot live apart from the mountain.

Original photo: Ali Elliot, Unsplash.

I watched, from the shoulder of Morrone, the Cairngorm mass eddy and sink and rise (as it seemed) like a tossed wreck on a yellow sea. Sky and the wrack of precipice and overhang were confounded together. Now a spar, now a mast, just recognisable as buttress or cornice, tossed for a moment in the boiling sea of cloud.

To 'make conversation, however, is ruinous, to speak may be superfluous. I have it from a gaunt elderly man, a 'lang tangle o' a chiel", with high cheek bones and hollow cheeks, product of a hill farm though himself a civil servant, that when he goes on the hill with chatterers, he could see them to an ill place'.

Such a beautifully written book. I was transported to the Cairngorms in Scotland. Described as nature writing, it‘s so much more than that. It‘s more about just being.

A few years ago I spent a week in a bothy in the Cairngorms just reading this book and channeling Shepherds relationship to them and and seasons. It was an incredible experience and this article took me right back there ♥️

https://www.elsewhere-journal.com/blog/2020/10/25/jenny-sturgeon-nan-shepherd-an...

If, like me, you find yourself struggling with a claustrophobic life at the moment I can't recommend this book strongly enough. So beautifully and vividly written yet calm and meditative, I found it profoundly soothing. If you're not lucky enough to be able to visit wild hills this must surely be the next best thing.

"Knowing another is endless. ... The thing to be known grows with the knowing."
What on Earth took me so long to get round to reading this gorgeous book?! Actually in recent weeks I've thought it might torment me, since the only wild available currently is my garden and the local duck pond. Well, she writes like a dream and I gulped each chapter down far too quickly. But I think this will prove to have been the first of several readings.

1) looking to completing the tagged book

2) there's usually a vague plan/TBR until I get distracted 😉😉

Thank you @greenreads and @EadieB for the tag

Consider yourself tagged if you want to play #Two4Tuesday
💟💟

For those on Twitter, Robert Macfarlane is hosting a readalong of The Living Mountain. I've been meaning to read it for ages!

Mini #libraryhaul after work yesterday. It's been busier than usual this past week (grateful for that) and I badly needed the zen of my sanctuary.
Picked up the tagged book for #CoReadingVirus on Twitter 😊😊

The Goethe classic has been on my radar and decided to borrow that as well... Then a pleasant coincidence was in store on my way out of the library ;D (next post ;))

Robert Macfarlane has announced the title for the first global Twitter Reading Group 😃☺️😀
Finding out that the library has this masterpiece available starts off my day on a cheerful note! Check out his thread on
#CoReadingVirus
https://twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1240007549853843458?s=19

#AllinThisTogether #KeepLitsyPositive

How do you know you grew up in Australia? The phrase “She pokes fingers down mouse holes...” makes a portion of your brain screech “Nooooo...funnel web!!!!” 🤦🏻‍♀️😂🤦🏻‍♀️

At the hair dresser. Sometimes, life.... 😶. India was polluted. We got sick. Coughing in Singapore at the moment sends people into a panic so we stayed home until getting the news that a very close friend had died suddenly so I‘m heading unexpectedly home. Chaos. Sad chaos.

A pleasant read that left me craving something more plot-heavy.

My view of the mountains has disappeared under snow clouds. Postponing my long walk for a little! Starting a new book huddled next to the stove instead ! Ps... who knew using an axe to chop wood was so hard! I‘ve been trying for ages and have a small pile of wood shards to show for it😩

Nan Shepherd wrote Living Mountain, during WWII. It wouldn‘t be until 30 years later that it was actually published. It captures her lifetime love of The Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, their magnificence, beauty and soul. Inspired by the book, I‘m spending this week in those mountains- off grid ( no heat, light or water and it‘s -10!) - staying in a small Bothy and walking the mountain. #findingquietnessinnature

#bookmail
My Kathleen Jamie book has returned from its visit to @RachelO and has brought a friend along! Thank you, Rachel; this one has been on my wishlist for ages. The chapter devoted to it in Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks has made me want to read it all the more. 😘
#Littensarethebest

Poetic, philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. Perfect book for folk like me with a love of literature and the outdoors. Also, look how golden and shiny! 😍