The Happy Camper: Two Amazing New Summer Reads
I always avoid heading out anywhere during the first long weekend of the summer season.
It’s just way too busy with people being silly and unethical in the woods. Instead, I fold out my reclining lawn chair in the backyard, pour myself a cold drink and read to my heart’s content. The following are two amazing books I read over the weekend. The pair are totally different reads but both were incredible.
Escape To Clayoquot Sound: Finding Home in a Wild Place
By John & Bea Dowd
This is a beautiful book! The story is captivating, detailing the Dowd’s warmhearted retrospective of their decade spent living off-the-grid in a small coastal island paradise in Clayoquot Sound. Visually, the book design—including countless images of their year-round caretaking of the property—makes a good read into a pure masterpiece.
This love story happened 20 years ago when these two empty nesters found themselves looking after a vacant beach house set in 10 acres of a provincial park reserve. It’s told with humour and with heart. It’s about becoming one with nature and living in elated solitude.
In simple terms, I smiled after reading every page. If you’ve ever dreamed of escaping the business of society to live off-grid in a rustic cabin surrounded by the wildness of Canada’s West Coast, then read John and Bea’s legendary adventure.
Observing Nature by Canoe & Kayak
By Michael Runtz
Michael Runtz is highly a respected Canadian naturalist who has had a lifelong passion for writing and photographing the natural world. He has educated us all through his books and teachings. I think most of us have a copy of his best-selling book An Explorer’s Guide to Algonquin Park on our shelves.
Michael’s latest book—Observing Nature by Canoe & Kayak—lists a name and information for all those species paddlers gawk at over the gunwale and wonder what it is and what it does. What’s the difference between a blue dasher and a dot-tailed whiteface? Why is the common bladderwort carnivorous? Why do moose love aquatic plants so much? How do whirligig beetles stay afloat on the surface? It’s all in this compact, visually rich guide.
The content is based on Michael’s extensive knowledge of Northeastern Ontario’s waterways. More than 350 species are overviewed, with flora and fauna all depicted in full-coloured photographs. Some species are common like moose and deer, but there are plenty of lesser-known plants and animals, such as sedges and freshwater sponges that paddlers have spotted on their travels and always wondered what the heck they are.
