Charles W. Johnson, alongside a merry coterie of farmers, loggers, shepherds, orchardists, botanists, geologists and beekeepers.
Collectively, the book articulates a perception of our state not as a scenic landscape seen from afar, but as a constellation of particular locales where Vermonters wholly and daily involve themselves in subsistence and creation amid plants, animals and the elemental forces of earth, air, water and fire.
The chapters follow the cycle of a year from October through the following September. Each month begins with an evocative and precise full-page painting by
Nick DeFriez, followed by recurring subsections. First comes a meditative essay, then Weather (a digest of meteorological episodes for the given month); Nature Notes (samples: Broad-Leaved Helleborine, The Gregarious Whirligig Beetle ); and At Home ( Sheepskin Care, Successful Softwood Pruning, Make Your Own Bear Grease ).