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Little Things in a Big Country: An Artist and Her Dog on the Rocky Mountain Front
An illustrated tribute to a year spent by the author and her dog in the northern Rockies of western Montana recounts her visits to the site of a sandhill crane's nest, an ice-covered river, and duck migration stops, in a naturalist's guide complemented by hand-lettered notes, detailed sketches, and watercolors.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published August 9, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 9, 2016
This was not what I expected, but I enjoyed it. Part memoir, part nature, part history... and I love the font and illustrations.
March 23, 2008
I love this book, both for the exquisitely detailed drawings and for the intimate look into life in wild country. Gorgeous nature journaling.
A sample: "Spirits are revived by the constancy of the real. And what do we really know of all this--the substance of light, the inner lives of creatures, the forming and dissolving of couds and mountains, the countless events playing out simultaneously, ceaselessly? I find it soothing to be rendered insignificant. And am cheered just to be at home on the planet, upright and walking around, in the midst of the vast unknowable."
Thank you, Hannah Hinchman!
A sample: "Spirits are revived by the constancy of the real. And what do we really know of all this--the substance of light, the inner lives of creatures, the forming and dissolving of couds and mountains, the countless events playing out simultaneously, ceaselessly? I find it soothing to be rendered insignificant. And am cheered just to be at home on the planet, upright and walking around, in the midst of the vast unknowable."
Thank you, Hannah Hinchman!
June 7, 2018
What a lovely and calming book this is. I read it during a particularly unsettling week, and found it to be the perfect antidote.
Hand-lettered and full of watercolors, pen-and-ink and colored pencil drawings, and pastels, Hannah Hinchman shares with us her pocket of wild Montana and her journeys through nature (including the human kind) with her dog Sisu, a Finnish Spitz. She is a woman after my own heart, and I enjoyed her company; the book is simply lovely, but it’s also informative. It’s the sort of memoir/journal to which many of us aspire…but that Hinchman has achieved; gentle, yet fierce, she gives us Augusta, Montana…warts and all.
Hand-lettered and full of watercolors, pen-and-ink and colored pencil drawings, and pastels, Hannah Hinchman shares with us her pocket of wild Montana and her journeys through nature (including the human kind) with her dog Sisu, a Finnish Spitz. She is a woman after my own heart, and I enjoyed her company; the book is simply lovely, but it’s also informative. It’s the sort of memoir/journal to which many of us aspire…but that Hinchman has achieved; gentle, yet fierce, she gives us Augusta, Montana…warts and all.
February 4, 2017
This is a great book to read before bed. It's quiet and peaceful, thoughtful and beautiful. The sort of thing that allows one to relax and get comfy and in my case get a glimpse of a world that is way too wild for my taste even if I do find it fascinating. Hannah lives in a place where if you take a little walk, you can see nothing but wilderness in all directions. It is a land occupied by mountain lions, black widow spiders, bears, elk, pronghorns, beaver, and lots and lots of birds. Her drawings are amazing -- the way she is able to capture the way light hits the water and the variations in the rock along river beds, the excited/ alert expression her dog often wears as they go on walks together.. I love all of her observations as the seasons change and this book loosely covers the course of a year, beginning with winter and going on through fall to the first snowfalls. This book has inspired me to get back to telling my own story in my journal, adding drawings as I have time.
February 16, 2013
Little Things In A Big Country by Hannah Hinchman is a lovely memoir about her home in Montana. Chock full of beautiful watercolors, Hannah’s book is a celebration of a beautiful country. It is also a celebration of diversity. Hannah and her dog Sisu moved to Montana where they share their small hometown with ranchers who hold totally opposite views on most issues. Hannah and her neighbors respect each other forming a congenial community. This is a lively book full of delight in the natural world. It reminds us to appreciate the splendor of our world and to be tolerant of our differences.
December 28, 2019
This gorgeous book is part artist journal and part natural history, of a spot in western Montana—or really, simply life well lived, in a land that I, for one, wish I had some sort of access to. I bought this book used, and on the flyleaf is this inscription:
Fall 2004
Dear Anne Stine,
I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did. It picked me up and put me in a very special place.
Love,
Ellen
Indeed: it put me, too, in a very special place. (And I wonder about Anne Stine: Did she not appreciate the gift, and donate the book to a local library? Did she die? Why did this book float into my possession?)
The magic in this book is wrought by the lovely writing (hand-lettered) —all the senses in play, a genuine love of place—recounting the author's ramblings with her dog, Sisu, over an expanse of wild territory, and especially by the gorgeous paintings (watercolor, pastel) and pen drawings, close up and from afar, capturing the beauty. It is a song, a celebration, of place.
The illustrations feature maps, footprints, details of grasses, Sisu asleep or falling through ice, the Front Range, various birds, various plants, a cowboy's butt, cleavage planes of rocks, stacks of bubbles frozen into pond ice. Every spread is a work of art. And an education.
Here are a couple of passages I flagged for the lovely writing. One gets at her ability to observe; the other, at a more philosophical side. (But mind you, they come with gorgeous illustrations that give even greater life to the words.)
One bank of the slough is a grassy sward, easy to navigate even for a bumbler. The principal beaver dam is old enough to be reedgrass-grown and wide enough to stroll across. From a perch in the middle of the dam, you have a privileged view of hundreds of nesting blackbirds, elusive ducks like cinnamon teal and shovelers, working muskrats, basking turtles, hunting herons and nest-setting sandhill cranes. Audible but rarely visible (unless they fly) are snipe, wee sora rails and the deeply mysterious bittern. At this season, there's never a duckless, hawkless or gull-less interval in the sky. Sound extends my habitat range—I can hear curlews and meadowlarks on the distant prairie uplands.
Workaday sadness is diluted and absorbed outdoors in the "more than human" world. Spirits are revived by the constancy of the real. And what do we really know of all this—the substance of light, the inner lives of creatures, the forming and dissolving of clouds and mountains, the countless events playing out simultaneously, ceaselessly? I find it soothing to be rendered insignificant. And am cheered just to be at home on the planet, upright and walking around, in the midst of the vast unknowable.
Fall 2004
Dear Anne Stine,
I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did. It picked me up and put me in a very special place.
Love,
Ellen
Indeed: it put me, too, in a very special place. (And I wonder about Anne Stine: Did she not appreciate the gift, and donate the book to a local library? Did she die? Why did this book float into my possession?)
The magic in this book is wrought by the lovely writing (hand-lettered) —all the senses in play, a genuine love of place—recounting the author's ramblings with her dog, Sisu, over an expanse of wild territory, and especially by the gorgeous paintings (watercolor, pastel) and pen drawings, close up and from afar, capturing the beauty. It is a song, a celebration, of place.
The illustrations feature maps, footprints, details of grasses, Sisu asleep or falling through ice, the Front Range, various birds, various plants, a cowboy's butt, cleavage planes of rocks, stacks of bubbles frozen into pond ice. Every spread is a work of art. And an education.
Here are a couple of passages I flagged for the lovely writing. One gets at her ability to observe; the other, at a more philosophical side. (But mind you, they come with gorgeous illustrations that give even greater life to the words.)
One bank of the slough is a grassy sward, easy to navigate even for a bumbler. The principal beaver dam is old enough to be reedgrass-grown and wide enough to stroll across. From a perch in the middle of the dam, you have a privileged view of hundreds of nesting blackbirds, elusive ducks like cinnamon teal and shovelers, working muskrats, basking turtles, hunting herons and nest-setting sandhill cranes. Audible but rarely visible (unless they fly) are snipe, wee sora rails and the deeply mysterious bittern. At this season, there's never a duckless, hawkless or gull-less interval in the sky. Sound extends my habitat range—I can hear curlews and meadowlarks on the distant prairie uplands.
Workaday sadness is diluted and absorbed outdoors in the "more than human" world. Spirits are revived by the constancy of the real. And what do we really know of all this—the substance of light, the inner lives of creatures, the forming and dissolving of clouds and mountains, the countless events playing out simultaneously, ceaselessly? I find it soothing to be rendered insignificant. And am cheered just to be at home on the planet, upright and walking around, in the midst of the vast unknowable.
June 26, 2024
A friend gifted me this book thinking I would like it and they couldn't have been more spot on. The book is so much more interesting than the title indicates. It's part memoir, part naturalist's field journals. I learned a lot and was entertained and inspired. I loved everything about it. I loved the drawings; I loved the writing; I loved the way the drawings and writing were combined; and I loved the description of the natural environment and culture in the area where she lived. The memory maps were also really inventive and fun to read. As an artist and avid journal writer, I was inspired to up my game.
The writing was often dynamic and really enjoyable. Here is one passage that I really loved about her dog Sisu: "Her buoyancy and eagerness are a bulwark against melancholy. She is a flying wedge of attention in whose wake I follow. I don't know what I add to her experience - she amplifies mind beyond reckoning." How perfect to describe a dog as a "flying wedge of attention" and a "bulwark against melancholy". She could have just said her dog brings her joy and pulls her along in the field, but this description is so much livelier. I found most of her writing, even of the natural world, to have this kind of flair. Her nature writing often invites new ways of thinking about one's environment.
The drawings and paintings are also really enjoyable. There is quite a range of styles, which adds interest. She has both loose drawings and watercolor paintings and more detailed, technical sketches, which quite frankly amaze me. There are drawings and paintings of landscapes, of animals, of interior spaces, of objects encountered on long walks in the surrounding countryside, and even of a rodeo she attended. The variety of both subject and medium makes the book all the more engaging.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys memoirs and/or nature writing. It's also great inspiration for anyone wanting examples on how to combine art and journaling. For anyone so inclined she also has a book on entitled "A Life in Hand: Creating the Illuminated Journal" which has great advice on combining sketching and dynamic writing. I bought it after reading this book and found it to be a treasure trove of advice and inspiration.
The writing was often dynamic and really enjoyable. Here is one passage that I really loved about her dog Sisu: "Her buoyancy and eagerness are a bulwark against melancholy. She is a flying wedge of attention in whose wake I follow. I don't know what I add to her experience - she amplifies mind beyond reckoning." How perfect to describe a dog as a "flying wedge of attention" and a "bulwark against melancholy". She could have just said her dog brings her joy and pulls her along in the field, but this description is so much livelier. I found most of her writing, even of the natural world, to have this kind of flair. Her nature writing often invites new ways of thinking about one's environment.
The drawings and paintings are also really enjoyable. There is quite a range of styles, which adds interest. She has both loose drawings and watercolor paintings and more detailed, technical sketches, which quite frankly amaze me. There are drawings and paintings of landscapes, of animals, of interior spaces, of objects encountered on long walks in the surrounding countryside, and even of a rodeo she attended. The variety of both subject and medium makes the book all the more engaging.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys memoirs and/or nature writing. It's also great inspiration for anyone wanting examples on how to combine art and journaling. For anyone so inclined she also has a book on entitled "A Life in Hand: Creating the Illuminated Journal" which has great advice on combining sketching and dynamic writing. I bought it after reading this book and found it to be a treasure trove of advice and inspiration.
August 11, 2019
Hannah Hinchman recounts her explorations in the Montana prairies at the foot of the Rocky Mountain Front. The book is journal style, combining lovely illustrations with hand-written text for an intimate look at the life—mainly natural, but some human—of the area. I especially enjoyed her eye for details and her thoughts on her place within the area. A quiet, peaceful, pleasurable book.
April 26, 2020
Makes me miss that part of the world. Gorgeous book.
October 26, 2020
Beautiful watercolor and pastel illustrated journey of a year in Montana's western front range.
April 25, 2023
3 1/2
August 15, 2025
Gorgeous
September 5, 2025
I didn’t want this book to end. I took my time and savored the writing and the lovely watercolor, pen and ink, pastel or colored pencil. For anyone who needs an escape, this book is a blessing.
December 11, 2016
I love Hannah Hinchman's work, it's always a shot of inspiration. I appreciate her gorgeous illustrations, but also the attention she pays to her surroundings and the different ways she illustrates information. A fast, fun read.
April 3, 2011
I have loved Hinchman's previous books, but this one fell a little flat. It was as though she had a thought one night to publish a book and threw it together. I know this is not true, but it felt light - a cursory glimpse of life in Montana. The artwork is wonderful. I read this over the course of an evening and felt like I had read the Cliff notes version.
May 12, 2014
This was our book club's selection for May. Although it is not a book I would have chosen to read, I did find it interesting. I especially enjoyed the water color illustrations throughout the book. Because it was hand-lettered by the author, parts were difficult to decode and I had to go back to re-read some of it to determine what some words were.
May 16, 2008
I want to learn to journal like Hannah. I'm taking my husband to Montana this fall and I found this book hidden at the library mixed in with Frommer's travel guide and the Sierra Clubs guidebook. What a joy to read it and her illustrations are just beautiful.
August 3, 2016
I equate the book to a modern day Thoreau with illustrations. I loved it from the first time I opened the book before even reading a word. The maps of the walks really helped take me to those places and expand my imaginations.
January 12, 2016
A really lovely book compiled from the author's illustrated nature journals. She lives in Augusta, Montana, and the book is filled with watercolors and pastels taken from her rambles with her dog in the surrounding countryside. The accompanying text is hand lettered by the author.
Thanks Marsha.
Thanks Marsha.
August 12, 2007
I want to visit that part of the country ... her illustrations are so lovely ... the entire text of the book has been hand lettered
May 4, 2011
This is a beautiful book but really a nature journal. It is one to pick up and savor the pictures.
April 19, 2014
Art work was gorgeous, a little too much of the journaling...kinda distracting. Enjoyed the pictures, could imagine myself there.
April 27, 2017
Lovely book. Sketches and text about life on the Rocky Mountain Front (eastern Montana).
March 27, 2016
I love illustrated journals and this one has spectacular illustrations.
May 12, 2023
Pretty drawings
October 15, 2025
I love the West. Montana is a beautiful place. I'd love to return.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews