Saving Graces: Sojourns of a Backyard Biologist

by Roger B. Swain

Celebrated gardening authority Swain's collection of meditations on the pleasures of preservation and the redeeming qualities of objects and moments saved and savored. Swain is host of PBS's popular TV series The Victory Garden and the author of several books and articles. 15 line drawings.

Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

508 Natural History Essays - Swain's topics run from childhood reminiscences of horse chestnuts and dime-store turtles to on-the-scene descriptions of leatherback turtles coming to shore in Costa Rica to lay eggs. There, the turtles are observed by the watchful eyes of biologists, but also by local natives eager to snatch the booty for its touted aphrodisiac powers. He is ecstatic about the birds and the blueberries on the New Hampshire hill that proliferated once the trees were cut down. His admonition is to ``take time out to see what is happening''--``change cannot be halted, but it can be redirected,'' he says in an essay on walking the boundaries of his New England farm. Elsewhere, he glorifies bogs, with their richness of peat to be harnessed; cites the virtues of bats (and why they like attics) and the charms of honeybees as pets; and muses about the comfort of coming back to America and why we like high places and slow boats. Probably one of the oddest pieces is about making a comb; Swain delights in detailing how the process started with the felling of two trees, a black cherry and a red maple.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

A peaceful, quiet book from the author's view of nature and its treasures. Each chapter stands alone.

[Nelda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noel Perrin says that Roger Swain is "the Mozart of biologists." Swain does write soaring songs to nature in these 24 essays. In them, he writes of bogs, blueberry picking, hermit crabs, and the encroachment of civilization within sight of his farm. His first essay "Horse Chestnuts" and his childhood collection reminds me that when my father died, he left his own good luck horse chestnuts in his chair-side bowl. "The Onion Braider" reminds me of my own one-time onion braid of failure--mainly because the onions themselves were failures: quarter to tennis ball-size onions do not make an attractive braid! His essay "Dime-store Turtles" brought back memories of actual dime-store turtles, which I never brought home but wanted to. In "Tree Dreams," he imagines his maple headboard as a 200-year-old tree with himself in its branches, a buffalo calf underneath, and birds in the branches.

Some lines I liked: "Today most of the things I collect are too big for my britches." "...someone without pockets is someone without a life." "The real miracle of boats is their buoyancy. To be aboard one is to walk on water." "Subdivisions seem to settle on summits like seagulls on pilings." "The witch hazel and its winter moths belong with fish that fly and birds that don't, with tumbleweeds, water striders, and upside-down sloths."

[Deborah Tonini · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second time reading this book. It was just as fantastic as the first time. Great character development! I really became one of the Graces. Love the dog as well.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book, our 78th Retirement Read Aloud book. Bought on my birthday 2025 with Abby and Maria from the AADL Friends bookstore

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This takes me back to 80's a life uncomplicated, by cellphones and the Internet. His observations of the simple life on a pond or hiking are brilliant. I wish we had a Roger Swain for 2024.