Author: Kathleen Venema
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1771122927
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Bird-Bent Grass chronicles an extraordinary mother–daughter relationship that spans distance, time, and, eventually, debilitating illness. Personal, familial, and political narratives unfold through the letters that Geeske Venema-de Jong and her daughter Kathleen exchanged during the late 1980s and through their weekly conversations, which started after Geeske was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease twenty years later. In 1986, Kathleen accepted a three-year teaching assignment in Uganda, after a devastating civil war, and Geeske promised to be her daughter’s most faithful correspondent. The two women exchanged more than two hundred letters that reflected their lively interest in literature, theology, and politics, and explored ideas about identity, belonging, and home in the context of cross-cultural challenges. Two decades later, with Geeske increasingly beset by Alzheimer’s disease, Kathleen returned to the letters, where she rediscovered the evocative image of a tiny, bright meadow bird perched precariously on a blade of elephant grass. That image – of simultaneous tension, fragility, power, and resilience – sustained her over the years that she used the letters as memory prompts in a larger strategy to keep her intellectually gifted mother alive. Deftly woven of excerpts from their correspondence, conversations, journal entries, and email updates, Bird-Bent Grass is a complex and moving exploration of memory, illness, and immigration; friendship, conflict, resilience, and forgiveness; cross-cultural communication, the ethics of international development, and letter-writing as a technology of intimacy. Throughout, it reflects on the imperative and fleeting business of being alive and loving others while they’re ours to hold.
Bird-Bent Grass
Author: Kathleen Venema
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1771122927
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Bird-Bent Grass chronicles an extraordinary mother–daughter relationship that spans distance, time, and, eventually, debilitating illness. Personal, familial, and political narratives unfold through the letters that Geeske Venema-de Jong and her daughter Kathleen exchanged during the late 1980s and through their weekly conversations, which started after Geeske was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease twenty years later. In 1986, Kathleen accepted a three-year teaching assignment in Uganda, after a devastating civil war, and Geeske promised to be her daughter’s most faithful correspondent. The two women exchanged more than two hundred letters that reflected their lively interest in literature, theology, and politics, and explored ideas about identity, belonging, and home in the context of cross-cultural challenges. Two decades later, with Geeske increasingly beset by Alzheimer’s disease, Kathleen returned to the letters, where she rediscovered the evocative image of a tiny, bright meadow bird perched precariously on a blade of elephant grass. That image – of simultaneous tension, fragility, power, and resilience – sustained her over the years that she used the letters as memory prompts in a larger strategy to keep her intellectually gifted mother alive. Deftly woven of excerpts from their correspondence, conversations, journal entries, and email updates, Bird-Bent Grass is a complex and moving exploration of memory, illness, and immigration; friendship, conflict, resilience, and forgiveness; cross-cultural communication, the ethics of international development, and letter-writing as a technology of intimacy. Throughout, it reflects on the imperative and fleeting business of being alive and loving others while they’re ours to hold.
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1771122927
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Bird-Bent Grass chronicles an extraordinary mother–daughter relationship that spans distance, time, and, eventually, debilitating illness. Personal, familial, and political narratives unfold through the letters that Geeske Venema-de Jong and her daughter Kathleen exchanged during the late 1980s and through their weekly conversations, which started after Geeske was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease twenty years later. In 1986, Kathleen accepted a three-year teaching assignment in Uganda, after a devastating civil war, and Geeske promised to be her daughter’s most faithful correspondent. The two women exchanged more than two hundred letters that reflected their lively interest in literature, theology, and politics, and explored ideas about identity, belonging, and home in the context of cross-cultural challenges. Two decades later, with Geeske increasingly beset by Alzheimer’s disease, Kathleen returned to the letters, where she rediscovered the evocative image of a tiny, bright meadow bird perched precariously on a blade of elephant grass. That image – of simultaneous tension, fragility, power, and resilience – sustained her over the years that she used the letters as memory prompts in a larger strategy to keep her intellectually gifted mother alive. Deftly woven of excerpts from their correspondence, conversations, journal entries, and email updates, Bird-Bent Grass is a complex and moving exploration of memory, illness, and immigration; friendship, conflict, resilience, and forgiveness; cross-cultural communication, the ethics of international development, and letter-writing as a technology of intimacy. Throughout, it reflects on the imperative and fleeting business of being alive and loving others while they’re ours to hold.
The Humane Gardener
Author: Nancy Lawson
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616896175
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616896175
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.
A History of North American Birds
Author: Spencer Fullerton Baird
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 676
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 676
Book Description
A History of North American Birds
Author: S. Baird
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3368828355
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 665
Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3368828355
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 665
Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.
The Bird World
Author: William Henry Davenport Adams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 472
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 472
Book Description
Birds of the northwest: a hand-book of the ornithology of the region drained by the Missouri river and its tributaries, by E. Coues. 1874
Author: Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (U.S.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geological surveys
Languages : en
Pages : 816
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geological surveys
Languages : en
Pages : 816
Book Description
The Heart of a Bird
Author: Anthony Keeling Collett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
Western Farmer
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture, Cooperative
Languages : en
Pages : 890
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture, Cooperative
Languages : en
Pages : 890
Book Description
English Compound Words and Phrases
Author: Francis Horace Teall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
Flora of Norfolk
Author: Kirby Trimmer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botany
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botany
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description