Nature on the Doorstep: A Year of Letters
About this audiobook
Nature on the Doorstep reveals the simple pleasures of paying attention to the natural world in one’s own backyard over the course of a year.
Angela Douglas shares the joys and curiosities of a decidedly ordinary patch of green in upstate New York cultivated through the art of “strategic neglect"―sometimes taking a hand to manage wildlife, more often letting nature go its own way.
From the first flowers of spring and the fireflies of high summer to a hoarding chipmunk in the fall and cardinals singing in the winter, Douglas shows us the magic of welcoming unexpected plant life and animal life into one’s backyard. Along the way, she weaves intimate observations of wildlife with morsels of natural history; a surprise visit from a Cooper’s hawk, for instance, prompts reflection about why bird eye colors vary.
A paean to the richness we find when we stop to look and let be, Nature on the Doorstep celebrates the role humble backyards play both in conservation efforts and in an expanded appreciation of the living world.
About the author
Angela E. Douglas is the Daljit S. and Elaine Sarkaria Professor emerita of insect physiology and toxicology at Cornell University. She is the author of several books, including Symbiotic Interactions, Insects and Their Beneficial Microbes, and Fundamentals of Microbiome Science.
Marisa Calin is an actress, novelist, and multiple Earphones Award–winning narrator born in England and educated in New York at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. An artist with a flair for everything literary, she has written a young adult novel, You & Me, which received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.
