From a Small Town in Dorset, Some of the Best Books We Know

There’s a few publishers that the Rocky Mountain Land Library especially loves. So much so, that we try to have copies of each and every book they have brought to life. Little Toller is one such publisher.

Little Toller began in 2008 with a singular purpose: to revive forgotten and classic books about nature and rural life in the British Isles. They have since expanded that mission to include new books from some of today’s greatest writers on the land.

Over the years, Little Toller has introduced us to so many wonderful writers (& artists too!).

We love their focus on people and the land — the natural & cultural heritage of their region.

Little Toller books almost always are accompanied by wonderfully apt introductions by leading writers of today.

Agrarian lives are a strong theme throughout.

So many great authors from the past have been kept in print!

Little Toller has also published an impressive list of hardcover monographs, such as Paul Evan’s Herbaceous, and Marcus Sedgwick’s Snow.

H.E. Bates’ Down the River is already at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, waiting to be shelved at the ranch’s Rivers & Water Library, on the banks of the South Platte.

A little over a year ago, we excitedly posted about this new book from Little Toller. Hetty Saunders book is the first biography of one of the most revered and mysterious figures in modern nature writing, the author of The Peregrine, J.A. Baker. Our October 2017 post contains a wonderful short video that Little Toller produced for My House of Sky.

Typical of all Little Toller Books, My House of Sky is a beautifully produced book, full of photos from J.A. Baker’s journals, and this one of his very well used binoculars.

 

Reading through Little Toller’s website is an education in itself — and so enjoyable too!

And be sure to visit The Clearing, Little Toller’s online journal of nature, landscape, and place. It’s a great way to keep up with their new authors!

 

What Hard Work and a Troop of Boy Scouts Can Do

Sam Bell, giving super-volunteer Zia Klamm a hand, back in 2015.

It was three years ago that a 14 year-old Sam Bell came to Buffalo Peaks Ranch for the first time. Sam was part of our first Leopold Bench-building day. We ended that day with nearly a dozen benches that we’ve been able to spread across the ranch — giving people the chance to slow down, read a book, or just see the ranch from a fresh perspective.

Sam was never able to shake the hold that Buffalo Peaks Ranch had on him. Many months ago he asked us about the possibility of locating his Eagle Scout Project at the ranch. Of course we said yes!

Sam came up with the plan (create a new gathering space in the old corrals), then set about raising over $9,000, along with donations of materials, tools, food, and more.

Sam also assembled a wonderful team of volunteers that gathered this past weekend to build five more Leopold Benches, a propane fire pit (that the Boy Scouts already enjoyed sitting around on Saturday night), plus…

A spacious platform tent with a wonderful front porch. We’ll be adding mattresses soon, along with chairs, and a camp-style writing desk.

As the platform tent was raised, other volunteers were busy assembling Leopold Benches.

The last part of Sam’s plan included a creative nod to the Land Library:

Younger members of Troop 199 painting one of the hanging book pods.

Weather-proof book pods were hung on one of the concrete walls, along with a large hanging Map Case.

And of course we jumped at the chance to add a few books!

Sam Bell and his never-say-never parents, Gordon & Susan!

It’s impossible to thank Sam enough for what he has brought to the ranch. This new community ranch space will be used and loved for many, many years to come. A great legacy for Sam, and all the amazing volunteers and donors!

Buffalo Peaks Ranch, once abandoned, is roaring back to life. We can’t wait for what the next year will bring!

From National Parks to Community Gardens: Public Lands Across the Globe

The Rocky Mountain Land Library has amassed thousands of books on Public Lands, from city parks to wildlife refuges, all across the globe. Among our most recent additions is Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for the Bears Ears, an important & very timely collection of essays on Southern Utah’s National Monument, which is also a sacred site for many tribes.

All of these books tell an inspiring story of setting land aside for the sake of nature itself, and for the benefit of untold generations.

Stories of the hard work that went into their faithful formation offers solace in difficult times.

Preserving land has never been an easy task, and it always gives us a boost when we come across the writings of a pioneer conservationist such as Sigurd Olson. Olson helped establish the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, along with several National Parks during his years with The Wilderness Society.

Fortunately, National Parks & preserves is not just an American idea. We have lots of lessons to learn from across the globe.

We’re not exactly sure where this special collection will be house at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, the site of the Land Library’s emerging residential home. But we can’t wait to begin shelving books that we all need right now — today.

For more on the Rocky Mountain Land Library at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, here’s a 7-minute video on where the Public Lands collection will be:

 

Re/Call the Stories of People & the Land

Gregg Deal’s Invisible Loss Movement, with his daughter Sage.

This past Labor Day weekend, the Rocky Mountain Land Library was thrilled to host a special art exhibition presented by the RedLine Contemporary Art Center. Re/Call included a stunning array of art, including film, photography, dance, sound, poetry, and more.

Out by the ranch gate: Nikki Pike’s Tumbleweed

“Re/Call was inspired by a quote from the film Racing Extinction by Dr. Christopher Clark, the Director of the Macauley Library at Cornell, where one of the largest collections of sounds of our planet and it’s creatures is catalogued:

“The whole world is singing…clicking and grinding and whistling and thumping….But we’ve stopped listening.”

I shared with Louise Martorano how crushed, humiliated and inspired by this I felt, and that it seemed like a job for artists. And so we started to imagine what it is to Re/Call (as Louise aptly coined our quest).” –  Mary Caulkins

Woven Basket lined with horsehair, by Eileen Roscina Richardson

Over a year ago the call went out to 19 artists from across the country. The challenge was “to reflect, celebrate and memorialize the planet and the jive of it’s creatures.”

The artists visited Buffalo Peaks Ranch, many of them for several extended periods.  This past Labor Day weekend, Re/Call came alive all across the ranch.

Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk of the Ute Mountain Tribe got Re/Call underway with a talk about gratitude, touching the earth & more, including joining with her father to offer up a Ute song.

The Barter Collective van was next to the Main House, offering writing prompts,

and plenty of typewriters where people could explore their thoughts.

Alongside the granaries: Libby Barbee & Bill Nelson’s Sound Mirror Project, employing found objects and the voices of rural America.

Tyler Jones’ Climate Story combined photography, sound and film. We love the screening room Tyler created in the Lambing Shed!

Throughout the summer, artist Tory Tepp worked on The Forge.

Culminating in his adobe letterpress. We’ll continue to line Tory’s earthwork with words and quotes!

Re/Call came to an inspired close on Monday morning as Sarah Wallace Scott led us across the ranch along The Four Songlines she created, each inspired by an animal that calls Buffalo Peaks Ranch its home. Four of us got to wear the head masks that Sarah crafted. On Saturday night Sarah’s troupe also performed The Four Songlines:

And there’s so many artists and projects that we still hope to share with you all. But for now, we will create a Re/Call archive at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, including related objects, recordings, and books inspired by the show. Stay tuned!

Ana Maria Hernando & Kenneth Robinson Cloudwork

With thanks to the artists: Libby Barbee, Bill Nelson, Nikki Pike & The Barter Collective, Halsey Burgund, Michelle Comstock, Gregg Deal and his daughter Sage, Sarah Ortegon, Nathan Hall, Ana Maria Hernando, Tyler Jones, Eliza Minot, Eileen Roscina Richardson, Kenneth Robinson, Sarah Wallace Scott, Tory Tepp, Jeremy Wolf, Melanie Yazzie, Susannah Sayler, and Edward Morris.

We join RedLine in thanking the Town of Fairplay, the Brown Burro, Dorothy’s Tamales, Deep Water, Helen Thorpe, Jason Jones, Dave Gordon, Julie Mordecai, San Luis Valley Farmers, Jay Frost, Karl & Oscar Kister, Julie Bullock, Jamie DeLuccio & Open Sky Yoga, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, Jeremiah Archuleta, Cirque Kitchen, White Mountain Farms, I Choose Organics, Jones Farm, Rio Grande Farm Park, A.P. Fiedler, the amazing volunteers of both RedLine and the Rocky Mountain Land Library, and Patricia Miller & Curtis Maddox and their entire Native Plant Labyrinth team.

Libby Barbee & Bill Nelson’s wind & sound piece will stay at the ranch!

Plus a special thanks to the more than 300 people who attended Re/Call. They came to both experience & participate in one of the most remarkable weekend Buffalo Peaks Ranch has ever had.

We can’t show you a picture that captures the 300+ Re/Call participants from this past weekend, but as we helped dismantle Nathan Hall’s wonderful Chime Walk to the river, we noticed this unintended piece of land art. We love the grass swale that so many feet made along an old elk path.

Did we mention that we also had a Star Talk by Mary Caulkins, and the chance to see Eileen Roscina Richardson’s film Hiraeth, screened on the Cooks House wall?

With thanks to Mary Caulkins and Louise Martorano for giving birth to Re/Call, and to Helen Thorpe for so many wonderful photos above!

Haiku: A Perfect Nest for Thoughts?

“Haiku are the perfect size for holding our encounters with the natural world….Haiku are brief, yet incredibly open and at the same time very exact.” — Jane Reichhold, translator

They are direct, remarkably observant, seemingly simple, yet they linger in our minds for a long while. Most haiku take the natural world as its focus, and so naturally, the Land Library has gathered many such volumes over the years, including several collections for young readers.

Our love of haiku may have started with one of the most memorable reading experiences we’ve ever had — reading R.H. Blyth’s four-volume Haiku set (Volume 1 is pictured above). Blyth introduced us to a new world of Buson, Basho, Issa and many others — while reminding us of an “old world” populated by like-minded Western poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Waking to the World: A Haiku & Haibun Workshop with poet Gary Schroeder

Saturday, September 8th, 10am to 3:30pm

We are very happy to announce that poet Gary Schroeder will return to Buffalo Peaks Ranch on Saturday, September 22nd to teach a day-long workshop.

South Park’s rich natural and cultural heritage will serve to stimulate your writing of both Haiku and Haibun. In the morning session we will explore the haiku experience, engaging in brief haiku hikes, after which we’ll share our work with one another in an atmosphere of respectful, mutual support.

The afternoon session will focus on haibun, combining both prose and haiku.

Gary Schroeder is the author of five volumes of poetry, The Slender Name, Mistaken Lights, Adjacent Solitudes, Cricket in the House: A Year of Haiku and, most recently After Rain, a collection of thirty-two haiku, published by Folded Word Press

The workshop fee is $50, plus a $3.03 ticketing fee. More details and directions will follow. Feel free to send any questions to jeff@landlibrary.org

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Cloud & Sky at Buffalo Peaks Ranch

Let’s Go Skyeing with artist Meredith Nemirov

Saturday, September 8th at Buffalo Peaks Ranch

What a summer it has been! We are excited to have artist Meredith Nemirov at Buffalo Peaks Ranch on September 8th, for our last artist workshop of the season.

Early instructors in the art of watercolor painting used to urge students to paint at least one sky every day of the year. If you did two or three a week, you would have the experience of doing over a hundred in a year, and you would then be able to look at the sky and see it in terms of the medium.

Let’s look up together and make a series of paintings that reflect our day at Buffalo Peaks Ranch. We will work in all the traditional watercolor techniques: wet-into-wet, dry brush, mark-making, and more as we capture the beauty of land and sky.

Meredith Nemirov’s work has been featured in several galleries across Colorado, in addition to galleries in New York and Massachusetts. Meredith was recently the focus of an Artist Profile in Plein Air Magazine.

For much more on Meredith Nemirov’s work, be sure to visit her website, along with her blog.

Saturday, September 8th, 10am to 3:30pm,  $50 class fee, plus $3.03 ticketing fee

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

“…the more Nemirov explains her process, the more one realizes that there is a complicated dance going on between abstraction and representation and between plein air and studio paintings in her work. Her studio paintings are usually abstractions of what she sees on location. Yet she never works from photos, but rather from drawings and paintings done in the field. ‘I can’t let go of the plein air landscape because I love it so much and because it feeds the abstract work,’ says Nemirov. ‘Outside you have to be so present, every moment, with every brushstroke. It’s a very different and intense experience.’” — Bob Bahr, PleinAir Magazine, April-May 2016

 

 

The Pull of Water, along the Hudson and in South Park

Joseph Mitchell, who died in 1996, was the great wandering and listening soul of New York City. True, you won’t find any of his titles at local Nature Centers, but his sketches of the urban scene shows us a writer immersed in his home landscape. From Fulton Fish Market to McSorley’s Saloon, Joseph Mitchell observed his given plot of land keenly and compassionately, like the ideal naturalist that he was. To this day, his essay Mr. Hunter’s Grave is one of our favorite pieces on the ties between people and the land.

The following passage is from The Rivermen, a piece in Joseph Mitchell’s The Bottom of the Harbor. Cities around the world were founded on the banks of rivers and streams allowing humans to naturally network with one another along and with the river itself. This unstoppable, steady, often gentle flow sculpts any landscape, and has certainly shaped our thinking at the Land Library. The South Platte River (our version of the Hudson) has inspired the Land Library’s Headwaters to Plains at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, Waterton Canyon, and in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood – each site rests on the banks of the South Platte River.

Here’s one of our all-time favorite descriptions of a river:

“I often feel drawn to the Hudson River, and I have spent a lot of time through the years poking around the part of it that flows past the city. I never get tired of looking at it; it hypnotizes me. I like to look at it in midsummer, when it is warm and dirty and drowsy, and I like to look at it in January, when it is carrying ice. I like to look at it when it is stirred up, when a northeast wind is blowing and a strong tide is running — a new-moon tide or a full-moon tide — and I like to look at it when it is slack. It is exciting to me on weekdays, when it is crowded with ocean craft, harbor craft, and river craft, but it is the river itself that draws me, and not the shipping, and I guess I like it best on Sundays, when there are lulls as long as a half an hour, during which, all the way from the Battery to the George Washington Bridge, nothing moves upon it, not even a ferry, not even a tug, and it becomes as hushed and dark and secret and remote and unreal as a river in a dream.”

The South Platte River slowly ripples by, with Buffalo Peaks Ranch in the distance

For more on rivers & water, read on about the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s plans to build a River Hut Library at Buffalo Peaks Ranch, full of books on water & waterways!

Rivers and books each share the power to bring people together!