In the Moment – serie

From the author of The Zen of Climbing and The Craft of Bouldering, a manifesto for a new approach to connecting meaningfully with the wildness around and within us.As we live increasingly urbanised lives, we seek out wilderness and green space in times of hardship and turmoil, or simply during our leisure time. In the process of exploring and understanding more about the benefits of being in nature, many of us have taken up swimming, forest bathing, cycling, hiking and running in the open air. But when we spend this time in the wild, are we really connected to it?Francis Sanzaro argues that we often obscure opportunities for real connection through our attachment to screens, our anxieties about our "everyday" lives, or simply through our egos. When we observe nature, we rarely do so without subconsciously filtering out the parts that don't fit into the perfect snapshot we crave.To foster a genuine connection with the natural world, and to better protect it, we must embrace its contradictions as well as the surface beauty. Through deeper engagement with our environment, we can discover the wild within ourselves, too.

What do Zen masters, sixteenth-century Samurai, and the world’s elite climbers have in common?– They have perfected the art of awareness, of poise amidst chaos. Climbing is a sport of perception, and our level of attainment is a matter of mind as much as body. Written by philosopher, essayist, and lifelong climber Francis Sanzaro, The Zen of Climbing explores the fundamentals of successful climbing, delving into psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and Taoism. Awareness, Sanzaro argues, is the alchemy of climbing, allowing us to merge mental and physical attributes in one embodied whole. This compact volume, by the author of the classic The Boulder: A Philosophy of Bouldering, puts the climber’s mind at the forefront of practice.

Inhabiting a landscape, walking a landscape, writing a place and timeFor Linda Cracknell, exposure to wind, rock, mist, and salt water is integral to her writing process. She follows Susan Sontag’s advice to “Love words, agonise over sentences, and pay attention to the world,” observing and writing her landscapes from the particulars of each moment. In this varied essay collection, Linda backpacks on a small island that is connected to the mainland only at low tide. In winter snow, she hikes the wooded hillside close to her home, a place she is intimately familiar with in all seasons. And she retraces over three days the steps of a trek made by her parents seven decades earlier. She explores her inspirations, in nature and from other artists and their work, and she offers thoughtful writing prompts. Reading this collection will take you to new places, open your eyes to the world, and suggest ways to take note and make notes as you go—to inspire your own attentive looking, journaling, and writing practice.

Permaculture needs all of us, and all of us need permaculture. Permaculture is a way of farming, gardening, or managing land that emphasises a reciprocal relationship with nature. It's a design process that works with wildness, not against it. And it’s an essential resource in the fight of our lives: tackling the climate crisis.Here, permaculture practitioner and poet Maya Blackwell writes with expertise and personal experience of the transformative power of permaculture for both people and the planet. As well as tracing its evolution – from its roots in Indigenous societies to the important role it plays in urban allotments today – you will discover how the practice could nurture individual and collective wellbeing. There are opportunities throughout for reflection, creativity and connection. These present valuable lessons we can all learn from the principles of permaculture, to help us build resilience and lean into the long-term process of trying new things, adapting failures and reaping all that we sow.Whether you’re completely new to permaculture or someone with years of experience wanting to reconnect with its history and core values, this book contains tools for growth that bring rewards far beyond the garden.

“If you have been still enough for long enough, your eyes will have attuned and begun to read the sea-surge fluently, so you recognize the blunt curve and flourished tail of a diving otter. Home your eyes in on that portion of the sea, permit nothing else to move, and you will see the otter eel-catching, resurfacing.”It is a special privilege and a richly rewarding experience to observe a wild animal hunting, interacting with its young or its mate, exploring its habitat, or escaping a predator. To watch wildlife, it’s essential not only to learn an animal’s ways, the times and places you may find it, but also to look inward: to station yourself, focus, and wait. The experience depends on your stillness, silence, and full attention, watching and listening with minimal movement and if possible staying downwind so that your presence is not sensed. With decades of close observation of wild animals and birds, Jim Crumley has found himself up close and personal with many of our most elusive creatures, studying their movements, noting details, and offering intimate insights into their extraordinary lives. Here, he draws us into his magical world, showing how we can learn to watch wildlife well, and what doing so can mean for our ability to care for it, and care for ourselves.

Do you sometimes wake from dreaming with an unease you find difficult to shake? Is there one recurring nightmare that haunts you? Or do dreams bring you welcome relief from your waking life?We spend around a third of our lives asleep, so it’s understandable that dreams have been intriguing and troubling humans for millennia. Some believe our dreams to be an expression of hidden desires, a cathartic release for our unconscious mind, or even crucial insights or predictions we can’t access while awake. Whatever their functions, our dreams are worth paying attention to. Yet with the demands and diversions of each day, it can be hard to find time to reflect on them.This compact volume approaches dreaming with a mindful eye, asking us to spend time reflecting on our dreams to help us decipher their secrets and discover what our nighttime unconscious could reveal about our daily lives, needs and desires.Interpreting Dreams is both an invitation to pay more attention to our dreams, and a toolkit for unlocking their hidden meanings. By bringing awareness to the time we spend dreaming, we can learn to become more present and fulfilled in our daily lives, and perhaps even alleviate some of our most persistent anxieties.

Poet and essayist Kenneth Steven takes us on a series of meditative quests in search of his “atoms of delight”—treasures, both natural and spiritual—through some of Scotland’s most beautiful landscapes.The short pieces in this captivating collection, whose title pays homage to Scottish Renaissance writer Neil Gunn, invite readers to accompany Steven as he seeks out crystal-clear waters, a glimpse of an elusive bird, delicate orchids, plump berries, or pebbles polished by time and tide. Appreciative of the grace of silence and the value of solitude and simplicity, he takes journeys that prompt introspection and provoke memories as we pause, breathe, and discover alongside him the transformative power of nature's small gifts and wild places.This is an evocative book that will inspire you to pay close attention as you explore your environment and reflect on the fleeting moments of pure joy that nature has brought into your life. As you set out on your own pilgrimages, you will discover the extraordinary that can be found in the everyday when you take the time to look for it.

Community. It’s a word we are used to hearing everywhere from political speeches to fast-food advertisements. But can we really define it?Using her own experiences, joyful or painful, in communities, as well as a strong analysis of political and cultural shifts, Casey Plett shows how overuse of the word has caused it to become disconnected from the reality it signifies.Here, Plett suggests an alternative, moving towards a definition that acknowledges community as necessary for our existence – a source of comfort, knowledge and love – even while it has the potential to become dogmatic, cliquey or outright harmful.On Community does crucial work in pushing harder on words and ideas we take for granted. It invites us to be more careful and intentional with our language, to consider how we relate to those we know – and to those we don’t know at all.

Learn from Britain’s leading dragonfly expert how to invite dragonflies and damselflies into your garden and create the conditions for them to thrive.In this compact and accessible wildlife primer, ‘Dragonfly Ambassador’ Ruary Mackenzie Dodds shows how to set up a tranquil garden haven for dragonflies, with straightforward, easy-to-follow guidance on preparing your pond, what plants to include in it, and how to manage and enjoy it.With stunning colours and phenomenal flying abilities, dragonflies are beautiful creatures that are also vital to our ecosystem. This book outlines, too, how caring for something as specific and delicate as a dragonfly can provide a welcome respite from the everyday demands of life. We can, as always, learn so much from the natural world, even – and sometimes especially – from its smallest creatures.Learn how to transform your garden into a haven for dragonflies and damselflies, nurturing your own mental health and protecting the planet as you do so. Every pond counts!

A collection of concise and enlightening essays and reflections on the art of bouldering, from the author of bestseller The Zen of Climbing.More than a sport, bouldering is a craft that demands equal fine-tuning of the mind and body. It calls for total commitment and attentiveness. Here, climber, writer, and philosopher Francis Sanzaro brings the discipline into conversation with other sports and arts including architecture, dance, skateboarding, painting, parkour, martial arts, and gymnastics.Sanzaro shows how the pursuit of bouldering is akin to developing a philosophy – something that can be nurtured and strengthened like a muscle, benefitting both body and soul.The Craft of Bouldering will enrich and enhance your climbing and encourage you to appreciate the natural physicality and artful play of bouldering.

The darkness of the night represents something unknowable – even frightening – to many. But when we really look up and into it, we can find celestial light shows, whole ecosystems, and, perhaps, a new perspective. The night sky offers something essential – a connection to something bigger than ourselves that can, in turn, help us understand ourselves and each other better. Humans have recognised and tried to make sense of this feeling since ancient times. For so many – from physicists and astronauts to astrologists and artists - the night sky has been a source of inspiration, wonder and exploration.But now our relationship to dark skies is changing as our access to them is depleted. Light pollution all over Earth can be seen from space, altering the landscape and outlining the coasts. And if we look from Earth into space, we can see artificial light there, too. In this short volume, Anna Levin looks at how we can learn from and nurture our relationship with the night sky even and especially in the context of our changing world.As you learn how to see and treasure the night sky, a sense of wonder about the universe will help you to understand more about our own pale blue dot.

Taking time for nature poetry is an act of reverence for the natural world, and a path to understanding our part in it.Nature poetry has been redefined through the centuries, shapeshifting through the major upheavals of our relationship with the landscapes, plants and non-human species with whom we share the earth. As our environment is destabilised and threatened by the climate crisis, we can once again find new meanings, causes for hope and catalysts for action in these poems.Arranged by season – and full of surprises – this anthology shows the vast breadth of writing on the natural world, and challenges homogenous ideas of what a nature poet can look like. The choices in this anthology see beloved poets celebrated alongside new and emerging writers, whose voices echo the urgency of the crisis we now face. Together, they show what we have in common across countries and centuries: an undeniable kinship with nature, and a fierce will to protect it.These poems will transport you, sending you into the garden, forests and rockpools with searching hands and open eyes.

Understanding, loving and protecting butterflies—in all their enchantments.Butterflies have enchanted and intrigued us for centuries. From the eighteenth-century “aurelians”, through the Victorian “golden age” of collecting, to the twentieth-century focus on conservation, humans have chased glimpses of these beautiful but elusive creatures. Winding through literature, art, music, and dreams, The Butterfly: Flights of Enchantment uncovers why butterflies continue to inhabit such a profound place in our imagination.A first of its kind in combining the history of human interest in butterflies with a guide to practical observation, this pocket guide encourages us to nurture our curiosity and head out into our local environment, focusing on edgeland habitats that are home to many species.It is perhaps because butterflies are so fragile and fleeting that we are so beguiled by them. But now, as numbers dwindle, they have never been more difficult to spot. The Butterfly paves the way towards observing, identifying and ultimately protecting them.

To swim is an act of attention: to the self, and to everything beyond it. Follow poet and nature writer Polly Atkin as she swims through the turning year in the rivers, lakes and tarns of the English Lake District, in this lyrical ode to the uplifting power of water. This is a love story between a person and a place. It is a story of acceptance, persistence and finding joy in the everyday, as eight years of outdoor swimming through every season deepen Atkin s knowledge and understanding of both the landscape she calls home and her disabled body. Each month in the water reveals how a life lived with pain can be as rich, rewarding and full of delight as any other. Atkin swims for the sheer pleasure of it, showing how that pleasure may be found in every season, even by those who find the cold neither thrilling nor soothing. She reminds us of the quiet power of noticing the lives alongside ours birds, plants and people. And through paying attention to herself and to the living world around her, she finds swimming becomes a transformative force, a kind of natural magic through which the extraordinary is revealed day after day, year after year.

Learn how to create a garden that works both day and night for moths and butterflies, attracting stunning species and helping both flora and fauna to thrive.Moths are a crucial but forgotten pollinator, often overlooked in favour of their brighter cousin – the butterfly. But, by ignoring moths, we are missing out on gardens that could be filled with more joy, movement and biodiversity. If we could build gardens that pay both pollinators the attention they deserve, we might just be rewarded with healthier, more beautiful ecosystems…Lifelong gardener and author of Second Nature: The Story of a Naturalist’s Garden, Susie White has spent over a decade constructing a lively, abundant wildlife haven at her Northumberland home. Her garden is a sanctuary for all creatures and values life, variety and growth, of which both moths and butterflies are a crucial part. In this compact volume, she teaches us how to find plants that attract moths and butterflies, how to support these insects through their larval stages, and how to identify and study them.As with so many insects, numbers of moths and butterflies have declined dramatically in recent years. Actively creating a beautiful garden that welcomes all forms of life is a simple but joyful step to take towards protecting them.

An evocative journey through geology and landscape, seen through the eyes of one of Scotland’s most beloved poets and storytellers. Blending lyrical prose with personal reflection, Kenneth Steven explores mountains, glens and shores in search of gemstones and crystals. He recounts his delight at discoveries of gold glinting in Highland burns, freshwater pearls embedded in mussel shells, and aquamarines, garnets, amber and agates hidden in the wild places where others rarely roam. Beguiled by their forms, colours, and sometimes glittering bril- liance, he finds the thrill of unearthing riches more precious even than the gems themselves. Stone by stone, he considers the origins and allure of these natural treasures, revealing not only their geo- logical stories but their place in history and imagination. Steven’s deep connection to the land shines through as he interprets the meaning and magic, inviting readers to see both the landscape and its hidden gems with fresh wonder.

Harness the potential of tarot to support and inspire creative practice, reflection, perspective, and everyday making. This inspirational book invites artists, writers, and open-minded creatives to work with tarot as a framework for reflection and imaginative inquiry. Drawing on more than thirty years of lived creative practice, Bennett shows how tarot’s images, archetypes, and narratives can support creative momentum, deepen self-trust, and help navigate periods of creative block. Blending personal insight with accessible exercises, The Fool’s Leap introduces a practice that integrates tailored spreads, creative prompts, and intuitive interpretation. Tarot opens better questions—about process, direction, and intention—rather than supplying fixed answers. The emphasis is on staying present with the work and building a sustainable creative rhythm. For anyone standing at the threshold of a new idea, a stalled project, or a return to creative practice, The Fool’s Leap offers an invitation to stay present, trust the process, and take the next step.