Dylan Tomine, formerly a fly fishing guide, is now a writer,
conservation advocate, blueberry farmer and father, not necessarily
in that order. His work has appeared in the "Flyfish Journal, "the
"Drake," "Golfweek," the" New York Times" and numerous other
publications. He lives with his family on an island in Puget
Sound.
Nikki McClure of Olympia, Washington is known for her painstakingly
intricate and beautiful paper cuts. Armed with an X-acto knife, she
cuts out her images from a single sheet of paper and creates a bold
language that translates the complex poetry of motherhood, nature,
and activism into a simple and endearing picture.
"Dylan Tomine--a fly-fishing ambassador for the outdoors company
Patagonia--used to pursue steelhead year-round from Argentina to
Southeast Alaska, but after watching wild steelhead decline and
becoming a father, he returned home to the Pacific Northwest to be
a blueberry farmer. "Closer to the Ground" is a narrative journey
that follows his family through four seasons of intentionally
noticing their natural environment and getting in touch with the
day-to-day rhythms of tide, weather and the seasons. Tomine
emphasizes that they aren't completely off the grid; they don't
live in a yurt and they aren't strangers to the mall, but they do
attempt to keep in touch with their surroundings: "I can only hope
that somehow, though participating in the natural world, our need
to protect it becomes more urgent.
Tomine weaves his memoir with lyrical passages, family dialogues
and accounts of gathering shellfish and chanterelles--as well as
delicious descriptions of cooking them--in an engaging, slightly
self-deprecating tone. Particularly poignant is his description of
a snowy egret that he sees when returning home from a fishing trip.
It reminds him of his grandfather, "a forager of spring fiddleheads
and forest mushrooms, a poet who wrote a single, perfect haiku for
every day he was held in the [Japanese] relocation camps."
Alongside these beautiful passages are Tomine's frustrations of
fishing expeditions hindered by squalls and his constant worry
about chopping enough firewood to last through the winter. "Closer
to the Ground" inspires readers to examine their own daily lives
and rediscover their surroundings." --Kristin McConnell, publishing
assistant, "Shelf Awareness" "Dylan Tomine's "Closer to the Ground"
is a pleasure to read, depicting as it does the days and seasons of
a family intent on living joyfully, and providing at the same time
a lively meditation on our relationship to nature. I found its
buoyant, irrepressible, self-deprecating tone entir
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