Marc HamerSeed to Dust
Life, Nature, and a Country Garden
MARC HAMER was born in the North of England but has lived in Wales for more than thirty years. After spending a period of time homeless, then working on the railway, he returned to education and studied fine art. Hamer worked in art galleries and taught creative writing in prisons before becoming a gardener and mole catcher. He is the author of How to Catch a Mole.
Prologue
January
White
Beginnings
Peppered Moth
February
Returning
Ice
Jasmine
Another Gardener
Climbing Hydrangea
A Story
Cyclops
Code-breaker
Wood Pigeon
The Old North
‘I’m Here, Are You There?’
She Needs a Stick
March
Grass Sprouts, Trees Bud
Cosmos
March Frost
Pruning Roses
Snow
Peonies
Potatoes Rattle in a Pan
Cherry Buds Appear
The Middle Way
Sparrows Begin to Nest
Bees
Daffodils
Narcissus—Are You There?
Minotaur
April
Distant Thunder
A Vase of Cherries
Dahlias
Girlish
Love Is . . .
The Window Cleaner
Tulpen
Swifts Arrive
Song
World Sings
A Broken Heart
Mouse
Mowing in the Rain
Floating Islands
May
Peonies Bloom
Gulls Rip Grass
Holy Thorn
Mercedes
An Endless Stream of Days
Fossils
Night Scents
Burning Books
Sun!
Heart
Maybug
Rain, No Rain
June
A Dumb Labourer Visits
A New Path
Cold Returns
Solstice
In Your Garden
A Round of Applause
Aphids
July
Stoics
Wabi-sabi
Pelargoniums
Flying Ants Day
Swifts Leave
Pine Cones
Carp
Green Flames
August
Cofiwch Dryweryn (Coffee-ookh Dre-weh-rin)
Umbellifers
Fountain
Cats and Dogs
Distant Sounds
Pond Scum
Laurels
A Break
Gathering Seeds
September
The Waste Land
‘Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird’
The Many-Forking Path
Colchicums
Scything the Meadow
Autumn Equinox
October
Go Now, Bonnie Boy
October Mist
Birthday
Whisky
Molecatcher
Our Lady of the Flowers
Apples
First Snow
November
Hop-tu-Naa
Frost
Anemone to Zantedeschia
The Great Riddle of the Self
Haiku
Gipsies
The Lily Gardens
Lifting Dahlias
Leaving
December
We Barely Spoke, I Tell Myself . . .
Back to Work
The Floating World
Home
Flowers
Postscript and Acknowledgements
