Gabriel Hemery's Blog: Gabriel Hemery, page 15

Solace in Nature

[image error]Dawn and river mists by Gabriel Hemery.
Panasonic GX9, 193mm, 1/250, f4.9, ISO3200

With a busy day of video conference calls ahead during our Covid-enforced lockdown, this morning I rose early to find solace in nature.

It was dark when I left the house, but already a song thrush was in full voice. I had a destination in mind to visit with my camera, but as is often the case, sometimes it’s the unexpected and unplanned which can be most rewarding.

After almost being run over by a fox in a hurry and spooking a small herd of roe deer, all the while serenaded by a cacophonous dawn chorus, I noticed a flock of rooks busy in two old poplar trees in the middle distance. Behind them the sky promised some spectacular colours once the sun found the horizon. As I waited, river mist began to pour onto the floodplain. The photo above was taken with a telephoto lens, and after many (many!) attempts I managed to capture a rook just where I wanted it and with a nice wing position.

As the low sun began to warm my freezing fingers I headed into the forest. I walked between a stand of pale birch stems and hawthorn trees whose green always welcomes the spring. A yellowhammer asked repeatedly for “a little bit of bread and some cheese.” It reminded me that once upon a time it was tradition to eat young hawthorn leaves, as they have a lovely flavour. As I came round a bend in the forest ride, and just for a fleeting moment, the sun appeared between the trees. It appeared as though the cold forest itself had caught fire.

[image error]The sun rises through the cold forest by Gabriel Hemery.
Panasonic GX9, 300mm, 1/100, f5.6, ISO3200

Audio, Ebook or Paperback?

Only because I’m curious, if you like the look of my new book published 30 June, Tall Trees Short Stories, which format would tempt you most?

See Poll below (or click here) – closes soon.

Which book format do you prefer?

— Gabriel Hemery (@GabrielHemery) March 26, 2020

[image error] Tall Trees Short Stories

Top Ten Tips to Help Your Local Indie Bookshop

Businesses are closing their doors due to the Covid-19 virus, but here’s how you could help your local independent bookshop survive.



[image error]The Edinburgh Bookshop, which supported the launch of my book Green Gold in 2019

With the advent of global Covid-19 pandemic, human society has reached a new tipping point (the subject of my latest free short story Fulcrumosity). Many of us will be worried about our family and loved ones first, and then by those things most dear to us. If you’re a book-lover you have probably already wondered what you can do to help keep your local indie bookshop open.

First of all, check out databases to identify your nearest indie bookstore:

Booksellers Association – UKIndieBound or Newpages – North AmericaAustralia Independent Bookseller or Australian Booksellers Association – AustraliaBooksellers NZ – New Zealand



My top ten tips to help your local indie bookshop/store:



Bookshops may be able to take orders and deliver locally. Check out their website to find out. The Edinburgh Bookshop is currently one example.Bookshops may be able to take orders over the phone. Why not try giving them a ring? Buy a gift certificate from your local indie bookshop. They can easily post them to you.Place a pre-order for that book you’ve been waiting for.If you are venturing outside, why not walk past your favourite bookstore and see if they have a table outside the front or a message in the window?Follow your local bookstore on social media or sign-up to their enews so you can keep up-to-date with their activities and news.Wondering what to read next? You could give your local indie bookshop a call and ask for advice. Just make sure you buy a book when you do.Many independent bookstores have relationships with local authors. Visit their website or social media to see if they’re offering special editions, signed copies, and other unique offerings that you certainly won’t find in the global online bookstores.You could consider donating to a charity or not-for-profit that supports the book trade. In the UK, take a look at The Book Trade Charity. In the US, check out the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.If none of these options work for you, remember you could choose to purchase a book via the online bookseller Hive which contributes a percentage to an indie bookshop of your choice with every purchase.

A Free Story for April

Regular readers will know that I’m giving away a free short story every month during 2020. Next month the story is Fulcrumosity.

If you’ve not already signed up to my enews, sign up before end March to receive your free copy.

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A sterile love blossoms in a pandemic world

Find out more about the other stories I’ve already released this year and why here.

Eye to Eye

I’m pleased to release another tale from my forthcoming book Tall Trees Short Stories Vol.20.

Eye to Eye is free to download for all my readers, with a new tale released every month during 2020. Be sure to sign up before end of March to read this nature short story.

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A naturalist suffers an extraordinary dizzy spell

Join my readers and receive your free short story

Environmental Land Management policy development

The UK Department of Environmental Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched a policy discussion document as part of their stakeholder engagement process in developing the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELM or ELMs).

Government is seeking the views of farmers, foresters, and other land managers in its new proposals for ELMs, publishing a ‘Discussion Document’ earlier today.

‘For more than forty years, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has dictated how we farm our land. Our departure from the EU and the CAP provides us with a unique opportunity to redesign our agricultural policies to allow us to meet our environmental ambitions, while supporting our farming sector. In freeing our farmers from the CAP and moving to a new system based on ‘public money for public goods’, we will put English farmers in the best position possible to meet the objectives of protecting the environment and producing food. This document sets out the government’s initial thinking on how these objectives can be supported through the design of a new ELM scheme.’

Defra, 25th February 2020

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To coincide with the publication of this discussion document, Defra will be holding regional workshops.

If you have an interest in the future of land management in the UK, make sure you have your say, go along to one of the workshops and engage with other planned activities.

There is also a survey you can complete online, which is open from today until 5th May.

Find out more, and how to take part here:
https://consult.defra.gov.uk/elm/elmpolicyconsultation

Memoirs of a Bonsai

I’m pleased to release another tale from my forthcoming book Tall Trees Short Stories Vol.20. Free to download for all my readers, with a new tale released every month during 2020.

Memoirs of a Bonsai follows the life story of an ancient bonsai tree in Japan.

“A bonsai in a pot does not know the great forest”

Memoirs of a Bonsai, Tall Trees Short Stories

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“Come closer, my little troglodyte, and I will tell you a story. My roots have not yet found their walls, and already my needles are lengthening. I know you to be the trapped spirit of Midori-san. I am only 562-years-young, with another half-life before me. Now, I will care for you. You may sip the dew from my needle tips, and pluck ants from my crevices. You will become reikon, a true spirit, and those will o’the wisps can bother you no more.“

Join my readers and receive your free short story

Let your imagination grow

I’m pleased to release a short promo film for my forthcoming collection of short stories.

Tall Trees Short Stories is a collection of 25 extraordinary tales exploring the natural world and our relationship with it, written by environmentalist and celebrated tree author Gabriel Hemery.

Publishing 30th June as an ebook and paperback, and available from all good bookshops.

Read more

Search to help forests in Australia

Regular readers will know that I support the ethical search engine Ecosia, which plants trees around the world, using funding raised by people using its alternative offering to some of the better known search providers.

This Thursday, 23rd January, all Ecosia searches will help plant trees in Australia. It will use 100% of its profits to help regenerate the country’s ecosystem by planting native, subtropical trees in the Byron Bay area, which is a biodiversity hotspot that has been badly affected by wildfires. With your help, they can plant trees that clean the air, bring down temperatures, support biodiversity, and attract rain in Australia.

Read more about the Ecosia Australia campaign. If you’ve not used the search engine before, give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.

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An evolutionary moment for humans?

On Thursday 16 April 2020, for ONE NIGHT ONLY, Sir David Attenborough’s remarkable new film is to be premiered around the world – David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.

Attenborough has an extraordinary ability to change the hearts and mind of ordinary people, as witnessed by the growing tide against plastics. Let’s hope that this new film may prove to be an evolutionary moment for humans.

“I’ve had the most extraordinary life. It’s only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.”

David Attenborough

The film is the result of a collaboration between WWF and Silverback Films. The film is to be premiered in a number of prestigious venues including the Royal Albert Hall, but tickets are still available for the film which will screen in a cinema near you. The film will also be released on Netflix.

“The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel, yet the way we humans live on earth is sending it into a decline.”

“Human beings have overrun the world. We’re replacing the wild with the tame”.​

Read more on the website of WWF