Wildwood Quotes

“To enter a wood is to pass into a different world in which we ourselves are transformed.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“There's more truth about a camp than a house. Planning laws need not worry the improvising builder because temporary structures are more beautiful anyway, and you don't need permission for them. There's more truth about a camp because that is the position we are in. The house represents what we ourselves would like to be on earth: permanent, rooted, here for eternity. But a camp represents the true reality of things: we're just passing through.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I have always thought of the moths and butterflies as a bonus to the flowers, as though Nature were admiring her own work.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I know of nothing uglier or more saddening than a machine-flailed hedge. It speaks of the disdain of nature and craft that still dominates our agriculture.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I was awakened early by the massed cockerels of Osh. There had been heavy rain overnight, and as I lay in bed I could hear the first traffic splashing through deep puddles in the potholed streets. Unfamiliar birdsong floated in, and a thin steam rose off the windowsills. I found myself in a faded hotel suite of two bedrooms, bathroom and huge sitting room full of ancient threadbare sofas draped in rugs. I felt very much at home; even more so when the hotelier brought in a breakfast tray of fresh, hot bread, honey, butter and chai. I even enjoyed the stampede of silverfish that fled the bathroom and the rusty water of the shower. I knew for certain I was going to like Kyrgyzstan.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees