Alys Fowler

I'll admit that I mostly picked this memoir up for the natural history and the accounts of mucking around the remnants of the British canal system in the vicinity of Birmingham. As for Fowler's own personal journey of self-discovery, well, that I found less-than-convincing. I would need a better understanding of her marriage, and why she chose to abandon her promises to her ex-husband, to have a sense of whether that choice was justified. From what I was told, it seems as though she merely wanted to be out from under the burden of dealing with a sickly partner (Cystic Fibrosis), that she knew was sick when she entered marriage. Am I being unfair? Possibly. But that is the feeling I'm left with.… (mais)

My apartment is possibly one of the most inhospitable of environments for raising plants at all--north-facing; vegetation-loving cats; a small, recessed back stairwell shared with three other apartments. But this book made me feel like I could at least start somewhere. Fowler provides a terrific overview for the basics of starting small, manageable gardens and creating a sustainable work ethic. She covers a lot of area and leaves you informed enough to understand what kind of further information you may need (and how to articulate it). I checked this out from the library, but it is something I would definitely consider buying if/when I move into a more conducive space or could figure out a way to build shelves inaccessible to felines. (Mainly, I just want to start a compost bin to satisfy my love for watching things decompose. Would my neighbors care? We'll see....) The only drawback for me was how poorly the book was edited--misplaced punctuation made many sentences difficult to read, and there was one instance where a sentence just stopped halfway through at the end of a page and a new chapter started on the next. Weird, frustrating, but generally didn't detract significantly from the overall information.… (mais)

Alys had always wanted to be an adventurer; someone who would climb mountains and forge rivers, sail and cycle to parts of the world that she had never been before. But life got in the way, she fell in love and married a penniless artist who sought to expand her mind and gave her a different way of looking at the world. A degree in science with an environmental element offered a perspective between the wild and the controlled. As her writing career blossomed a move to Birmingham presented itself with an opportunity to put down roots and make a garden of her own.

But after a while the call of the wild tugged at her still even deep in the city, a friends suggested sleeping under the stars or canoeing the canals. That struck a chord and a small inflatable canoe was acquired; the urban wilderness awaited her. Alys starts to explore the canals of Birmingham, discovering the beauty in the watery lines that criss-cross the city. It became an escape from her current life, a place where she could be free, so much so that her neat and tidy garden began to blur at the edges as weeds grew and slugs and snails resumed their relentless munching. These moments of solitude she came to cherish.

It was a time to rekindle old friendships too; she had known Sarah and Ming for a while and caught up with them for lunch. They bought their friend along, someone Alys knew a little, as she was a landscape designer. That moment of meeting Charlotte was to shatter her stable world and marriage for Alys had begun to fall in love with her. The moment of discovering her actual sexuality would be the toughest point of her life and separating from her husband who has cystic fibrosis would be the hardest decision to take.

Time alone in nature was what I needed most. It’s my reset button.

Fowler has written an honest, lyrical and whimsical memoir of her very personal journey. She has an incredible eye for detail seeing both the beautiful and the unsightly as she floats along the canals of Birmingham and occasionally London. The deep life changing events happening in her life means that she does get very introspective at times, analysing the tiniest details for meaning and understanding. You do feel for ‘H’ as he is left to drift, as Alys finds her new identity and way in the world. It is worthy addition to this new sub-genre of personal story tied into interaction with the natural world.… (mais)