Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape

This is essentially a dictionary of landscape terms. I applaud the author's desire to capture and preserve American landscape language, and many of the entries are entertaining and interesting. The accompanying illustrations are also well-done and useful. I do not recommend sitting down with this book for a cover-to-cover read, but it is enjoyable to read a few entries here and there. Every American reader is likely to stumble upon some long-forgotten term that applies to the reader's own personal landscape.

an entertaining collection of descriptive essays by a variety of authors that reveals our American connection to natural features and our environmental landscape; contains a delightful sampling of place-based vernacular terms

A unique undertaking, and an interesting way to catalog the American landscape.

A beautiful telling of geological and geographical landscape stories.

"I am alone, except for the occasional sea gull or group of plovers. I am wearing my father-in-law's spare coat because I forgot mine in the final chaotic moment of packing up and departing. The neck of the coat is drawn up over my mouth and nose. My fleece cap is pulled down to my brow. I am shielding the half-inch of space between with both gloved hands, walking into the wind."

Read it all at http://troysworktable.blogspot.com/2007/01/ocean-calls.html