Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 9
- Grade: 4
Description
Nominated for ForeWord Magazine's 2008 Book of the Year Award - Nature Category
In 1988, Chris Czajkowski walked into British Columbia's Central Coast Mountains to build a homestead, a business, and a life. A Mountain Year is a beautifully produced art book full of original paintings, sketches and diary entries, offering an awe-inspiring glimpse into the life of this independent spirit and the landscape that she calls home.
In this illustrated journal, Czajkowski intimately describes the splendour of seasonal transformation with her trademark expressiveness; each day brings new obstacles and surprising revelations. At the start of the year, she writes, "The night was bright with a silvery soup of moonlight refracted off snowflakes fine as stardust." Spring arrives with breathtaking beauty and summer brings company from abroad. In the fall, Chris travels back to her first autumn at Nuk Tessli when she views "an extraordinarily beautiful moment. The clouds hung low enough to almost touch the water . . . and a wonderful, bluish, pearly luminescence covered everything." Prepare to witness the magnificence of a year in British Columbia's high-altitude wilderness, a place of astounding natural beauty like no other.
About the author
Chris Czajkowski was born and raised in the north of England. She lived and worked in Uganda, New Zealand, the South Pacific and South America before settling in the remote reaches of British Columbia's Coast Range mountains, 480 kilometres north of Vancouver, where she created the Nuk Tessli Alpine Experience, an ecotourism business catering to hikers and naturalists. She has written ten books about her nearly thirty years of wilderness living, including Snowshoes and Spotted Dick: Letters from a Wilderness Dweller, A Mountain Year: Nature Diary of a Wilderness Dweller, A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook: The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes and most recently, Ginty's Ghost: A Wilderness Dweller's Dream.
Librarian Reviews
A Mountain Year: Nature Diary of a Wilderness Dweller
Chris Czajkowski shares her diary of life at remote Nuk Tessli, her home in the Charlotte Alplands just below the tree line on the edge of the West Chilcotin. From the end of December 2004 to October 2005, she records the experiences of each season. Czajkowski notes the weather, the birds, the animals and the plants as she skis, tramps and hikes through the wilderness. Her familiarity with the area allows her to make comparisons to other years and note changes and unusual occurrences. Beautifully illustrated with Czajkowski’s own sketches and paintings, the book demonstrates her attention to detail and her passion especially for the birds and plants with which she lives.Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2009-2010.
Other titles by
Captured by Fire
Surviving British Columbia's New Wildfire Reality
Harry
A Wilderness Dog Saga
Lonesome
Memoirs of a Wilderness Dog
And the River Still Sings
A Wilderness Dweller's Journey
And the River Still Sings
A Wilderness Dweller's Journey
Ginty's Ghost
A Wilderness Dweller's Dream
A Wilderness Dweller's Cookbook
The Best Bread in the World and Other Recipes
Cabin at Singing River
One Woman's Story of Building a Home in the Wilderness
Wildfire in the Wilderness
