Publisher’s note: Fewer than 25 copies of this print run remain.

“That’s the thing about drawing. It’s an excuse to look long and hard at something, to touch it with your mind as you move the pen or paintbrush over the surface of the paper.”

In this charming and vivid essay, award-winning writer Helen Humphreys describes her midlife turn to nature drawing. After a six-month botanical illustration course through the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens during the pandemic, Helen describes how her awareness and appreciation of nature deepened through “conversations” with lily pads, flower heads, and other particular pieces of the natural world.

Decorated with twelve vibrant interior illustrations by the author, this chapbook is a hand-made, limited edition publication. Only 100 have been bound.

Praise for Helen Humphreys

“Humphreys can do so much, can convey so much meaning and move her reader so completely with the starting point of a simple apple … [She is] one of the country’s best and most thoughtful writers.”
—The Globe and Mail

“A writer whose heart is as open as her eyes.”
—Toronto Star

“There is much to admire Helen Humphreys' writing. Sustained lyricism that rarely escapes control and a gift for precise and vivid imagery.”
—Macleans

“Humphreys has an impeccable command of imagery, and her prose finds strength in its subtlety.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Delicate and incandescent . . . [Humphreys’s] descriptions bristle with nuance, and scenes are pared down to their bare essence.”
—San Francisco Chronicle