Advertisement
Meet Angela E. Douglas, the biologist and author of Near the Forest, By the Lake, a collection of essays about the natural world, and the wonders of life in her little corner of Upstate New York.I am fortunate to live close to a natural world dominated by forests and woodlands, and by lakes and ponds. Being a writerly sort of person, I find myself expressing my enthusiasm in words. As I walk in a local landscape, something attracts my attention and sets me thinking about the biology or history or some quirky feature of a particular species or location. Rafts of ducks take up residence on the lake in winter, sycamore trees shed great chunks of bark in the summer heat, swallows nest in tree snags marking a beaver pond, and the hush of a hemlock grove muffles the sound of the nearby creek. Our task is only to pay attention to the natural world close to home: to appreciate the great diversity of organisms, to take pleasure in the familiar and the unexpected, to value what each season brings, and to acknowledge the impact of human activities on our world, for both good and ill.
Bio: The natural world has always fascinated me. I don’t know why, other than that I come from the New Forest, a place of ancient woodlands, heath, and open pasture close to the sea, in the south of England. I became a professional biologist, a career that took me up and down the UK, from Oxfordshire to Aberdeenshire. And then, when the children left home, my husband and I did likewise. We landed jobs at Cornell University, giving us the opportunity to explore the magnificent Finger Lakes.
On Sunday 22nd March 2020, I wrote a short essay about our small and unremarkable backyard. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had started a new chapter in my life. The weekly essays about my backyard over the following pandemic year evolved into a book, Nature on the Doorstep (Cornell University Press, 2023). I kept on writing, and Near the Forest, By the Lake, my second book of essays about the local natural world, was published, also by Cornell University Press, in 2025. More information is available at https://
Register at https://brooksidemuseum.org/event/near-the-forest-by-the-lake-with-angela-e-douglas/
Advertisement
Event Venue
21 Fairground Ave., Ballston Spa, NY, United States, New York 12020
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
