Under the Apple Tree

In this compelling nature journal Maine farmer and author Jennifer Wixson shares her reflections from the summer of 2017. After her mother's unexpected death that spring, Wixson sought repose in the shade and the sanctuary offered by an old apple tree situated on her farm in central Maine. There, pen and journal in hand, she records the antics and adventures of the world around her: a nervous-Nellie chipmunk, a motherly bluebird, a wild swarm of honeybees, and a variety of other woodland creatures such as Walter the Gray Tree Frog, Sam Vireo, and Mr. and Mrs. Hairy Woodpecker. These storybook-like (but very real) characters aid Wixson in coming to terms with her mother's untimely passing. In her journal Wixson, who holds a Master's degree in Divinity from Bangor Theologica Seminary, weaves spiritual reflection together with her keen observations of nature. Accordingly, we are not surprised to learn that "Mother Nature is the rock upon which this journal is built" (see Mathew 16:18). Wixson admits to a strong curiosity about the natural world, which as the summer progresses--and she acts upon her curiosity--provides many an amusing moment in the book. Her evocative writing lures readers into the moment so much so that we smell the sweet woodruff and wild bergamot bee balm from her herb garden, hear the plashing of her Scottish Highland cattle in the pond below, and delight in the mating calls of the gray tree frogs, which "sound like chimps in the trees fighting over a banana." Eavesdropping as we are on this Lilliputian-like world under the apple tree--where the the cycle of birth, life and death is very much in evidence--we witness as the summer progresses the evolution of Wixson's thinking about death from a "bad" thing to a natural and necessary part of LIfe. Real-time photographs taken by the author add charming visual context to the journal.