Celebrations of Nature

Alan Thomas is an associate professor of English at the University of
Toronto.

The title is simple and old-fashioned, and the photography has the same
qualities. But the ideas allowed into this book of photographs through
the captions have a contemporary ring. Balch has worked for decades as a
forest entomologist—latterly in charge of the Canadian Entomological
Laboratory in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Balch helped introduce the
term “ecology” into popular usage with a series of lectures given in
1965 on the CBC under the title “The Ecological Viewpoint.” The
photographs gathered here have obviously been taken over the years on a
variety of differing occasions; there are family photographs and travel
photographs as well as nature photographs. But the message of ecology,
of course, is a message of interconnections and of parallels. Thus there
is nothing incongruous about a picture of the airborne-parachute seeds
of the plant salsify, and another picture of the outstretched arms of a
favorite grandchild, stretching her wings as she enters a lake. The
contents will provide a gentle kind of pleasure, like that of being with
the family, or observing the details of life abounding in a walk through
the natural forest.