Bøger af Susan Ogilvy

An exquisitely illustrated, one-of-a-kind celebration of the hidden beauty of nature and the ingenuity of birds Susan Ogilvy started painting bird nests almost by accident. One day, while tidying up her garden after a storm, she found a chaffinch nest - a strange, sodden lump on the grass under a fir tree. She carried it inside and placed it on a newspaper; over the next few hours, as the water drained out of it, the sodden lump blossomed into a mossy jewel. She was amazed, and dropped everything to make a painting of the nest at exact life size.This was the start of an obsession; Ogilvy has since painted more than fifty bird nests from life, each time marvelling at its ingenious construction. Every species of bird has its own vernacular, but sources its materials - most commonly twigs, roots, grasses, reeds, leaves, moss, lichen, hair, feathers and cobwebs, less usually, mattress stuffing and string - according to local availability. Ogilvy would, of course, never disturb nesting birds; instead she relies upon serendipity, which is why all her nests have either been abandoned after fulfilling their purpose, or displaced by strong winds.Although Nests showcases the specimens she has found near her homes in Somerset and on the Isle of Arran, its subject matter is by no means only British, since these same birds can be found all over Europe, Scandinavia and as far afield as Russia, Turkey and North Africa. This wondrous book is all the more special for its rarity. Few modern books exist specifically on the subject of bird nests; the most recent among the author's reference works was published in 1932. Exquisitely designed and packaged, Nests will be an essential addition to the libraries of all nature lovers.

An illustrated natural history of British native trees, by a celebrated botanical artist and her forester brother-in-lawIn Overleaf, the botanical painter Susan Ogilvy and the eminent forester Richard Ogilvy introduce us to each of the native trees of the British Isles - and a number of non-native, but much cherished, naturalised species - via close and artful consideration of their leaves.From water-loving alder to long-lived yew, Susan paints both the front and back of every tree's leaf or needle in exquisite, jewel-like detail, reproduced on the page at exactly life size. Running parallel to Susan's paintings, Richard provides expert commentary on the natural history of the trees, the ecosystems they inhabit and the traditional uses of their timber, helping us identify each species in the wild while exploring the roles they have played and continue to play in our landscapes and communities.As vivid and true to life as a book of freshly picked and pressed leaves, Overleaf will delight and inform tree-spotting beginners and seasoned naturalists alike.