Nature

Learn how to understand the skies with this comprehensive pocket guide to cloudspotting.

Clouds have been the object of fascination throughout history, their fleeting magnificence and endless variability providing food for thought for scientists and daydreamers alike.

Clouds may have many individual shapes, but there are a few basic forms. In this definitive guide to the clouds and the skies, Richard Hamblyn introduces you to all the different cloud species. The Pocket Cloud Book will enable you to identify individual clouds, skies and phenomena. You will also be able to track their likely changes over time and predict the implications they have for the weather you may experience.

This brand new pocket-size edition includes the 12 new cloud types only recently officially recognised by the World Meteorological Organization. Many of these previously only had informal names, but their new Latin classification brings them into the fold of officially adopted global meteorological terms. It also includes a new foreword from the Met Office's Chief Meteorologist and an updated section on climate change and the role that clouds might play in shaping future conditions on Earth.

Produced in association with the Met Office - the world's premier weather forecasting bureau - all things to do with the origin and development of a cloud are here. Whether you are looking at a giant cumulonimbus or a tiny shred of stratus factus, an everyday occurrence or a fleeting rarity, your cloudspotting will be expertly informed and much more satisfying with this handy reference guide. This book will enable you to not only identify individual clouds and skies as they might appear at any given moment, but also to track their likely changes over time, and thus predict weather patterns.

Illustrated with stunning images from around the globe, this pocket edition is the perfect size to take with you on walks and have it handy in the garden so that you can enjoy sky-gazing every day. This is the only guide to cloud classification that you will ever need, in handy and practical pocket-friendly size.

Unleash the power of nature’s pharmacy for healing and self-care with this pocket-sized guide to medicinal plants.

Immerse yourself in a world of wonder as you explore 75 Plants That Heal, which will leave you wanting to unlock the secrets of nature’s medicine cabinet. Discover the common medicinal plants, their fascinating history, and therapeutic properties, while learning techniques to prepare safe herbal remedies such as infusions, tinctures, oils, and lotions.

• Quickly recognize plants through exceptional photographic plates.
• Dive into each species, with a wealth of information on its dedicated page.
• Embrace a range of common plants, understanding their healing potential.
• Find practical tips for environmentally responsible plant picking.

Authored by a respected ethnobotanist and doctor of phytotherapy, this book will nourish your knowledge of natural science, making it your essential companion to herbal medicines and natural beauty products, all in a handy pocket size.

A favourite of foragers, the Elder tree is the very essence of summer, with frothy blooms emerging in the late spring and filling the hedges and pathways with a glorious fragrance. As the seasons turn, the elderberry comes into its own, a delicious food for humans and animals alike, bursting with vitality and an excellent source of vitamin c.

In The Little Wild Library: Elder, discover how to make the most of this beautiful tree, with recipes and makes to try throughout the year. Once you’ve found your favourite elder, come back as the seasons change and find new things to do with your foraged treasure – from edible treats to useful tinctures. Beginner-friendly, the elder is the perfect plant for those new to foraging to get to know – with easy-to-follow recipes for favourite makes such as the delicate and romantic elderflower champagne.

Learn how to identify the elder amidst its hedgerow friends from the comprehensive botanical information included, and take this pocket-sized book out on foraging adventures to help spot the elder blossom bursting forth in the spring sunshine – though you’ll be sure to catch its heavenly scent before you see it! As fall arrives, return to your favourite elder and gather the elderberries that shine brightly from its branches. Through the book, learn about the history of the elder, and discover some of the myths, legends, and folklore attached to this beautiful plant.

The perfect beginner's guide to foraging, in a handy pocket-sized format, The Little Wild Library: Elder will reveal the secrets of the hedgerow and inspire those new to foraging to experiment and explore the beautiful plants around them.

Peeking out of hedgerows and spilling a beautiful scent, the wild rose is one of the most charming wild plants to find. A favourite of bees when the flowers are in bloom, its vibrant red rosehips are a much needed burst of colour as fall turns to winter and the landscape darkens.

In The Little Wild Library: Wild Rose, discover how to make the most of this beautiful plant, with recipes and makes to try throughout the year. Once you’ve found your favourite wild rose, come back as the seasons change and find new things to do with your foraged treasure – from edible treats to useful tinctures. Discover recipes that make use of robust and plump rosehips that decorate the branches in autumn, and return in the spring to forage and gather petals and flowers to explore new ways to use this most ancient of roses. All the recipes and makes are beginner friendly, making it easier and more fulfilling to engage with the natural world and form a connection to the plants and flowers that decorate our lives.

Learn how to identify the wild rose amidst its hedgerow friends from the comprehensive botanical information included, and take this pocket-sized book out on foraging adventures to help spot the rosa canina waving merrily on a spring breeze, or brightening a dull fall afternoon. Through the book, learn about the history of the wild rose, including how it got its name, and discover some of the myths, legends, and folklore attached to this beautiful plant.

The perfect beginner's guide to foraging, in a handy pocket-sized format, The Little Wild LIbrary: Wild Rose will reveal the secrets of the hedgerow and inspire those new to foraging to experiment and explore the beautiful plants around them.

As winter turns to spring, a froth of white appears on the hawthorn, giving it its old name the May tree. This abundance of tiny white flowers heralds the coming of warmer months, and that let’s the world know that spring has finally sprung! As the year progresses, this tenacious tree gives shelter to birds and insects, and small creatures seeking shelter in its thorny tangled branches. As the seasons turn, the vibrant red berries that decorate the tree come fall are a source of nourishment for the wildlife that has made the hawthorn its home.

Steeped in myth, the hawthorn is a magical tree, hidden in plain sight all around us. Legend has it that it is bad luck to cut down a hawthorn tree, and their robust branches, plentiful fruits, and solid wood have made them a favourite of foragers, and famers!

In The Little Wild Library: Hawthorn, discover how to make the most of this ancient and useful tree, with beginner- friendly recipes and makes to try throughout the year. Once you’ve found your favourite hawthorn, come back as the seasons change and find new things to do with your foraged treasure – from edible treats to useful tinctures.

Learn how to identify the hawthorn amidst its hedgerow friends from the comprehensive botanical information included, and take this pocket-sized book out on foraging adventures to help spot the hawthorn blossom bursting forth in the spring sunshine, or shiny brightly and lifting spirits on a dull fall afternoon. Through the book, learn about the history of the hawthorn, including how some famous hawthorn trees have changed the best laid plans of modern life, and discover some of the myths, legends, and folklore attached to this beautiful plant.

The perfect beginner's guide to foraging, in a handy pocket-sized format, The Little Wild Library: Hawthorn will reveal the secrets of the hedgerow and inspire those new to foraging to experiment and explore the beautiful plants around them.

If you, like many gardeners, have a fascination for plant names and their derivations, but stop short of wanting to study botanical nomenclature in great depth, this book is for you!

Precise naming is essential to be able to identify plants accurately and most gardeners have at least some knowledge of ‘botanical Latin’. But a plant’s full botanical name does much more than give it a unique label. The name can often tell you where the plant originated, who discovered it, what shape it is, and much else besides. What’s more, the name can be used and understood anywhere in the world.

This is a book to have with you at the garden centre, and one to keep beside your bed for an entertaining read. Plant Names Explained is an indispensable guide and makes the subject accessible, enjoyable and fun. It shows not only how plant names work, but also how you can make use of them in entertaining as well as practical ways.

A selective alphabetical listing of botanical names and their explanations is accompanied by features exploring cultivar names, with translations of foreign terms and lists of plants you can link with special occasions and celebrations, or with personal names. Other features highlight the places, people and plant characteristics that lie behind the names: gardens and nurseries, countries and cities, plant hunters and gardeners, colours, characteristics and habitats.

Plant Names Explained is an essential and fascinating guide to the subject. What may at first seem a dry but necessary convention is revealed to be a way of opening up the intriguing world of plants.

Owls are spectacular and fascinating birds, both in the wild and in captivity, with interest in keeping and breeding them rapidly increasing. The author shares her expertise, gained from a lifetimes experience of working with birds of prey, to give sound practical advice on how to care for these magnificent creatures, with chapters on housing and equipment, incubation and rearing, and training and flying owls.

Learn how to train birds of prey correctly and safely. Jemima Parry-Jones, owner of the National Birds of Prey Centre, covers the five family groups in detail: eagles, hawks, falcons, buzzards, and owls.

Ten animals – nine non-human and one human – take you on ten journeys, where, in each case, an animal in need of rescue overcomes their issues and goes on to help people overcome theirs.
Dale Preece-Kelly, an Animal Assisted Therapy Practitioner, details his own very personal experiences – and how he was rescued by his animals – describing how the creatures he has rescued have become first class therapy animals.
Featuring a unique range of species, some never previously used in a therapeutic environment, this book demonstrates how each species brings its own benefits to a therapy session. With a foreword from respected Animal Geographer Dr Daniel Allen, who has long supported Dale’s work, the book also gives advice on how to select and ‘train’ a therapy animal, what the benefits are of working with different animals, and how the benefits of each species differ.
This book provides a unique and fascinating insight into the field of animal-assisted therapy.

Partners celebrates the diversity of the canine contribution to our species, providing the reader with heart-warming stories of loyalty, perseverance and courage. Written by people who learned to trust their lives to the senses of a dog, and highlighting true examples of working dog behaviour, it enables all dog lovers to understand the inborn senses and instincts of their dog, which man can shape to his benefit.
Instincts tie these stories together: Bart finding a child lost on a mountain, Traveler pulling his blind partner from the path of a moving car, and Truman soothing the souls of abused children. With specific explanations of physiological attributes and innate characteristics – such as olfactory prowess, survival instincts, and intelligent disobedience – plus quotes from fifty canine professionals chronicling working dog behaviors, Partners demonstrates the similarities between the behaviour of a tender Cocker Spaniel who brought an abused child back to reality, and a tough law enforcement K9 who assured his handlers safety. This is the story Partners delivers – unity.