"Living by the bog has given me time to wander about in my past; I report what I discover or recover, I write down snippets of memory. Often I merely mull about what could be down there, back there, in my memory bog."
Not so much nature writing as memoir, this book uses a bogland on Gabriola Island as a springboard to recollections far and wide, but the author never dives in, never really touches the bog.
Szanto congratulates himself for leaving the wetland he purchased in its natural state rather than filling it in and make his property much like others along the west coast. Like most who retreat to a rural space from city life, he has difficulty describing his surroundings without launching into stories about his youth, his career, his family, or the many other places he has lived.
