It’s no coincidence that my blog page features a design of books. As well as having a great love of nature, like many with similar interests I am a bibliophile. I have learned over the years to be particular as to what to add to my library and I have two books of which I am very proud to own, both by James Alder. They are the Birds and Flowers of the Castle of Mey and the Birds of Balmoral. The former was presented to the Queen Mother and the latter to Her Majesty the Queen. Whether you are of a left, right or centre political persuasion I think you would be hard indeed not to have found the death of Her Majesty the Queen a sad occasion. I had my copy of the birds of Balmoral out on the table this week.
Both books
contain some wonderful prints of birds and flowers by James Alder. There are short introductions in both books
and this includes in Birds of Balmoral words from the Queen to James about the
conservation work done on the estate of Balmoral of which Prince Phillip had
taken a great interest. The Queen did
acknowledge that historically some wildlife was not encouraged on the estate,
and of course we all know what that meant.
Let us hope that the numerous gamekeepers on the estate are rather more
tolerant these days.
Anyway, I
share one thing in common with royalty, I have both books by James Alder on my
shelves.
I’ve
included a selection of images of postage stamps which have a natural history
theme and which were issued, as were many others, during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth 11.