She Shall Have Some Peace There

We have just under a year to wait for Margaret Roach's new garden book, called "And I Shall Have Some Peace There." In February, 2011, the wait will be over and we can all curl up with our copies, perhaps with a snow storm raging outdoors, dreaming of the spring to come.

Margaret's books are always a generous mix of wisdom, philosophy and practicality (in no particular order) and they are among my favourite books to return to for inspiration and rediscovery. Her new book promises to be just as inspiring. She calls it a "drop-out memoir" - the tale of a corporate leader in media and publishing trading in her treks to Manhattan for treks to the frog pond. The catalyst for Margaret's dropping out (and the main subject of the book) is the stuff that verdant dreams are made of: her incredible Catskill acreage, beautifully tended to and landscaped, lush and alive and peaceful. Once you've seen it in person you will understand why working and living there full-time is so alluring.

Below is one potential cover for the book. Below that is Margaret's inspiration for the title of the book, a poem by William Yeats she studied in college.

I WILL ARISE AND GO NOW, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.