After years of teaching nature classes and workshops, Hallowell felt people were looking for more than guidebooks on identification and location. They wanted a book that would answer some of the simple questions about the trees, flowers, birds, and animals they saw in the mountain environment. Using a month-by-month format, Hallowell, in her own warm and wise voice, offers over 80 vignettes packed with interesting and useful information. For example, did you know that the average one-acre garden has an estimated 50,000 dirt-eating worms? That by the time a robin is 12 days old, it can consume 14 feet of earthworms in one day? That a square foot of soil can support three healthy dandelion plants, which will produce 18,000 seeds? That a tree can add height or length only at its tips? Do you know how birds keep warm in winter? How you can tell the temperature by looking at rhododendron leaves? How you can tell the difference between a bee, a wasp, and a hornet? All of this and more can be found in Mountain Year