Ask most folks to depict a year, and they'll show you a calendar. Ask veteran naturalist Mike Blair, and he'll show you the wonders to be found in Kansas, season by season.

Mike Blair has spent a lifetime outdoors, venturing beyond fences to closely observe "natural things" while recording his observations in both words and images. In this sumptuous book he presents some of those observations as the cycle of a year, beginning with a hike through January's deep snowdrifts that "gets you down to business" only to later encounter the white driftings of summer as cottonwood seeds take to the...