In her new collection of essays, So Much Sky, gardening author Karen offers up bite-sized gems that view modern life through a rural lens, according to a press release.

Many of these pieces were originally published in the author’s “Slow Lane” column for Country Home magazine. Time does seem to slow as Weir-Jimerson lures you into a sometimes-forgotten world of chirping crickets, rogue tornados and country characters, both animal and human.

The essays are arranged by season. In spring, you meet Rose, a border collie puppy who proves it’s not difficult to herd cats. In summer, a neighbor’s bull invades the garden, sparking a new take on poet Frost’s advice about the importance of fences. In autumn, crime takes center stage and a sister is corrupted, as the author leads a dawn raid on a local cemetery’s abundant hydrangea blossoms. In winter, you can smell the cookies baking as winter’s “roulette wheel” spins out an Iowa snow day of car-sized drifts and old movies by the fire.

Weir-Jimerson is not farm-raised. She’s a working mother of suburban background with rural inclinations who, along with her husband, Doug, and two young sons (now grown), turns a rough Iowa farmstead into a little slice of heaven. She also loves to tell stories, many of them tied to gardening and farming.

Spring through winter, you share the family’s adventures with lambing, lack of closets, snow surfing kitties, a dapper donkey, finding skeletons in boxes at rural auctions, the political correctness of home-grown peas, irresistible petty crime, green Jello as a food group, bird and butterfly migration, a cacophony of clocks, and unsuccessful horseback rides that land you flat on the ground, so close to the earth you actually hear the hooves clattering away and more, according to book reviewers.

The 164-page book, $16, is available through Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com. A Kindle edition is coming soon.

Weir-Jimerson is the author of eight books on gardening and currently writes a column for Country Gardens magazine. She has published articles in Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Midwest Living, Horticulture and other magazines. Weir-Jimerson has a large cast of animals, including three horses, three donkeys, six sheep, seven dogs, 11 cats and more.