Jane Spavold Tims's Blog, page 24

red, red, red

Autumn, no doubt about it. When I go outside, I see red everywhere. The red of the leaves of red maple, many already on the ground. The red of the lily-of-the-valley berries. The red of the crab apples on our little tree at the end of the walkway. The red hips on the rose bush beside the driveway. Red, red, red.

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red, red, red

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each rose hip edge

an ellipse to complete

the curve of rambling canes

berries red, mellow to orange

the white shine, highlight, tipped

with the black remains of blossom,

once pink, now vermillion of vermis,

cinnabar, poisonous, mercuric, toxic

lily-of-the-valley, raceme of berries

dangle, vivid crimson blush, bright

spot on fevered cheeks, the child

thought the berries good to eat

scarlet sigillatus, decorated

small images, pixilations

of woman with camera

limps to reach third

red, ruby, purple

red crabapples

in bunches

hanging

in rain

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Copyright Jane Tims 2019

All my best,

Jane

Six requirements for an At-Home-Writing-Retreat

I planned to attend a writers’ retreat this week, in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick. In the end, it was cancelled – too few participants. My arthritis is having a flare-up, so perhaps it is just as well I am at home. But I refuse to miss my creative writing time. So, I will do what I have done before. I will have an at-home-writing-retreat.

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I have done this twice before, so I know what works for me.

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For this retreat I need:

1. A room in my house where I don’t usually work, with a desk and a place to relax. My guest room is clean and quiet, ready for a session each day. Actually, quiet is not necessary … years of working in a big office with lots of activity and other people have made me immune to ‘noise.’

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2. Six days with no appointments or outside obligations. Since I had set aside six days for the Saint Andrews Retreat, my calendar is cooperating. I will also keep my emailing and social media time to a minimum.

3. Six days with few domestic obligations. I already have reduced expectations when it comes to domesticity! To help with the retreat I have planned easy meals and each day I will do one thing to help us keep ahead of the mess … for example, today I filled and ran the dishwasher.

4. A cooperative husband. No problem, he is always supportive!

5. Goals for the week. I am in the middle of revisions for my next book in the Kaye Eliot Mystery Series: ‘Something the Sundial Said.’ I also want to work on the map I include in all my mystery novels. By the end of the week, I want to be able to send for the Proof of the book, complete with map. I also want to create three blog posts, including two new poems.

6. Physical exercise. I do stretches and bike on my stationary cycle every day anyway. This week, I’ll spent some deliberate time walking outside, taking photos and feeding my need for nature, the basis of my creativity.

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Today is the first day of my retreat. I took a walk in the rain and some photos for Wednesday’s blog. I did 70 pages of revisions (17,000 words); this sounds like a lot but this is the final revision before the Proof (will get editing and a beta-read). This afternoon I wrote the draft of a poem and started the map for ‘Something the Sundial Said’ (I use GIMP to draw my maps). The retreat is underway!

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Here is the first draft of the map for my book. The book is set in a fictional community in Nova Scotia.

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All my best,

Jane

wild turkeys in New Brunswick

As we came back from our drive in Charlotte County last weekend, we were on the lookout for wild life. And we were not disappointed.

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Down an unused road we saw twelve wild turkeys. Most, perhaps all, were females. In recent years we have seen wild turkeys more often on our various drives.

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They are fun to watch. They are quite social. Some were foraging, probably eating seeds, berries or insects; others were resting among the pink rabbit-foot clover.

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The University of New Brunswick is asking people to report the wild turkeys they see. The study will help determine the status of populations in New Brunswick.  Report sightings to the Facebook Page NB Wild Turkey Research

 

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All my best,

Jane

 

a gulp of swallows

The days are warm and humid. The nights offer compensating cool. The gardens are full of produce and, yesterday, we made our first stop at a roadside stand to get apples. People say “feels like fall.” On the weather channel they call this “hurricane season.”  We turn the calendar on the kitchen wall to September.

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Fall is a month away, but the birds know the time of year. They flock with a sense of urgency, even desperation.

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A flock of swallows is called a ‘flight’ or a ‘gulp.’

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gulp

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barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)

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Flight of swallows

against blue sky

gapes, as thousands

thicken cables,

telephone lines,

weather reports,

gossip. Feels like

fall. Birds follow

clues of day length,

temperature,

scarcity of food.

Gulp of swallows

expands, contains

every straggler.

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Copyright Jane Tims 2019

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All my best,

Jane

 

Small, small garden

Arthritis means my days of the big garden are over. But I can still enjoy digging in the earth, planting seeds, pulling weeds and harvesting, just on a smaller scale.

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On our deck are two Veg Trugs (Lee Valley Tools used to sell them) and one bag of soil, slit open and supported on a metal frame. In the ‘gardens’ I have three parsley plants, two snow pea plants, three yellow wax bean plants, three parsley plants and one cucumber plant.

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Each day for the last month, I sit on the deck and nibble on my ‘harvest for the day.’ Sometimes it’s one bean pod and a snow pea pod, sometimes two beans, sometimes a cucumber sandwich. Seems small, but I think I enjoy these little sessions more than the buckets of produce I once harvested from my garden.

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Tea berries

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Teaberry

Gaultheria procumbens

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leaves shiny, thick

capsules waxy, red

aromatic oil

methyl salicylate

mint and wintergreen

tea soothing, blood thinning

creeping wintergreen

spice berry, drunkards

staggering over

the forest floor

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Copyright Jane Tims 2019

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All my best

Jane

Raspberries

It’s a great year for berries. Our blueberry bushes are loaded with the biggest, sweetest berries I have ever tasted. The raspberries are full and sweet. The blackberries are still mostly unripe but the canes are heavy with future berries.

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raspberry ramble

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every berry

a sweet cup

detached

from its cosy seat

deep in brambles

juice pressed

between teeth

seeds and briars

handfuls of sun

rain clouds

warm winds

gravel soil

eager fingers

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Copyright Jane Tims 2019

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All my best

Jane

moose

 

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moose

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square body

four hundred kilos

cow lifts her head, angular

stares at the car

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long ears maneuvre

in all directions

no challenge

dewlap swings

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cow returns to her business

prehensile lips

pulling leaves

and chokecherries

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We saw this moose on the way to our cabin, about a kilometre along the road. She stared at us for a while, eyes and ears curious, but eventually she returned to her feeding.

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All the berries are coming into ripe: chokecherries, blueberries and blackberries. At the cabin the blueberries are the largest and sweetest I have ever seen. Everywhere I picked showed evidence of an animal there before me. Not a moose. Perhaps a bear, not caring where he sat as long as he could scoop up those berries.

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All my best, Jane 

Copyright August 2019

blackberries

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blackberries

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floricanes bend

with August weight

shape an archway

show the path

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through brambles

to lake

pergola unfastens

gate, entices

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pickers

into wicked thorns

sweet indigo

temptation

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primocanes snag

hems of gloves

ankles of socks

handles of baskets

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angry scratch

for every berry

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Copyright Jane Tims 2019

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Hope you are enjoying this blackberry summer.

All my best,

Jane

root cellar

 

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root cellar

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over the hill

cold earth sequesters

seeps of water

and lichened stone

roots in dry sand

preserves on shelves

of rough-hewn boards

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mice gnaw on the seam

of a gunny sack of corn

blue mold on the surface

of a jar of apple jelly

Mama just scoops it away

pumpkins never keep

past December

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Copyright Jane Tims 2019

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All my best,

Jane