Jane Spavold Tims's Blog, page 43

getting the better of … a squirrel?

At readings of my book within easy reach, I often include the poem ‘beaked hazelnuts’ and tell my audience:

If I don’t pick my hazelnuts by August 6, the squirrels will get there ahead of me. They watch the calendar!

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hazelnuts viewed from the underside of the shrub canopy

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The Beaked Hazelnut is a wiry shrub found in mixed woods. The edible nut is contained in a bristly, beaked husk. We have three clumps of the shrubs in our yard, probably sprung from the stashes of squirrels over the years!

For my battles with the squirrels over the hazelnuts, just have a look at

https://janetims.com/2011/08/07/competing-with-the-squirrels/

and

https://janetims.com/2011/08/18/competing-with-the-squirrels-2/

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This year, I also watched the calendar. And on August 5, I picked most of the hazelnuts on our hazelnut ‘trees’. Picking is tricky because those pods are covered with sticky sharp hairs that irritate thumb and fingers.

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Never-the-less, I have a small bowl of hazelnuts to call my own (I left a few for the squirrels, more than they ever did for me). Now I will wait for them to dry and then have a little feast!

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beaked hazelnuts

(Corylus cornuta Marsh.)

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hazelnuts hang

husks curve

translucent, lime

they ripen

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this year, they are mine

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uptight red squirrels agitate, on guard, we watch

the hazelnuts ripen, slow as cobwebs falling, nut pies

browning through the glass of the oven door

green berries losing yellow, making blue

dust motes in a crook of light

float, small hooked hairs

shine

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two more days

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hesitate

and red squirrels

bury their hazelnuts

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From within easy reach (Chapel Street Editions, 2016)

https://www.amazon.ca/Within-Easy-Reach-Jane-Spavold/dp/1988299004

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Copyright Jane Tims 2017

Tendrils

My cucumber vines are still thriving …

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And the tendrils are still so charming!

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This one wants to pull up a chair!

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On Friday, I had my first cucumber salad from my vines!

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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims

Book giveaway

Are you a Goodreads subscriber? I keep track of the books I read there and maintain an author profile. I have also decided to try their ‘giveaway’ tool.

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So, if you live in Canada, United States or Great Britain and you would like to enter to win one of four paperback copies of Meniscus: South from Sintha, you can enter between August 6, 2017 and August 14, 2017. Meniscus: South from Sintha is the second book in the Meniscus Series. Odymn and the Slain are off on an adventure to return some of the Slain’s former ‘acquisitions’ to their homes. Well that was a really bad idea!!!!

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

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Meniscus

by Alexandra Tims

            Giveaway ends August 14, 2017.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

 

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I’ll let you know the results since some of you may be curious.

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Copyright Jane Tims 2017

wildflowers – Bladder campion

One of my favorite roadside flowers is the Bladder campion, Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke.  The flowers are white, with five deeply lobed petals. The flowers protrude from an inflated, papery calyx, greenish, purple-veined and bladder-like. This time of year, the flowers are almost past.

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I love the scientific generic name Silene, derived from the name of a Greek woodland deity. Another common name for Bladder campion is maidenstears.

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The leaves of Bladder campion are edible, used raw in a salad or cooked in a stew.

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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims

wildflowers – Canada lily

A drive this time of year through Grand Lake Meadows, along the old Trans-Canada Highway, will show you one of our prettiest wild flowers — Lilium canadense L., the Canada lily.

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The flowers are a glimpse of orange in vast fields of greenery. The flowers are down-ward pointing, reminding me of a chandelier of light. They bloom from June through August in the moist wetlands of this part of central New Brunswick.

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As the meadow winds flip the flowers upward, you can catch a glimpse of the dark red anthers and the spotted interior of the petals.

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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims

review of ‘within easy reach’

 

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My book of poetry within easy reach (Chapel Street Editions, 2016) has been reviewed by James Deahl (Canadian Stories 20 (116): 66-67, August/September 2017).

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Copyright Jane Tims 2017

Next book in the Meniscus Series!!!

It’s the dead of winter. It’s bitterly cold and food is scarce. Just surviving until next morning is all you can think about. But no matter. There are just the two of you.

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Then your boyfriend declares he is going on his version of ‘walkabout’ for three months. And seven strangers, survivors of a spaceship crash, land on your doorstep. The trials of winter just went critical.

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Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb, the third book of the Meniscus Series, follows the continuing story of Odymn and the silent Slain. If you enjoyed Crossing The Churn (the story of the meeting of Odymn and the Slain) and South from Sintha (the story of the Slain’s attempt at redemption), you will love the third story. There are lots of new characters and Odymn’s parkour and foraging skills are put to the test. The book includes new drawings, a map, a glossary, a list of characters and a guide to Gel-speak.

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Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb is now available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com.  A quick read, written as a narrative poem. The paperback is $11.99 (US) here and the Kindle version is $4.96 here .

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An except from the story:

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Odymn measures the gap.

Not far.

Perhaps two metres.

Just beyond her comfort zone.

 

Odymn considers

surface of the stack.

Icy, slippery.

Bubbles ooze across rock.

 

The En’ast wood,

a hundred metres below.

 

Odymn tosses a chunk of stone.

It lands,

skids to a stop.

 

Rubs her hands on the dusty rocks.

Needs dry fingers to cling to edge

if her feet keep going.

 

Crouches. Arms behind her.

Launches and leans.

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I hope you will take a leap with Odymn and explore the strange world of Meniscus.

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Copyright Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra) Tims  2017

 

reading tonight!

For those of you in the Fredericton area, it looks like a dull, muggy day. Just a reminder … tonight at 7 PM, Roger Moore will be reading from his books at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Nasonworth (Highway 101, just beyond New Maryland). There will be cookies and ice cold refreshments, and the free will offering will go to ‘Grace House for Women’ in Fredericton. Hope you can come out to hear Roger read! The church hall is cool and the acoustics are great!

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Roger at the creative business of writing

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Roger has written almost thirty books and chapbooks. His book ‘Bistro’ was on the short list for the 2016 New Brunswick Book Awards and he has won the WFNB Alfred G. Bailey Prize for his books of poetry. His poetry can be very funny, but he writes on serious topics. Some examples of his work? His ‘A Cancer Chronicle’ provides insight into the battle many will face during their lifetime. ‘The Empress of Ireland’ explores the history and emotions of the famous St. Lawrence River shipwreck. His most recent book ‘One Small Corner’ is the outcome of his artist’s residency at the Kingsbrae Gardens in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick. Roger is a born teacher and gives of his experience generously. I am so happy to call him my friend.

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Copyright Jane Tims 2017

 

those don’t look like French fries!

This time of year in eastern New Brunswick and elsewhere, the potato fields are flourishing and many are in bloom.

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I am so grateful for those potato fields. I love French fries, so much so that I limit my intake by making promises to myself and my son (something like: I promise to eat French fries only once per week for the next three months. I usually stick to these promises because I make them for a specific time.

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I love other potato products. I make great potato salad (potatoes, Miracle Whip, onions, bacon bits, mustard, green relish, pepper and basil). We also eat potato and leek soup regularly (a great hot-day supper). And, of course, potatoes are an ingredient in every stew I make through the winter.

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But although we love potatoes, do we ever appreciate their very pretty flowers? Like so many things, we fail to see their beauty unless we look.

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Copyright Jane Tims 2017

a touch of Monet

Last week, on a drive to Plaster Rock, we passed a pond along the Saint John River filled with water lilies (Nymphaea sp.).

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Lovely. Calming. And reminiscent, in the way they lay on expanses of open water, of Monet’s water lilies at Giverny.

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When I think of water lilies, I also remember Edgar Allan Poe’s short story Silence – “And the water lilies sighed unto one another….”

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So to add to these greats, I have my own snippet from my poem ‘Bear Creek Meadow by Canoe’ (published in Canadian Stories 14 (82 ), Dec 2011 ):

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dignity quiets our paddles

hushed voices heed

the diminishing echo

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pliant as stems of pickerel weed

we honour the whisper

of wild rice

the edgewise touching

of nymphaea and nuphar

amphibian eyes

in the harbour-notch of lily pads

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we are threaded by dragonflies

drawn by water striders

gathered in a cloak of water shield

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Copyright Jane Tims 2017