Archive for August 2016
morning bird chorus – ephemera
When I was a child, one of the things I prized was my collection of ‘bird cards’. These were an advertising give-away from ‘Cow Brand Baking Soda’ (Church and Dwight Limited, Montreal, Canada).
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I would spend hours looking at these, putting them in order of the ones I liked best, thinking about the birds depicted. The Meadowlark was a local bird I had seen many times and his call was as familiar to me as breathing – he always made it to the top of the pile! Today the winner would be the Cedar Waxwing who sits in the tops of the pines at our cabin, or the Goldfinch who spends all winter at our feeders!
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Today I still have two packs of these cards. They are in sets of 16 in a paper envelope. The card sets are called ‘Useful Birds of America’ and the front of each card shows an image of a bird by artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874-1927), an American ornithologist and artist. On the back, there is a tip on how to use ‘Cow Brand Baking Soda’, the bird’s common name, its scientific name and a charming paragraph about its appearance and habits. The card concludes with a short message still relevant today:
For the good of all, do not destroy the birds
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
remembering spring – wild strawberries
I have completed one of the paintings I am preparing for my fall sale of books and paintings. This painting is of the wild strawberries growing at our cabin property.
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July 31, 2016 ‘wild strawberries’ (acrylic, gallery edges, 10″ X 8″) Jane Tims
I hope when you see these paintings, they will remind you of the berry-picking seasons to come!
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
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