Archive for October 2016
next reading of ‘within easy reach’
My fifth reading this month of my book ‘within easy reach’ will take place at 7PM on Wednesday evening (October 26, 2016) at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 1224 Highway 101 in Nasonworth, New Brunswick. This will be the first of the Authors Coffee Hour series being held by our church in the coming months.
~
There will be refreshments including apple squares prepared from local ingredients by Real Food Connections in Fredericton. A local musician will be providing music. And $10 from every book sold will be donated to the Fredericton Food Bank.
~
If you are in the Fredericton area, please join me at this event! I will be reading poems to help sustain us through the long months ahead – about picking berries, making jelly and spending time in the apple orchard. My poems will also take you to the woodlands and coastal areas of New Brunswick, to sample foods you may never have tasted! And my poems will encourage you to ‘eat local’!
~
~
Hope to see you there!!!!!
~
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
more blueberries!
Tomorrow, Saturday October 22, 2016, I am giving a reading of my book ‘within easy reach’ and a short talk about eating local foods, especially wild plants. The reading will be for a regional meeting of local chapters of the New Brunswick Women’s Institute. Their theme this year is ‘pulses’ and the nutritional benefits of eating beans, lentils, chickpeas and split peas – foods harvested dry – affordable, protein-packed and delicious!
~
I will be reading poems from my book, taking the Institute members on a tour of local foods – from the forest floor to the field, to the garden and the farmers market, as well as foods grown inside the home kitchen.
~
I will also have a door prize for my reading, a painting of wild blueberries. ‘Sweet Hurts’ is 5″ X 7″ with gallery edges, done in acrylics using Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Titanium White, Paynes Grey and Burnt Sienna. The name ‘Sweet Hurts’ comes from an alternative name for the Low Sweet Blueberry.
~
~
Looking forward to this reading, my fourth this month!
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
apples, apples, apples – preparing for public readings
~
I associate fall with picking apples and enjoying all those apple-related treats – apple cider, apple squares, apple jelly and, of course, the apples themselves.
~
~
As part of my celebrating of fall and apple picking, I will be giving four public readings of my book over the next couple of weeks. Since my book ‘within easy reach’ is about eating local foods, my readings will focus on my memories of the apple harvest and trips to local orchards.
The readings are:
- I make a selection of the poems I will read. For the first two readings, I’ll select poems about apple picking – this is the time when New Brunswickers visit local orchards to get the best fall apples! I mark my book with post-it tabs so I can find each passage easily.
- I make a few notes about how I want to preface each poem. I put the notes on other post-it tabs right on the page. Some poets don’t like to preface their reading – I like to say something about each poem since I like to prepare the listener.
- I practice my readings aloud, including my preface comments. Practicing helps me time the presentation and work out phrasing and emphasis.
- I do some promotion for each of the readings – posting on my blog, on Facebook and Twitter. For the Authors Coffee Hour I also have a poster to put in a couple of local places.
~
~
I love to read in public. Sometimes I worry a bit about audience response and the possibility I may stumble on delivery. But, if I am well prepared, I can relax, take three deep breaths and enjoy reading my words aloud.
~
yard work – the grape harvest
We had a frost on October 4 and today, I harvested my grapes. You will imagine tubs of ripe fruit, hands stained purple and a row of grape jelly jars on the counter.
~
my grapes, wandering about in the birch tree
~
But my grape harvest is a bit small. However after ten years, this is the first ‘harvest’ from this vine so I am quite proud! No jelly though. I ate the lot of them, sitting in the yard, admiring the autumn leaves. They were juicy, sweet and delicious.
~
the entire harvest!
~
~
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
a moment of beautiful – autumn leaves
~
~
~
Like stained glass against the sky!
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
yard work – winter wood
Another beautiful fall day. Today I helped my husband cut up the last of two birch trees he had felled earlier in September. Then I piled the wood in our new wood rack. Give it a chance to dry and it will be ready for splitting and burning next winter.
~
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
nichepoetryandprose 