Archive for August 2017
green pepper soup from my deck garden
Since arthritis found me, I no longer keep a big garden. But for the last couple of years, I have experimented with deck gardening. This year I planted pepper and tomato plants in my Veg Trugs (mine are pop-up, foldable raised garden planters bought at Lee Valley Tools for about $70 each). They dry out quickly but otherwise are great and easy to manage. This year I have grown a nice crop of green peppers and tomatoes on my deck.
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This past weekend, I harvested my first little peppers.
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I sliced my peppers and made a nutritious soup for lunch. Ingredients: 2 peppers sliced, 1 yellow onion chopped, 1 clove garlic chopped, water, vegetable broth, gluten-free spaghetti, black pepper, basil, turmeric. Spicy but not salty. Delicious.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
spaces underground – a wasp nest
Not far from where I sit-for-a-bit on my walk in our woods, I found a nest of wasps. Built underground, beneath the roots of a spruce tree, this nest has been revealed by some digging marauder (a skunk or raccoon) trying to get at the wasp larvae. The nest is interesting to watch, but caution is necessary.
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When I found the nest, I took a little time to learn the difference between wasps and hornets. Hornets build their nests above ground and are larger, with black and white striped bodies. Wasps sometimes build nests underground and are small (1-2.5 cm), with black and yellow striped bodies. The insects in the underground nest are definitely wasps.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
in the shelter of the covered bridge – Plumweseep Bridge, New Brunswick
Plumweseep Bridge (Kennebecasis River #9) built 1911, not far from Sussex …
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The covered bridge in its setting … surrounded by trees, river running beneath, a field of ripened grain in the foreground, the rolling hills of the Kennebecasis Valley in the background.
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
Green bottles and blue berries
We have been spending time at our cabin.
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In the window, on our bench, the light flows through green bottles.
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Our paths are green tunnels.
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And in the fields and along the trails are blueberries.
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Lots to pick and eat.
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bitter blue
for Mom
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of all the silvery summer days we spent none so warm sun on granite boulders round blue berry field miles across hazy miles away from hearing anything but bees
and berries
plopping in the pail
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beside you I draped my lazy bones on bushes crushed berries and thick red leaves over moss dark animal trails nudged between rocks berries baking brown musk rising to meet blue heat
or the still fleet scent
of a waxy berry bell
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melting in my mouth crammed with fruit sometimes pulled from laden stems more often scooped from your pail full ripe blue pulp and the bitter shock of a hard green berry never ripe
or a shield bug
with frantic legs
and an edge to her shell
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From ‘within easy reach’, Chapel Street Editions, 2016
Previously published in The Amethyst Review 1 (2), Summer 1993
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
from a first drawing to a final cover
This month I completed publication of the third book in my science fiction series. I published my books with CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and have loved the outcome. I also chose to use one of the CreateSpace templates for my covers, an efficient choice but one that let me easily download my own painting image for each cover.
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As a sort of retrospective, I think it is interesting to see the progression of the three covers, from drawing to painting to cover (all paintings are photography of J.D.R. Beaudoin):
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The next book in the series, Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill, will come out in January 2018. Seems a ways away, but time to start working on the cover. This cover may change in overall design but will feature the moons in the background with poor Odymn tumbling through the trees. This is the black and white drawing I will work from.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
Rebecca Rosenblum to Headline First Festival
Photo by Mark Raynes Roberts
Rebecca Rosenblum, Toronto author of the new novel So Much Love (Penguin Random House, 2017), and recently a finalist for the 2017 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, will headline two events, delivering the first annual Word Feast lecture on Friday September 22 and reading from her novel on September 23.
Rosenblum is also the author of two award-winning collections of short fiction, The Big Dream and Once, which was named one of Quill and Quire‘s 15 Books That Mattered in 2008. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Journey Prize, the National Magazine Awards, and the Danuta Gleed Award.
Word Feast: Fredericton’s Literary Festival will also feature authors from Vancouver to St. John’s, Newfoundland, including Griffin Prize and Governor General’s Award winning poet Don McKay. Many New Brunswick authors also join the lineup, including Riel Nason, Allan Cooper, and the recent winners of the second…
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Call for Volunteers
Our festival is fast approaching and there are plenty of volunteer opportunities. If you’d like to support Fredericton’s inaugural literary festival and join an already fun and dedicated bunch of volunteers, please drop us a line at info(at)wordfeast.ca!
last days of a covered bridge … French Village Bridge
More sad news for New Brunswick’s covered bridge heritage … In the past months there has been lots of discussion about the fate of the French Village Bridge, also known as Hammond River #2, near Quispamsis, Kings County.
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Built in 1912, the French Village Bridge is one of only 60 covered bridges remaining in the province. In October, 2016, the bridge was severely damaged when a loaded excavator broke through the decking and undercarriage of the bridge. Although the government began repairs, rot was discovered in the sub-structure. After holding public meetings to consider options, the government recently announced the bridge would be demolished and a modular bridge would take its place.
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The covered bridge is endangered in New Brunswick. In 1900, there were about 400 covered bridges in the province. By 1944, there were only 320. In 1992, when we visited some of the bridges for Canada’s 125th birthday, there were 71. In 2017, as I write this, there are only 60 remaining. Loss of the French Village Bridge will bring the number to 59. Vandalism, flood, accident, fire and age claim more bridges every few years.
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The French Village Bridge is one of those included as subject matter for my upcoming poetry book in the shelter of the covered bridge. As a result, it is one of the bridges we visited to gather information on the plants and animals found there. We are also interested in the human history of the bridge, so we took photos of the carvings inside.
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When I look at the small amount of information I have on this bridge, I am saddened and angered to know how much will be lost. Although economic considerations are important, the loss of built heritage includes loss of community character and part of our material culture. When ‘ROGER’ and ‘B’ and ‘E’ carved their names into the beams of the bridge, they probably thought the bridge would last many years into the future.
https://janetims.com/2016/05/16/a-drawing-of-a-covered-bridge/
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
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
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