Archive for the ‘bleak November’ Category
drear November: Project #3 – preparing a new trail
A week ago, my husband gave me this year’s Christmas present – a new length of trail for us to walk. He flagged some trees to open up an old trail in our grey woods. Then he hired some local men to fell the trees, cut them in four foot lengths, and set them to the side of the trail. Today he was out with the tractor, taking out some of the high spots.
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Last weekend, he took me for a walk to scope out the new walkway. It’s still very rough but you can see the final trail if you use your imagination. Over the winter and next spring, he will clear the stray branches, smooth the bumps, and fill the hollows. The trail is 750 steps from beginning to end. It loops the back half of our acre lot and extends to an old road on the property behind us which we also own..
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One of my favourite parts of the trail is a small clearing I visited with my Mom years ago. She found Ghost Pipe, also called Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora), growing there. This is an odd plant that does not contain chlorophyll. It is white in colour and the flower has between 3 and 8 waxy white petals. The flower occurs, as the name suggests, at the top of a stem bent like a pipe. Mom loved her find so much, she put a ring of shingles around the plants to protect them from trampling.
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In later years I have visited the site regularly although I have never seen the Ghost Pipes again. A few years ago, I put an iron bird feeder there on the surface of a big hardwood tree. The feeder has the image of Saint Francis of Assisi.
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I think of this little grove as ‘Mom’s Park.’ My mom has been gone more than 20 years but her love of plants, and her aim to protect them, is with me every day.
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I have written about Mom’s Park in the past ( here ) and repeat the poem I wrote for that post here:
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ghost pipe
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in grey woods
Saint Francis
cast in iron
watches wild
life pass by
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red squirrel
ceaseless jitter
white-tailed deer
pauses, listens
a chipmunk
runs the log
fallen tree
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time also
passes by
Aralia
and bracken
replace white
ghost pipe, once
grew here, all
nature a mirror
of our lives
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When the path is more defined, I will put a small bench in Mom’s Park where I can sit and enjoy our grey woods.
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With this post, I will thank my husband for such a thoughtful gift. These days, walking in our woods is synonymous with keeping up my health. But our grey woods will always be my favourite place to meet with nature.
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All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra )
drear November: Project #2 – a small quilt
When I visited my mother-in-law during her last year, I started a small project with her. As I sat and talked with her, we worked at a lap-sized quilt for her granddaughter, my husband’s niece.
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She could not do much of the work but she chose the fabrics from a selection and showed me how to organize the patches. I sewed them together as we talked.
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When she was younger, she loved to quilt with her neighbour friends and sister-in-law. My husband remembers a big quilting frame set up in the living room and the ladies drinking tea and sewing. When my father-in-law died, I helped my mother-in-law set up a smaller frame in her living room and visited her during my lunch hours to quilt … we made a huge quilt with green and amber autumn leaves. I learned a lot about quilt-making from her.
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The quilt we made for my niece was simple, made of squares of two patterns:
- one is of violets in shades of blue, with green stems and leaves and interwoven silver;
- one is of tiny yellow roses on a background of vines and leaves.
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For the backing, we chose a bright floral print, showing pink and red flowers with green leaves.
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Now, many years later, I have decided to finish what we began. For the binding, I have chosen and ordered a pretty pattern of green leaves from Spoonflower. The greens will match both top and underside of the quilt.
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During November, I will finish sewing and binding the quilt. Instead of setting up a quilting frame, I will do the quilting with the fabric stretched across a large wooden hoop.
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This will be an enjoyable and warming project during the dark evenings of November. When I am finished, I will mail the quilt to our niece, along with the story of how her grandmother helped with the quilt.
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Are you doing a project to ‘warm’ the November evenings?
All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
drear November: Project #1 – emergency supplies
In November, one of my projects has been to establish an equipped emergency shelf for our home. We always keep supplies on hand in case of a power outage, but I want to bring those things together so a last minute scramble is not needed.
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Canada’s ‘get prepared kit’ recommends the following items:(https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/yprprdnssgd/index-en.aspx )
- Water — two litres of water per person per day (include small bottles)
- Food such as canned food, energy bars and dried foods (replace once a year)
- Manual can opener
- Wind-up or battery-powered flashlight (and extra batteries)
- Wind-up or battery-powered radio (and extra batteries)
- First aid kit
- Extra keys for your car and house
- Cash, travellers’ cheques and change
- Important family documents such as identification, insurance and bank records
- An emergency plan – include a copy in your kit as well as contact information
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I recently purchased our safety shelf for another purpose, but when I brought it home, I knew it was perfect for our emergency supplies. On the safety shelf we have:
- bottles of water, for washing and other uses; we always have water for drinking on hand
- candles ( I have so many candles, having light during a power outage is never an issue)
- matches (to light candles and the wood stove)
- a ‘go-bag’ – packed with flagging tape, compasses (I have eight compasses of various types due to my work life in the woods), more candles and matches, a flashlight, paper and pencils, a small first aid kit, extra keys, and a manual can opener
- a box of extra food: canned beans, trail mix, energy bars, raisins, canned fruit, canned soup
- a fire retardant blanket for putting out small fires quickly
- an emergency plan
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Our ‘go-bag’ has been around many years and began as a safe-in-the-woods kit for our son. We spent many hours at our home and cabin in or near the woods, and the ‘go-bag’ includes instructions for my son if he was ever lost in the woods. All these years later, it is a precious keep-sake, but still useful in its wisdom.
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Our emergency plan is simple:
- our address
- our home and cell phone numbers
- a list of phone numbers for other family members
- the location of our shelf of emergency supplies (!)
- a place designated as a meeting place if there is ever a fire
- the duty to check and replenish supplies once per year in November!
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We have personal experience with emergencies, most memorably in the guise of Hurricane Aurthur, in 2014. We have a small generator that kept our refrigerator and television going. The storm put the power out for seven days and our biggest help was from the Oromocto Fire Department. The firefighters supplied us with water for our containers and cases of drinking water. I will be grateful to them forever.
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Now that our emergency shelf is prepared, my main fear, of having to scramble and find our various supplies, is over.
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Do you have the needed supplies in case of an emergency? And are they organized in a way you can find them quickly?
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All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
welcome, drear November
November is here. Not my favourite month, but a month I try to face with planning and determination.
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Why the word ‘drear’ for November? After the colours of October, November seems a month of blacks, whites and greys. Snow has already fallen here in New Brunswick (we had 10 cm on October 30). The days and evenings are colder. The trees are mostly bare trunks and branches. The days are shorter and lower exposures to sunshine encourage the doldrums.
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But November has some fine characteristics. The oaks and beech trees cling to their leaves, creating slashes of orange and copper on the landscape. The month begins this year with a gibbous moon, waning from the full Hunter Moon of October, so clear nights will be bright, at least for a week. The crisper drier air invites deep breaths as I walk the loop of our driveway. And cooler evenings invite warmer activities like quilting and embroidery.
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We have a few plans which will improve our lives:
- We are planning to add another loop to our driveway trail and are having some dead and encroaching trees removed so we can walk more easily.
- I am working on a special shelf in our house to be an emergency station, in case we have winter power outages and flooding. It will be a place for storing water, candles and other things we might need in an emergency.
- I want to complete a small quilt I began years ago with my mother-in-law. When it is completed, I will send it to my husband’s niece as a memento of her grandmother.
- Reading is always on my list of things to do and this year I have a new way of recording the books I read. Emily Arsenault at Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, New Brunswick has created ‘The Book Lover’s Journal’ with space for listing books read and making comments on the reading experience. ( https://www.dogearedbooks.ca/ )
- As you may know, I am working to complete ‘Pareidolia,’ the fifth book in the Kaye Eliot Mystery Series, to be available by the end of November.
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I am a planner by nature and by training, but I think having a plan at the first of any month helps it to progress more smoothly. Items not completed become the plans for a later month. And accomplishments feel so rewarding.
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In the next posts, I will talk about each of the plans mentioned above and give you an idea of my progress through ‘drear’ November.
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All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
nichepoetryandprose 