Archive for the ‘edible wild’ Category
scraps of paper
Occasionally I tackle a stack of stray papers. These are usually bits saved years ago, once thought important. Sometimes I find a scrap of poetry among receipts and old letters. Poetry scribbled when an idea occurs, on any scrap within reach.
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This week I found a draft poem about following rules and the evidence left behind by bad behavior. I have always loved picking blackberries, so it is no surprise to me that picking blackberries was used as a metaphor in the poem.
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defiance
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no denying
the evidence —
pulled threads
and stained fingers
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one drupe
with all its packets
could never mark
so well, each finger
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rolled across the page
indigo tongue
and purple lips, words
blackberry-spoken
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the rule — never take
the path through woods
stick to the road, resist
blueberries, blackberries
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avoid the risk
of bears and brambles
hints of danger
in faerie tales
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Last spring I spent time pulling together some of my many poems into three upcoming books of poetry. This poem will fit well into my manuscript titled ‘niche,’ poems about the spaces plants, animals and people occupy.
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All my best!
Follow the rules of social distancing!
Stay safe!
Jane
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berries and pears and plums
I am a multi-tasker. I find it hard to do just one thing. So when I watch TV in the evenings, I read posts on Facebook, knit, sew or draw. Lately, I am practicing with my watercolours. I love working with the ‘wet on wet’ technique. I just touch the brush to the paper and watch the colour flow. So relaxing!
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All my best,
staying home,
Jane
Raspberries
It’s a great year for berries. Our blueberry bushes are loaded with the biggest, sweetest berries I have ever tasted. The raspberries are full and sweet. The blackberries are still mostly unripe but the canes are heavy with future berries.
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raspberry ramble
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every berry
a sweet cup
detached
from its cosy seat
deep in brambles
juice pressed
between teeth
seeds and briars
handfuls of sun
rain clouds
warm winds
gravel soil
eager fingers
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Copyright Jane Tims 2019
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All my best
Jane
checking out the berries
As I have often written, our cabin is an enjoyable place to be. We read; we go for walks; we watch the birds; we occasionally do a little work (keeping the trails clear, working on the cabin).
This past weekend we identified the trees surrounding the cabin and we were pleased to find we had 13 different trees:
- horse chestnut
- red maple
- mountain birch
- white birch
- trembling aspen
- green ash
- apple
- red oak
- willow
- white pine
- black spruce
- balsam fir
- shad bush
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The berries on the shad bush are just beginning to form. At this stage they are about as big as a small pea.
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We weren’t the only ones interested in the progress of the shad bush fruit. While we watched, a cedar waxwing landed and stayed for a while.
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Last year we had fun watching the cedar waxwings feeding wild strawberries to one another! If you’d like to see those photos, click here.
Al my best!
Jane
a feast of wild strawberries
This week at our cabin the wild strawberries are hanging from their stems. When I see them I think of the sweet wild strawberry jam my mom used to make. And, after this weekend, I will think of cedar waxwings.
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As we sat in the cabin, eating our dinner, we saw a bird making trips between the birch tree in front of the cabin and the grassy field to the side, where the wild strawberries grow.
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My husband identified the bird and spotted where it perched in the tree. The cedar waxwing is one of the common birds at the cabin. They love to eat fruit and we have wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries on the property.
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There were two cedar waxwings on the branch, sharing a meal of wild strawberries. Sharing fruit is a ritual behavior between male and female cedar waxwings.
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The cedar waxwings nest in our big white pines and sing in the top branches of other nearby trees. I will never see them without thinking of their little feast of berries.
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All my best,
Jane
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spring flowers – service berry bushes
At this time of year, many ditches and fields in New Brunswick are filled with Serviceberry bushes in bloom. Their delicate white flowers only last a short while but later, in summer, we will be able to pick sweet Serviceberries.
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the shad are running
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after hard rain
and thin wind
between cold front and warm
riverbanks overflow
and for dinner we have fiddleheads
potatoes and shad, served
with last summer’s Serviceberry jam
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Serviceberry bushes are torn fish nets
holes poked through with fingers
white petals scattered over mossy stones
on the river shore
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Published as ‘the shad are running’ in within easy reach, 2016, Chapel Street Editions
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
walk on the shore
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ignition
Sea-rocket (Cakile edentula Hook.)
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clumps of Sea-rocket
are splashes of lime on sand
missiles from lavender flowers
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pepper to tongue
pungent breath of Cakile
cardamom and caraway
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flavour our laughter
giggles of gulls cross sober sand
intervention in sluggish lives
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launches from Cape Canaveral
moon-walking on the beach
splash-downs in Sargasso Seas
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most days are moth-eaten –
paper cuts, missives, e-mails to answer
problems, resolutions without teeth
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the seawind smooths its sand
begs for someone to take a stick
scratch out a love song
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
writing a novel – e-reader editing
So the poet is writing a novel…
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Title: unknown
Working Title: Saving the Landing Church
Setting: a writers’ retreat, including an abandoned church
Characters: main character a writer; her husband Tom; people from the embedded community including next door neighbors Emma and Mark; people from the commuter community; the aberrant community
Plot: the story of how a woman tries to preserve an abandoned church with unexpected consequences for herself and for the community
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I have finished my first draft!
This week, I am working on edits.
The writer’s discipline of producing something each day suits me most of the time. I characteristically accomplish enough in three or four hours of work to push back from the computer with a feeling of satisfaction.
Some days, it’s harder to focus. I find editing particularly hard. Perhaps because of the recent holidays, perhaps because it is so cold outside, this week I have been having trouble concentrating.
Yesterday, I discovered a way to make the editing easier!
Lately, I’ve been using my e-reader more and more for general reading. I thought, why not use it to read my own (draft) book?
I didn’t do any fancy work. I merely took my Word draft and saved it as a .pdf file. The first time I did this, the font was so tiny, I’d have to use a magnifier to read. So I experimented a little, and finally settled on the font Times New Roman, size 22, double-spaced. Once I made the font change in Word, I saved it as a .pdf file and copied it directly into my Kobo e-reader. There were a couple of glitches which I didn’t bother to fix. Some words transposed as bold (as you can see in the photo) and none of my italics made it through. But the book was very readable.
Today and yesterday, I have been editing in luxury. I have been sitting in my comfy chair, with a warm throw, a cup of tea and my Kobo. By having my draft in book format, I can see it as a book, read it with more ‘distance’ and more easily find the places I need to re-write or edit. I keep track of edits, page by page, in pen, on note paper. Of course, I’ll have to do the final edits at the computer, but that pain is somewhere in the future, made easier by the ‘Find’ feature in Word.
One step closer to completion!!!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
blackberries as big as thimbles
apple tree shadow
This time of year, I watch for the old apple trees along the road. Most are neglected, and the fruit remains unpicked, even for cider. When the apples fall, they lie beneath the tree in a circle of red or yellow, mimicking the shadow of the tree at noon.
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apple shadow
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days follow days
and the apples
fall to the ditch,
claim the gravel
edge the asphalt
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ripe shadow space
at the base of
the leaning tree
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passing cars play
polo and wasps
worry in the
rotting remains
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Copyright Jane Tims 2012
Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum Marsh.)
Like miniature fireworks, bright bunches of the berries of Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum Marsh.) burst along our roadsides in late summer. Highbush Cranberry is also called Cranberry, Pimbina, and in Quebec, quatres-saisons des bois.
The Highbush Cranberry is a large deciduous shrub, found in cool woods, thickets, shores and slopes. It has grey bark and dense reddish-brown twigs. The large lobed leaves are very similar to red maple.
In spring and summer, the white flowers bloom in a cyme or corymb (a flat-topped or convex open flower-cluster). Most flowers in the cluster are small, but the outermost flowers are large and showy, making the plant attractive for insect pollinators.
The fruit is a drupe, ellipsoid and brightly colored red or orange. The juicy, acidic fruit has a very similar flavour to cranberry (Vaccinium spp. L.) and is used for jams and jellies. The preserves are rich in Vitamin C.
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fireworks, quatres-saisons
(Viburnum trilobum Marsh.)
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against a drawing paper sky
some liberated hand
has sketched fireworks
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remember precursors in spring?
blowsy cymes, white sputter
of a Catherine wheel
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now these berries, ready to pick
bold, spherical outburst
of vermillion sparks
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a pyrotechnic flash of red
strontium detonates
in receptive dark
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a four-season celebration
spring confetti, berries,
fireworks in fall
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cranberry preserves – acidic,
tart blaze of summer sky
winter ignition
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© Jane Tims 2012
© Jane Tims 2012
nichepoetryandprose 