Archive for the ‘picking berries’ Category
Rebecca
Rebecca
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in black
Gothic
advances
down the middle
of the street
oblivious to traffic
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dark mists
and Avalon
the perfect rupture of sky
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from her fingers
black threads
spin skirt
and widow’s weeds
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black painted nails
blackened sockets of eye
her lips black also
from a feast of berries
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All my best.
Jane
Stay Home
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Don’t know how many times
I can say it.
Stay home!”
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“Stay home?
What are you talking about?
I am rooted to the ground.
All I can do is
Stay Home.”
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“You can’t fool me.
I know you’ve been sneaking around.
Letting your roots grow
into all kinds of places.
Communicating with other trees.”
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“What are you talking about?
My tap root grows deep.
All I can do is
Stay Home.”
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“You can’t fool me.
I know you’ve been sneaking around.
Letting your leaves drop,
blow all over the woods.
Mixing with those of other trees.”
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“What are you talking about?
Can’t help it if my leaves are dry.
All I can do is
Stay Home.”
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“You can’t fool me.
I know you’ve been
conspiring with squirrels.
Spreading your acorns
all over the woods.
Mingling with other trees.”
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“What are you talking about?
I can’t be responsible
for what my children do.
All I can do is
Stay Home.”
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“All I can do
is repeat myself.
Stay Home.”
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All my best,
Jane
Staying Home!
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
a day getting ready for Christmas
I have been so busy lately, all duties associated with my new book. But occasionally I need a day to just catch up, and to pay attention to the season. So last week we drove out on a Christmas adventure. We did four things:
1. Bought a balsam fir wreath for the front of our house. These wreaths are hanging outside most of our local quick-stop stores, so our wreath was easy to find.
2. Bought a Christmas turkey. I am not much for preparing meat for the stove, so we bought a ready-stuffed Butterball turkey. I will still have to cope with the ‘gizzard’ bag but mostly I can just peel off the plastic, put the bird into the pan and shove it in the oven. What a wimp I am!
3. Visited the Atlantic Super Store and got a sampling of their fancy hors-d’oeuvres. Coconut shrimp! A treat for a cold winter evening.
4. Drove to our camp and gathered cedar boughs to make a Christmas garland. We sat in the camp, ate Clementine oranges and talked for an hour or so. We even heard the loons on the lake call three times. A very pleasant way to prepare for Christmas.
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our Christmas wreath
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What small things do you do to get ready for the Christmas season?
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
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
wild strawberries to pick
In the field around our cabin, the wild strawberries are ready for picking. Red, sweet, delicious.
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‘wild strawberries’ Jane Tims 2016
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If you love picking berries, or eating those first dew-covered berries of summer, you will like my book of poems about gathering and eating wild local foods.
‘within easy reach’ is published by Chapel Street Editions in Woodstock, New Brunswick. The book is illustrated with my drawings and includes lots of information about each wild plant mentioned. The book is available here at Chapel Street Editions or here at Amazon.ca
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For another of my posts about wild strawberries, and a poem about picking wild strawberries, look here.
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
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
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
within easy reach – another chance to win a painting
You will recall that earlier this month I held a draw to win the cover art for my book of poetry within easy reach. Carol Steel, a fellow blogger, was the winner of the painting ! http://carolsteel5050.blogspot.ca/
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This is to remind you that I am holding a draw to win another painting — ‘berries and brambles’ (18”x 14”, acrylic, gallery edges, unframed). Anyone who has purchased my book from me or my publisher, Chapel Street Editions, has already been entered in the draw. This includes the blog comment folk who entered the earlier draw.
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There is still time to enter to win the painting! Just purchase my book within easy reach between now and June 30, 2016 from me or my publisher! http://www.chapelstreeteditions.com
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The draw will be held in mid-July at my book signing and workshop at the 8th Annual Free School at Falls Brook Center in New Brunswick. http://fallsbrookcentre.ca/wp/events2/8th-annual-free-school/
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
nichepoetryandprose 