Archive for the ‘strategies for winter’ Category
loving hockey
I think that I will never be as proud of a magazine publication as I am of my two poems and two drawings in a hockey magazine!
Between the Lines – A Journal of Hockey Literature is a publication of the University of Saskatchewan, now in its third volume. The editors are Dwayne Brenna and Sara-Jane Gloutnez.
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Between the Lines: A Journal of Hockey Literature
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So, why am I so proud of this accomplishment? Is it because I am a lover of hockey? Just the opposite. I never pay it any attention! I have been known to ask if the Blue Jays won the Stanley Cup last year! However, one of my brothers is a devoted hockey fan. His love for the sport when he was young has always impressed me … I think people need should be passionate about their interests!
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Hockey is a great theme for poetry. The game itself is naturally rhythmic (the movement of the skater, the varying pace of the game). The names of players and announcers, the terms for various plays, the enthusiasm of the fans … interesting words to work with! And metaphors abound.
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I like to learn new things, to discover new themes for my writing and art. I also consider the game of hockey to be quintessentially Canadian. I can’t name a single hockey player after Mickey Mantle, but I love having my poems and art in a hockey magazine.
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Between the Lines is a well-presented publication that includes stories about hockey and hockey players in both poetry and prose. The writing inside captures the scratch of blades on ice, the excitement of the announcer’s voice, the clouds of breath above the outside hockey rink, and the scurry of kids to move the net from the way of subdivision traffic.
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loving hockey
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at eight, my brother
was tall for his age
narrow-boned, jointed
as a skater bug
on the big farm pond
but compact, center
of gravity low
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he learned to skate
on a strip of ice
by the driveway
practiced on the pond
a family myth
that he was pale
and our dad saw no value
in rising early
for ice time
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my brother’s rink
a screen, rabbit-eared
Hockey Night in Canada
a pad of blue-lined
paper, hockey stick
a yellow pencil, skate
marks neat columns
of statistics, goals
and assists, Howe hat tricks
Mahovlich, Rocket
Richard, numbers
from the breathless
crescendo, Foster Hewitt –
‘He shoots, he scores.’
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today my brother
is a fit man
an accountant, skates
on the boardroom table
on the frozen pond
a water strider
on the meniscus
attends games
at the coliseum
can still do a pivot
from standing
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poem published as ‘loving hockey’ in Between the Lines, Volume 3, 2015/2016
drawing published in Between the Lines, Volume 1, 2014
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
A tree for the corner!
It’s inside! Our Christmas tree for 2015.
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our tree for 2015, a balsam fir
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We are lucky here in New Brunswick – we can buy locally-grown Christmas trees. We buy our tree at a lot where they cultivate their own trees, so usually the tree has been cut only a few days before, and will last well past Christmas. I usually take our tree down on January 6th.
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When my son was young, we often cut our tree at a Christmas tree farm with my brother’s family. I can still see the paths the kids made as they ran in the rows, trying to find the perfect tree.
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I am happy to know that many trees sold in communities across America come from New Brunswick. We have seen the loads of trees on the highways for weeks.
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OK, I am officially in the Christmas spirit! Now the lights for the tree. And then our box of ornaments. Results to follow!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2015
taking the goodness into winter
I love carrots. Give me a bunch of local carrots and a bag of onions and there is always something for supper.
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Keeping the goodness of our local produce into the winter months is a challenge. But this past weekend, I found dilled carrots still for sale at Cameron’s roadside stand just outside of Gagetown, New Brunswick. We also bought apples and a frozen apple pie.
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Mom used to make these and they make a crunchy addition to a meal. Just carrots, vinegar, dill seed, garlic and salt.
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
winter around the corner
As the weather gets more wintery, I adopt a strategy for getting through the next few months. The aim of the strategy is to keep warm!
- Put the kettle on and have a hot drink every morning. My hot drink of choice is tea with a little milk, but I also like hot chocolate and occasionally a cup of coffee.
- Make soup for supper. I love onions so every hot soup begins with these. Tonight we added Canadian bacon, a can of corn, a cut-up sweet potato and some spices.
- Knit. As I’ve said before, I can knit anything. I even knit a new top for my strawberry cookie jar! My usual knitting produces socks on four needles.
I think I am the only one on the planet who has knitted a new top for her cookie jar
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3. Make small lap quilts. I love to work with fabric. My method is to piece together bits and quilt as I go. Last spring, my aunt gave me lots of fabric to work with so I will not be short of patterns! I am not a very good quilter but the work keeps me warm as I sew and the result is a cozy lap quilt.
a couple of examples of my latest lap quilts
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4. Walk outside every day, to acclimate myself to the colder weather. I have a great walking stick, wooden, hand-carved with an owl.
my owl walking stick
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What are your strategies for keeping warm in winter???
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
a moment of beautiful – shadow forest
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tree shadows, drawn on a sloped roof
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tilted shadows on snow, graphite stems, crowded trees
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pencil sketch of woodland, whim
of northern winter, slanted sun
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from the trees, truth, but the artist lies
maligns tree shape, size and colour
wind direction
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shadow trees without wild life
red squirrels and blue jays
seldom visit while light and pencil
sharpen their edge
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only phantom light in space
between sender and receiver
message warped, passed
from molecule to molecule
through lead and air
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
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moment of beautiful – shadow on the snow
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under the snow
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the shadow is a blue portal, a hidden way
to crocus places, sheltered where no drifting
snow or bitter wind comes howling
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frost-brittle maples creak
and chickadees crack seeds
of sunflower stashed
in tunnels shaped
by squirrels
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
stitching a small quilt
These cold nights, I keep warm with a cup of hot chocolate and a sewing project. This winter I am making lap quilts, small quilts only 30 inches by 36 inches. A lap quilt is a cozy companion on a chill evening.
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To make the quilts, I am using small scraps of material from my many sewing projects over the years. My quilts would not win any awards. The pattern is random and the stitches are long and a bit crooked, but the quilts are fun to make and use.
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quilt
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from the air
forests and snow-
covered cornfields
are light and dark patches
of a quilt pieced together, stitched
with fence posts and wire
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
thwarting the squirrels
Feeding the birds provides me with hours of enjoyment in winter. However, bird feed is costly when marauders come to call. I have watched with dismay as the tongue of a single deer laps up every morsel of sunflower seed. Or laughed as the squirrel eats peanuts from inside the squirrel-resistant bird feeder. Lately, a very fat raccoon has emptied our suet feeder night after night.
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Last weekend, we rigged something new to see if we could reserve at least one feeder just for the birds. The idea is courtesy of my friends A. and D. who showed me how well the contraption works at their bird feeding station.
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The idea is simple. We stretched a sturdy cord between two trees at a height of about seven feet. On the cord, we strung six empty 2 liter pop bottles. We tried all sorts of ways to drill holes in the plastic and found that a screwdriver heated over a candle flame melted a neat hole in the bottom center of each bottle. Then we put a metal s-hook between the two center bottles and hung the feeder. The squirrels will try to walk the tightrope to get to the feeder, but when they reach the pop bottles, these spin and the squirrels cannot hang on.
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After one week, the squirrels and raccoon have left this feeder alone. They still have some food to eat at the other feeder, but at least the seed in this one is reserved for the birds! As you can see, the snow banks are getting higher and soon the squirrels will be skipping across the surface of the snow to reach the feeder. Higher please!
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
red sled
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on her sled
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from the window
I watch her
she is one red mitten, lost
on the path, smitten
by the four-footed track
of a wild rabbit
hurrying home
or the toe of a red
shoe, peeks from under
the hem of a white
crinoline, a cardinal launches
from one tree, snow-laden
to another
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Copyright. 2015 Jane Tims
in winters past
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Cold here. Last week we reached a low of -25 (degrees Centigrade). As I watched the weather statistics I saw that the record for coldest weather for the day had been in 1973. The date whisked me back to my first winter in university. I barely recall those days, but I do remember hurrying back and forth across campus from class to class and the brown scarf I knit that year to keep my face from freezing.
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To remember other cold weather, I just look at the winter garland of children’s socks and mitts strung across our chimney.
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The red socks and little blue mittens hanging there were knit by my grandmother almost sixty years ago. We would have worn them on many bitter days spent in the cold Alberta winter. I remember my Mom wrapping our heads with multiple wool scarves, held in place by safety pins (long before the days of fleece and high performance fibres).
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The green glove on the line warps me forward in time to the 1980’s when my son was in elementary school and the three-fingered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all the rage. I knit three-fingered gloves for him for three winters, as fast as they were lost. The single green glove on the chimney line is the only one that has survived.
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When the days and nights are cold, I still knit. Today, I knit socks to keep me warm both during the knitting and the wearing.
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Cold weather? Bring it on! I have knitting needles and a skein of yarn!
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
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