celebration of a covered bridge
Do you love covered bridges?
Have you done any writing about the Patrick Owens Bridge or any other covered bridge?
On Saturday August 25, 2018 at 2:00 pm join us at the Rusagonis Covered Bridge Park to celebrate our Bridge.
- We will hear from Jeff Carr, MLA.
- Linda Cogswell will tell us a bit about the history of the bridge.
- I will be reading from my book ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ (Chapel Street Editions, 2017) and $10 from every sale of my book will be donated for the upkeep of the Park.
- Rose Burke will read a piece about the Upper Mills Bridge and cross-border travel in former years.
- Ian LeTourneau, Fredericton’s Cultural Laureate, will read his poem about the loss of the Bell Covered Bridge.
- We will also have an ‘open mic’ where you can join others in reading from your own work (about bridges or any other related theme).
We will have cake and lemonade as part of the afternoon. There will also be a BBQ, courtesy of MLA Jeff Carr! Everyone is welcome!
Let me know if you would like to read (in the comments or at timstims@nbnet.nb.ca).
All my best,
Jane
abandoned spaces: day-lilies
The orange day-lily (Hemerocallis fulva) is also called roadside day-lily, outhouse day-lily, wash-house day-lily, ditch day-lily, and railroad day-lily, giving a hint of the spaces where it is found. When gardens containing the orange day-lily are abandoned, the flowers persist and spread on the site, and also escape to live in nearby ditches and fields.
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The day-lily is an herbaceous perennial with an extensive tuberous root. The flowers are borne on a long scape and each flower blooms and lasts only a day. It spreads via stolons and seeds. Although pretty, the orange day-lily is considered an invasive species. Its colonies can out-compete other native species.
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This time of year, orange day-lilies are everywhere in New Brunswick. In the abandoned community of Beaufort, Carleton County, orange day-lilies line the roadside on the way to the former community.
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the road to Beaufort … the long isolated road gives a hint as to why a community in the area was abandoned … a long way to other communities, hard winters with deep snow and few opportunities for young people
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The New Brunswick Archives says:
… settled in 1879 following the adoption of the Free Grants Act: named for William Beaufort Mills who persuaded the government to give aid to Anglicans burned out in the Saint John Fire of 1877 and encouraged settlement in this area: PO [post office] 1881-1946: in 1898 Beaufort was a community with 1 post office and a population of 100.
Source: https://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/Communities/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&community=232
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Today, there is only one, modern house in the community. But remnants of old gardens in the community still remain. we saw:
many apple trees at the roadside and in overgrown orchards …
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a young crowded stand of Balsam poplar, perhaps the hybrid Balm of Gilead …
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and a flower I have not yet identified … does anyone know what it is?
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Sad to think of the people who lived in Beaufort, planted their gardens and struggled to make their lives there. But they left their mark, on the communities they moved to and in the plants they left behind, now beautifying the former community.
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All my best,
Jane
How high can I climb?
Not that high. But I will have to figure out how to get those beans. I planted what I thought were yellow-wax beans on my deck. And they turned out to be yellow pole beans. I threw a couple of weighted strings into the maple and of course the beans climbed.
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All my best, Jane
Indoor garden
My harvest of romaine lettuce from my AeroGarden today. Poppy seed dressing and lunch is served!
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All my best
Jane
escapes: Virginia creeper
Virginia creeper, also call woodbine, thicket creeper and, in French vinge vierge, is a climbing vine with adhesive discs. Its leaves are palmately five-fingered and turn bright red in autumn. The plant has small purple fruit, poisonous to eat. The vine is common around abandoned homesteads where it persists or escapes to local woodlands.
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Virginia creeper
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.
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In woods
on Whites Mountain
woodbine
climbs the ash.
Persistent escape
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from homesteads
long-gone.
Thicket creeper
navigates itself
to better ground,
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higher trees.
Thick rhizomes,
adhesive discs.
Five-fingered leaves
spread to cover
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every inch of bark.
Maximize
exposure to sun.
Ancestral creepers
once draped
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zig-zag cedar fences
in autumn scarlet.
Caught the attention
of farmers’ wives
on community rounds.
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All my best,
Jane
abandoned spaces: remnant plants
On a drive towards the centre of the province, we found the property below to exemplify what happens to the surrounding vegetation when home sites are abandoned.
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On the property, I could see the old home, the roof fallen in, the tin roof rusted on the half that was not shingled. All around were wildflowers, most noticeable, the fireweed. There were also remnants of cultivated plants:
- lilac
- rose bushes
- hops
- orange day-lilies
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Street View, Google Earth gives a glimpse of the property back in 2009.
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remnants
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Not meant to sprawl but climb, hops
crouch between grass, fireweed.
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Recline, each five-fingered leaf
with spaces between digits.
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Remnants of pink rose bushes
and an apple tree, apples
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green but plentiful. Lilac
lifts spent and skeletal blooms.
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The two-track road still leads to
back pasture, woodlot beyond.
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Orange day-lilies echo
the rusty reds of tin roof,
the house fallen to decay.
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All my best,
Jane
abandoned spaces: fireweed
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about abandoned rural areas and the remnants of gardens left behind. Although these properties are still owned, the homes that once stood there are gone or left to deteriorate. The gardens, once loved and cared for, are left to survive on their own.
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When these home-sites are abandoned, the garden plants:
- disappear (most annuals),
- persist (perennials like day-lilies or roses), or
- escape (lupins, mallow or other easily-spreading plants).
Native plants, those liking disturbed or cleared areas, may move into these sites.
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an abandoned site in Williamsburg, New Brunswick where fireweed has colonized
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As I find abandoned properties, the pink or pale purple flowers of fireweed are often present. Fireweed, an indigenous plant not usually grown in gardens, is often a first indicator a house may once have stood on a plot of land. Often fireweed stands side by side with orange day-lilies and other garden escapes.
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on this abandoned site in the Williamsburg area, the fireweed stands side-by-side with orange day-lilies (Hemerocallis fulva), rose bushes and other cultivated plants
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Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium L.), also known as great willowherb, gets the ‘fire’ in its name since it is one of the first plants to colonize after fire. As a pioneer species, partial to open areas with lots of light, it also moves in to any cleared or disturbed area. After a few years, other plants will move in, out-competing the fireweed. However, the seeds of fireweed stay viable for a long time and may re-colonize the area if it is again disturbed or burned.
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Fireweed is one of many tall pinkish flowers growing in our ditches and wild areas. It is distinguished by its rather loose inflorescence, the flower’s four roundish petals and its seed pods which angle upwards.
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Fireweed spreads by the roots or by seed. In the later part of the season, the seeds are spread by the wind, aided by long silky hairs. Before dispersal the hairy seeds burst out along the seed pods making the plant look unkempt and hairy.
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Fireweed (pink) among brown-eyed Susans; the stiff, many-podded plants in the upper right-hand corner are the seedpods of fireweed, finished with their blooming
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In New Brunswick we are facing a demographic trend of movement from rural communities to cities in the southern part of the province and elsewhere. This means many small communities that thrived a century ago are now abandoned. For example, in 1866 the community of Fredericksburg, New Brunswick was a farming community with 12 families (Source: https://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/Communities/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&community=1367 ). Today only a couple of homes or camps are found in the area but foxglove flowers, that once bloomed in the gardens, thrive in the ditches. For more on the demographics of small New Brunswick communities see:
Lauren Beck and Christina Ionescu. ‘Challenges and Opportunities Faced by Small Communities in New Brunswick: An Introduction’, Journal of New Brunswick Studies Issue 6, No. 1 (2015).
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JNBS/article/view/23057
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foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) flowers thriving in the ditch in the Fredericksburg area
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All my best,
Jane
moose in a wetland
On one of our many drives, we found ourselves in the community of Juniper, New Brunswick. In a small bog, in the midst of the community, was this fellow, a bull moose (known in scientific and other circles as Alces alces). He paid no attention to people or cars and went about his business, chewing at the vegetation in the wetland.
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The moose is a fairly common sight in New Brunswick. They are so common and dangerous along roadways, fences have been constructed along sections of the various major highways to separate moose and car.
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The first time I ever saw a moose was on my very first field excursion with my new position with the New Brunswick Department of Environment (back in 1978). I said to the federal biologist who was with me, “Look, a forest ranger is riding a horse through that bog!” The biologist replied, “That’s no horse, that’s a moose!” To this day, it is the ugliest animal I have ever seen, but there is something beautiful in its efficient ungainliness!
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Moose are big animals, up to two metres in height and up to 700 kg; my husband (my authority) says New Brunswick moose do not grow quite this big. Moose are solitary (not herding) members of the deer family. They inhabit boreal or mixed forest and love wetlands and open waters. They are herbivores and eat aquatic vegetation, grasses, and twigs, branches and leaves of shrubs and trees.
If you see a moose, back up slowly. They can become aggressive if startled or annoyed. My husband saws, “No four inch stick is going to stop a moose!”
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This is the second moose we have seen this summer.
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All my best,
Jane
little libraries
Do you have a ‘little library’ in your neighborhood? We have a few in the Fredericton area. A community-based book-sharing system, these places encourage reading and neighbourhood spirit. The little library is usually small, a dry place for books on a post. Sometimes there is a stone or stump in front so children can access the books.
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On Sunday, I placed a signed new copy of three books in the little library on University Avenue in Fredericton: ‘within easy reach’ (Jane Spavold Tims, Chapel Street Editions, 2016), ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ (Jane Spavold Tims, Chapel Street Editions, 2017) and ‘The Back Channels’ (Jennifer Houle, Signature Editions, 2016).
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If these books have already been claimed at the little library, they are available at the Fredericton Public Library. They are also available at Westminster Books in Fredericton. Books make great gifts!!!!!!!
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For more about little free libraries, see https://janetims.com/2016/07/06/little-free-library/
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All my best,
Jane
yard work
I am trying to restore some sanity to our yard. Lots to do and I lack balance in my life, so I never seem to get around to the yard work!
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We live in woods and cutting a tree or a blade of grass just isn’t on my wish list (see a Facebook group I belong to “Hell no, I won’t mow.“). If you look on an aerial photo of our lot, you just see green trees, although we have a house, and a shed, garage and greenhouse. When we first “cleared” the lot 40 years ago, I told the poor man on the bulldozer that if he touched one of my ribboned trees, he wouldn’t get paid. I can still see him maneuvering, ever so carefully, around a little Witherod bush that accidentally got a bit of ribbon tied to it.
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an aerial of our neighbourhood … that square of trees where a house should be, that’s us … you can just see our house roof and chimney if you look hard
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If you allow nature to take over, it will. Right now, the bane of my life is grapevines and Bracken. The ‘not cut’ rule is abandoned for the delight of toppling yet another Bracken stem. Good thing I can’t climb trees or I’d be up there, after the stray grapevines.
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a photo of our arbour … Bracken and grapevines
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This is a list of the small projects I will try to tackle over the next couple of weeks. Not one would take 20 minutes if I could convince myself to get off planet Meniscus (current writing project), grab the pruning shears and go outside:
- remove grape vines and Bracken from the Currant bushes and see if I can locate my Gooseberry bush
- remove the Bracken from the former pool area, now home to a young cherry tree and an eight-year-old Balm-of-Gilead, as well as grapevines and Bracken
- trim the small firs trees around the power pole … we have seven years of Christmas Trees there, just wishing they could be pruned (yes, I do cut Christmas trees)
- saw a couple of lower branches off the apple tree (the tree is full of apples this year)
- clear the little path from the big deck to the main driveway
- organize the pile of rocks I have been collecting into a short wall (I have a beauty from our drive to New Ireland a couple of weeks ago)
- drag sticks and leaves out of the pond
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Wish me luck. I will report here on anything I do. Prepare for seven days of silence.
All my best,
Jane
