in the shelter of the covered bridge – Baker Brook #2
Of the 60 covered bridges in New Brunswick, most are in the southern part of the province. Last week we went to see the three remaining covered bridges in Madawaska County in the north-western part of the province.
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One of these was Baker Brook #2. It crosses the Baker Brook west of Edmunston and is no longer in service. The bridge has been protected in a small park with a parking area. Bird boxes, flags and hanging flower baskets show there is local stewardship of the bridge.
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Baker Brook #2 in Madawaska County, New Brunswick
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The Baker Brook #2 bridge was the essence of quiet. As we entered the bridge, the only sound was the patter of rain and the trickle of water under the bridge.
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I don’t get many photos of myself, but this is a good one – I am ready to take notes on the plants and animals I see in the Baker Brook # 2 covered bridge … these notes and my photos and memories become the basis for future poems
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The bridge is set against a backdrop of tranquil hills and fields. A deer watched us from a hayfield at the north end of the bridge. A white-throated sparrow called once and a crow made a few comments from the top of a round bale of hay. Otherwise, we were alone.
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I love the way the lichens have colonized the bridge and follow the boards, like rain, in lines down the outer walls.
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Some visitor had left a small collection next to the outer wall of the bridge. Three rocks and a broken bit of glass…
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Copyright Jane Tims 2015
along the lake shore
along the lake shore
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shore verbs
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water simmers at the edge
waves lounge on the shore
discuss the scudding clouds
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red pine
catches wind
with sticky fingers
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violets nod
trout lilies tire
fringed loosestrife
hangs its yellow head
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a spring leaps from the hillside
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Copyright Jane Tims 2015
beaver slap – Bloomfield Creek Covered Bridge
On a recent weekend tour of four covered bridges in southern Kings County in New Brunswick, we stopped at Bloomfield Creek. Built in 1917, this bridge is busy and well-used. It crosses a broad creek, very pond-like with its growth of lily pads (the yellow pond-lily Nuphar) and pickerel weed (Pontederia).
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Along the grassy banks of the creek is a beaver lodge.
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beaver lodge on the bank of the creek – the beaver has dragged lots of extra branches to keep near the underwater opening of his home
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A large beaver kept us company while we visited the bridge. He swam back and forth along the river, in a course we were certain was designed to confuse and hide the location of his lodge. Most of the time he stayed on the surface – so soothing to watch his smooth brown body ‘towing’ a ‘V’ across the water. Every few minutes he would pause in his swim, arch his body, scissor his tail and lift it perpendicular to the water surface. Then he would slap the water and produce a loud ‘k-thud’ before he dove beneath the surface. In a minute or so, he would reappear to swim as calmly as before.
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close-up of the beaver towing the ‘V’
big splash as the beaver slaps its tail on the water
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
morning chorus
Each morning I have a short quiet time after rising. I spend this time in my guest bedroom. I do some stretching. I watch the sun rise among the trees. And I try to sort out the morning bird chorus.
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The morning bird chorus is known to be a complex social interaction among birds of various species – a communication we humans can listen to with wonder, but little understanding.
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We have lots of birds in our area and the woods are thick with birdsong. Although ours is a residential area, we have many hundred acres of woodland behind us and no houses between us and the river. Our back woods are mixed conifer and hardwood, mostly balsalm fir, spruce, red maple and white birch. We have nearby wetlands and, of course, the river.
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I now regret not learning to identify the birds from their songs earlier in my life. Although I can name many birds by sight, I have a feeling I know many more by their sounds. This summer I have tuned up my ears and spent lots of hours trying to learn to recognise the birds by their songs. Perhaps because of their variety and complexity, learning the songs is more difficult than just listening and comparing. Once I have heard a few birds, my memory becomes jumbled trying to distinguish between them.
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I use three main tools to help me identify and remember bird sounds.
- mnemonics – short phrases to describe and remember various bird songs. These phrases help narrow down the possibilities when I hear a bird sing. Many lists of bird song mnemonics exist, but I like the simple listing from the Fernbank Science Center in Georgia http://www.fernbank.edu/Birding/mnemonics.htm
- recorded songs – although there are many sites with bird song recordings, the one I like the best is Dendroica- NatureInstruct http://www.natureinstruct.org/dendroica/spec.php/Dendroica+Canada#sp_select . Once you select a bird, you can hear calls recorded by birders in various parts of the range.
- a list of the calls I know and new songs I hear, described in my own words and with a diagram of the way the song progresses, in a shorthand of my own. I use words like: trill, flute, scratch, liquid, repetitive, bored, delirious …
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The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has some excellent tips for those who would like to learn the songs of local birds.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1189#_ga=1.202457239.768663648.1437046200
They suggest listening for rhythm, tone, pitch and repetition of a bird song. By listening for these qualities, one at a time, you can start to make sense of the variability and help your memory.
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Here is a list of the participants in this morning’s bird chorus outside my window:
- odd high-pitched sound at the first grey light of morning, probably not a bird
- immediately, an American Robin – ‘chirrup, cheerup, cheery cheer-up’ – we have a nest of robins at the start of our woods road
- a Mourning Dove, intermittent – ‘oo-oo-hoooo’ – very sad sound – a pair perches on the wires along our main road
- a White-throated Sparrow – ‘I love dear Canada-Canada-Canada’
- a Hermit Thrush – an ethereal, flute-like phrase, repeated over and over, each time at a new pitch – close at first and then gradually moving further away
- an Eastern Phoebe – a nasal ‘fee-bee’, repeated – a nest in the eaves of our shed
- a Red-breasted Nuthatch – a monotonous low-key ‘yank yank yank yank’, like a cross between a bored duck and a bullfrog
- the ‘caw caw caw’ of a Crow
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I wonder if you ever listen to the morning bird chorus. What birds do you hear?
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
grant from artsnb
I am so pleased to announce – I have recieved a grant in the field of literary arts (B Category) from artsnb – the New Brunswick Arts Board. The Board has supported my work before, for my poetry manuscripts about ‘growing and gathering local foods’ and ‘harvesting colour’.
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This new project will be to write a manuscript of poems about plants and animals growing in, around and under covered bridges. ‘In the shelter of the covered bridge’ will explore the natural history of these covered bridges, looking at how covered bridges modify the landscape and create a special environment for plants and animals. Because of my interest in human history, I’ll include poetry about the people who make use of the spaces of the covered bridge.
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woodpecker holes in an end of the Mill Settlement Covered Bridge – all sorts of possibilities for poetry
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Since experience is so important to the writing of poetry, one part of my project will be to continue my travels to the covered bridges in the province, especially the 31 covered bridges in the St. John River watershed. Every visit will suggest new subject matter for me to explore with words.
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Of all the elements of this project, I think I will most enjoy the chance to show how important these bridges are to our natural and cultural history in New Brunswick.
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
linden – linden wing #2
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linden wing #2
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thin green pale
I hoist my, turn my
tapered, paper sail
to wind-tasks, two
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first I nudge my mast
of flowers, rudder
to the breeze, my pollen-folk
hitch a ride with the bees
each captured grain a triumph
each launch a score
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later, I loose my mooring
detach, hoist spinnaker and main
samara of linden
and passenger seeds
sail away
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
linden – linden wing #1
the mature linden is heart-shaped like its leaf … this time of year it is filled with flowers, each cluster held on a stem in a long, leaf-like bract
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linden wing #1
Tilia cordata
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green, veined tongue
apex and base
alien, unlike leaf, unlike tree
winged though planted
grounded yet ready to fly
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tiny tree on a bract landscape
wind walks through
shudders still shadow
percussion, tousles unlikely flower
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olive feather of linnet
tongue and an idea is spoken
cluster of notes
sprinkled on air
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bitterness flows from basswood
taste bud to taste bud
trail of robin song
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near the center of the photo, you can see the pale green bracts, each holding a stem of several small flowers
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
linden – linden in shade
almost 20 years old, our linden refuses to grow in all the shade we have provided … the linden is the low ‘tree’ with the heart-shaped leaves
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It sprawls by the garage, our linden. Its leaves are heart-shaped, and its small yellow-green flowers are held in leafy bracts. Hardly a tree, about four feet tall, but twenty years old, surely beyond sapling stage. An adult linden is fifty feet tall, heart-shaped in sillouette, a shape-clone of its leaf.
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We dug the linden as a seedling in 1997. Not a happy year. We were attending a funeral in a series of funerals. We decided to remove ourselves from the crowd, salvage some living thing from the day. We dug sprouting horse chestnuts and young linden saplings, growing snug in the grass.
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If I had planted my seedlings in sun, they would have flourished and today we would have two lovely trees. But, because our yard is a crowded place, only the shade-tolerant survive. My horse chestnut seedling died from lack of sun. And our linden sprawls by our garage, stunted and misshapen. Wanting light, it may never grow to a full-sized tree.
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
in the shelter of the covered bridge – Milkish Inlet
We continue to drive around to look at covered bridges in New Brunswick. Eventually, I would like to write a series of poems about the plants and animals living in or around a covered bridge.
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Last Saturday we visited a covered bridge on the Kingston Peninsula at Bayswater. The Milkish Inlet #1 (Bayswater Covered Bridge) was built in 1920. At 66.5 meters, it is the longest covered bridge in Kings County, New Brunswick. It is by far the busiest bridge I have seen – it was hard to amble through the bridge since there always seemed to be a car going through and a car waiting.
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The bridge crosses the Milkish Inlet at Bayswater. The water here is under the influence of the tides.
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Swimmers, wanting to dive from the height of the bridge, have removed a section of the bridge’s wall boards.
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There are many carvings inside the bridge, including this rather charming L. P.
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Another covered bridge once crossed Milkish Creek, but it has been replaced by a causeway.
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I wondered about the name of the Inlet. The water is not ‘milkish’ in colour!
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I have discovered the name is from a First Nations word meaning ‘the place where food is dried’ (Source: http://coveredbridgevic.com/festival/Bridges.htm ).
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
writing a novel – draft by draft
Title: Unknown
Working Title: ‘Crossing at a Walk’
Setting: a writers’ retreat – the renovated Landing Church, the hall and the rectory – now used as a Learning Center, a Sleeping Hall and a home/base of operations
Characters: main character Sadie, a writer and manager of a weekend writers’ retreat; her husband Tom, a retired welder; people from the community; writers participating in the first weekend of the writers’ retreat
Plot: Some of the participants in the writer’s retreat become interested in the carving of a woman’s name in a local covered bridge
Story: Sadie works to make the first writers’ retreat go smoothly, but forgets to keep her own life on track
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Wheaton Bridge (Tantramar River #2) in Westmorland County, New Brunswick. This is the bridge where I found the PHOEBE carving in 1992. We re-visited the bridge in early June and the carving no longer exists, probably lost to necessary bridge maintenance.
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As I complete work on the fifth draft of my novel ‘Crossing at a Walk’, I am planning how to further improve the book. I am now at about 82,000 words. I have defined the story and the plot. Now I have to complete the editing phase.
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This blog has proven to be a valuable tool in writing. It helps me to check my progress against my first book, and to make sure I don’t forget steps in the editing process. To help with this process, I have made the table below to chart my progress through the various drafts.
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| Number of words | Tools used | Objectives | |
| Draft #1 | 32,000 |
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| Draft #2 | 54,000 |
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| Draft #3 | 65,000 |
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| Draft #4 | 77,000 |
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| Draft #5 | 83,000 |
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| Draft #6 |
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| Draft #7 |
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During Draft #5, I began reading my book to my husband and to the members of my two writing groups. Reading aloud is the first test of my audience and helps me find many errors. In particular, I am able to hear words I have repeated in near proximity to one another.
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Also during Draft #5, I have used a tool I found useful in the writing of my first book. This is SmartEdit for Word (http://www.smart-edit.com/) a ‘first-pass-editing tool’ designed to help identify errors and problems with writing. It is Word compatible and works directly with my Word documents. It identifies clichés, adverbs, repeated words and phrases, punctuation errors and so on. Although it doesn’t take the place of a human editor, it shows the writer possible areas for improvement. SmartEdit for Word can be used free for 10 days or can be purchased for a reasonable price. I have found it to be trouble-free and worth the cost.
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As I begin Draft #6, my objectives are to make elements in the book consistent. This includes listening for the way characters speak, making certain settings are described completely, and ensuring the story arcs are coherent. I also have to think a little about the third book in the series, so I know what characters I will need and know if I have to make small plot adjustments.
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Have you ever used editing software to help with your writing?
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
Carving of the name Phoebe on a beam of the Tantramar #2 Covered Bridge near Sackville, New Brunswick
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