Posts Tagged ‘lakeshore’
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
oldfield
In my posts this summer, the space I expect to feature prominently is our summer property.
I’ve talked about this place before. One end of the property is along a lake (see ‘course of the creek’, September 12, 2012, and ‘ice is nice’, December 21, 2011, both under the category ‘waterways’). The lake edge is a bright forest of cedar, hemlock, birch and oak, and includes a beautiful marsh. We sit on our bench in the woods and look out at the lake, watching loons and deer and ducks. Once I saw an eagle plummet from the sky and dive into the water with a huge splash, to emerge with a good-sized fish in his talons.
Most of the property was/is an oldfield. When we bought the property in 2004, we bought an open field, thick with blueberry bushes and grass that rippled in the ever-present wind. There were a few trees, mostly bushy pine, spared year after year by the farmer’s bushhog. The field had been home to a herd of buffalo (bison) and we still find the dry, dusty evidence of their wallows.
The keyword in the last paragraph is ‘bushhog’! The farmer offered to keep the field mowed, but we are very independent. We were certain we could keep ahead of the various trees and alders sprouting everywhere.
The result has been the usual progress of an oldfield in the process of succession. Today our pines still punctuate the property, and there are enough blueberries to keep us satisfied, but other spaces have emerged… the alder swale, the maple grove, the path through the birches, the blackberry barrens, and, of course, our tiny cottage. There is a bit of grassy field still remaining and we struggle to keep it intact.
east boundary of our property, with our cedar rail fence, looking toward our neighbor's mowed field
When we go to the property I like to think about how it is changing, right before our eyes. Those buffalo would have a hard time recognising the place.
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evidence of buffalo
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“…in this field, years ago, I kept buffalo….”
beef farmer, selling his land
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massive posts brace a page fence
woven with wire birch
dusty wallows where soil is crushed
and only lichen will grow
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three apple trees trodden
parallel to ground
grey feed trough
strung together with nails
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cedar waxwings search the fence
coarse hairs for their nests
winds nuzzle and whisper
through the brush of pine
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© Jane Tims 2012
edge of lake
Water is essential to my health, not only because I need it to drink. I also need to see water. Whether it’s the water of a stream, river, lake or ocean, being near water comforts and enlivens me.
I like the transitions too, the places where land and water meet – the seashore, the margins of a brook, or the shoreline of a lake. Birds and other animals love ‘edge’ – places where the food is plentiful and cover is available. We go to the lake shore to watch loons diving for fish, deer wading in the marsh grass and ducks ‘dabbling’ along the shore.
edge of lake
evening edge
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of lake
a corner torn
from the loaf of hills
red with setting
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faint click
sun gone
dusk and bread crumbs scattered
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nasal chuckle
from the farther shore
arrows etched on glass
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blue-winged teal
under wings a glimpse
of summer night
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greedy for crust and crumbs
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© Jane Tims 1998
evening edge of lake
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