Posts Tagged ‘landscape’
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
washday
A few years ago, we took a vacation to les Îles de la Madeleines, also known as the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and part of the Province of Quebec. We loved the ferry rides to and from the Islands, the endless white sand beaches, the artisans, and the demonstrations of wind sailing. Most of all, I loved the colourful houses. I always planned to try to capture the beaches and those houses in a painting. I finally completed my tryptic called ‘washday #1’, ‘washday #2’ and ‘washday #3’.
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June 9, 2015 ‘washday#1’ Jane Tims
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June 9, 2015 ‘washday#2’ Jane Tims
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June 9, 2015 ‘washday#3’ Jane Tims
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And the three together:
June 9, 2015 ‘washday’ Jane Tims
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
forward direction
Going over some older writing, I discovered the poem below. Retired now, I remember days when I thought I couldn’t take another minute of work situations I can’t now even remember. A good message for me when I feel stressed. Ask myself if I will even recall the circumstances of this moment years from now. The photos are from a drive to work in 2011.
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in car-contained wrath
aftermath of a stress-filled day
a shadow cloud of dots and dashes crosses
my road, there and gone
feathered beings, perhaps
a murmuration of birds
or an incantation of angels
wing tips backward beating
frail quills and a message
to go forward
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early autumn morning
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lots of fog on a morning commute
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looks like this was a drive ‘to’ work and I was late … no wonder I was stressed!
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green means ‘go forward’
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
navigation – guest post by Rob Hughes
I am so pleased to welcome a guest in this post. Rob Hughes is a former colleague and friend, now retired and keeping bees, hobby farming and trekking around the Maritimes. In this post, Rob writes about finding your way in the landscape. Welcome Rob!
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(photo credit: Rob Hughes)
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Whiteout
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In the noise of white the blurring snapped
the normal drive detached
flipped and pulled my brain on bungies
In a spin or floating
zigged
away –
disconnected, inverted, spinning somewhere –
Somewhere, in a nagual line of space.
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A pinch of view, a scrap
as I groped not knowing –
a bush? Something, please – then
zag.
I see and am unswallowed, spat back out,
land again in what must be reality
Tonality
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I drive on frightened, woozy from the warp of time and space
The white took over.
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The poem is an attempt to capture the scary vertigo that can happen when driving in a whiteout. We can lose normal visual cues and suddenly, what was familiar becomes a trip into the unknown. While usually only lasting seconds, it can feel like dropping down the proverbial rabbit hole. It’s a powerful lesson in how we are constantly checking where we are in the world, and how quickly our inherent navigation system can go off the rails when the inputs are messed up.
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These days there are more ways than ever to help find your way around. People still get lost. Map reading might be in danger of becoming a lost art. Let the GPS take care of it. Nice, but you might get disconcerting voice commands to turn here, or there, even when the maneuver is patently impossible. The trouble is that those devices are not thinking. Most of us know of hapless travelers sent into the backcountry mire on a short cut. You could be better off with a map!
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Ski orienteering in Odell Park, Fredericton. (photo credit: Jenny Hughes)
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For years I have enjoyed turning navigation into adventure, exploration, exercise and fun all at once through the sport of orienteering. There are lots of drills to help with how to visualize terrain, choose the best route, and then memorize it, so you can concentrate on navigating through the real world without having to refer back to your map every twenty seconds. It’s a lot of fun to locate landscape features along a route deep in unfamiliar forest.
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Rob (right) and team-mate Steve finishing the E2C, a 24-h rogaine held annually in Nova Scotia. (photo credit: Halifax Search and Rescue/Orienteering Nova Scotia)
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After orienteering for some years, there came a sort of craving for more… a kind of classic addiction response, presumably. Enter rogaining. Yes, it really is a word, and the internet is there to prove it. It’s a perfect fix for navigation junkies. I have made some great map and compass buddies in this sport, in which teams of 2-4 spend up to 24 hours seeking control locations in the backcountry, sometimes covering the distance of two marathons in the process. No electronic devices, just map and compass. The sport has a kind of quirky mystique that draws aficionados from all over the globe to the biennial world championships, often held in spectacular settings.
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The logo of the International Rogaining Federation. It depicts the sport well – day and night, up and down, footsteps…. (credit: International Rogaining Federation)
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Spring in the Maritimes is marked by an annual pilgrimage to take part in the Eco-Endurance Challenge, held in Nova Scotia in April or early May and organized by Orienteering Nova Scotia and Halifax Search and Rescue. This is often a very difficult and wet rogaine, but popular with hundreds of local map heads. Who knew finding your way could be so addictive?
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Dawn forest scape at the 2009 Australian Rogaining Championships held at Wandering, Western Australia. A memorable navigation challenge! (photo credit: Rob Hughes)
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Copyright 2015 Rob Hughes
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
November first frost
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November first frost
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air brittle, a broken
sliver of moon between
disrobing larches, silence
ruptured by craven’s cry
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© Jane Tims 1995
along the pond
On my stationary bike last week, I travelled (virtually) along the Cornwall coast from the mouth of Loe Pond to Rinsey. During the week, I biked for 90 minutes, and saw 11 km of the Cornwall countryside.
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The first day took me from the mouth of ‘The Loe’, along the pond to just west of Porthleven, in Shadywalk Wood.
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from the beach at the mouth of Loe Pond to Shadywalk Wood (map from Google Earth)
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The beach is a wide crescent of endless sand …
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August 16, 2014 ‘beach at Loe’ Jane Tims
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The path along ‘The Loe’ is narrow, tree-lined and shady. I saw lots of hikers and fellow bikers, but not a single car.
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a typical part of the path along ‘The Loe’ (image from Street View)
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August 16, 2014 ‘along Loe Pond’ Jane Tims
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Biking along a shady lane, with no worries about traffic, thick ferny woods to one side and the sparkle of a pond on the other … a lovely way to ponder the days of summer …
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
back to Cornwall
Although I have done some stationary biking since I ended my virtual trip across northern New Brunswick, I want to get back to the regular schedule I followed when I biked virtually in France and Cornwall. So I have decided to hop back on the Street View road and see some more of Cornwall.
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In Phase 7 of my virtual cycling, I finished the southern coast of Cornwall at Landewednack and Lizard. I’ll begin Phase 9 at Predannack Wollas and cycle around the west coast of Cornwall. I’ll look forward to seeing Arthur’s Titagel and Doc Martin’s Port Isaac. Mostly, my knees will benefit from more regular exercise.
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Predannack Wollas to Porthleven
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I have my first four days plotted and I start tomorrow. Just for old time’s sake, here is one of my earlier paintings from southern Cornwall …
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
Arthur – after the storm
Over a week after Tropical Storm Arthur, I am thinking about the new pattern of life we adopted during our six days without electricity. Without our usual electric lights, stove, refrigerator, computer and television, we adjusted our days.
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First there were candles. I have lots of candles, but three pillars in the living room sent enough light into the main part of the house for navigation. We also had our small flashlights. They lit the darker rooms and made us safe on the stairs.
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The next ‘necessity’ was gasoline for the truck and for our small generator (2000 watt). Although we began the storm with very little gasoline (we were not well prepared), we waited a couple of days to fill up, to avoid the long lineups for gas at the few stations open after the storm. Since most all of Fredericton was without power for the first two days, so open gas stations, fast food places and grocery stores were hard to find!
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Once we had our generator working, we had a hot meal at supper time each evening, on our small electric hotplate. By the end of the six days, we were using our generator for fans to keep the house cool and to watch DVDs on our television.
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Water, of course, is always a concern. We had lots of water on hand, about 22 4-liter jugs I keep for emergencies. We were able to buy drinking water and ice for our cooler, although these items were flying from the shelves!!! By the end of our adventure, we had filled our jugs a couple of times, once at my son’s home (in the city, they had no power, but they did have water), and once from the Oromocto Fire Department who were so kind to us.
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On Day 6, workers from NB Power and Hydro-Quebec, and a tree trimming crew from Maine arrived to remove the trees from the downed lines on our road. They worked all day to re-establish power to about 500 customers who depended on this particular line. We were so grateful to them, knowing they had worked since the storm hit. We were just one group among many waiting for power. On Sunday, July 13, there were still 5000 customers without power in Fredericton. By the time of this post, NB Power says most power will be restored. It is certainly the longest power outage we have ever experienced in this province.
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three candles
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three candles
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between ruby glass
and hard wood floor
a slide of light and three
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extinguished candles
smoke lifts from smoulder
each mote a particle
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of spectral light, mosaic
shard, image
reassembled in three
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dimensions
shepherd, hawthorn
lamb
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© Jane Tims 2011
blue in the woodland
About a decade ago, we took a drive from Canterbury to McAdam on a gravel road. The memory I have carried with me for years is of a section of woodland absolutely blue with flowers. I often wondered what the flowers were and if I’d be able to find the spot again. This weekend we tried to find the place and the sea of blue in the woodland.
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Highway 630 from Canterbury to McAdam in New Brunswick (map from Google Maps)
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Canterbury, like many rural communities of New Brunswick, has faced a shrinking population over the years. Settled by Loyalists, it was a center for logging and railroad traffic and, in the late 1800s, had a population of over 1000. Today it has only about 340 residents. Nevertheless, it is a charming village and has a newly renovated school, housing all 12 grades.
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Village of Canterbury at the turn to Highway 630
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The route from Canterbury toward the south is a numbered road. But Highway 630 is not paved and quite rutted in some sections. In one place we had to ask some ATVers if we were on the right road!
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Highway 630
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As we drove, I watched the woods for those blue flowers. Wildflowers were certainly a theme of our drive. By the road we saw Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule), Bluebead Lily (Clintonia borealis), Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) and Quaker Ladies (Houstonia caerulea).
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Lady’s Slipper and Bunchberry along the road
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The map shows a community named Carroll’s Ridge just south of Canterbury. When we reached the location marked on the map, there were no homes or buildings, only a few old roads and cleared areas. But there in the woods was evidence people had once lived there. I found my sea of blue! Forget-me-nots, escaped from some forgotten garden to thrive in the near by woods.
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Forget-me-nots escaped from an old garden
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In my memory, the ‘blue’ of the flowers was more intense a decade ago. But we noticed many of the Forget-me-nots there now are a white variety. Who knows if flower colour or memory really changed during those ten years.
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blue flowers in the woodland
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Forget-me-nots in the woods
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I picked a few of the Forget-me-nots, to try an ‘eco-print’ dyeing experiment in coming days. But what I really took away was another image of a sea of blue flowers in the woods.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
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