Posts Tagged ‘nature’
winterberries
Before the winter snows are entirely gone, I want to share this poem. All through the winter months, winterberry holly clings to its bright orange-red berries, refusing to let go …
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winterberries
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berries of holly persist
long into winter, cling to
the bough, after leaves have fallen
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grief refuses to let go
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but what is one berry among
so many – in the end all
berries desiccate and die
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birds wheel in limitless sky
look below and see
one red pixel punctuates
vast emptiness of snow
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
harvesting colour – the formula for colour
My first effort towards my project is to understand what materials I will need. From my early reading, I have learned the end colour for any project using natural dyes is much more than just adding plant material to water. A final colour is the result of so many factors.
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My simple formula for this complex symphony is:
final colour = source water + utensils + plant material (dyestuff) + mordent + colour modifier + textile fibre
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No doubt, I will discover I have omitted some important element.
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In my next posts, I will consider each of these elements and talk about the specific items I intend to use.
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For example, I will need some textile fibre to dye. My intention is to dye small amounts of material for use in various weaving projects. In my weaving, I use both thread and strips of textiles.
At this early stage, I have three materials I want to dye. I have a small quantity of unspun fleece obtained a couple of years ago during our trip to Upper Canada Village in Ontario. I also have three old cotton shirts – I loved to wear these before they became stained – perhaps I will wear them again, repurposed in rainbow colour! And I have just purchased a meter of white silk (at $37 per meter, it is a splurge!). I will have to do some preparatory cleaning to each of these materials before I use them in my dyeing projects.
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some materials for dyeing … a meter of silk, three shirts, and a bundle of unspun wool … the shirts have already seen their share of accidental dyeing !!!
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Behind the scenes, I am finding poetic inspiration as I learn this craft of dyeing. Eventually I will be brave enough to show my poems to you.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
february chill
memories of a walk on a cold night …
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spaces in the dark
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white on the pasture
interrupts the night
clings to cold twilight
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footfalls
beside me
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a black horse
assembles from shadow
ponders the snow
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your coat
folded around me
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the horse lifts its head
knows where deer hesitate
where wings brush against barn boards
where I stand in the snow
and shiver
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never so warm again
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chill spaces around me
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no feathers to fly
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
harvesting colour
Recently I was awarded an artsnb (New Brunswick Arts Board) Creations grant. My six month project will be to write a book-length poetry manuscript about the experience of using plant dyes for colouring textiles.
The poems will find their inspiration in the activities of collecting plants, extracting their dyes and using them to colour woven fabric.
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one of the plants I will be using is Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) – it grows throughout New Brunswick and can be used to make yellow and olive dyes
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Writing these poems, in many ways, should echo my previous project ‘growing and gathering’. I will do some research about a particular plant, then go forth and find it. For the ‘growing and gathering’ project I had a lot of fun exploring various areas of the province for the plants I needed, so I know I will love this part of the experience. It will be when I get the plant material home that the differences between the two projects will become clear. With ‘growing and gathering’, writing poems about picking berries seemed second nature to me since I’ve spent a lot of my life in berry fields.
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some of the ingredients for a ‘growing and gathering’ salad
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With ‘harvesting colour’, I will be learning a craft new to me. I’ll be trying to manage the complex alchemy of “pot type plus source water plus plant material plus mordent plus receiving material”. Lots of chemistry and a few colour tragedies, I’m certain. And discovery, as purple plants become yellow dye. I hope to combine making plant dyes with my weaving, an activity I find totally relaxing and steadying.
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some of my weaving results over the years … it will be fun to see what colours my project will bring to my weaving
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So where will the poems come from and what will they say? I’ll be looking for metaphors for human experience and emotion. I’ll try to embed ideas about reconnection with nature and about cultural expression through decorating fabric. I’ll use words from botany and chemistry, and a rich colour dictionary. I can hardly wait to explore all the words for yellow, and green, and red.
I want to write poems about ‘saddening’ the colour by adding a pinch of salt, and ruining a dye lot by forgetting to tend it well. I’ll write about oak leaf imprints on cloth, and the different yellows created with apple bark and poplar leaf. I’d also like to write poems about the ordinary life experience of plant dyes – grass stains on knees, the grey Choke-cherry jelly bag, the Cranberry stain on the tablecloth.
I’ll be presenting at least some of my poems here and I’ll certainly be sharing my experiences. I’ll continue to present my virtual travel, novel writing and watercolour posts, but I plan to devote Friday’s post each week to ‘harvesting colour’. Hope you visit regularly to follow me in my project!
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
excusing the difference
On this cold and wintry day …
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When my son went to school, we often went to theatrical presentations at the school. The young people were so talented and the presentations so well executed, I often went away with the lines of a poem running through my head.
One evening performance was particularly memorable and inspiring. It was a production of Romeo and Juliet, and in this ‘version’ Rosaline was given an on-stage role. Rosaline is the character who does not appear in Shakespeare’s play but has a background role as Romeo’s first love.
The young lady who played the part of Rosaline was memorable for her costuming and her on-stage presence. She was dressed entirely in black Goth except for her hair – bright pink. I remember her soliloquy – she begged us to look past her difference and see the person within.
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heroine
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her hair
a stroke of pink
on the brown audience
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more compelling
than the script
or the decorated stage
not surprising to see her name
on the program
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Rose
in the part of Rosaline
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in black but for the hair
even her lips
implore the audience
to pardon the difference
to understand
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if only he had lived
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she, of course, the heroic one
not Romeo
or Juliet
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not the dead
but the left-behind
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
heathland and heather (day 57)
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7-57 December 12, 2013 30 minutes 3.0 km (from Ponsongath to Kuggar)
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Something different has appeared in the maps of the area where I am ‘travelling’. Today’s virtual bike trip took me just south of a large ‘brown’ area of topography (seen in the aerial photo above). To find out about this area, I turned my stationary cycle for a side trip in the direction of Gwenter, just to the north of my planned path.
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The area I found is anything but brown (Street View images were done in July). These are the Goonhilly Downs, a raised plateau of heathlands above serpentinite rock. Besides being a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the home of many rare plants, the heathlands are the location of a large windfarm (I could just see the turbines in the distance) and the Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station (the largest in the world).
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Goonhilly Downs … wind turbines and satellite dishes are just visible along the horizon (image from Street View)
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From the road I could see expanses of grass, tufts of fern, and ericaceous shrubs. Patches of purple reminded me of the Rhodora that blooms here in spring. From my reading about the Cornwall heathlands, I am certain this plant must be Cornish heath (Erica vagans), a species of heather common in Cornwall. I have a small patch of heather growing in my own garden, so this plant has a spot in my heart. I first learned about heathers in our history club in high school – we took a field trip to see the heathers growing abundantly in Point Pleasant Park in Halifax. They grow there in a 3300 square meter patch, called the ‘Heather Patch’, south of the Cambridge Battery. The heathers are not native but grow there as an escape – from the stuffing in the bedrolls of British soldiers in the 1700s!
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December 17, 2013 ‘Goonhilly Down’ Jane Tims
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Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
a moment of beautiful – ice windows on woodland pools
the space: pools of water in the Grey Woods
the beautiful: patterns in the thin ice
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While we wait for a lasting snow in New Brunswick, ice defines the season. On every pool of standing water, ice-windows have formed. I love the patterns these make against the amber-colored water! These are photos of ice windows taken last spring, after the snow had gone.
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
a moment of beautiful – an ice lantern
the space: our living room on a winter evening
the beautiful: an ice lantern with cranberries and periwinkle vine
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As Christmas approaches, candles are among my favorite decorations. For the past few years, I have made ice lanterns (also called ice candles).
I use a square plastic container that freezes well. In the center, I place a paper cup weighed down with rocks. Then I fill the outer ring with cranberries and greenery (this year I used the green vines of Periwinkle, Vinca minor, from our garden). Then I fill the ring with water.
This goes in the freezer, or in colder weather, out on the porch. Once the water has frozen, I put hot water in the paper cup, to free it from the ice. Then I run cold water over the outside of the bigger container to free the ice lantern. I light a tealight or flat candle and put it in the center space.
The shimmering ice lantern will last several hours. These lanterns will also last a long time outside in cold weather.
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Jane Tims 2013
a closer look at trees (days 48, 49 and 50)
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One of the natural history lessons learned during my trip to California concerned the oak. On a trip to ‘Safari West’ near Santa Rosa, our guide pointed out the scarred trunks of various trees. The bark was embedded with acorns! The Acorn Woodpecker places the acorns in holes in the bark of these trees, storing them for a later source of food. The storage trees or ‘granaries’ are used over and over through the years!
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acorns planted in a ‘granary’ tree by the Acorn Woodpecker
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Perhaps as a result of seeing so many new tree species in California, I have looked more closely at the trees I see in Street View as I cycle ‘virtually’ along the Cornwall coast. Identification is usually difficult since the images do not show details. However, occasionally a leafy branch is close enough to see the leaves clearly. So far, I have seen the Common Ash, the Field Maple, and the English Oak. In the image below, you can see the lobed leaves of the English Oak.
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lobed leaves of an English Oak along the road to St. Anthony (image from Street View)
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map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
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7-48 November 21, 2013 30 minutes 3.0 km (from Mawgan to St. Martin)
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November 26, 2013 ‘oak on Fords Hill’ Jane Tims
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7-49 November 23, 2013 35 minutes 3.0 km (from St. Martin to Helford)
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November 26, 2013 ‘maple and oak near Helford’ Jane Tims
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7-50 November 25, 2013 30 minutes 3.0 km (from Helford to St. Anthony-in-Meneage)
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Oak and Ash along the road to St. Anthony (image from Street View)
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Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
the colour of September #5 – red rose hips from pink roses
I have the funniest rose bush in my front yard.
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It bore double yellow roses for the first few years of its life. Then, in recent years it has become a pink rose, with the frailest pink petals.
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I know how this happened – not ‘alchemy’ at all, but an example of survival of the fittest. The original yellow rose must have been grafted to the root stock of a common rose. When the yellow rose stem died for some reason, the pink rose stock flourished. I love my frail pink roses , especially at this time of year when they produce bright red, elliptical rose hips.
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September 22, 2013 ‘red rose hips from pink roses’ Jane Tims
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Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
