Posts Tagged ‘nature’
forested dunes 6-12
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long empty roads (image from Street View)
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My virtual bike trip on day 12 of Phase 6 took me along a very uninteresting length of highway. Other, more interesting roads showed on the map, but Street View just didn’t go there. The houses along the way were screened by long stretches of walls …
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miles of walls (image from Street View)
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Sometimes the walls were covered in graffiti …
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miles of graffiti-covered walls (image from Street View)
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When I turned to travel along the beach, the first house I saw was a charming cottage named ‘Solitude’ …
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cozy cottage named Solitude (image from Street View)
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The rest of the route along the beach was obscured by trees. Although it meant I couldn’t see the beach, a forested dune is actually an environmental goal. There is lots of evidence that the eventual natural state of a dune is forest. In New Brunswick, we have only three forested dunes. Usually erosion of the grassed dune occurs long before forest is able to establish itself …
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forested dune along the north shore of Ile de Ré (image from Street View)
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Best View: a view across the salt marsh ponds near Le Gillieux ….
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June 25, 2013 ‘salt marsh on Ile de Re’ Jane Tims
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
seaweed for gardens and vines for trees 6-11
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greenery in a walled yard (image from Street View)
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map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
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I am nearing the end of Phase 6 of my virtual cycling trip through central France, but I am seeing so many interesting things, it is hard to look forward to the end. Today I saw a man digging seaweed into his garden. He had spread the seaweed uniformly across his garden and was slowly digging it into the soil …
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man digging seaweed into the garden (image from Street View)
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I am interested in gardening, so of course, I stopped to talk …
Jane: Bonjour. ‘Qu-est-ce que vous ajoutez au jardin???’ (‘Hello! What is it you are digging into your garden?’)
Gardener: ‘Bonjour. Ce sont des algues marines! Il sont très bon pour le sol.’ (‘Hello. I am adding seaweed. It is very good for the soil.’)
Jane: ‘Bon pour le sol? C’est vrai?’ (‘Good for the soil. Is that true?’)
Gardener: ‘Mais oui! Ils ajoutent la nourriture et les matières organiques aux sol!’ (‘Of course! They add nutrients and organic matter to the soil!’)
Jane: ‘D’où est-ce que vous avez obtainer ces algues marines?’ (‘Where did you get the seaweed?’)
Gardener: ‘Ah, juste à côté de l’ocean! Ils ne coûtent rien!’ (‘Ah, just by the ocean!’ It’s free!!!’)
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Using seaweed on gardens is common on this side of the Atlantic Ocean also. For example, in his book Vineyard Chill (Scribner, New York, 2008), Phillip R. Craig opened his mystery novel with a family going to the beach to gather seaweed for their garden on Martha’s Vineyard.
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There was lots of evidence of gardening and green thumbs on this part of my bike drive across Ile de Ré …
greenhouses on Ile de Ré (image from Street View)
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Best View: old trees, their trunks covered with vines (I loved doing this watercolor so much, I tried three versions) …
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June 17, 2013 ‘vine-covered trees #1’ Jane Tims
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June 17, 2013 ‘vine-covered trees #2’ Jane Tims
June 18, 2013 ‘vine-covered trees #3’ Jane Tims
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This is the view that inspired the paintings …
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vine-covered trees (image from Street View)
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
side roads 6-9
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vines on a wall near La Prises (image from Street View)
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map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
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Any time we go for a drive in the countryside, I always wonder where the side roads lead. It is the same on my virtual bike trip in France. One of the limitations of virtual travel is that I cannot just get off my bike and walk down an interesting side road.
Sometimes Street View gives a very good idea of what I would find if I walked down one of those roads. Perhaps a mansion and beautifully kept grounds …
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beautiful grounds (image from Street View)
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Sometimes the way is mysterious and I can only imagine what must lie beyond the view …
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two side roads, side by side (image from Street View)
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Sometimes there is just a glimpse of a yard or a house …
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I wonder what lies beyond the white gate (image from Street View)
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Sometimes I know that beyond my view is a broad beach of white sand and the sound of the ocean …
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access to the sea near La Passe (image from Street View)
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Best View: side road behind a white gate …
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June 13, 2013 ‘road beyond the gate’ Jane Tims
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
a moment of beautiful – through a stained glass window
the space: the big maple outside our front door
the beautiful: seeing a squirrel in the tree through the stained glass window in our stairwell
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As I was working at my desk, my husband called to me. Through our stained glass window, he could see a silhouette of our grey squirrel. I’m glad the squirrel waited long enough for me to snap his picture!
Can you see the squirrel through the stained glass?
© Jane Tims 2013
messages on a still winter day
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intentions
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snow, crystal-quiet
a sluggish breeze
riffles the woodland
sunrise lost in a rose sky
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listen to the rustle
of paper on wood
the mutter of unwritten lines
birch-bark, deckle-edged
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tatters and shreds
sorted by a sluggish wind
words I meant to write
letters ready for the mail
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misplaced
behind parcels
wait for postage
brown paper and string
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
dear deer
This year, I moved our feeders to our front yard.
They are not so easy to see from the house, although I have a good view from the window of our library.
The deer have liked the new feeding station. We see them almost every day. They empty the feeder too quickly and also visit the compost pile. We don’t deliberately feed the deer, but they visit the feeders anyway.
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deep and delicate, hoof print
evidence, this space is shared
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deer, eat peelings by moonlight
one floor up, we sleep, unaware
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lulled by winter carbs
carrots and potatoes in the supper stew
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
a moment of beautiful – icicles
the space: drip line of a house on a winter day
the beautiful: icicles
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On the day after an increase in temperature, when the snow from the roof is melting, the front of our house, on the south side and in full sun, is always dripping and making icicles.
They glitter and sparkle, sculptural wonders of frozen water.
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ice storm
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for three days
freezing rain and willow
have hung uncertain magic
along the river
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ice in layers
laid on the bones
of the tree tops, branches break
candy-coats crack in the sun
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I refuse the sparkle
resist the awe
worry
the bones will not recover
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© Jane Tims 2009
in the circle of the evergreen wreath
Every year, during Advent, I either purchase or make a wreath of evergreens to celebrate the coming of Christmas. Last year, making the wreath, I had a little help. Zoë decided the perfect place to perch herself was within the circle of the wreath.
Our wreath materials were all obtained on our lake property. The species we used for our wreath were:
- White Pine (Pinus Strobus L.)
- White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) also known as Arbor Vitae
- Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.)
- Common Juniper (Juniperus communis L.) -the variety we used was too prickly and I won’t use it again.
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At this time of Advent, we wait in the darkest days of the year for Christmas. The wreath is one of the most endearing symbols of this wait. Made of evergreens, it speaks to the concept of everlasting love. To count down the Sundays before Christmas, we light purple and pink candles to symbolize ideas of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The lighted candles also represent bringing light into the world.
The wreath is another of those symbols borrowed from pagan times, when the circle represented the ever-changing seasons and the circle of life. The evergreen stood for the part of life that survives the winter season and candles symbolized light shining through darkness.
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gathering green
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in the space between solstice
and the whisper of stars
in a herded sky
daylight shrinks, always one hour
short of rested
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in the thicket we gather
armloads, garlands of green
fragrances of cedar and pine
red dogwood twigs
stems of red berry, alder cones
curved boughs of fir
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flexible as mattress coils, piled on ground
to rest, await brief
overlap, longest night
and feathering of angel down
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watch, through the trees
the struggle
planet light
and pagan fire
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© Jane Tims 2012
abandoned bridge – South Nation River
In south-east Ontario, the South Nation River winds through farmland…
Driving along the river in October of 2012, we found an old metal bridge, closed to traffic. Although left to rust, this bridge was beautiful in its simple construction. The deck of the bridge was rotted, but wildflowers had taken hold in the debris.
According to the South Nation River link at http://www.nation.on.ca/en/geocaching/ (South Nation Conservation), the bridge has now been removed.
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abandoned bridge, South Nation River
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years since I crossed the metal bridge –
we take the long way now,
over that engineered, concrete
contrivance, upstream
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the old bridge CLOSED, of course
trusses red with rust, corroded
pitted as the river bank
and its swallow-burrows
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once we walked those girders
leaned from the railings
amused ourselves by pitching rocks down
into the duckweed
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wouldn’t be safe today, the deck
rotted where hawkweeds bloom
all summer, cheerful
you’d think they’d been planted
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Published as ‘abandoned bridge, South Nation River’, Canadian Stories 15 (85), June 2012.
Copyright Jane Tims 2012
windy October drive
On Monday, I went on a drive to Cambridge Narrows, to visit an antique store and a roadside market. My goal: to buy some Nancy Drew mystery books for my collection and some pumpkins for Halloween.
It was a blustery day, windy enough to put some whitecaps on the St. John River…
The wind was especially evident along the former Trans-Canada Highway, where dry leaves have gathered in all the ditches. Since only a few vehicles use this older highway, the leaves blow into the roadway…
The day had a luminous quality, in spite of the wind. Most of the reds are gone from the trees, leaving the yellows of the poplars, the rusty-orange of the oaks and the gold of the tamaracks…
I had a successful day. I bought some small pumpkins at a roadside stand…
three little pumpkins from the roadside vegetable stand (the faint eyes in the background are the amber eyes of our owl-andirons)
I also added five books to my collection of Nancy Drew mysteries…
five new mysteries for my collection… enough ghosts and glowing eyes for a spooky Halloween
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andiron
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wrought owl with amber eyes
perches on the hearth
hears a call in the forest
six syllables and silence
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Great-horned Owl, light gathered
at the back of his eyes,
and the oscillating branch
after wings expand and beat
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iron owl longs for a glimpse
of the sickle moon
the shadow of a mouse
sorting through dry leaves
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in this cramped space
night woods are brought to their essence
fibre and bark, sparks and fire
luminous eyes
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Copyright Jane Tims 2012
