nichepoetryandprose

Yesterday morning we woke to a dusting of snow on the roof of the garage and deck table.  I am not too crazy about the perils of driving in bad weather, but I love the look of new snow.

cold day in December 2011

Thinking about new snow reminded me about the several communities in New Brunswick named for adverse or chilly conditions:

Snowdon, York County – perhaps after the family name.

Coldbrook, Saint John County (now part of Saint John) – originally thought to have been called Moosepath, then Three Mile House … renamed Coldbrook in 1889, reason unknown.

Coldstream, Carleton County – first called Rockland, was renamed Coldstream in 1852.

Blowdown, Carleton County – originally called South Richmond, the community was renamed in 1869, after a significant leveling of forest as a result of the Saxby Gale (October 4-5, 1869).

Frosty Hollow, Westmorland County (now part of Sackville)– originally called Mapleburg, the community was renamed in 1927 because the first frost in the Sackville area is said to settle there.

~

For information on other community names in New Brunswick, you can use the search feature at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick  http://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/communities/.

new snow on car roof

~

~

newfall: words escape me

~

the white ephemeral

perhaps frost

the fir boughs divided

the sculptured steel

of a flake of snow

~

try again

~

paper stencil

on  chocolate cake

powdered sugar

sifted on the rills

of the new plowed field

~

again

~

sweet in my mouth

the bitter melted in morning sun

white hot on my cheek

the writing lamp

~

a lamp to the left

casts no shadow

(the shadow of a pen

or a hand)

~ 

(unless you are wrong-handed)

~

chimney shadow

on a fresh-snowed roof

or trees on the eastern edge of the road

where the sun cannot warm

~

the morning

dusting of ice

~

try again

~

~

Published as: ‘newfall: words escape me’,  The Fiddlehead 196: 147, Summer 1998.

Copyright  Jane Tims  2012