Posts Tagged ‘winter’
making November warm #4
Warm inside – warm all over!
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Various times in my life I have attended conferences or eaten in hotels where they have a tea caddy. Opening it is like opening a treasure chest. Perhaps you will find Earl Grey, or Orange Pekoe, or Camomile or Red Zinger. Happiness and warmth in a tea-bag!
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When I designed my kitchen, it was one of the first things I made for myself – a wooden box that opened to a wide selection of teas.
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I love coffee, but as a rule, when I am at home, it is a cup of tea I crave. I like a tea that is mild, a little sweet, with a nutty flavour. I love the fragrance of tea as it steeps and that tea occupies at least 2 of the senses, taste and smell. I also love the feeling of warmth from the inside-out. Tea is the perfect drink for November.
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There are rituals for making the perfect cup of tea, but my approach is simple. I start with cold water from our well, bring it to a boil, pour it into one of my favourite cups and then add the tea bag. I let it steep for 2 minutes and then remove the bag and add milk. No sugar in my tea.
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I use a special cup for my tea, one of those given to me by a friend over the years. She may recognize the cups she has gifted me and know who she is.
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So, if I am chilly this November, a cup of tea will make me warm.
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All my best!
I hope you’ll join me in drinking a cup of tea!
Jane
a storm of birds
We are expecting major snowfall/freezing rain in the next couple of days. I think the birds must sense this because there is a veritable storm of birds at the feeders this morning.
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We have evening grosbeaks, a downy woodpecker, chickadees, nuthatches and mourning doves. By far the largest numbers are the redpolls and goldfinches. We also have red and grey squirrels, but they didn’t show up this morning.
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The birds fly in from our surrounding trees and feed for a while, coming and going. Then a dog barks or a car goes by and the whole flock leaves at once. Only a few brave grosbeaks cling to the feeder. Eventually, all the birds return and begin to feed.
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We keep the feeders full during the cold weather and feed with nyjer (thistle) seed and black-oil sunflower seeds.
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Watching the birds is lots of fun. Each species seems to have its own feeding-personality:
- the chickadees land, grab and leave as quickly as possible;
- the woodpeckers cling to the feeder and only leave when they’ve had their fill;
- the finches (redpolls and goldfinches) arrive as a flock and stay, to feed mostly on the fallen seed under the feeders;
- the grosbeaks, much bigger than the finches, mingle with them and hang on to the feeders even after other birds have been frightened away.
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Bird watching is a great way to spend time during these days of pandemic lockdown. Still haven’t seen my first cardinal! And this year I haven’t yet seen a purple finch, so common in previous years.
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All my best,
Jane
blue shadows
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blue shadows
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crawl across the snow
reflect trunks and branches
tufts of lichen
curves of bracket fungi
curls of bark
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blue shadows
nuanced in ultramarine
and pthalo
a dab of violet
but never grey
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sinuous, diagonal
gaps of light
slow alteration
with angle of sun
no flicker of foliage
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All my best,
Jane
making snowmen
In winter, the snowy roadside slopes keep a record of events. Animal tracks, snowmobile trails and sledding runs each tell a story of adventures in the snow.
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On a drive to Mactaquac, we saw yet another story being told. Narrow tracks, each with a small snowball at the base, document the activities of gravity and wind. I think they are taking the first steps toward making snowmen along the roadside.
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snow games
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at first
wind and gravity
collaborate, roll
the heads of snowmen
down the grade
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wind nudges
the tracks, plays games
of parallels
and criss-crosses
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gravity tires
of rivalry, abandons
bodiless heads
in the snowy ditch
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May you encounter interesting stories on your winter travels!
All my best!
Jane
ice falls
Last weekend we took a drive along Highway 8 from Fredericton to Boisetown, a relatively new road to bypass Marysville and the older winding road along the Nashwaak River. For some of its length, the highway has been carved through bedrock and includes several impressive road cuts. I find these interesting because they show the geological formations in the bedrock. In winter, they are beautiful, a result of the frozen curtains of runoff and overland flow.
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Some of these cuts show thick ice flows, frozen waterfalls and dripping icicles.
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Most are browning in colour, probably from inclusion of sediments, but some are clear and blue.
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In a few places, it’s possible to look through gaps in the flow, and get a glimpse of the still, cold spaces lurking just out of sight.
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curtain of ice
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frozen land drools, and water
follows contours of rock
encounters cold, sculpts
cataracts and waterfalls, builds
frozen walls, solidifies
panes of glass, stitches
curtains of frost and filigree
icicle knives
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behind the curtain are caves
spaces where light glimmers,
diffuse where whispers shiver,
muted, protected from wind
glimpse inward layers
through flaws in rigid curtains
frosted shards of rock
icicle knives
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For more on ice falls, including another poem, see
https://janetims.com/2012/03/10/snippets-of-landscape-ice-falls-on-rock-walls-2/
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My best always,
Jane
Ice dance
In southern New Brunswick, we are recovering from a snow and ice storm. My husband has been in the tractor, removing snow and ice, for two days. Between runs with lunch and diesel, I am reading Ann Cleeves, one of my favourite UK detective authors. The phone rings and I am wrenched from a very different kind of storm in the Shetlands to a neighbour who wants the services of an ice-gobbling tractor.
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As the sun goes down, I re-live the beauty of the day. Chickadees, a downy woodpecker and a red squirrel spent the afternoon competing for the sunflower seeds in our feeder. Every tree is laden with ice and the wind stirs up powdery snow-devils across open places. The evening begins with memories of glassy trees and the faint tinkling of their twigs and branches.
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Every twig wears
A diamond bracelet.
A wrist turned,
Just so,
To join in the dance.
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All my best,
Jane
my painting at Isaac’s Way
Winter is going fast! But winter still exists in my painting on display at Isaac’s Way Restaurant in Fredericton. The painting is one of 70 original art pieces in the 32nd Art Auction, raising funds for music lessons for kids-in-need.
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My painting ‘farmyard in moonlight’ is 24″ x 20″, acrylic, unframed, gallery edges. The high bid right now is $100. You can buy it off the wall for $320. Half of the price goes to the charity.
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You can see the other painting in the auction by visiting Isaac’s Way and enjoying their great menu. Or see the paintings on-line at 32nd Art Auction.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
a quilting project
Each winter I do three things to stay warm and content:
- I drink tea; only a cup a day but it warms me inside
- I knit; mostly socks and just to keep up with my voracious need for warm socks
- I make lap quilts; I cannot think of a warmer occupation on a cold evening
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My quilting project for this year may seem a little out-of-season. I took all the bits of Christmas fabric I have collected from various projects over the years and put them into a small patchwork lap quilt – just 40″ by 40″. If my husband and son look closely they will see my husband’s Christmas necktie, little bags for ‘coal’-flavoured candy brought by Santa one year, a pair of Santa-patterned shorts I bought as a joke, remnants of the Santa Cool sock I won one year at work at Christmas and so on. When there was a ribbon or draw-string associated with the remnant, I just incorporated it into the quilt. Perhaps someone will use the coal-sacs for a little treasure.
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not quite complete to the right of the Coal fabric … I will just sew another patch on the bare spot …
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the two amber ribbons are part of a gift bag …
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some of you who used to work with me may remember the year we decorated and I won the Santa Cool stocking in the lower left corner … those were the days!!!
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Today I went to Fabricville and found two pretty Christmas berry-patterned fabrics to use for the back.
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If you have read about my ‘quilting’ before, you will know that my stitches are long and uneven and they look more like basting than quilting. But my little quilts are solid. I keep them on every chair in our living room as another way of keeping the cold away!
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I will show you the final quilt when it is done in a week or so.
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Do you have small remnants of Christmas fabric and do you have a plan for them?
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Copyright 2018 Jane Tims
feeding the birds
I am late this year with putting out bird feeders. Two reasons: the reported difficulty with disease in bird feeders last year and my general lack of time.
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This morning I made a bird feeder from a coke bottle (my son and I used to do this when he was little) and filled three of our feeders. The old sunflower seed feeders, difficult to clean and too expensive to toss out every few days, are in the trash.
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Presenting my new home-made feeder for sunflower seeds! I may add a simple roof to keep the snow out. I can replace it at intervals to keep it clean.
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The finch-feeder with nyjer (thistle) seed:
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A pile of seeds in our frozen bird-bath, for the squirrels and deer:
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As I came in from outside, I heard a chickadee in the larch tree, so I am hoping they will find the feeders soon.
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one of the illustrations in my book ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ (Chapel Street Editions 2017)
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
renewal
Here we are in chill January. Days of snow and freezing rain, bitter cold and flooding and loss. Days when we don’t get enough sun to fill our requirement for Vitamin D. Days when summer seems so far away.
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As a retired person, my days are neither hectic nor sorrowful. My hours are filled with writing, painting, drawing, time on social media and an occasional meeting. I can go outside any time I want to get my dose of sunshine (if available). My stresses are few.
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Once life was not so easy. I worked long days and often came home tired and in a bad mood. But my husband and son made my days wonderful. I found this poem in my files, a testament to the way our families can inject hope into a slogging day! I wrote the poem in 2010, a couple of years before I retired.
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Renewal is possible
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I am entirely new today
some aspect of morning
has cast just-born skin
on me
the song sung by the kettle
the taste of the tea
the forecast of snow
the way you said goodbye
more like the promise of hello
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most days lately
have tears at all the edges
too much to do
too little time
late nights
mugs of coffee, half-gulped
clocks and messages despised
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through the day
I have waited for
old disappointments
to discover my face
but my noon coffee
has a hint of chocolate
and all my emails
are smile-embedded
and one of them from you
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my husband getting pussy willows for me …
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
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