Writing by the Bay

I’ve searched for a reasonably priced cottage or retreat opportunity for some months.  I’ve been yearning to get away from here and all responsibilities to somewhere quiet and isolated, beautiful and nourishing, in order to concentrate on my writing.  

I’m wishing for a chunk of time, a week away to clear my head and replenish my energy.  Last weekend, I happened upon just such a place, a cottage on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Fundy, isolated...but close enough to Alma

so that supplies and other people could be found, if needed.

When I returned home from the drive, I called and talked to the man who owns the venue, as his wife who usually does bookings was busy.  I inquired about rates and availability and amenities, all the usual questions one needs answered when renting a place.  He answered everything and I arranged to call the owners back after discussing this news with my husband, who also had to determine whether he could get time off from work to accompany me.

I gave the owner my name and explained that I am a writer, looking for a quiet place to concentrate on the work, in the peace and quiet of a gorgeous setting on the Bay of Fundy.  I promised to call back.  There was a very long pause from him; again I assured him I would call back after supper.

When I reached the couple later on, to tell them that sadly this time it wasn’t going to work out for us to rent their cottage by the Bay, the woman told me that her husband hadn’t heard my name correctly.  He had excitedly told her that “Carol Shields, the writer wants to rent the cottage.”  She had assured him that this was could NOT be the case, but it had been the source of some discussion and wonderment during their supper meal.

We both laughed!

I suppose, in future, that I had better enunciate more clearly when giving my last name.  It did give me a chuckle and for a moment, a pleasant sense of what being well published and famous might gain, in terms of reactions from people.

However, I am happy to be just me, and not at all wishing to be anyone else.  I am a writer and that is enough.  A writer who still dreams of an affordable get-away for a week of solid writing!

Photos are mine.  As usual, words in red will take you to another website with additional information, if you click on them.

Bay of Fundy, NB

I live in a magnificent part of southeastern New Brunswick.  Within an hour's drive, there are wonders!  At Hopewell Hill on Route 114, I can look out and see dikes started in the 1700's reclaiming the Shepody Marsh for hay fields and farmland, grazing cattle and sheep and the Grindstone Island Nature Preserve.

Grindstone Island, the only island in the upper bay of Fundy, has been designated as an Ecologically Significant Area (ESA) largely due to its importance as a nesting area for Peregrine Falcons, Great Blue Herons, Double-crested Cormorants, Greater Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls.

Turning off Route 114 at Riverside-Albert and following

Route 915 through Harvey, Harvey Bank, Mary's Point and on through New Horton, Cape Enrage and Waterside toward Alma, the views include intertidal mud flats, salt marshes, freshwater marshes and beaches; all a part of the Shepody Bay National Wildlife Area.  This is one of the most important stopover sites in North America for various shorebirds, including the Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers.

The Shepody Bay and Mary's Point area was the first site in Canada to be declared a Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve, under the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network

(WHSRH) in 1987.  To learn more about Mary's Point,

read Deborah Carr's book Sanctuary.

Unfortunately, my camera's battery had an untimely demise early on, in my road trip.  I'll go back and do pictorial justice to this magnificent coastline again soon.  For now, I can share only the first bits of the trip.  I encourage you to make this drive a priority and to stop and enjoy the vistas along the way, as there are many more than I have mentioned and many, many more than I have been able to capture in photos.

As usual, words in red will take you to another website for additional information when you click on them.

Sunflowers and Ten Years

A field of sunflowers blooms

proof that life goes on

despite ten years of questions.

 

Where were you?

What happened?

What does it mean?

Yet, ten years later, it still doesn't make any sense-

or at least no more sense than it should.

The spiral of life goes on.

All photos are mine.

Mary Oliver, Paying Attention

 

"To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work."

Happy Birthday to Mary Oliver, who  is 76 today.  She is one of my favourite poets because of her abilities to connect the soul and the landscape.  She is the favourite poet of many, has authored more than twenty books, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in the US.

Here is her poem:  The Morning Walk

There are a lot of words meaning thanks.
Some you can only whisper.
Others you can only sing.
The pewee whistles instead.
The snake turns in circles,
the beaver slaps his tail
on the surface of the pond.
The deer in the pinewoods stamps his hoof.
Goldfinches shine as they float through the air.
A person, sometimes, will hum a little Mahler.
Or put arms around old oak tree.
Or take out lovely pencil and notebook to find a few
touching and kissing words.

This poem is from Mary Oliver's book Long Life:  Essays and Other Writings, published in 2004 by First Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA.

Dwarf Sunspot Sunflower

I received a gift of a Dwarf Sunspot Sunflower; the first sunflower I've ever had!  I don't know much about sunflowers, other than the obvious, that there are myriad varieties and different sizes of these yellow-petalled wonders.  Doing research netted three intriguing facts.

Heliotropism - There is a common misconception that sunflowers track the sun.  Mature flower heads typically face east and do not move.  The leaves and buds of young sunflowers do exhibit heliotropism (sun turning).  Their orientation turns from east to west during the course of a day.

Spiral Florets - The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiral pattern.  Generally, each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5 degrees, providing a pattern of interconnecting spirals, where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers.  Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other.  This pattern produces the most effective packing of seeds within the flower head.

This pattern appears in many other places in nature, such as branching in trees, arrangements of leaves on a stem, the fruit spouts of a pineapple, for example.

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are numbers in the following integer sequence:  0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144....   The first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each of the subsequent numbers is the sum of the previous two.

Guerrilla Gardening - International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day is May 1.  It is a day when guerrilla gardeners around the world plant sunflowers in their neighbourhoods, typically in neglected public spaces.  Sounds like fun!

I am grateful for the cheerful sunny flower I received and for the sunflower facts I found.  I'm planting my gift in an oak barrel in my yard, so I can enjoy it outside and it can get the sun it needs!  We'll both be content.

If you'd like more information, you can go to other websites for additional details and pictures by clicking on the words in red.  All photos are mine.

Autumn Moves

We've lived in this house for 6 years; that's the longest time I've spent in one place since my first marriage ended, over 21 years ago.  Between then and now, I've moved ten times.  I suppose I've become used to making a home, "pulling up stakes", moving again and starting over.

I love this home we're in now.  It's become more "us" with each passing season.  This home cradles us in its cozy spaces and offers peace and shelter and comfort.  I do love living here.

There are times when I feel overwhelmed by all the yardwork that needs attention, or walls that need painting, or collections of "stuff" that need sorting...but I know that this dissatisfaction rises within me; it is of my own making.

The house itself doesn't demand any of this from me.  All the house requires is to be maintained and be clean and be tidy.

Most of the times I've moved in the past, it has been in the autumn.  Perhaps there is something about this season that stirs me to dream of moving, of changes, of starting over, of making a new nest.  Perhaps it is some ancient animal instinct about preparing a solid nest for winter, for hibernation, readying a safe, warm space to live a different life.  A life that is hibernation, that is restful, that is more interior, more creative.

I don't know. I don't know why I feel this way when the air begins to cool, the morning mists appear and the leaves, a few at a time, begin to display their bright colours.

Something, unseen and nomadic, in me longs to go, to be somewhere else, to start again as the days grow shorter and the nights grow crisp.

It is my personal mystery!

European Starlings, the Original "Flash Mob"

The European Starling was introduced to North America in 1890 and 1891, when about 60 individuals were released into New York's Central Park.  It was part of the local Shakespeare society's plan to introduce all the birds mentioned in their favourite author's writings, according to Roger Burrows in Birds of Atlantic Canada.

Since the 1890's, the starling spread quickly across the continent, often at the expense of other native, cavity-nesting birds.  Despite efforts to control or to eradicate the European starling, it continues to claim wider territory.

European starlings are perhaps the real originators of the "flash mob" concept!  They are boisterous, loud, travel in large groups, making a constant stream of rattles, whirrs, and whistles.  Much of the year, they wheel through the sky and mob lawns in big, noisy feeding flocks.

In summer, these stocky dark birds with short tails, triangular-shaped wings and yellow beaks are actually iridescent purplish-green.  In winter, their plumage changes to brown covered in brilliant white spots; their bills to brown.  Notice the exotic polka dot colouring in this "flash mob" captured by my sister and brother-in-law, at their backyard birdbath.

I also saw starlings just getting into their fall colours, at the Halifax waterfront last Saturday.  As we sat eating our lunch and enjoying the boats on the water, these aggressive birds wandered the boardwalk demanding french fries and any other left-over food from patrons at the Historic Properties.

I did not immediately identify them as starlings, as I thought they kept their dark glossy colours all year round.  As they flew over the water, I saw that in flight their wings are short and pointed, which makes them look like small four-pointed stars.  While doing research, I learned that this star shape is what gives them their name.

These photos were taken by my sister and brother-in-law. 

If you click on any of the red words, you will go to another website with additional information.