How to make a poem

Outside my window...

...and a 10 minute from my front door, a moment from last Sunday evening:

False Creek seawall, Granville IslandQuiet, calm, and bits of bright.

...And closer to home, outside and inside the windows to the balcony garden...

Greens & Berries

Silvery light

Christmas music: Yuletide Fires (Chor Leoni)

I'm very close to the time I've arrived at the Seasonal moment when only German lullabies and a Huron Carol will soothe my weary, distracted mind & warm my not-so-ho-ho-or-hopeful heart. 

Tonight I'll curl up in the oversized armchair in my darkened living room, lit only by the fireplace and the LED lights twirled around the floor lamp, and imbibe Chor Leoni's Yuletide Fires in one long, uninterrupted dose. I won't be the same afterwards.

On the last couple evenings before December 24th, it's balm and massage that refresh and restore the body, mind and spirit.

When asked about the CD, Artistic Director Diane Loomer said, "Much of the CD is quiet, peaceful, and serene. Its intent is to calm and encourage listeners to relax into Christmas, let them escape from all that Christmas is hyped up to be and rarely is. Our hope is that Yuletide Fires will allow listeners to slip into surroundings of beauty, grace, and balanced quietness."

Yuletide Fires was voted the Outstanding Choral Recording of 2004 by the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, and won a Western Canadian Music Award as the 2004 Outstanding Classical Recording.

To listen to some samples, including the gorgeous Huron Carol and Stille Nacht, and read a list of all the album's songs, scroll down to the bottom of the Yuletide Fires page. You can purchase the CD from the Chor Leoni site or download the entire album or individual songs from iTunes.

House of Hope

As KR (Karen) Wolfe wrote a few days ago, "I love letterpress" and connected this passion for paper with a creative and generous way to support Kiva.

Well, I love gardening. And I'm going to connect my passion for plants with YouGrowGirl's Holiday Drive for the House of Hope in Dominica.

The House of Hope in Delices, Dominica, is a home that provides loving, 24 hour care to persons with severe physical and mental disabilities. It was started by a small group of women in the village of Delices when 2 severely disabled women in their community lost their elderly mother. Without her to provide care they were stranded without anyone to help them, or any kind of facility to take them in. Since then, the House of Hope have raised the funds to build a larger facility with a garden and they now have six female residents including the original two women. They are ages: 6, 8, 14, 38, 40 and 52 years old. The facility gets some money from the government, but the rest comes from donations. They are in constant need of supplies.

(From Gayla's blog post)

And here's a little incentive for Hedge Society readers to contribute. For every $5 you donate to this drive, Gayla will enter your name into a raffle to win a prize pack of books, T-shirts and buttons. I donated this morning and have a couple of tickets; if my name is drawn, I'll pass on the prize to a Hedge Society reader who also donated. (Just let me know in the comments below that you donated.)

You will need to act quickly, though. The Holiday Drive ends tomorrow, December 18th.

2011: Calendar 5: INK + WIT

Totem Animals at Play by Tara Hogan, INK+WIT:

Click to read more ...

Picture Cook

For bodies & souls enduring chilly times & climes, something to warm you up:

from Picture Cook by Katie Shelly; found via the marvellous @brainpicker (Maria Popova) on Twitter.

Or perhaps you've a craving for sweet potato fries on the side, a snack of krispy kale, or a ginger tea break. You'll find the inspiration here. As Katie Shelly explains:

Of kiwis & hope

This evening (Wednesday) my dining room is filled with plants from the balcony so they won't freeze outdoors in these record-low temperatures. To remind myself why I persevere about many things, not just gardening, I'm re-reading nutritionist, gardener & author Joan Dye Gussow's lovely essay, Kiwis and Hope wherein she describes the "immaculate conception" of kiwifruit in her garden.  I encourage you to read the entire piece (it's not long & she's a wonderful writer) to learn why Ms. Gussow believes cultivating hope is not a foolish or futile pursuit.

And they [kiwis] seem to me a happy metaphor for the importance of continuing to work toward our necessary future even though the prospects sometimes seem daunting. Even when things seem hopelessly unlikely; if you just keep trying, even nature is apparently willing to break some rules (from the PowellsBooks.Blog essay).

Photo credit: Kiwis by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga); copyright: GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License), via Wikimedia Commons

Our Daily Kugel

Courtesy of Chan Friedman

As suggested by Elle_Ann.

2011: Calendar 3: Night Owl Paper Goods

Here's my 2011 pick for a lifeboat to carry me through the wreck of time. It's made of eco-friendy wood by the fine folks at Night Owl Paper Goods:

Above images from the 2011 Botanical Calendar - this one's for my desk.

And I'm tempted to keep this owly one for my wall, though it's supposed to be a gift.

2011 Danish Owl Calendar

Our Daily Bird 43: Birds & Berries

David's daily bird made me wonder: if I were a bird, which berries would I consider chocolate, and which ones, brussels sprouts?

Click to read more ...

Our Daily Bird 42: Maybe Sparrow (Neko Case)

Neko Case's lyrics & voice + Julie Morstad's illustrations:  gorgeous, haunting, mesmerizing.

Maybe Sparrow
Neko Case (2005), from the album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Maybe sparrow you should wait
The hawks alight 'til morning
You'll never pass
Beyond the gate
If you don't hear my warning

Notes are hung so effortless
With the rise and fall of sparrow's breast
It's a drowning diving
Back to the chorus
La di da di da di dum
La di da di da di dum

Oh my sparrow
It's too late
Your body limp beneath my feet
Your dusty eyes
As cold as clay
You didn't hear my warning
You didn't hear my warning

Maybe sparrow
It's too late
The moonlight glanced off metal wings
In a thunderstorm above the clouds
The engine hums a sparrow's phrase
Those who cannot hear the words
Those who cannot hear the words
Those who will not hear the words
La di da di da di dum
La di da di da di dum

Maybe sparrow
Maybe sparrow
Maybe sparrow

Neko Case's web site

Slant Magazine's review of Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

A sense of place

Two views of autumn from two different bridges, 100 kilometers, 24 hours, and a world apart:

"A sense of place is the sixth sense, an internal compass and map made by memory and spatial perception together.” —Rebecca Solnit

This quote is pulled from the page of one of my favourite features on the Orion Magazine website: The place where you live. Someday, after I've done more deep thinking, searching and writing (hard but necessary work, a worthwhile 24 hours alone project),  I hope to contribute an essay there. For now, the first draft, which I started composing while walking under the city bridge last night, consists only of a list of essential elements: flora, fauna, water, mountains, sky, sunlight.

A few more words about the last element, sunlight: I prefer the early morning Autumn light, sometimes silvery, sometimes golden, soft, gentle and slow. Two memories come to mind. Nine years ago, in a clearing along the Grouse Mountain trail: sunlight glittering through branches, creating a golden glow that filled the space. I felt like I'd stumbled upon a sacred place. And last Sunday morning, while driving back to the city: silver shafts of sunlight breaking through clouds to meet the mist rising from the farm fields - a luminous, diaphanous joining of earth and sky.

I'm beginning to understand the quote. Yes, place is within you -- it's deep knowing, deep connection, the sixth sense. And that sense is helping me feel, finally, at home and at peace within the city where I live.

Our Daily Bird 33: The Innocence Mission

A song from the Innocence Mission's 1998 release, Birds of My Neighborhood:

As for her songwriting process, Karen says, "Often for me a melody and chords will spill out together.  The lyrics will take longer to finish - sometimes I'll work on them for weeks over even a month.  "The Lakes Of Canada' was written after driving through Canada on a tour with EmmyLou Harris.  I wonder a lot about the towns we're passing through, the shady side streets; who lives there and what their lives are like.  The song is about moments of sudden joy and how they glimmer the way fish do when you see them in a lake" (from Acoustic Guitar, Birds of a Feather).