Look what came in the mail: @cmu_press ’s translation of Elina Penner’s novel, Nightberries. Elina is a Russian Mennonite who lives in Germany and the novel is steeped in that particular context. I’m looking forward to adding another Menno novel to my repertoire, the most recent of which was Sarah Klassen’s The Russian Daughter. Also: stunning cover by @jandrewdyck !
So I burst out of the house last night, after a longish day of plugging back into the fray and…it was gorgeous out. The early evening sun, the temperature of the air, the greenish grass and the buds on the trees. And I got to look at the Assiniboine River and Omand’s Creek, which was full-to-the-brim, which is always good. I can’t wait to go looking for fiddleheads and morels and asparagus, but this was more than enough for now.
So Monday morning, when I viewed my laptop and all the tasks waiting for me there with out-and-out dread, I realized that I was a little burnt out. I had to rest my brain. So I have been quiet, reading the first three Dungeon Crawler Carl books and cooking, going for river walks and watching The Other Bennet Sister. I can feel my energy returning, so if I owe you an email or a check-mark on a shared to-do list: I’m sorry and I’m working on it.
Overcast morning, the river sitting at 8.41 feet. I am feeling low energy this week but it was good to walk the muddy riverbank and see all the steps up the slope, all the previous waterlines. I came away with a few buttons, some stained glass scrap and muddy boots but I was scoured clean by the wind. Which was all you can ask for on a Tuesday morning…
So Debra Frances and I have done the first three months of TreeTalk: Domestic Pandemic, where the poems written to my 100+ year old boulevard elm over the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021 are bound between pieces of wood from the tree, killed by DED and cut down in 2023. September, October and November’s books were pretty good substantial. This little book will contain December’s poems. I am greatly enjoying this project, where the words have moved from “leaves” hanging from the tree to my computer to these handmade books. When the tree was being cut down, I debarked several pieces and kept them, hoping I could make something out of them. Something meaningful. And I’m so grateful to Debra for partnering with me to make it happen. I am hoping to display all of these works at the launch of the (trade) book that will hold TreeTalk: Domestic Pandemic, coming out in fall 2027.
When I spot something good on a mudlark, I stop, take a picture, then bend down, take another, then pick it up, and take yet another photo. Tuesday, when the river was at 9.08 feet, down from Saturday’s 9.82 feet, I spotted this marble. But because the freshly revealed riverbank was so gloopy, I had to stow my phone and tread carefully. Anyways, this morning I built a nest of stained glass scrap, also retrieved from the river, to showcase this cobalt blue marble, which reminds me of a Chinese checkers marble. How was your hump day? #marblemonday #marblemondays
So I got home from a night copyediting shift at the Free Press and saw that my copy of Christine Fischer Guy’s latest, The Instrument Must Not Matter, had arrived in the day’s mail. I only intended to read one chapter before heading off to bed…any then I was caught by Fischer Guy’s lyrical writing, exploring ideas about making art and building a career, about legacies and following your own path. And then it was 2:30 am and I’d read the whole thing.
I almost NEVER have anything to post for #marblemonday but here’s the orange/slate blue beauty I found on Saturday on the riverbank. Isn’t it lovely? (I have no idea how old it is, but if I had to guess given the location, I’d say probably 1940s or 50s…)
Went to Bunn’s Creek this morning for my second Jane’s Walk of the weekend, lead by Julie of @pegcityparks . And, for the first time, I walked to the end of the trail. Along the way, we saw turtles, mallards, kingfishers, and the first leaves. But we definitely need some rain…
It was a sloppy-mud morning on the riverbank, which had dropped to 9.82 feet from Monday’s 12.27 feet. Which is a fairly significant drop and made me itchy to go see what else had eroded out. There is a fair bit of construction waste in our spot and I have been collecting broken tiles in all kinds of greens over the years, but this is the most lovely and most complete so far. Isn’t it gorgeous, all greeny-yellow? I threw in a northern flicker feather at the end, because why wouldn’t I? How is your Saturday morning going?
