|
|
|
A Letter from Caitlyn Paxson
Dear Reader,
It’s only been a few weeks since the August edition of Book & Bramble went out, but it feels like a million years! This past weekend, Prince Edward Island was hit by a hurricane. Having grown up in an area prone to tornadoes, big storms make me very anxious, so Fiona’s visit made for a long night. We lost over twenty trees and had some other sundry damage, but we’re all okay and were very lucky.
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: A row of sunflowers against the setting sun.
These sunflowers had just reached their peak when the storm laid them flat. I grieve a bit for my garden, which could have had a couple more weeks of waning glory before the frost, and for the poor trees. But we will clean up and replant and all will be well. I thought about sharing pictures of the damage, but I have decided against it! In the little world of Book & Bramble, we shall live in the fantasy of the weeks before the storm.
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Large orange sunflower backlit by evening sun.
In our last missive, I shared the fact that we had just adopted two barn kittens. I’m very pleased to introduce you to Bruce and The Contessa (Tess)!
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Glamour Portraits of two orange tabby kittens.
They are the most charming, well-behaved kittens imaginable, and to our delight, our cat Monty very quickly warmed to them and now they’re all good friends. We call them the Honey Bunch, both for their coloring and because we harvested honey the week they came to live with us. Bruce is absolutely in love with Monty, whom he seems to idolize and imitate at every possible opportunity. It’s so stinking cute I can hardly stand it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Piles of snuggly orange tabby cats.
|
|
Image Description: A book propped up on pumpkins.
I was very excited to get a copy of a new release called The Undertaking of Heart and Mercy by Megan Bannen. It’s about an undertaker named Mercy who’s desperately trying to keep the family business afloat, and Heart, a warden who works patrolling a nearby god-world where people go adventuring and end up dying and turning into possessed corpses. Sometimes Hart has to take the dead people he rounds up to Mercy to collect on their burial packages, and this is a problem, because they got off on the very wrong foot a long time ago. It’s got an epistolary story line, weird worldbuilding, and lots of enemies to lovers angst and I loved it.
I also highly recommend this psychedelic novella, High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson. Kelly is a friend, so I’ve been anticipating this book for ages! I’m completely enamored with Lana, its good-times scribe protagonist, who is sent to work for Parliament at a time when the entire government is at risk of being drowned by fed-up fairies. It’s really hard to convey the immaculate vibes of this book – the best I can do is say that if the movie The Big Lebowsky was about Brexit and fairies, it might sort of resemble High Times in the Low Parliament .
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Another book balanced on pumpkins.
|
|
|
Crafting
I had big plans for September’s Wreath of the Month, involving fresh flowers and a darling friend who was supposed to visit. But the hurricane had other ideas, and in the days following the storm, I had to look around and figure out what resources were left. While we were cleaning up debris, my mother-in-law found some very antler-like branches, and suggested I make use of them for my crown. Thus was the Harvest Queen/Hurricane Queen born!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Me, wearing an antlered herb crown, holding a corn stalk and a grey Jarhdale pumpkin.
Everything was looking pretty ratty in the yard and garden, but I managed to find a few herbs and flowers that I knew would dry nicely and built up the crown using an old willow circlet as a base. It’s all held together with wire. While I was taking photos, my father-in-law was checking on our bees, as one of the hives took a bit of a tumble in the storm. Apparently the bees were very displeased, because they swarmed him. The first picture below was a potential Wreath of the Month shot that I took. The second is five seconds later, when the timer went off just as he came running around the corner of the house towards me, covered in angry bees! He was fine, and we all had a good chuckle when we saw this photo. The third picture is our honey harvest – we got about 14 pounds of honey and some very lovely beeswax.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Me taking a poetic photo. Me looking alarmed at a swarm of bees. Our honey harvest in jars.
|
|
|
Growing
The garden is so generous in August and the first part of September that I find by the end of the month, her bounty is a bit exhausting! I tend to let things get quite wild and overgrown and just try to enjoy the changes that come creeping in.
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: The vegetable garden and flower bed in the warm evening light.
|
|
|
Before the storm, I went around rescuing whatever I could. I picked the ripest pumpkins (and ended up picking the rest after the storm anyway because the vines were destroyed), enjoyed the color in the veggie garden, and harvested one last bucket of summer blooms.
|
|
|
Image Description: Pumpkins on the grass, flowers in the veggie garden, the last bucket of flowers.
And so, except for a few last little bits here and there, the 2022 gardening season draws to a close.
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Flowers and pumpkins.
|
Musing
I don’t want to be too maudlin and sentimental, but after seeing so much destruction around us this past week, I find myself overwhelmingly grateful for all of this beauty and for all of you who share it with me each month. Thank you so much for being here!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Image Description: A spiderweb stretched across flowers.
|
|
Until next month, wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,
Caitlyn
P.S. After I finished writing this, I went for a walk and discovered that some of the plants that survived the storm had put out new blossoms – enough for a bouquet! Nature is amazing.
|
|
|
Image Description: A jug of colorful flowers.
|
|
I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki. Two books by Indigenous authors that I really enjoyed recently are The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson and Mi’kmaq Campfire Stories of Prince Edward Island by Julie Pellissier-Lush.
(All opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not represent my employer.)
| | | |
|
