in the shelter of the covered bridge

Jane Tims lives in Rusagonis, New Brunswick, but in the course of her natural history and cultural research regularly travels to other areas of the province. Her previous books with Chapel Street Editions include within easy reach and in the shelter of the covered bridge both of which are composed of poems and drawings gleaned from New Brunswick's natural history and domestic environments. Jane presents her writing and her paintings and drawings of plants, birds, and landscapes at janetims.com.

The unusual thing about in the shelter of the covered bridge is the unity of focus the poet-artist-biologist has achieved with this book. While each element of the book has its own narrative stance, the poems, the drawings, and the natural history notes come together in a way that has an appealing and satisfying unity for ear, eye, and mind.Jane is not a poet who puts all her aesthetic eggs in one basket. She moves easily between modes of expression. She is a connoisseur of land and life, an emissary for the intertwining stories of natural history and human culture.Readers attracted by the poems and drawings pick up a good deal of natural and cultural history as well. Readers attracted to the natural and cultural history have their knowledge graced with the sounds of wind and water, and with the images of plants and animals that live "in the shelter of the covered bridge."With her poetic, artistic, and research skills steering the ship, Jane is now sailing out once again into the geographic by-ways and cultural history of the province. She has a similar book project under way on the environments and cultural settings of one-room schoolhouses.I have no doubt she will offer up another voyage for ear, eye, and mind, and that we will again be culturally enriched by her inspiration and good efforts.