After all, time is not money. It is an opportunity to live before you die. Donald Culross Peattie

 

On the nine hour drive from Calgary to Central Saskatchewan on Dec. 29th we saw almost no snow. The fields were mostly bare the entire way. Given that we had watering restrictions right up to Nov. in Calgary and only two small snowfalls in Calgary from mid Oct to Christmas it has been an incredibly dry fall and winter. The bit snow at the farm is way below average and the temperatures unseasonably warm.

 

The pages above are from A Book Of Hours by Donald Culross Peattie, 

Decorations by Land Ward, 1937. The book was a Christmas gift from my brother. 

Canadian Poetry Gift

"With sealed eyes, still bosom,

And folded feet I fare

To that country under dream

Where Eternity and Time

Are two sides of a drum."

from THE TWO SIDES OF A DRUM

BY A.J.M. SMITH (News of the Phoenix) 1943

Last week I received a gift of some beautiful old

Canadian poetry books, many inscribed by the authors, as well

 as a lovely collection of books by and about Dylan Thomas.

What a special and generous gift.

"Now lift your eyes

To see the nightly patterned skies

How did they come there

The Hunter and his Dog, The Virgin and the Bear?"

from Ideas of Order

by Jay MacPherson (Nineteen Poems) June 1952

"There is a mountain  everyone must climb,

Different for all and yet it is the same.

We start to climb before we have a name,

And nick the summit in our nick of time."

from The Mountain

by Robert Finch (The Strength of the Hills) 1948