This time of year we are all reminded of the absence of those we have loved. Amid all the excess and the joyful gatherings, the spaces those people left have never quite been filled, and we recognize that one day, we too will leave an absence of our own. Al recently shared this beautiful poem, and it seemed appropriate for this month’s blog post.

Al writes…

This is a poem that my sister, Margaret, wrote a few years after our father’s death. I have read it again recently, after many years, and I think it speaks to me even more strongly now than it did then. Many of us have lost loved ones in the last few years, which makes us look more closely at our own eventual deaths.

We will build a little hut
we will dance in circles, dance,
dressed in ancient masks and cloaks,
we will rehearse death.
You will lie down, smiling,
settling your old bones;
we will tear out bits of our hair!
Rip rents in old clothes!
Do solemn ritual acts with ashes, flowers
— and then of course you will get up,
will come to us one by one,
hugging us against your warmth,
handing out small gifts:
a cap you used to wear,
a toy you’ve made,
a list, a small task.

And we will feast!
Our mother will pick fresh fruit from the garden
your daughters will walk beside her, heaping bowls of food,
your sons will tune their guitars,
your grandchildren dance,
lithe bodies flickering
in and out of the firelight,
in and out of the trees.

You will carve a mask like your own face:
we will try it on:
we will take turns,
miming your death,
dying, then rising,
many days practising,
slowly, taking our time,
letting you show us things:
how to use the sun,
how to make a wooden stool,
how to press apples into cider.
We will practise life.
We will practise death.
Everyone will take time.

We will build a little hut,
sit in it with you and talk of death,
touch, laugh together, catching your eye’s brightness,
saving your jokes against the darkness ahead.
Our mother will lay out your clothes:
she will choose your tie:
you will prepare to go:
we will prepare to go on:
we will not let go lightly:
we will face down fear.

The dead will dance with us in the firelight,
show their faces on wooden masks;
you will go over to them
you will come back
we will practise until we get it right.

You will die dancing the old dance;
you will die with your grandchildren bringing flowers;
you will die with your beloved laying out your clothes;
you will die with your children beating drums
dancing the death dance
dancing to die
you will raise us up again,
restore us whole one to another:
this will be your last rite.

You will lie in the little hut covered with flowers;
the grandchildren will keen and giggle in the blackness;
your wife and your children will weep together in the long dark;
we will begin to die:
the bones of the ancestors will clutch at us:
with pain we will remember the trick of rising again,
that slow motion you taught us again and again:
without faith we will wear your carven mask,
grieving we will sing your old songs,
with love and pain will move again in rituals:
the collecting of apples
the search for useful wood
the dreaming toward the sun.

By Margaret Slavin Dyment

Placed in top fifty in League of Canadian Poets competition, 1988, and published in Garden Varieties, Cormorant Press. Also in Capital Poets: an Ottawa Anthology, ed. Colin Morton, Ouroboros, 1989.

Prairies story

Submitted by Ralph

For almost two decades, Jean and I have been actively involved in the Kawartha Land Trust, which has grown considerably in its land protection, stewardship and environmental services since its "kitchen table" beginnings as the Kawartha Heritage Foundation.

May I refer you to https://kawarthalandtrust.org for general information on KLT, and to https://kawarthalandtrust.org/protected-properties/ballyduff-trails/ for specific information about our own involvement here at Ballyduff.

Seed harvest at Ballyduff trails

On a bright and breezy October day, Jean and I welcomed over thirty Kawartha Land Trust (KLT) volunteers to harvest native grass seed in the Ballyduff prairie. The seed will be used by KLT to expand the prairie on the Ballyduff property and to establish prairies on other properties in the region.

Prior to European settlement, native grasses were common to the landscape from the Rice Lake plains west to the Ganaraska and beyond. They were pervasive in south western Ontario. However, settler and modern farming practices almost resulted in their extinction. Remnants were found on farms (in marginal fields), on railway sidings (where fires burned) and in cemeteries (where little was disturbed). Seed was collected, plants propagated, and the process of restoration began. First Nations took the lead and in our area the Alderville Black Oak Savannah is a great example and well worth a visit: https://aldervillesavanna.ca/ .

My interest was tweaked at a Tall Grass Ontario (TGO) workshop which was held in Peterborough. In 2006 I then cleared an abandoned pasture of young Scots pine, and under the guidance of a Conservation Authority ecologist I began my project. Each year I’ve propagated and transplanted thousands of “plugs” and year after year Jean and I have watched our prairie expand and “grow itself” as wind spread the seed – big and little bluestem, side oats grama, yellow prairie grass, Canada rye and switch grass.

Wildflowers were added – grey-headed cone flower, round-headed bush clover, butterfly milkweed, echinacea, bergamot, blazing star and wild lupine among others.

Why a native tall grass prairie? Well it’s not just a matter of beauty – although that is a major factor. It’s a matter of biodiversity and environmental health. Consider this:

a mature prairie with its deep-rooted plants sequesters as much carbon as a forest of equal size
prairie grasses grow in and improve degraded soil, are drought resistant and mitigate erosion
prairie grasses attract and provide habitat for a variety of rare birds such as grasshopper sparrows, bobolinks, meadow larks and whippoorwills

Oh yes, and they are beautiful.

The next best addition to the prairie would be you. Come and visit anytime.

Peterborough’s jewel, Jackson Park

Submitted by Arthur

Whether on foot, cycling, or cross-country skiing, Jackson Park is my “go to” destination in town for getting immersed in nature. There are few sounds as soothing as the gurgling, murmuring sound of a swiftly flowing creek as it makes it way down a rocky streambed, such as the Jackson Creek waterway found here.

The creek, flowing from the Cavan Swamp to the west, eastward on to downtown Peterborough, dominates this park’s 49 hectares of natural woods, waters, and trails, and a unique pagoda bridge. The main flat gravel pathway that traverses the park hugs closely to the course of the creek, offering numerous small trails down to the water’s edge. Three bridges span the creek as it crosses from one side of the main trail to the other.

While easily accessible from several entrance points in town, the park runs through the creek valley so that there is little if any evidence of an urban environment. Rather, one is immersed in woods dominated by evergreen cedars and white pine. Children can enjoy the playground at the Monaghan Street entrance.

The main gravel trail is a section of old rail trail that is part of the Trans Canada Trail. In spring, this trail is a favourite of birders and in winter is marked by the ski tracks of nordic skiiers. Cyclists prize the trail for the variety of natural landscapes it passes through, and the pleasure and safety of riding on a flat pathway dedicated solely to non-motorized travel.

One of my favourite cycling daytrips is to ride west to Omemee, have a picnic lunch at the Omemee Municipal Park on the Pigeon River, then ride back home. This trip takes you across the remarkable Doube’s Trestle Bridge near Orange Corners, the site of many movie shoots. It is named after the Irish family that farmed the land on the east side of the valley.

Hopefully, this little article has inspired you to enjoy the many and varied pleasures of Jackson Park. Maybe I’ll see you there one day!

Creating my own traditions

Submitted by Aukje

When I moved to Peterborough 9 years ago, it changed how I celebrated Christmas. Before, I lived close enough to my ex that my kids could visit both of us in one day. But now I’m further away, and my kids are older and have lives of their own. We usually get together a bit before Christmas for a family celebration and then they go off and do their own thing. I’m fine with all of that, but that means that it leaves me with no plans for Christmas Day.

So, I decided to create my own tradition. I made a Facebook invitation, for everyone I knew in Peterborough to come to my place for a Christmas brunch. Of course most people have other plans, which is good, because I’d never have room for everyone. What I was looking for however, was for people like me, who didn’t have other plans for that day and would like to spend it with others.

It’s always an eclectic group of people that I know in different ways and from different communities in Peterborough. But everyone always seems to enjoy the day. I’ve always told people that they can bring a dish if they want to, but that they don’t have to. However, we always end up with lots of different food. Everyone seems to enjoy the food, and the company. Some people come for a bit and then go visit family. Others either don’t have family nearby, or don’t enjoy their family and so this gives them something special to do on Christmas. People often thank me for doing this, which I appreciate, but of course it also gives me something special to do on this day.

In 2020 when we were in the midst of Covid and people were not getting together, I held a Christmas brunch on Zoom, and quite a few people attended. One nice thing about it being on Zoom was that friends from far away could also attend. A friend from Newfoundland and another one from Baltimore (the one in the States - not the one north of Cobourg) joined in. The following year, still being cautious, I only invited a couple of people. But last year I went back to inviting everyone I knew in Peterborough. As I’ve gotten to know more and more people in the city, my invitation list has gotten bigger. Sometimes I worry that there will be too many people, but so far, that hasn’t happened yet.

I love my new Christmas tradition and look forward to seeing who will show up this year. And I’m looking forward to when I’m living in Kawartha Commons Cohousing and can host this in the common house. I imagine that some of the other cohousers who are around will drop in for a bit before they go off to visit family. And I’ll still invite everyone I know, and those who don’t have family to visit will come, and together we will share the joy of being together and of good food. Because aren’t those the most important things about Christmas?

And if you don’t have plans for this coming Christmas Day, please do stop by for some good company and some good food. Contact info@kawarthacommons for details.

Information Session

And finally, we’re holding our next info session on January 10th, so sign up here if you’d like to join us.

All of us at KCC wish you health and happiness in this season of celebration. To steal an idea from an old song, if you can’t be with the ones you love, love the ones you’re with!

A time for reflection