My feet are practising their steps, gauging the slipperiness of wet lichen on rock and sounding each landing. As my stride shifts to a swing I realize I have a sharper sense of my place in the woods now. I am as taut and limber as a bow-string. I sense bears in the woods, weigh their threat and move on, glorying in the mosses beneath my feet …. We in the woods share fear. By grace of my fear, I am closer to predators and prey.
The View From Foley Mountain is a celebration of the joy of living in harmony with the natural world. The seasonal selections lead you through the fields, woods, rock outcroppings and shores of the conservation area which is the author’s home.
You will savour the fragrance of maple syrup boiling, share in a summer heron census, snowshoe to a beaver lodge, watch a snapping turtle laying eggs, witness the death of a starving deer, and see turkey vultures soar.
Whether she is rejoicing in old barns, canoeing the Snake River, harvesting dye plants or stalking moths at night, Peri Phillips McQuay’s deep love and lyrical vision stimulate you to share her sense of wonder in her surroundings.
Authors
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 508.713/73
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 20
- General Note
- Originally published: Toronto [Ont.] : Natural Heritage/Natural History, 1995 Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-on
- ISBN
- 0920474993 9781770700581
- LCCN
- QH77.C3
- LCCN Item number
- M37 1995eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (180 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00603012 (OCoLC)696033945 (CaOOCEL)410482
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- At home today 10
- Spring 14
- The land that still has tall trees 15
- The spirit of a countryman 16
- Walking the dog 18
- Sap-boiling time 20
- The force that through the green fuse 21
- Elegy for a place that is lost 23
- “Where did you go?” “Out.” 25
- There’s a wake in town tonight 27
- A kind of pearly grey day 28
- The lottery 30
- A time apart 32
- The death of a deer 34
- Tree planting 35
- The flowery woods 37
- The coil of things 39
- The predator, not the prey 41
- A little night music 42
- Beekeeping beginnings 44
- The rocks remain 48
- Field evolution 49
- First lessons with the canoe 51
- As a turtle to water 53
- Summer 56
- Sugaring for moths 57
- Roadside spraying 58
- Hanging clothes is fine 60
- Heron census 62
- Through a child’s eyes 64
- A passion for ferns 66
- Canoeing the Snake 68
- The Thunder Bird 70
- Again and again 71
- A rabbit in the house 73
- Northern orioles 77
- A field of tall grass 79
- Barn swallows 81
- The stone garden 83
- Henri Fabre 85
- Stargazing 87
- Whiteness at dusk 89
- Reunion 90
- Where cardinal flowers grow 92
- Horsetails 94
- Goodbye to the land 96
- Autumn 98
- Quinte revisited 99
- No time to lose 100
- Pond succession 102
- The harp of wind 104
- Dye plants 106
- Sanctuary 108
- Apple-stealing time 109
- Dear Jack letter 111
- Wild harvest 113
- No reason to go 115
- The parlour organ 117
- Miss Fanny 119
- Leaves for Red Lake 122
- A patch of blue sky is enough 124
- Country fire 125
- Land longing 127
- Sombre 129
- The friendly fox 131
- A barn lament 133
- A pine’s death 136
- Fear in the woods 138
- Winter 140
- Making peace with winter 141
- Chickadees 142
- An artist’s Christmas cards 144
- Bird nests in winter 146
- The house on Indian Hill 148
- The black buck 150
- Owling at dawn 151
- Pleasant Valley 154
- At home till the end 156
- Insects and domesticity 157
- Snowbound is fine 159
- Valentine 161
- And then, and then and then 163
- New life for an old basement 164
- Winter ponds 166
- Sally 168
- Cabin fever 170
- The third meeting in four days 171
- Grog’s story 173
- Shotgun living 177
- Afterword, October 1994 180
