Harbingers of Spring

 

I gather memories like seashells

and set them in a box of scented cedar

wood. My fingers stain with berries

as I work. I hold my breath

and listen to the night.

Small creatures rustle under the shallal.

~ Mavis Jones

The glossy leaves belie winter’s chill; the beautiful little flowers, along with salmonberry blooms, are harbingers of spring; the berries (more correctly, the fleshy sepals) are wonderful in pancakes and muffins (cooking them brings out their juice); and a drizzle of salal syrup topped with sparkling wine makes an intensely flavourful cocktail. In late summer, the winey smell of the berries makes a walker in this terrain particularly alert for bears whose dark and seedy scats are as vivid an indication as any of the season’s turning and salal’s importance in the food chain.

~ Theresa Kishkan