Writing

Blue Grama

Blue Grama (2014, WildSage Press). Available in Shop link for purchase.

Blue Grama describes the intensity that is prairie life - people, plants and spaces - and the drive that sends us away and brings us back again to our roots. The author, who grew up in Saskatchewan and currently lives in Forget, Saskatchewan, opens windows into her world as a prairie advocate. From conversations with a prairie shrub to reflections of lives of prairie people who populate the author's past, this visual treasure is an emotive ode to all things prairie. Equal to the writings (poetry, songs and one prose piece) are the author's own botanical illustrations, accompanied by field notes, which portray her delight in prairie details not often seen until you kneel amongst the grasses. The author writes, "This book might save you getting your knees dirty, or it might encourage you to do so!"

“If you are like me and love prairie, Blue Grama will go right to your heart. Shooting Stars, Baltic Rush, and Broom Rape are all interleaved with glimpses of Stan Rogers, Edward Abbey, and an old Malibu. Heather has given us songs for a grassland life, each crafted lovingly…” Trevor Herriot

Blue Grama Excerpt

To Canoe on a Slough

Under my hands I feel the years
the flakes of paint
on the imperfectly stretched canvas
chips of colours like an ice core
bleached, summer-sky blue paint firs
trimmed by the previous red
below thata gentle butter yellow
all suspended over the original base
a down-the-highway-line yellow

On dry days with all the work
on the to-be-ignored-today list
we launched
that canoe in the reedy slough
our feet
shuffling underwater to find
stepping stone clumps
bunchgrass and sedges in the murk
until we were deep enough
to float the boat

It didn’t matter
how deep the water
so long as it would lift us
we changed
from dust-burdened and land-bound
to a sleek ship
prairiebound
but afloat 

In The Works

Presently I have a couple of writing projects underway. One is a combined illustration/writing work inspired by some of the nature journals from Scotland and England. They are essentially field notes and illustrations combined to capture the emotion of the landscape and the interaction of the components. The second project is a collaborative poetry work with a friend, Steve Catto. The working title is Sundays with Steve.