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6 dec |
Holiday Greetings | The season is upon us. Time for celebration and reunions. Gift giving and
ceremonial breaking of bread. A time of spiritual renewal.
No matter the reasons or historical rationale,
December has become a global holiday season. It's time to reflect and review,
to make Thanks for that which has helped us grow. || ...And it's time for my annual holiday illustration.
The Christmas Tree Adventure |
© 2000 | Will Brady / Landing Hill Designs
About the picture || This year's is a memory from the past. A trip to the North Maine Woods with
an old friend, Ray L. We went to get Christmas trees to sell back in Connecticut.
On the trip north, there was a "warm spell." and snows already fallen were melting. Once we
arrived up north (someplace south of Eagle Lake), the temperatures began to get colder. During the
rest of our stay there "Brisk" temperatures prevailed. I don't think
it ever got above minus 10 ° ~C or F!. The skies were overcast during the day.
But there were some clear nights, and the
Aurora Borealis provided a fantastic night sky light show.
Ray introduced me to his old friend Larry, with whom I was to stay. I definitly had to curb
acting upon my lumberjack logging camp fantasties. A big strapping mountain of
a man who was as thoughtful and polite a person as I coulda met.
On the first day out tree searching,
Larry pointed me into the woods, indicating that was where I was to start searching. He told me
where he expected to meet me out on another road and asked casually if I was sure I wouldn't get lost.
He seemed certain I could read the terrian. I proudly told him I'd looked at the topo map, and that I always
carried my compass.
He took on a reflective look for but a second, and noted aloud, but not bragging, "Humm. I never
use those things." And walked away in the other direction, not the least bit worried I'd become a
statistic. I remained, nevertheless, humbled, but still comforted by my compass's heft in the pocket anyhow. After all, he lived
there! He should know his way around. I didn't || We spent the next couple of days hunting
down well-rounded Balsam Firs for cutting. Not a good decision that. We liked the balsams ourselves,
but back in Connecticut people wanted Scotch Pines.
On the trip back, we chose to follow a miles-long dirt "highway" through those same
North Woods. No turning back after getting on that road, 'cuz there were no connecting roads most of
the way || We drove past road to old logging camps and the entry points to skidder path dead ends.
But there were no off ramps to town.
Eventually we came to a well flooded stream, quite a bit too deep to traverse if it were running.
But it was frozen solid. And as clear and as smooth and new window pane glass. And glistening. And
it was already late in the day. So we got out. Looked at the iced-over, well flooded stream.
We walked across it. No ice cracking noises. No settling of frozen plates. We guessed
it had to be at least a foot (~1/3 meter) thick. We ate a couple of chicken sandwiches
packed for the trip. Had some Jack Daniels and smoked a joint.
We reasoned it out. Sure, the waters had been rushing rapidly when we'd drive up north only a few
days before. We'd also had a couple of days of well below zero weather. So what's the risk
factor here? Hell we didn't even need a compass to figure this one.
Then Ray shrugged, motioned we get back in the truck, turned over the engine, and pointed us straight across to where the road wqas visible, maybe some 40 feet away. "What the hey," he says,
you only live once!" He stepped on the accelerator and drove across that bridge of solid crystal clear ice,
and we quickly made it across, and not a single break in the ice. "Whoop Dee DOO!" What a rush!
The rest of the trip south wasn't nearly as eventful. We stopped at took some pictures at
Kokadjo (population -3-) which I later turned into a painting. Had a couple of spirited races
with a moose running alongside the truck. And when we drove into Bristol were were tired to be sure.
Ultimately, we did sell enough trees to break even on the costs of the journey. Which was
fine. The trip itself was my Christmas gift that year. And that was quite enough for me.
Happy Holidays Folks
Here are some stories about Kokadjo, the North Maine Woods
and Wilderness Areas |
East Coast Rover's Trek to the Trains |
A Warren, ME guide service's engaging history and adventure story
from Fodor's
Maine: Other Places
Hiking the Moosehead Lake Region
3 dec |
Holiday Gift Giving | Some thoughts and ideas. As I noted a
few days ago, I'm not
entirely keen on the boycott of gift giving idea. Certainly, conspicuous consumption has
a lot of flaws, and I am not promoting that anyway. SO here are a few things that people
might think about doing or giving this season.
SAFE CALENDARS || SAFE, a drop in center for mental health system
consumer/survivors, has created an incredibly beautiful
Outsider Art calendar this year, and would like contacts to help
sell it. Please contact them as soon as possible, in order to get your calendar on
time ||
The calendars cost $16 [usa] each, and shipping is free (within the USA only) during December
2000. multiple calendar orders are cheaper ||
The image shown on this page is called Journey by Eva Edleman. More than 12 images
grace the pages. Proceeds go to operation of SAFE, a community based drop-in centre for clients
of mental health service systems in Oregon ||
In addition to the illustrations, each calendar page has a short poetry entry by a
variety of different artists
NOTE: contact via:
SAFE, PO Box 492, Springfield OR 974777
541 988-9570 or 541 683-8720 safe@efn.org
webpage: http://www.efn.org/~safe
current entries |
 |
18 nov |
19 nov |
23 nov |
1-2 dec |
Catch you on the rebound!
~Will Brady
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Go to:
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about "Short Notes"
"Short Notes" was the title of a column I wrote while
working for a newspaper in the Adirondack Mountains some years ago.
The format was similar to what you'll find here, except augmented
with pictures and maps. The subject matter shall sometimes be personal,
at other times comments on events or situations of which I am aware. Comments,
suggestions welcomed but not always acted upon.
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LEGAL & DISCLAIMER NOTICE: © 2000 / Will Brady
I hope you've found this site interesting, even thought provoking || Occasionally
some images come from commercial sources and are reproduced here under
fair use guidelines of US Copyright law ||
Please don't write to me about the content of other peoples' sites linked
from here || On the other hand, please let me know of any inactive links ||
Constructive comments, suggested links to add, are welcome.
This website is maintained by Will Brady / wbrady@connix.com /
Last update: see most recent entry
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