| June 5, 2011 | Contact | Calendar | The Mix | Archives |
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Yesterday, with the best weather we've ever had for the event, was Unity Barn Raisers annual meeting and community meal. It featured a tour of the recently finished pedestrian bridge that crosses Sandy Stream and connects Main Street with Unity College. I was blown away with how great the design is, with vertical and horizontal curves, with multi-directional wood planking, with the rust that's just the right color, with the views of the stream and the woods from it. Ten years ago, UBR got a grant from the DOT for this bridge, and it took ten years to make it actually happen. The college library serves as the town library as well, and now it's a walk across the bridge to get there. The students can use it to get to the theater, which the college owns, without risking their lives on the road especially in winter.
I biked around the lake yesterday and today, camera with me of course. Lots of fields of yellow flowers in the high portion. I usually stop for water at the top of a hill by Flying Fox farm because I like the view of the lake. In the wetlands part, as far into the woods as you can look there are bright green ferns dappled by the leaf light of the hardwoods and in the canopy throngs of adolescent leaves are dancing halleluia. An Amish woman is the baked goods vendor at our small farmers market this year. Melissa and I had a chat with her and her husband and met their horse Donna. The Amish believe that no one person should stand out different from the community. They make a capella music but don't use instruments because a person good at playing an instrument would stand out from the others. I suggested that they could sell their home sewn clothes in their store for a good price. The husband, Kenneth, had braces on his teeth; she wore blue Crocs. I can never get past their patriarchal structure and the dress code for women. Volunteer awards at the UBR meeting were dahlias from Alice Cheeseman's garden, planted the same year UBR was started at gatherings around her kitchen table. Melissa and I both got some and will plant them somewhere special. |