6826_CIC_November2019_Calendar_Web

Marty’s Memories - Trees November 2019 by Marty Trower

Is it just a coincidence that while I was heavily into reading the intriguing book Overstory (by Richard Powers- whose underlying theme is trees, not only their connection to each other but to our own personal human history) I opened my window shades Thursday morning to find two huge and magnificent arboreal monuments lying horizontal in my yard? I should not have been surprised. The night before I’d had no choice but to lie in bed and listen and watch with horror as my house was battered and shaken not only by the strongest winds I’ve ever experienced but by the constant slashing and beating of porch furniture and anything else I hadn’t tied down, against the house. I had not lashed them to the porch railings because, after all, it was my home, not a boat. I dared not open the glass door to the porch to secure the items, knowing I would not be able to close it again. The sky was strangely white in places. How could that be, I wondered. The antique but flourishing hydrangea tree in front of the porch waved its blurry image, whipping erratically, energetically, never taking a rest, like a strange ghost trying to find peace but finding none. How could this tree possibly survive? Somehow, towards dawn I must’ve slept for a while because suddenly it was quiet, and dawn’s light was there but I was too tired to get up and explore the damage. How could it be that I

never heard the trees falling? Throughout the days of cleaning up and camping out without power, I thought about those regal trees and all the many other giants that fell that early morning on the island. I thought of Deer Point and the disastrous damage its trees have incurred in the last decades. I remembered, also, hearing about a great fire that had raged in the forests on the point in the forties. The evergreens came back and they and I flourished at the same time in the intervening years. The way to the shore was canopied by them in those years as we made our way through the magic pathway to the rocks where the red bell buoy clanged, and surf foamed white around our picnic on the rocks. I thought about the maple tree Maggie and I used to climb behind her house in our youth, where we worked out a lot of dreams and ideas while scrambling and hanging and perching in its arms. When the giant oak in front of our family cottage started losing soil around its roots and water oozed from its hold onto the ground, we worried but could do nothing. Then it went over and took a big part of the bank with it as well as a lifetime of memories in its realm. Today the hydrangea, its remaining blossoms soft mauve in color clung sadly but strong and devoted to it home where it has grown for longer than my family has owned the property, over seventy years.

LADIES AID Chr i stmas FAIR

Saturday, November 23 rd Noon to 2 PM at the Parish House Enjoy Lunch Handmade Items of All Kinds Knives and Utensils Baked Goods and The Fudge

Orders taken for Christmas Wreaths

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NOVEMBER 2019 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR