Friday, April 30, 2010

A Tricycle Built for Tree

 I'm back in my borough's burrow on the east coast, having arrived very late Tuesday, or very early Wednesday, depending how you look at it. Either way, it's left me dazed and confused and bleary-eyed. I'm having trouble adjusting to the 4 hours time difference between here and the west coast for one thing. This afternoon when I thought I was having a bowl of soup for lunch, it turned out I was having supper, that's how out of whack my sense of time is just now. Luckily it's staying light until quite late so I was able to get out for a walk--my first venture outdoors since I got home.






Walking along the marsh road I spotted something unusual in an otherwise ordinary tree (note the lack of leaves, though the burgeoning buds are heartening, as is the green grass and lack of snow.  There was snow on the ground at our flight's stopover in Montreal: the horror!  But I digress...)



Closer inspection revealed a tricycle well-ensconced in the tree's embrace.




Some poor tyke's trike well and truly up a tree.  A treed trike, as it were. 



This is how I imagine it got there.  Full speed ahead!





There were some other unusual trees I saw along the marsh road.  They were leaning back from the murky ditch water as if trying to daintily lift their toes...er...roots from the muck.  I glorified the scene a wee bit in Photoshop when I got home as I found the original colours a bit drab after all the lush green foliage and brilliant flowers I've been spoiled with for this past month out in  North Vancouver.




They treat their trees with great respect out there, don't you know!  I saw this beauty proudly sporting a tree scarf that some kind soul had knit for her/him.  Maybe I should knit some socks for those trees down on the marsh road.  Or maybe I should just try to get my circadian rhythm back in sync.

18 comments:

  1. It's an Irish saying, you know!

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  2. Welcome back to the Maritime cycles of life.

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  3. Saj,
    Faith and Begorrah but you'd look sweet upon the seat of a tricycle built for t'ree. I'm sure you, me, and our brudder would have a fine old time on a t'ree (3) seater. As long as there was a wine-rack attached on the back.

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  4. DCW,
    "The Maritimes Cycles of Life" would be a great name for a bike chain of stores in Eastern Canada specializing in wheels for every age: trikes, bikes, tandems, wheelchairs and those motorized scooters so popular with the older set in Victoria.

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  5. Actually, I heard it through the grapevine that there would indeed be some wine in the rack....but best we don't talk about racks, am sure our bro would make something outta that!!

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  6. Saj,
    Now that you've let the rack out of the bag, so to speak, you can just bet that the BrOwen will be coming on all innocent like, "Rack? Rack of lamb? Moose rack? Going to rack and ruin, etc. etc." But he can't fool us with that boyish innocence for you and I, Saj, are far too canny for that. Now pass me those jugs of wine, will you, love...

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  7. How about if we just rack'em, you know, like getting ready to play a game of eight ball, rack'em up... yeah, it'll be rack and ruin alright, and is it canny, or catty, or moosy, wow, in any case, my eyes were crossing and uncrossing trying to look at the full speed ahead picture, as hard as I tried I couldn't focus on it... will have to try again in the morning, but right now it took me so far out into space I'm still reeling, the wine rack got me off the track so bring me back to the rack shack Jack !

    Oh man, they whispered, he's losing it !!!

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  8. Dear BrOwen,
    Even though you are quite dizzyingly incoherent and stumbling all over your dear little webbed feet, it is so very nice of you to hop on over here to say goodnight to us. Saj and I will make a snug and cozy little place for you to sleep in the depths of the wine rack--toad in the hole, as it were (a fine English dish, I'm told, though I've never eaten it myself. There's always a first time...).

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  9. hhahahahahaha, you said "jugs".....

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  10. Tisk tisk tisk, now what is this about Toad in the Hole, and jugs of gosh only knows what, people are going to start getting the wrong idea here ! ;-)

    Hmmm, toad in the hole, I sort of like the sound of that, am going to have to go do some research... but now I'm off to go take the track back to the work rack, where one's feet are tied to one end, and one's hands tied over one's head at the other end, and then with a clever system of gears and pulleys one gets stretched and stretched... hmmm, I think I like the wine rack idea better... so bring those jugs round so we can pour out some of life's finer bounty into our glasses, and have a nice civilized drink while we discuss the toad in the hole !

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  11. Saj,
    A Canadian radio host once got a lot of disapproving mail after she made a comment about the mother/daughter singing duo, Naomi & Wynonna Judd, saying something like, "Take a look at those Judds!" and several listeners misinterpreted Judds as jugs! Mother and daughter were rather well-endowed in the milk of human kindness dept., if you know what I mean.

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  12. BrOwen,
    A little research informs me that "Toad in the Hole" is nothing much more than a glorified hot dog, comprised of a sausage baked in a version of Yorkshire pudding or batter. It goes well with a dessert of Spotted Dick and a jug or two of milk.

    I hope your toady skin doesn't get all stretched out of shape on that nasty work rack and dried out with all that sweeping you've been doing. Saj and I will revive you with some bracing liquid refreshment when you manage to come hopping back to visit.

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  13. Oh, and I meant to ask, I trust you retrieved the trike from the tree after doing the photos ??? I mean, when I come to visit it could come in very handy for local transportation !

    And btw, there are two previous posts about tricycles from way before anyone had started to visit my obscure little blog :

    http://magiclanternshowen.blogspot.com/search/label/Tricycle

    Enjoy... Also, the toad in the holes sound good, I like hot dogs !
    Am going to look into this further...
    :-)

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  14. Anonymous01 May, 2010

    It might have been left there, because the child had to return home before it got dark and the next day the family moved, forgetting it and that's why the tree did take care of if, lifting it up, growing with it, year by year.
    Please have a wonderful Sunday.

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  15. BrOwen,
    I cannot interfere with found art; I must leave it for others to discover and enjoy. I have tourism training under my belt: Visitors must leave things as they find them.

    Think on this, "What if humans had left the planet as they found it?"

    Perhaps they would never have discovered how to cook toad in the hole, which may or may not be a good thing. The jury is still out on that one, although I, too, have a fondness for hot dogs which I occasionally indulge. (Can you even get hot dogs in Paris??).
    I have,however, experienced a colonialized version of toad-in the-hole, in the form of cooking a weiner wrapped in biscuit dough over an open fire on the beach. They were called "gooey ducks" for some reason.

    So alas, no tricycle on hand for when you come to visit. But as it's the "Big Garbage Day" here in a few weeks time, I could go out and gather up a few old wrecks and cobble together something splendid to wheel us all about, as I imagine if you're going to come visit, the Saj will find a way to attend our family re?union.

    So excited!

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  16. Hello dear Robert,
    What a wonderful story you've woven here around that rusty little treed tricycle. Your spin on the situation has the makings of a very good children's book. Your skills at being a loving papa are showing! I wish you special Sunday magic.

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  17. "What if humans had left the planet as they found it?"

    What an odd question...

    Isn't that sort of what was an underlying notion of the philosophy of some of those barbaric savage tribes of aboriginal humans who inhabited what is now north and south America before the far superior and ever so humble white Europeans arrived on the pristine scene ? Respecting the Earth ? Taking only what they needed to survive ? Living a spiritual life deeply tied to nature and natural forces ? Those lowly creatures with no written histories might have been capable of leaving the planet more or less as it was, but it should obvious to any unbiased observer that our industrialized and arbitrarily financial econo-socio-pyscho highly evolved hyper sophisticated civilization must feed on the earth's resources in order to fuel its obesity and cancerous geometric geopolitical growth, spewing out wastes with wanton abandon on such a monstrously enormous scale that of course it is unlikely that we could leave the planet as we found it. Silly question !

    Sad answer...

    Or am I missing something ???

    And all of that so that we could have toad in the hole whenever we bloody well want it !

    PS My WV is "ching", as in, I opened up the I-Ching at random tonight, and it said :

    Six in the fourth place :

    A) Entangled youthful folly brings humiliation

    B) The humiliation of youthful folly comes from the fact that it of all things is furthest from what is real.

    Now what does that mean !?!

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