Art's Almanac

I admit: When I coulda' shoulda' woulda' been writing my own blog under the forest canopy, I was reading someone else's. That person also lives in Bayfield and writes daily entries at http://artsbayfieldalmanac.blogspot.com/. His most-recent entry appeared March 1 and he admitted then that he didn't know whether there would be additional entries until he and his wife, who are visiting family and warmer climes, return to Bayfield near the end of March.

The Art in question is Art Ode, a 73-year-old semi-retired botanical garden and arboretum manager. He now lives in Bayfield, is a volunteer forester for the City, served on the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and helped orchestrate the planting of innumerable daffodils (I'm sure he could tell you the exact number!) for the annual Bayfield in Bloom celebration from mid-May to mid-June.

Art evidentally started his initial blog as a link to the Chamber website. It gave out-of-towners an insiders' view of the local goings-on and included a daily report of the weather as read from various gauges and experienced during his morning dog walks. He also detailed the condition of the lake (as viewed from his home, I guess) and included information from various town events and outings as well as wonderful photos and stories about the condition of regional flora and fauna. Though simple--since life up here is relatively simple--it's brimming with descriptions of daily life in this lakeshore community.

From what I gathered reading through months of entries Art's blog ceased abruptly after his entry (entries?) were edited without any consultation with Art, the blog's author. Perhaps he took offense. I imagine I would have. Our words are, after all, an expression of who we are and what we believe. Art's Bayfield Almanac was birthed around the beginning of this year and, as I realized from reading it, blogs express the unique character of the person who spends time day-after-day before a keyboard laboring over them.... That personality and character doesn't always mesh with or represent our own which is why, in my opinion, it is all the more precious.

It's clear that Art and I have different political views and ideologies. But one thing we do share is a love of the land and its beauty and bounty. The South Shore of Lake Superior is a special place and Art succeeds in capturing its beauty through his words and photos and his willingness to venture into and onto the woods and waters that surround him.

Here are a few tidbits I gleaned from Art's blog: the fog that I described hovering over the lake in my February 21, 2010 entry "Smoke on the Water" from my Rooted in Earth, Suspended from Sky blog is known as "lake smoke." He wrote that this is caused by moisture rising into the frigid atmosphere from warmer water; it later returns to us as lake effect snow.

Since I don't read the local newspapers I also discovered via Art's blog that Ashland, WI now has a Border Patrol office. It's a bit bizarre since this Great Lake Superior provides a tremendously wild, wet, and dangerous buffer between our area and the nearest foreign country, Canada. But now, at least, I can consider myself an informed citizen.

Art describes several curmudgeons who inhabit the area and expresses delight in the fact that they have no fear of being themselves and, as a result, the City of Bayfield and the entire area are all the better for it. I have a feeling that Art would be proud to include himself among their number and I'd venture a guess that he's well on his way to joining their ranks. Take a gander at http://artsbayfieldalmanac.blogspot.com/. I highly recommend it.