Reconnecting with Vernon

"I wouldn't say really good I just enjoy being in the woods " -Michael D Root

Some statements really resonate with me. They prompt me to form connections, then they start to form sentences which eventually turn into an entire blog. 

Wayne and I decided to be dedicated Candlepin bowlers pre covid pandemic, not because we initially loved the sport; but because we were in search of a thing to connect with. Truth be told, I was terrible at bowling and I never seemed to get any better with our weekly games. I looked forward to people watching, patting the owner's dogs, eating doughy pizza and laughing like a kid when our feet slid out from under us. So when our adult children visited, we brought them along for the whole experience, not just the stiff competition.

 I'm a firm believer in finding a reason to love something (or someone), perhaps this is why one of my all time favorite songs is R.E.M.'s Stand. 

When our kids were small, back in the days when we were chronically exhausted and we didn't have any money in the budget for entertainment, we used to pack them up along with a red and black checkered blanket to attend area concerts in the park. I'll never forget the one time I took the kids on my own and was happily watching them twirl and dance to the music, when a stranger with a baby in her arms walked over and sat down next to me on that blanket. Just like that I met a kindred spirit. 

Friends of Vernon Center hosted a community gathering last weekend at the Governor Hunt House as a way to celebrate what I think of as an initiative to rebuild connectedness. This is what small towns are all about. Though I think that when times and situations are tough small towns are at their best, there is important reason to gather without any other purpose than to talk with friends and meet new ones. Small towns after all, seem to be filled with old family history deserving to be told and those neighbors longing to begin their family's history in them. 

The band played music from an older generation but it felt like going home to me

I enjoy Donald's drive by conversations in the neighborhood. Once my hound quiets down I have just about one to three minutes to grasp some of the best updates with regards to nature doings in town. Don's a hunter, a dedicated Vernon Trail Breakers member and a quiet champion of conservation. If I could only learn to keep my own mouth shut once that truck window goes down, I'd know a lot more about Vernon than I do. On this day, I came away with his sentiment that neighbors don't seem to be outside this summer. I'm wondering Don, if that doesn't have something to do with these man eating mosquitos? But Don has a point, here we are almost at the start of school year and the neighborhood is quiet. 

Kids sent outdoors on long summer days often discover that the best toys are those they find when their imagination connects with nature.

Wayne and I have hiked the town forest trails together many times. I'm a bit of a slow hiker and so I am shy of joining others when venturing out. Wayne says that I am slow because I am always stopping to look at things and I suspect that he is partly right. I never seem to get tired of walking the familiar trails and taking the opportunity to get acquainted with something (okay, everything) I find along the way. 

One day Sandy, a coworker of mine at Vernon Elementary School, asked if I would be willing to show her around the J. Maynard Miller Town Forest; and before we knew it, an informal group of us had a budding tradition on our hands. Now I'm as eager as the next person to put my work life aside come summer; but this has become something of a truly special gathering of coworkers. At first I had thought that the point of the venture was to hike as much of the forest as possible in a couple of  hours. I soon became aware that my friends were falling further and further behind which is a position that I practically never find myself in. A quick refocus on my part and I discovered that they were talking about everything, and none of it had to do with hiking. On our subsequent ventures, I came less prepared for hiking and more prepared for reconnecting with good people in a place that I love.

Cheryl telling us the story about how the hawk she rescued from a treacherously busy road took off the moment she and Peter released it.

Jill shares pictures from her vacation out west.

Jill and Helen take a minute to catch up. 

On the day that it was announced that the Vernon Recreation Department's new nine hole Disk Golf course was ready to go, without asking Wayne, I purchased a beginner disk set for each of us. When the sets arrived, Wayne and I walked over to the course where I learned that I am worse at Disk Golf than I am at Candlepin Bowling. Soon, I began to lament that someone had mistakenly wrote "par 3" where they actually meant to write par 10! The course begins in the open ball field which can be looked at in two ways. On the one hand the disks were safe from being lost as they sailed in the complete opposite direction at which I was throwing them. On the other hand, there I was with the whole town having an unobstructed view of my "skills." It was with some relief that we entered the woods in spite of the mosquitoes feasting upon us and the poor trees taking on a good battering from my disks. 

Somewhere along the course we discovered a Geo Cache box and after I had posted about it on the Vernon Vermont Facebook Group, I fell into a conversation with Michael D Root from where the beginning quote in this entry came. My readers can only guess how relieved I am to connect with another resident who joins in on games because of some other more poetic reason than being a pro at it.

I stopped counting on the first hole, but still I felt like a champion when it went in!

Now how did this picture of me and Jen winning the silver medal in Cornhole get here? -Norma Manning

Saturday's Tree

 It's Saturday March 13th and I have an idea. My mom Annette constantly asks me why I don't expand my horizons and write about things outside of Vernon. I always tell her that there is so much more left to write about. "like what?" she asks, "like worms mom, I haven't even touched on all the worms in Vernon." Mom knows that when I was a high school senior, though my career exploration survey came back suggesting that I become a nun or military officer, I had aspirations of studying Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. Mom on the other hand wanted me to become a teacher. 

Along the way, I fell in love with writing but never had the nerve to go public with any of it. You see, I was a lousy speller and my grammar wasn't any better. I look back at my early short stories and poetry with an unforgiving mindset. I see mistakes where I should be looking for growth. That survey had one thing correct, I'm the sort of person who needs a mission to garner enough gumption to overcome my doubts. I'd probably be sitting on the town forest floor like a rotting log had someone in town not commented, "That pond is nothing but a piss hole and it's always going to be a piss hole." Talk about a catalyst for growth! 

Everyday at work we strive for equity in the classroom. Not every student gets the same, instead we strive to support each student with what they need. This virus has been an extreme challenge, we contain students inside a prescribed space with all desks facing forward. Kindergartners don't belong at desks and they certainly don't belong segregated by chunks of floor space. Anyone venturing into our classroom will see students standing at their desks, sitting on their knees, bodies twisted through and around their chairs and some laying their upper bodies across their desks. It's difficult to remember that they are just five and six years old in such a formal setting. Sometimes I push them too hard. 

When John Reed was my children's principal he used to say, "Childhood is not a race" our current principal Mary Ross favors, "Throw kindness around like confetti." Another former principal explained to me that, "They (parents) have the right to say it. They may be wrong, but they have the right." I was wrong a lot when my kids were growing up but not always. 

When I was talking to then eighteen year old Ethan about his major in college, he had a solid explanation as to why he chose it. For my part I explained, "It's also okay to major in something that you love." How short sighted is it to require that someone declare their entire life at eighteen?  A faculty member once told Ethan that he is overly kind towards others. Ethan and I are a lot alike; but in this he takes after Wayne. 

When I decided to write Saturday's Tree, I discovered that my intended subject, a  Silver Maple out back had already started without me. How appropriate for that's how I always felt as a student. 

I decided on a Sugar Maple out front. I hadn't initially chosen this maple because when it was planted, someone had laid down landscaping tarp around it and as the tree grew it became girdled. Its roots are both on top of the tarp and underneath it. Though I cut the tarp back away from the trunk as much as I could, the tree it seems may never reach its natural majestic maturity. Standing by the road, exposed to salt, the tree is stressed. Last summer GMP limbed the street side of the tree. It was so dramatic that my neighbor asked me why my tree was suddenly dying. This tree has challenges, none the less it is my Saturday's Tree.

3/20/21 Happy first day of spring! We had a hard frost last night and today's forecast calls for a high of 55. This week we saw two Wooly Bears on the move. The Silver Maple out back is in bloom. Is there new growth on the bud of Saturday's tree or am I wishful thinking? 

3/27/2021 I found a Dandelion blooming on Tuesday, but the bees are nowhere to be found. It was seventy degrees on Thursday and Friday brought with it light showers and the peepers calling for a mate. Everything seems perfect for a growth spurt to show up on Saturday. I also took a picture of our (same as above)  Silver Maple that seems a week behind the rest of Silvers along the back line.

Saturday's Tree. 

On Sunday it rained. Tuesday I met a woman who said that they were finished boiling syrup for the season and that they made seven gallons this year. It has been a cool gray and wet week with snow flurries on Friday. It's Saturday April 3rd and its nineteen degrees this morning.  I saw a little girl in downtown Brattleboro this afternoon, she was wearing an Easter dress with a winter coat and a pom-pom on her knit hat. It doesn't seem to be ideal conditions for Saturday's Tree to show growth. Readers may notice that this is a different bud on my tree which is an honest mistake.

On Wednesday, it is sixty three degrees out and though we are ten degrees above normal, I am surprised to see that our ornamental cherry trees have begun to leaf out. While I know that it is cheating, I make a beeline to Saturday's Tree only to find out that the bud has not changed. On Thursday I saw my first bees of the year at the Vernon Post Office! The average temperature in Burlington for Saturday is 53 degrees.

4/10/2021 Finally progress has been made!

I planted a Black Walnut from seed years ago. It is always the last tree to leaf out in my yard. When it finally does leaf out I plant my outdoor seeds. It has only steered me wrong once.

The Silver Maple out back is forming seeds. 

I find myself walking around my property amazed that so many of our trees and shrubs are already leafed out or flowering. Our Forsythias are at their peak.  Dandelions, Daffodils and Forsythia awaken me from the bleak greys of late winter and yet each year in June I consider cutting the Forsythias down. By June their long, untamed, droopy, small leafed branches are reaching into beds that they have no business being in! Today however, I admire them and I must remind myself come June that they will awaken me again and so I must allow them to remain. 

We had a favorite sapling planted by the road. I had selected it because it is on a list of, "Trees for Bees." I put the Eastern Redbud in the ground where two trees previously planted had failed. The spot was chosen with the intention of hiding a utility pole glaring at me through my front window. I poured all of my knowledge and experience into keeping this tree alive and it rewarded me with the most beautiful branches full of flowers! Then one spring, the yellows, blues, pinks and whites all came and went without the tree so much as showing any signs of life. With the end of June approaching I decided that all hope was exhausted and so I retrieved my bow saw from the shed and tearfully cut it down.

 I went to the nursery and purchased a cherry to replace it. Of course I watered and nurtured the cherry which was only a few feet behind the stump of the Redbud. One afternoon I noticed that the Redbud stump had started to send up branches from it. I took out my pruners and snipped them off close to the base only to have it happen again. Now Wayne loved that tree and was very upset when I cut it down, so I couldn't let him know anything of my terrible error. So for two summers now, I have been snipping those branches. Finally this spring, I asked Wayne if he could dig the stump out which led to my confessing the whole truth. 

Today is Wednesday, April 14th and it's supposed to snow Thursday night. The maple next to Saturday's tree is flowering.

On Friday morning we woke up to snow on our Forsythias. Facebook informs me that three years ago it was hailing. What would we do without social media to record such important moments?

Saturday April 17, It snowed most of Friday. This morning we have  snow on the ground with bright green grass poking through. Saturday's Tree has made big progress!

Our Silver Maple has also made progress.

I have the poster, Advice From a Tree by Ilan Shamir. It says, "Sink your roots into the Earth." I don't know how I feel about this advice. I also have an old shirt by Life is Good that states, "Not all who wander are lost." Perhaps Saturday's Tree would be healthier if it could move to the backyard. Perhaps it would have fallen years ago had some of its roots not been so deep.

Today is Saturday April 24th. I woke up to the farms spreading on the fields. Thursday was Earth Day. It hailed and we had flurries this week along with below freezing temperatures. Our flowering ornamentals are going to bust out all over today. The forecast today is 70 and sunny. Saturday's Tree made big progress!

I once attended a lecture where the educator stated, "We don't want our children to peak in high school" I have thought a lot about this over the years. I was twenty one when I learned why school was such a challenge for me yet learning in another way wasn't. I was in my fifties when I finally dared put aside my doubts about writing. It's Saturday the 24th and our Black Walnut agrees with that educator.

I had planted two Blueberry bushes, a River birch, and a NJ Tea last Autumn and none of them look happy this spring. I abhor synthetic fertilizers, relying instead on products that enhance soil structure like our compost does. The trouble comes in when applying semi rotted compost, which is quite inviting to grubs, skunks and chipmunks who promptly dig it up along with my plants. Today however, with a lot of added effort, I separated semi rotted compost from black gold with a small soil sifter. I then walked around my property applying it to struggling plants, one of which is a Rhododendron that for some reason, Wayne dropped a large piece of plywood on. 

On Friday at the end of a very windy day, I found a Mourning Dove's egg under Saturday's Tree. Actually, Luna found one first and ate it.  It's early in the season, the birds will lay more eggs. 

 It's Saturday, May 1st and it's Green Up Day. Happy 83rd Birthday Mom!

When I was a young parent, my mother asked me, "Why fight what has to be anyway?" I still don't have an answer for her, but think it might be, "Are outcomes preordained?" My mother is the wisest person that I have ever known. She knows me well, though admits that she never understood me. I view myself as a fighter by nature but mostly by experience.  My oldest points out in a phone conversation that I am an empath. I have to look that word up. Sometimes her insights make me feel challenged in a way that I cannot describe. I always wanted my children to have a hometown. I chose Vernon for them but they all live in other states. People ask me where I grew up and my answer is "everywhere." Wayne is a BF boy born and raised. Some trees are bought at the nursery and planted, others find their way as seeds carried by the wind and water. 

 "Once upon a time there was a little seed that grew into a big big tree that could touch the sun." - Brayden, age 6

Have you ever hiked to the top of a hill to just where the treetops meet the sky? I'm not talking about where someone has cleared the way for a view, or even on Hogback Mountain where anyone can ride in a car to the top. What I'm talking about is, have you ever seen what a tree sees at the tips of its highest branches after decades of growth? Have you passed by their ground littered with leaves and branches turning into soil and nourishment? Do you see the scars in their bark that have healed, the ones that still need healing and those that never will? Have you witnessed the promise of new growth and the beauty in the Autumn of the old? - Norma Manning

5/09/2021 Saturday's Tree

Addendum: today is June first and the Silver Maple out back that had "started without me" has now dropped it's seeds and is finally leafing out.

Further Reading:

Turning School Inside Out, Nature Based Education in a New Hampshire School

Common Thread, Antioch Grad Filming Documentary About Chesterfield School's Outdoor Learning

Waterford.org, Why Understanding Equity vs Equality in Schools Can Help You Create an Inclusive  Classroom

cpe, Educational Equity, What Does it Mean? How do We Know When We Reach it?

Seven Days, How the Climate Crisis and Pests are Impacting Four Tree Species in Vermont's Woods