Day 26 – Sunday, September 28, 2014

Wanting to wish Bryce Kanbara a happy birthday.  Remembering my dear Mum-in-law Vera Wheaton and cousin-in-law Ted on the anniversary of their births.

This photo was taken at spot where we started walking.  If I remember correctly, tis was an organic farm.

We weren't far in our walk, that I spotted another lost glove.  Interesting that this one had electrical tape around the thumb! (added Dec.31/14)

I am only going to share a part of today’s walk_approximately 4-5 kilometres.  Pauline’s foot pad was low on battery so we have no indication of time and distance spent walking, just the distance according to our google map.  No matter, when Pauline estimated we were at 3 kilometres, we stopped for photos. 

Pauline has also started taking photos of a little figure.  There was a huge trunk with large standing splinters. Pauline placed her doll there and it looked fabulous.

I decided this could be my first pit stop.  I leaned my red walking stick against it so I wouldn’t forget it when I was done.  (It has happened before on this journey, and I had a little back-tracking to do.) I headed back of the road and crouched down.  I started to notice the smooth bark-less trunk.  It was substantial.  When I got up, I noticed that the trunk went on and on downhill.  I thought maybe it was an old oak or cedar.  I touched its trunk with respect and recorded it on my iPhone. 

I have a growing feeling that the trees are protective. I feel they are gentle souls. And that maybe there are still some trees alive today that were around at the time of Abigail’s captivity and journey to Montreal. This one might be one of those venerable trees. I was sorry I had not been there soon enough to see it while it was alive.

I returned to the road to catch up with Pauline.  We were not on route 5 at this point.  Soon we sw Dean at about the same time as there was a farm with goats and chickens on the right.  I carried on as the two took photos.  I trust Dean to get lots of photos while we are together, hoping to not be the one delaying our forward movement.

Dean said he had found the road or lane he was looking for, thanks to his gps, as there was not a street sign.

About a kilometre along, we came to an area announcing Someone Kuhn homes.  It looked like a new development, the houses being one storey and grey.  They looked nothing like the many-windowed two-storey colonial homes that abound in this state.  I arrived at RAVioli first, but Pauline had the keys.  As Dean approached, he remotely unlocked the door.  I opened the door.  That is when it struck me, that I had left my walking stick behind!

I told Dean.  He wanted to know how far back it was and did I want to go back.  I knew then exactly where I’d left it and yes, I wanted to get it.  I also wanted Dean to have a look at the large, fallen tree and to tell me what kind it was. I asked Pauline if she wanted to come along with Dean and I. She declined.  I could see there was a swing set, a picnic table at either side of the road and some wooden chairs that looked comfortable.  It was an opportunity for Pauline to sit and swing.  She had told me, while a New Discovery State Park, that she loved to do so and found it very relaxing.  She hadn’t had a chance while we were there: one night it was too late and the other nights, it had been too cold.  Pauline waved to us from the swing.

As I drove the RAV, Dean told me he would not likely be able to identify a bark-less tree.  We were there sooner than I thought.  I just stopped beyond it, having caught sight of the stump and my walking stick in the corner of my eye.

So I turned the vehicle around.  Dean picked up the stick and walked along some of the length of the tree.  He was there some time.  He came back to tell me that he thought that it was a White Pine because to the way the branches grew out of the trunk.  “Ah! Eastern White Pine, then.”

I remembered reading back at Quechee Gorge State Park that Eastern White Pine lived about 400 years.  It was only 310 years ago that Abigail and company had travelled from Deerfield to Montreal.

When we got back, Pauline was still swinging.  As soon as she saw it, she stopped and was ready to go, so I have no photo of that.  Quickly got my back pack on and we were ready to go back to the road.  “No,” Dean informed us, we were to continue on this road where the swing set was near a building that might have been a small community centre.  Just then a school bus came by, and Dean had to wait before proceeding with RAVioli.  Dean wondered why there was a school bus on a Sunday. Young, bouncy got out and headed to a building on the opposite side of the road.  A woman at the door of what I had thought of as a community centre asked, “Could I help you?”  I said we were on a walk.  “This is a private school,” she said. It was a private school for Kindergarten to grade 8. 

“Do they live here year round?” I inquired.

“They can,” she replied.

The girls came from home situations that needed help.

The woman was surprised that Google map had taken us through here.  We had no idea.  I told her of my project and she wished us well.

I hurried on as Pauline had not stopped walking.  I passed horses in a field by a large barn. There was a garden that brought a painting by one of The Group of Seven to mind. 

Then I turned left.  I saw a building with a large silver tank behind it.  It looked like my friend Art’s maple syrup tank.  I think that was a building for making maple syrup in the spring.  Vermont makes a lot of maple syrup.  Down the hilly road, I went.  I caught up with Pauline.  There was a bubbling stream with sunlight.  I noticed there were cement steps to go down to it.

The woman had answered that the home and school (further along where we had not walked) were privately funded.  I walked on with the feeling that there was hope for this world.  A world where individuals care enough to share to help others have a brighter future.

Did Abigail have a brighter future? She was taken from a Puritan community.  Although adopted by an Iroquois chief of the Bear clan, she was soon re-baptized Catholic.  She and her husband Josiah Rising were rewarded with land for the devoutness. 

Additions:

Native Doll among Fallen Leaves

3 kilometre mark

Oak Leaves Alight with Natural Light

Walking