Sunday, May 25 (10:00 - 4:00) A-frame Work Party invitation - bring your lunch, your rake, your wheelbarrow, your broom, maybe your chainsaw?

photo courtesy APAFA

Well it's that time again. The snow is leaving..and oh what it's leaving behind! At the A-frame the stage is set for some serious (well not so serious) yard work. As the A-frame's contractor and friend Matti Kopamees puts it: 

"We took down the dead ash by the water and trimmed a bunch of broken branches yesterday. There is nary a patch of grass to walk on between the house and the lake as it is covered in tree detritus."

Compelling image. But not the one I recall from the first annual Purdy Picnic. And then there's that second annual Purdy Picnic scheduled for Saturday, July 26, 2014, to get ready for.

Al might describe the off-season landscape this way. (Did, actually, in Dark Landscape, Wild Grape Wine, 1968).

"Summer cottagers gone
a pair of tall elms
long since dead of Dutch Elm disease
are indistinguishable from other trees
their small bones leafless
Well I've no doubt weather
does influence human mood..."

So it's time to get together at the A-frame and help it move beautifully into spring and summer. And influence the mood at Roblin Lake. Get that deck moved back into place. Maybe even get inside the cottage and make the beginnings of a good spring cleaning. Start getting the place ready for writer-in-residence Katherine Leyton in July.

The local Friends of the A-frame have chosen a date for the annual clean-up of the A-frame property ~raking, picking up and removing fallen branches. The ice storm of 2013 has left some pretty sizeable branches which can be sawed into firewood and stacked under shelter. Our September-November writers in residence Sue Sinclair and Nick Thran may be grateful to see a towering woodpile at their disposal. 

Centennial SS students resting
after their A-frame labours

You're seeing it here first. We've decided on Sunday May 25, 10 - 4 PM at the A-frame. The snow should be gone, the lawn dried up enough that we can get work. And play! See you there.


We'll be emailing this date to Friends of the A-frame and  announcing it at our May 4th Town Hall meeting (1-3 PM, Ameliasburgh). But in the meantime, help us spread the word. Thanks!