Three Rivers Holiday Trees

Merchants downtown have store-thematically decorated trees in their windows, unveiled yesterday and with the community voting for their favorites today. Some are very clever! I especially liked the popcorn decorated tree at the movie theater, the chair-tree at Second Wind Furniture (made out of old chairs!), the art-tree at the Three Rivers Artists Guild's Gallery. And this one, though it takes a bit more explanation-this is a recycled office tree, with ornaments cut from old office computer circuit boards, snowflakes from recycled office paper, and a garland of packing peanuts. Very clever! At Love Your Mother, 39 North Main Street, Three Rivers, a store specializing in earth friendly products and gifts made from recycled stuff.

Last minute shopping

Actually I took this the day before Thanksgiving, a mom doing some last minute shopping in the family station wagon with the little kids in tow. Amish style. If you are a busy mom, imagine taking care of all that - and the horse, too.

Veggie Thanksgiving

Instead of Turkey, a nice fat stuffed pumpkin!

Snowflakes arrive

Spotted downtown this morning - a crane and crew hanging giant lighted snowflakes across the street.

Halloween, again and still

Actually this is Halloween, but the town celebrated last night. There is a powerful cultural prohibition here against activities on Sunday.
Meanwhile, teenage artists decorated downtown store windows. I liked the cat with it's head in a pumpkin (Golden Finch) but I really liked this sports shoe, partly because it is so silly and partly because it is decorated with my favorite Halloween special candy - candy corn! Candy corn tastes of wax and treacle and no one in their right mind likes it except me. I just ate a bag in honor of the season. Now I'm sorry.

Halloween

Streets full of little ghosts and goblins filling their bags and pumpkins with candy. Even the dogs came in costume! (But not the parents...)

Homecoming 2010

The band plays, tractors are draped in purple, the populace lines the street wearing team colors, stores stay open late. A snow plow is embellished with the team logo, people hang from upstairs windows, decorated floats mock tonight's game's opposing team. Fire truck and ambulance sirens wail, dogs bark, church bells ring. It's St. Homecoming Day!

Just so wrong (funny, though)

This is especially for Julie in Sydney who wants a climate-appropriate Christmas - as a child growing up in California I was always mystified by the fake snow painted on home and shop windows, by "flocked" Christmas trees, and especially by the paper cutout snowflakes we made in school, despite the fact that none of the children knew what snowflakes were.

In that vein, here is a "snowman" I just found on the beach near my mom's house, wool muffler, mittens, greenery - but made of sand! No, this isn't Three Rivers, the 3RDailyPhoto has been visiting family in California.

Have a happy and safe New Year's celebration!

Feliz Navidad

Uh Oh, Snow

Heavy wet snow has flattened the various inflatables that decorate the awning over Lowry's - Santa is tipped, the Christmas tree is flat, someone is falling out of the chimney, and I don't know what is happening with the snow globe.

9 degrees F this am (-12 degrees C). Brrr. But the sun is out!

1950s Santa

Santa and Mrs. Claus have arrived from the 1950s to stand around the Wishing Well and bake cookies. Oh, and beware of the dog.

Santa Waves

This Santa usually is a downtown Three Rivers centerpiece, but he was supplanted this year by a large Christmas tree. So someone has wheeled him over to the park, where he stands near the old cannon, waving to the fire station across Michigan Avenue.

Bark bark, Santa

The animal rescue group, ARF, had fundraiser doggie visits to Santa at the Three Rivers Tractor Supply Company. A long line of enthusiastic owners and their dogs waited in a line, the dogs investigating any treats on display on low shelves. Here, a smiling Rottweiler has his photo taken with Santa.

ARF does many things for animals in the county, such as spay-neuter financial assistance, listing a "pet of the week" needing adoption in local papers, and emergency veterinary assistance. One wonderful service is providing food and bedding for the animals of people who are financially stressed, allowing the people to keep their pets. To read more about ARF go to their website, http://arfund.homestead.com/arf.html. If you want to donate, they take PayPal...

Santa Tanks

Someone at the American Legion building in Three Rivers celebrated the holidays by parking Santa atop the WWII tank that sits next to their building. I suppose it could be seen as either amusing... or horrible.

Christmas windows, no snow

More decorated windows downtown, but the predicted fourteen inches of snow never arrived. A friend came down from Grand Rapids and said it was all piled up there. Here, just a few sparkly bits, hanging in the air.

Decorations and Doorways

A downtown shop window (the Golden Finch, a framer and gallery), prettily decorated for Christmas. Santa is watching! Alas, though, the Wildcats lost their bid for the state football championship.

More singing

Some members of the Three Rivers High School chorus, along with their director, Mr. Joel Moore, caroling through the downtown stores. They sang very well, and it was a real treat.

Singing outdoors

Christmas caroling by the downtown Christmas tree. The little children sang louder than the adults!

(Addendum: River Country Journal ran a 1 minute audio of the, uhm, music... thanks Bruce! Links from here: “Christmas Around Town” to continue )

Veggie Thanksgiving

Since most of our extended family are vegetarians, we had a special feast today sans the traditional roast turkey. I've spent the last few days preparing and coordinating -- Seitan roasted in barbeque sauce; acorn squash stuffed with apple and cranberry; spicy sweet potato, cooked in cocoanut milk; mashed russet potatoes (with golden fried onions to mix in); stuffing of oatmeal bread croutons with pears and leeks; mushroom gravy; roasted green beans with walnuts; corn with mint; Brussels sprouts with a mustard and maple syrup glaze; parsnip puree; and two kinds of cranberry sauce. A spinach salad with amazing little black lentils found by my sister-in-law, who also made the bread. Little Lily helped create a dessert of pears decorated to look like turkeys, and there was another dessert of cherry-apple crumble with whipped cream. No one went away hungry!

To all in the US, Happy Thanksgiving.

Veterans Day

Yesterday was Veterans Day; the Riverside Cemetery in Three Rivers was decorated with flags and markers for the graves of former servicemen. Formerly called "Armistice Day", November 11 is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other countries, and marks the end of World War I. In the US, it became in 1954 a day to honor the veterans of all wars.

This giant boulder in the cemetery was placed there in 1903, "Dedicated To the Perpetual Memory of the Soldiers of All Wars." Surrounding the boulder are four signs, each sign with lines of a poem. Walking clockwise around the boulder, the poem reads:

The neighing troop, the flashing blade,
The bugle's stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
The din and shout are past.

No rumor of the foe's advance
Now swells upon the wind:
No troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind.

No vision of the morrows strife
The warrior's dream alarms.
No braying horn nor screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.

On fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.