Category Archives: USA/Canada

THROUGH THE NORTHWOODS

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After our workshop at Dillmans in Wisconsin, we picked up a hire car from Rhinelander airport to drive up to Sudbury, in Canada, and visit my brother Wayne and his family. We ordered a mid sized sedan but ended up with a Mercury Grand Marquis  with all the electric fancy bits, a big V8 engine, full leather lounge chairs and shiny wood trim that looks like plastic (or maybe plastic trim that looks like wood). Anyway, it takes up a lot of road, gulps down gasoline and would have looked really ugly, even in the 1980’s.

The Northern region of Wisconsin / Michigan  is known as the Northwoods. It is a flat, green maze of lakes and creeks. Much of the country is covered with heavily wooded forests of birch, maple and a variety of conifers. In winter the region is covered with feet of snow and the temperature stays below freezing till spring. The green grass and  dense growth of the woodlands was a surprise in such low temperatures. We managed to spot a coyote, many squirells, chipmonks, deer and loons, but bears and moose have evaded us.


Northwoods towns are quaint and tidy


Patriotism is always evident.

The rural properties try to out barn one another.

Waving Chipmonk

DILLMAN’S WORKSHOP

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Dillman’s Resort is tucked up into the north of Wisconsin at Lac Du Flambeau. It sits on a tree covered  peninsular jutting out into  a beautiful lake. We were lucky to have good weather, but the resort closes over winter due to snow.

Evenings on the lake are pretty spectacular, watching the sun set to the haunting call of  loons

In the main reception area is a large open fire, the Tom Lynch Library, an art supply shop, a bar and friendly, helpful staff.

Art workshops have been conducted at Dillmans since 1978. Their two large studios have excellent facilities and the resort offers great accommodation with kitchens, barbecues, kayaks and push bikes.

Workshop Demos

Cool nights were warmed up by a large bonfire hosted by one of our group.

The week at Dillmans seemed to go very quickly, but we look forward to coming back to this beautiful part of the world in a couple of years time.

UP TOWN / DEAD BIKES

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Uptown New York is where all the pointy bits are. One of the tallest buildings is the Rockefeller Center and for a few bucks you can rocket the 70 odd floors to the top and take in an amazing view of the city in all directions.

Another uptown attraction is time square. It has to be the most animated architecture in the world. Every facade facing the square is covered by massive screens. They pump a barrage of advertising images at, what seems to be, the entire 8 million inhabitants of the city packed into the pedestrian plaza.

There are some weird things in New York – here is a Policeman writing out a ticket for a horse.


Time Square movie shoot.

Occasionally you get a glimpse  of something that reminds you that America really is the Land of Milk and Honey.

Uptown window chef 2 (cake decorator).

Uptown window chef 1 (pretzel maker)

Scattered around the City of New York are hundreds of dead bicycles. You come across one on just about every street, and wonder why they have ended their lives chained to a city pole with rusting paint, flat tires and missing parts. Here are a few of the sadly neglected skeletons.

Leaving the uptown area and heading towards the Brooklyn Bridge there is some interesting graffiti. The elevated ramps give a great view of the surrounding roof tops  which, over the years, have accumulated an amazing coating of graffiti.

NEW YORK

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New York is a bit of a shock after twenty four hours in transit. Everyone seemed to be on full throttle and we were barely idling. We caught a cab from JFK Airport to our apartment in the city.

We were lucky enough to be a couple of doors from an amazing bar called Mono Mono, where they play analogue music 24 hours a day from a collection of over 30,000 jazz LP’s. What a great place to get over a long flight.

Mono Mono – the left hand wall is 12 shelves high, stacked with LP’s. A conveyor system circulates near 50 records at a time, around the ceiling and through the DJ’s booth, where an awesome sound is delivered through old valve amplifiers.

New York architecture is fantastic. Old brownstone buildings with external fire escapes and no elevators – no wonder there are a lot of skinny people in New York! Up and down six floors every time you want to go out would be hard work.

East Village,  has some mighty bars. We haven’t had a chance to visit this one yet, but it looks pretty interesting.

McSorleys Old Ale House is just around the corner from us. It is the longest continuously  running license in New York and inside looks as if it hasn’t changed since it was opened – sawdust covered floor, old wooden refrigerator and a collection of dust covered photographs and junk accumulated over the past 150 years. All they sell is their own ale – dark or light, and for some reason when you order one they give you two. No wonder they have been operating for 150 years.

Tucked down some of the side streets are some interesting shops. Trash and Vaudeville sold some bizarre fashions,  or they would be bizarre in any other city, but in New York nothing really seems bizarre.

Casual Sneakers

Comfortable walking shoes

In New York there is not a lot of car parking space so they stack them neatly,  one on top of the other.

Even the police cars are down sized so they can fit more on the streets.

When I was a kid, there was a story going around school, that if you dropped a penny from the top of the Empire State Building, it would embed itself inches into the concrete below. We walked right around the Empire State Building and, sadly, there were no embedded pennies.

The huge orange billboard in the center of the photo above (detail below) gives a constant readout of the number of tons of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Its a pretty scary number especially when most people see it across the hood of a V8.

Maybe the billboard will change that? New York has a large fleet of hybrid Ford taxis.

If you dont want to drive, New York has to be one of the easiest cities to get around. The subway system is great, public transport is cheap, the streets are laid out in a logical grid and there are taxis everywhere.

The F train

It’s also flat and networked with bike paths, so riding a bike is a popular mode of transport.

We stopped to listen to this band in Penn Station. They were great, so I bought two of their CD’s. When we got back to our apartment I discovered one of the CD’s was made in 1998 – back when the guy playing guitar was just a little kid! Just shows, you shouldn’t get caught up in the excitement of the moment when you are visiting New York.

The cavernous, air conditioned Staten Island Ferry Terminal, providing free public transport to the people of New York. A pleasant contrast to the money making business the remains of  Australia’s  Public Government transport system has become.


Statue of Liberty and Helicopter


New York from the Staten Island Ferry


Brooklyn Bridge


Wall Street