{"id":18105,"date":"2017-08-17T11:40:30","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T15:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18105"},"modified":"2017-08-17T11:40:30","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T15:40:30","slug":"inside-aurora-stumped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-stumped\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Stumped"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d heard a lot about the 20 foot tall carving that had recently been completed in the Holland River valley in Town, and wanted to take a look.
\nI found it in an open area near the Leisure Complex. It was pretty impressive.
\nOriginally a 185 year old bur oak tree, much of it had been cut down due to rot, but the trunk was strong enough to keep standing.
\nAn artist had carved it into a sort of signpost, depicting on it various species of local plants and animals.
\nAs I was standing admiring the craftsmanship, a small figure approached. I quickly recognized it as Annie, the Town\u2019s weather prognosticating groundhog. I often ran into her in the area, but rarely outside of the period around February 2.
\nBefore I could offer a greeting, she went up to the tree and starting kicking it furiously with her little foot.
\n\u201cHey, hey,\u201d I exclaimed, rushing over and dragging her away from the tree. I lead her to a nearby bench.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019re you doing?\u201d
\nShe looked over at the object of her anger, as she rubbed her foot, and muttered, \u201cstupid tree.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with it,\u201d I asked. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful. Look at the detail.\u201d
\nShe stopped massaging her foot long enough to point at it. \u201cDetail, eh? What do you see on it?\u201d
\nLooking at the biodiversity depicted on it, I said, \u201cWell, there\u2019s an owl, and a fox, and a salamander, some bees, a woodpecker, a goose, some plants… um… I think that\u2019s a beaver….\u201d
\n\u201cYes, yes,\u201d she interrupted, \u201cbut what don\u2019t you see?\u201d
\n\u201cWell, I suppose it doesn\u2019t have any …\u201d
\n\u201cMe! That\u2019s what\u2019s missing,\u201d she exclaimed.
\n\u201cDo you know how long I\u2019ve lived in this valley?\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd how long have I been predicting the weather for this Town?\u201d
\nBefore I had a chance to reply, she answered her own question, \u201cForever, that\u2019s how long.\u201d
\n\u201cBut when it comes time to immortalize the local residents of this area, who gets the top spot? Fred, that\u2019s who.\u201d
\n\u201cFred?\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s him,\u201d she said, pointing to the heron with outstretched wings, perched on top. \u201cAnd he actually eats half the animals carved on the log.\u201d
\n\u201cAs for me, I\u2019m not on there anywhere.\u201d
\n\u201cHave you taken a good look? There\u2019re carvings all around. Maybe you\u2019re on the back.\u201d
\n\u201cOh, I\u2019ve looked, all right. They even have a butterfly,\u201d she continued her rant. \u201cThey\u2019re only around in the summer. I live here all year long,\u201d she exclaimed, waving a tiny hand at the surrounding area. \u201cWhat kind of gratitude is that?\u201d
\n\u201cMaybe there wasn\u2019t room to add all the local residents,\u201d I suggested.
\n\u201cThere was certainly space to include lots of leaves.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t personal. Maybe the artist hasn\u2019t finished, yet. There\u2019s some uncarved space on the bottom. They could find a space for you there.\u201d
\n\u201cOn the bottom?!\u201d she exclaimed, her face getting an alarming shade of red.
\nHastily continuing, I added, \u201cOr maybe they\u2019re planning a carving of just you.\u201d
\nShe sat in silence for a moment. As my suggestion sunk in, her breathing returned to a more normal rate, and she nodded her head. \u201cPerhaps.\u201d
\n\u201cSure,\u201d I said. \u201cThey\u2019re probably just waiting for the next tree to become available for carving.\u201d I threw my arms wide for emphasis; \u201cA bigger tree.\u201d
\n\u201cYes, that must be it,\u201d she agreed, calming considerably.
\nI sighed, feeling like I had momentarily averted some sort of local disaster, but now the pressure was on the Town.
\nI just hope they remember to include Annie in the next carving. <\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston I\u2019d heard a lot about the 20 foot tall carving that had recently been completed in the Holland River valley in Town, and wanted to take a look. I found it in an open area near the Leisure Complex. It was pretty impressive. Originally a 185 year old bur oak tree, much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4I1","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 13:50:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}