The Boston Tree

Photo of Boston Tree Snacherooed from those guys stamped on the Picture... -B
So The Boston Christmas Tree is on it's way. I took a ride over on Saturday because I had conflicting newspaper reports as to when this was going to happen and, well, you know my track record with dates on this project.
Sure enough they had changed the sign and bumped the tree cutting up a day. Good thing I was reading the paper at the physio office while I was getting my electro shock therapy. So I drove the Portland over in the back of the truck to Hubbards which is outside of Fox Point, where the tree is coming from.
So I go early I had remembered from talking to Floyd and Elaine Shatford, that things were going to start about 9:30 am. with the tree coming down at 10:30 am. I like to be early. I unload the Portland and coast down to the Trellis Cafe in Hubbards and grab a coffee. If ever in Hubbards you have to take in the Trellis Cafe. It is officially part of the 50k Loop. Then off I go.
Now you have to remember It's November 16th. In Canada. Here is a pick of previous Boston Tree cuttings.

Notice that they look cold, and that the white on the ground is not a backdrop. I awoke to 12°c weather, dead calm and partially cloudy skies. A perfect day to drop a big tree.
So I was feeling so good with my shoulder feeling better now I got my coffee to go. I'm cruising on down through Hubbards with next to no traffic and the roads a bit damp with all the fog we had from the night before. It led to this sight of St. Margaret's Bay from Hubbard's Cove with what we like to call a soft morning.

It started me thinking about a lot of things. About my Grandmother (Nana) who survived that terrible explosion. And her son, my father. Who to make a long story short, during my junior racing days had divorced from my my mom and lived in a little cottage on the Fox Point Road. I had to ride by it and you'll have to excuse the photography into the sun, but just past the drive way to this now big house on the water, and the tree, is a small flat spot with a blue wooden double swing.
That's where my Dad's place used to sit. He's gone also.

So down the road I go having a great time and drinking my coffee. I get to the shoreline and the surf is coming in, big for a calm day, so the crab fisherman out offshore must be cursing.

So it's up this hill to the Boston Tree.

So I get to the top of the hill where the tree is scope it out and set up shop. Here I have to have my say on Halifax Explosion Survivors...
Nana was a survivor. She went through a lot to say the least. We as family really didn't know a lot about it because they didn't talk a lot about it They would say things like well, it was wartime. And we made the best of it. I learned this about them.
They were people that were glad to be alive. That lived life in the present. The survivors, most of them, lived to be old because of this lifestyle. They were very humble people. I think there are two left.
We as family have taken the same stance when it comes to the Halifax Explosion Remembrance or things like this. Others that don't really know have grabbed a hold and have run with it not really understanding or like the Town Cryer with a bell to ring but with no feeling as to why they are ringing it but just reading off a scroll.
We who do just sit back and watch. So...
I get there, pick my spot and there is the tree. Notice where I am, across the road and out of the way.

First to arrive, the boom truck.

Then the first of the many busloads of children from the local schools.

Next to be trotting across Floyd and Elaine's lawn is the Town Cryer. 1800's version of a Blogger.

Things were starting to warm up. I had a ringside seat. Or so I thought. I have to tell you folks from around the world. We here in Canada are going through some though times when it comes to the free market and television. Well, I'm not personally, but the talking heads, and preened and plucked are.
It so happens that when I turn on Global TV, I always come across a commercial telling me just how important they are to me as a local, and to make my voice heard. Or they are going to be wiped out.
So I'm leaning on the Portland on the piece of ground I've had staked out before anyone when I almost get my feet run over by who I'm now going to call Ms. Global.

She's the camera woman/girl/? for Global. Not only did she near mow me down off my squatted spot ruining my view, but rounds the vehicle, whips the back up, takes a look through me. Then walks across the road in front of a truck who is going slow enough to stop for her.
It's great being an observer...
By now traffic has picked up. They had told me there was going to be traffic control and of coarse it would be Canada's finest... The RCMP. They have pulled out all the stops.
The first guy gets in there and scopes out the scene, then deployed the others and they get the traffic under control in no time flat. But then, Holy SheepShit. They start to surprise me...
First they come out with a Mascot to entertain the schoolchildren which are arriving by the busloads.

Now this is where I may have gotten myself in a little bit of trouble with the law. The only way I was absolutely sure as to which one was the mascot as that I had met the other mountie , due to a theft on the property before. Come on... give me a break look at this... she's a pretty big woman. Plus the mascot was in it's Red Surge.

Then I had a problem identifying the exact nature as to the species of the creature the mascot was...

Now I'm in trouble. Why? because I wasn't far off traffic control left. Which would be the Mountie to the left of me. So I say...
Here is where you have to think like a Canadian. If it's brown, and it's Canadian and it's sort of waddling around, then you think, Beaver...
I was thrown off between it and it's helper. Not only that, I'm not sure if it's a Beaver or a Groundhog/Gopher. So I'm thinking family genus, when I make my mistake and say to the Mountie to the left...
What kind of Rodent is your mascot supposed to be? Reply. That would be our friend... Safety Bear... Yikes.
Now I've been a Canuck all my life. I certainly know the difference between a rodent and a bear. But not today.
Change feet.
Then they bring out the Boy in Scarlet...

Of course it being Nova Scotia, Mountie on the left gives me the heads up because what else would you drag through this show but a load of lobster traps.

First they had to get all the school kids around and get a guy I've been interviewed by before, Bruce Nunn, that somehow has written a kid's book about this... see what I mean...

You have to give it to him. He's being creative while trying to put supper on the table. He told the story to the kids while we waited.. The kids loved it. God bless the children.
Now to the tree... This could get long.
They moved everyone back after the politico's stopped blabbing...
...and brought the boom truck in, hooked up and cinched up tight, because the big thing is to not damage the tree...

Then the instructor of forestry at the Lunenburg campus Of the Nova Scotia Community College went to cutting...

Photo of Boston Tree Snacherooed from those guys stamped on the Picture... -B
So The Boston Christmas Tree is on it's way. I took a ride over on Saturday because I had conflicting newspaper reports as to when this was going to happen and, well, you know my track record with dates on this project.
Sure enough they had changed the sign and bumped the tree cutting up a day. Good thing I was reading the paper at the physio office while I was getting my electro shock therapy. So I drove the Portland over in the back of the truck to Hubbards which is outside of Fox Point, where the tree is coming from.
So I go early I had remembered from talking to Floyd and Elaine Shatford, that things were going to start about 9:30 am. with the tree coming down at 10:30 am. I like to be early. I unload the Portland and coast down to the Trellis Cafe in Hubbards and grab a coffee. If ever in Hubbards you have to take in the Trellis Cafe. It is officially part of the 50k Loop. Then off I go.
Now you have to remember It's November 16th. In Canada. Here is a pick of previous Boston Tree cuttings.

Notice that they look cold, and that the white on the ground is not a backdrop. I awoke to 12°c weather, dead calm and partially cloudy skies. A perfect day to drop a big tree.
So I was feeling so good with my shoulder feeling better now I got my coffee to go. I'm cruising on down through Hubbards with next to no traffic and the roads a bit damp with all the fog we had from the night before. It led to this sight of St. Margaret's Bay from Hubbard's Cove with what we like to call a soft morning.
It started me thinking about a lot of things. About my Grandmother (Nana) who survived that terrible explosion. And her son, my father. Who to make a long story short, during my junior racing days had divorced from my my mom and lived in a little cottage on the Fox Point Road. I had to ride by it and you'll have to excuse the photography into the sun, but just past the drive way to this now big house on the water, and the tree, is a small flat spot with a blue wooden double swing.
That's where my Dad's place used to sit. He's gone also.
So down the road I go having a great time and drinking my coffee. I get to the shoreline and the surf is coming in, big for a calm day, so the crab fisherman out offshore must be cursing.
So it's up this hill to the Boston Tree.
So I get to the top of the hill where the tree is scope it out and set up shop. Here I have to have my say on Halifax Explosion Survivors...
Nana was a survivor. She went through a lot to say the least. We as family really didn't know a lot about it because they didn't talk a lot about it They would say things like well, it was wartime. And we made the best of it. I learned this about them.
They were people that were glad to be alive. That lived life in the present. The survivors, most of them, lived to be old because of this lifestyle. They were very humble people. I think there are two left.
We as family have taken the same stance when it comes to the Halifax Explosion Remembrance or things like this. Others that don't really know have grabbed a hold and have run with it not really understanding or like the Town Cryer with a bell to ring but with no feeling as to why they are ringing it but just reading off a scroll.
We who do just sit back and watch. So...
I get there, pick my spot and there is the tree. Notice where I am, across the road and out of the way.
First to arrive, the boom truck.
Then the first of the many busloads of children from the local schools.
Next to be trotting across Floyd and Elaine's lawn is the Town Cryer. 1800's version of a Blogger.
Things were starting to warm up. I had a ringside seat. Or so I thought. I have to tell you folks from around the world. We here in Canada are going through some though times when it comes to the free market and television. Well, I'm not personally, but the talking heads, and preened and plucked are.
It so happens that when I turn on Global TV, I always come across a commercial telling me just how important they are to me as a local, and to make my voice heard. Or they are going to be wiped out.
So I'm leaning on the Portland on the piece of ground I've had staked out before anyone when I almost get my feet run over by who I'm now going to call Ms. Global.
She's the camera woman/girl/? for Global. Not only did she near mow me down off my squatted spot ruining my view, but rounds the vehicle, whips the back up, takes a look through me. Then walks across the road in front of a truck who is going slow enough to stop for her.
It's great being an observer...
By now traffic has picked up. They had told me there was going to be traffic control and of coarse it would be Canada's finest... The RCMP. They have pulled out all the stops.
The first guy gets in there and scopes out the scene, then deployed the others and they get the traffic under control in no time flat. But then, Holy SheepShit. They start to surprise me...
First they come out with a Mascot to entertain the schoolchildren which are arriving by the busloads.
Now this is where I may have gotten myself in a little bit of trouble with the law. The only way I was absolutely sure as to which one was the mascot as that I had met the other mountie , due to a theft on the property before. Come on... give me a break look at this... she's a pretty big woman. Plus the mascot was in it's Red Surge.
Then I had a problem identifying the exact nature as to the species of the creature the mascot was...
Now I'm in trouble. Why? because I wasn't far off traffic control left. Which would be the Mountie to the left of me. So I say...
Here is where you have to think like a Canadian. If it's brown, and it's Canadian and it's sort of waddling around, then you think, Beaver...
I was thrown off between it and it's helper. Not only that, I'm not sure if it's a Beaver or a Groundhog/Gopher. So I'm thinking family genus, when I make my mistake and say to the Mountie to the left...
What kind of Rodent is your mascot supposed to be? Reply. That would be our friend... Safety Bear... Yikes.
Now I've been a Canuck all my life. I certainly know the difference between a rodent and a bear. But not today.
Change feet.
Then they bring out the Boy in Scarlet...
Of course it being Nova Scotia, Mountie on the left gives me the heads up because what else would you drag through this show but a load of lobster traps.
First they had to get all the school kids around and get a guy I've been interviewed by before, Bruce Nunn, that somehow has written a kid's book about this... see what I mean...

You have to give it to him. He's being creative while trying to put supper on the table. He told the story to the kids while we waited.. The kids loved it. God bless the children.
Now to the tree... This could get long.
They moved everyone back after the politico's stopped blabbing...
...and brought the boom truck in, hooked up and cinched up tight, because the big thing is to not damage the tree...
Then the instructor of forestry at the Lunenburg campus Of the Nova Scotia Community College went to cutting...
After this I ran out of card on my camera. So I had to quickly delete some video to get a picture of the tree being laid down.
I didn't have time to stick around to take a pick of it going on the flatbed, but this is what it looked like last year. Same truck this year same tag.

So there you have it. The Boston Christmas Tree Report. Enjoy the tree Boston.
Merry Christmas Nana, I miss you.
-B

