Fern Forest Peace Park

Todd drove up from Massachusetts to meet Abbey’s bus coming from Montreal. She was taking a hiatus from her third year of law school at McGill to spend two nights with Todd at Fern Forest Treehouse. I was looking forward to meeting them and learning what these two energetic young people are up to.


But that didn’t happen. At least not right off.


Abbey takes her studying seriously. She brought snacks. And books. She was staring final exams in the face and was prepared to study the night away, high up in the maples. Todd is founder, executive director and lead guide of International Peace Park Expeditions, a peace-building operation for college kids designed to “nurture the next generation of leaders for a more peaceful global community,” according to his website. He had preparations to make for the upcoming 16-day expedition at a peace park in the Balkins. He would work into the night next to Abbey.


We’d have to wait until morning to get acquainted with these assiduous guests.


Over eggs (no meat for these food and environment conscious folks), we found that the focus of Todd’s program is on developing programs in outdoor experiential education, similar to a NOLS course, and practical skill training in peace building and conflict resolution, aimed at conflict-plagued youth. Participants can earn college credit for their work, which combines traditional academic learning and outdoor experience. Todd is launching the effort at peace parks in Costa Rica, Panama, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro, as well as the Balkans


Abbey is focusing on women’s issues in the law and plans to take the bar in Massachusetts, where Todd is headquartered. I’m awed by the energy and commitment of these two.


On Saturday they took a break and did a little shopping in downtown Bristol. There’s not much to see there, but they don’t demand much. I think they were happy just hanging out together. That evening I suggested they splurge and take in the chocolate buffet at Mary’s, an upscale restaurant at the Inn at Baldwin Creek. The owners, Doug and Linda, always create understated elegance and scrumptious meals featuring localvore. I don’t know where the chocolate comes from, but there was plenty of it. Todd raved about the brulee. The chocolate dipped strawberries endeared Abbey. Chocolate cake, cookies, brownies, and chocolate sauce to dip everything. They deserved it.


We barely heard them come back and didn’t hear them at all when they climbed into the hot tub and let the steam melt the snowflakes as they floated down through the pergola.


The bad news is that they had to leave the next day. The good news is that Todd has already booked two more treehouse nights for this summer. Abbey will be studying for the bar then, and Todd can tell us about his adventures in the Balkans.


In some of his PR, Todd wrote that Nelson Mandela called the International Peace Parks a “concept that can be embraced by all.” Yes. We all should embrace peace. Peace for women as well as for men. Peace for all countries on this stressed out earth. I’m glad Todd and Abbey both think it’s not too late.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sex and the Treehouse

Image
When Hana asked to book Fern Forest Treehouse for herself and three friends, H said there wasn’t room, the treehouse is only ninety square feet, he didn’t know how they’d sleep. “Oh, we’ll bring sleeping bags,” she wrote. “Don’t worry—we’ll fit in.” H is a pushover, especially for such youthful enthusiasm. And he thought it sounded like a good time. When the four gals pulled in from Boston around eleven Friday night, H was waiting up for them, the path to the treehouse lit by solar lamps, the treehouse itself all aglitter with colored lights. From upstairs, I heard excited giggles as he showed them around, more giggles as they climbed into the spa under a sky studded with a million stars. As happens in water at 102 degrees, the giggles calmed to whispers, and eventually all was quiet. The sun rose clear Saturday morning, warming the treehouse so that the girls were up a little after 7:00 a.m. We were still in bed when I heard water running in the downstairs bathroom, and H and
Read more

A Treehouse guest discovers his roots in an old millstone

Image
In spring 1794, a group of men set their shoulders to clearing land in what is now Lincoln, Vermont. The footpath they blazed into the forest eventually became a road named for the Quakers who came to settle with ox carts holding all their belongings. They were young, strong, and healthy. Once they pried rocks from the fields, they found the soil rich enough to support their crops. A year later, nearly one hundred residents, mostly from New York and Connecticut, scattered over 24,000 acres of wilderness, most living in tiny one-room cabins made from logs they hewed by hand from trees they had cut on their property. They cooked meals in stick-and-mud fireplaces, spun wool from their sheep, wove fabrics to make their own clothing, and cobbled shoes for their families. They hunted game in the forests and guarded their livestock from wolves that prowled the land. When the crops failed and game was sparse, they went hungry. Quaker services were held in homes until they built a m
Read more

Octopus Fishing in Portugal

Image
Ann was studying in Spain for a semester, living with a Spanish family. When the university had a break, Portugal called. It’s an old country, remains of the first settlements dating back to the Neolithic period, five thousand years before Christ. The Visigoths invaded in the sixth century. In 1986, the hills were covered in wildflowers, and horses grazed in fields crimsoned with red geraniums. On the southern coast of Portugal, the area of Algarve is dotted with small fishing villages. Santa Luzia, Tavira, Lisboa, Faro, Cape Sagres, Salema. From the gold dust beaches, one can look across the sea to the shores of Morocco. Bathers swim topless—young women, old women, bathing tops cast aside, breasts bared to the sun. Ann felt strange covering herself. She was just nineteen and modest, but she wanted to fit in, to be accepted, even among these strangers on the beach. She’d worn a one-piece tank suit but slipped the straps off her shoulders, rolled down the suit’s upper half, lay
Read more