Bradley’s Dr. Seuss Tree

Our neighbor Bradley always does things in a BIG way. His garden installations are on a grand scale (as in planting 3,000 daffodil bulbs every year!), his construction projects are imposing (as in his plan for not one but four garages), and even his parties are over the top (as in ten pounds of crab legs at a whack!).  I love that he is my neighbor. The energy/activity he brings to the village is a source of constant entertainment and wonder.

Friday he arrived with a truck load of ‘stuff’ including a fifteen-foot high potted tree wrapped carefully in burlap for the journey from Seattle. Tucker called it a “Dr. Seuss Tree” and that name, rather than the real one, stuck in my mind. I’ll probably always think of it that way.

Bradley had long ago chosen the exact location for the tree, and no doubt by this writing has it planted. It is to provide a bit of shelter for his new patio which is more-or-less between the southeast corner of his house and his new garage-in-progress. The patio, though only completed a few weeks ago, already has table and chairs and chairs invitingly at the ready.

Garage Going Up!

The garage is tucked (if that verb can possibly apply to a large three-car, pitched-roof structure) behind the house with doors opening to the west. As he explained to me, the middle bay will be the working area where groceries and so forth can be off-loaded and carried into the kitchen through the connecting breezeway. Two of his many classic cars will no doubt be parked in the adjacent bays.

I couldn’t help but wonder what Tommy and Irene Nelson would have thought about this new use of the space where, once-upon-a-time, their cannery buildings were located. Of course, they were on a much smaller scale – more like sheds than substantial out-buildings. But still, the space behind their house must have beckoned them in much the same way it entices Bradley.

Tommy Nelson’s Cannery 1940s

Different times, different uses, different sensibilities. Maybe this is what our neighbor Paul meant when he referred to the village as “the new Oysterville.” I’m not sure I see a clear line between ‘old’ and ‘new’ – just a continuing change of streetscape and skyscape. Always interesting and always thought-provoking…  and, in Oysterville, usually controversial!