The Trowbridge Chronicles

MOTHER TROWBRIDGE PASSES.

2012-01-17T20:25:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Trowbridge loved her mother very dearly. She never completely recovered from the grief of losing her mother. It was Mother Trowbridge who taught her the art of calligraphy, as well as drawing and painting. We are indebted to Mother T. for the journal that her daughter, Violet, left for us to enjoy. It has given us a fascinating record of what life was like over 200 years ago in the Quinault Rain Forest.

Below is Mrs. T's sepia tone value study for her painting of her mother's grave site. The next post will be her full color painting. Check back soon for that.

Take an extra moment and check out my new blog and meet Skagway, a larger-than-life toad who stars in blockbuster movies from yesterday and today. You'll see the first Skagway movie poster where Skagway reprises Mel Gibson's role in Road Warrior in a new film called Toad Warrior.

Coming up next on Bron Smith's Almost Amazing Blog: a send up of Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Skagway does his own unique rendition of Clint Eastwood in the role of Blondie. I'm still working on the movie poster, but I will be posting it soon.

BAGGING SOME ANTS

2011-12-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

Though I'm separated from Mrs. Trowbridge's forest world by over 200 years, sometimes I almost feel like I know her. She seems like a long lost aunt that I knew when I was a child. When a tiny shrew darts through the tall grass near my berry patch, she flashes though my mind for a brief moment. Is this little shrew that lives in my berry bush one of Mrs. T's descendants?

Then I snap back into reality. I'm content to know her through the record she left for us in her tiny illustrated diary. What if I hadn't broken off the North Fork Quinault River trail and hiked upstream on Wild Rose Creek eight years ago? I would have never found that little gold box on that mossy ledge beside the stream that contained her precious diary. What if...

See my new Toad Warrior movie poster at http://bronsmithart.blogspot.com/

MOONLIT COTTAGE PAINTING

2011-11-20T18:29:00.001-08:00

You may recall that I posted Mrs. Trowbridge's sketch of her neighbor, Mrs. Maberry's cottage for the last Trowbridge episode. In this, the 125th episode of Trowbridge Chronicles, I decided to show you her painting of the cottage. She always did value studies of her subjects prior to the painting, which is what you saw in the last episode.

This was one of her "night paintings". In order to get the strong light and dark contrasts in her paintings, she would work outdoors at night, working by candle light.

MOONLIT COTTAGE CHARCOAL DRAWING

2011-10-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Fueled by inspiration from her majestic natural surroundings, Mrs. Trowbridge created an impressive body of work in her brief shrew lifetime. Most of what I have posted have been her wonderful watercolor paintings, but she also created a large body of sketches, such as what you see below. Perhaps on my next post I will show you the painting that resulted from this value study.

GATHERING STORM

2011-09-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

During the summer of 2009 when my son and I hiked into the Quinault Rain Forest to explore the Huckleberry Hollow area where Mrs. Trowbridge once lived, we witnessed firsthand the destruction that severe winter storms can bring to a rain forest. The storm had struck the area the previous winter, bringing with it savage hurricane force tornado-like winds. Thousands of old growth trees in the rain forest were blown down. It appeared that much of the area had been logged off.

Mrs. Trowbridge knew well the force of winter storms, for she spent her entire life in the Quinault Rain Forest, on Wild Rose Creek. This page in her journal speaks of the first winter storm to hit the area one winter long ago.

PORTRAIT OF LADY MARSHWILLOW

2011-09-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have hiked into the Wild Rose Creek region of the Olympic Rain Forest a number of times over the years. This is a lush, mysterious area of the rain forest where Violet Trowbridge once lived. She kept a beautifully illustrated diary of everyday life among the small creatures in the rain forest village of Huckleberry Hollow. I happened upon this diary about eight years ago while hiking cross country up Wild Rose Creek. The diary was contained in a tiny, ornate gold box that I found on a mossy ledge alongside the creek. The precious box may have been unearthed after two centuries by a gopher. When I opened the box that night in my studio, I was amazed to find a little book inside with the title The Trowbridge Chronicles inscribed on the cover. The book was yellow-brownish in color, the cover appearing to have been fashioned from toad skin.

On my last trip into Wild Rose Creek I was caught by a forest ranger and scolded for hiking into an off-limits area. Wild Rose Creek had been closed off, due to severe storm damage. In my enthusiasm to visit Mrs. Trowbridge's realm I ignored the tape barrier. I was fortunate to not be given a citation by the ranger. This is my photo journal entry of that trip: http://trowbridgechronicles.blogspot.com/2008/07/return-to-huckleberry-hollow.html

For those of you who would like to pinpoint this destination on the map, Wild Rose Creek is located in the Quinault Rain Forest in Olympic National Park in Washington State. The creek plunges northeastward down the mountain, emptying into the North Fork of the Quinault River. The village appears to have been located about one quarter mile upstream from where
Wild Rose Creek joins the Quinault River. The river winds in a south-westerly direction, emptying into Lake Quinault, then it flows westward from Lake Quinault into the nearby Pacific Ocean. If you have been reading Mrs. Trowbridge's journal for some time you may recall some of her journal entries relating to their summer treks to the sea. Here is one of them that I remember well: http://trowbridgechronicles.blogspot.com/2006/01/to-sea.html

There are now 122 episodes of the Trowbridge Chronicles. Feel free to peruse through past episodes in the archives at your leisure.

RAIN FOREST REMEDIES

2011-07-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

Like the Native Americans who have occupied the rain forest for thousands of years, the small creatures used the native plants for a wide variety of medicinal purposes. They used both annual and perennial wildflowers to fill their medicine chest. Most plants were dried in the summer sun, then ground into a fine powder. Others were dried and used as herbal teas.

The oxalis that Mrs. Trowbridge painted above is one of the most common of the forest plant foods. I've actually eaten it many times. It has a mild peppery taste. The small creatures used it as a staple for their salads.

BUTTERCUP MEADOW

2011-06-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Trowbridge loved spending summer days painting in the high meadows. The Olympic Mountains loom in the background. The area that she painted is the high country, near the headwaters of Wild Rose Creek, above the vast Quinault Rain Forest.

You'll notice that the trees look dwarfed and stubby in Mrs. T's painting. In the subalpine zone the trees are dwarfed from lack of oxygen. As you gain altitude, and climb above the tree line you enter the Arctic Alpine zone. At this altitude there are no trees, just rocky terrain and snow fields.

This is one of the most spectacularly beautiful areas in the Olympic Mountains, the high meadowlands between Cameron Pass and Lost Pass. This was perhaps my all-time favorite day in the Olympics. Both of the mountain zones are represented here, the Subalpine zone in the foreground, showing the stunted trees, and the Arctic Alpine zone in the distance, showing the rugged snowy peaks.

MOONLIGHT MUSIC FESTIVAL

2011-04-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

During the longer warm summer nights, one of Mrs. Trowbridge's favorite pastimes was to journey with her family to a nearby village to attend their annual Moonlight Music Festival. Under the full moon, they would swing to the music of tuxedoed grasshopper fiddlers, bow-tied snail crooners, or everyone's favorite: the Ladybug Duet. I'll bet those ladybugs would put the Chipmunks to shame. Sing it, ladies!

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

2011-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Trowbridge's miniature toy world in the Quinault Rain Forest was lovely indeed. But it was also fraught with risk. There were hungry hawks circling above the forest canopy in search of their next meal. And there were the forest trails which were sometimes steep and slippery, especially at the bridges. Many loads...and some lives...were lost during bridge crossings.

THE HONEY SNAG

2011-02-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch that Mrs. Trowbridge drew that never turned into a painting. She did very refined sketches, preferring to have everything nailed down before she began applying paint. This is a portion of the trail that leads from Huckleberry Hollow to the Quinault River Valley below. All of the small creatures used this trail to get to and from the river valley to the high meadows. It passed right through Huckleberry Hollow.

One thing notable about this section of trail is that the hollow snag just behind the big tree in the foreground was inhabited by a swarm of bees. It became the primary source of honey for the small creatures around Huckleberry Hollow.

MRS. T and the DRAGON

2011-02-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Some have asked how the Trowbridge shrews passed their time during the long cold winters in the rain forest. Mrs. Trowbridge would be quick to point out that the winters were as busy as the summers, with numerous wintertime tasks to keep them occupied.

This is the time that Mrs. T reserved for darning and mending well-worn items of clothing for her family...a sweater or socks for the children, an overcoat for Woodrow. She used thistledown, spun into thread, for all her sewing and mending tasks. A scarf made with thistledown was soft, warm and cozy.

Today's page is among my favorites from Mrs. T's easel. In this painting she records her first encounter with a dragon while on a trip to the high meadows with family and friends.

WINTER CELEBRATION

2010-12-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

The residents of Huckleberry Hollow had their own winter celebrations, just as we do. Their custom of hanging a wreath on their front door is similar to ours in the Western world. They often used fir or cedar branches, weaving dried bright red serviceberries (Amelancheir alnifolia) into the evergreen boughs. The tips of the boughs hanging from the top of Mrs. Trowbridge's painting are coast Douglas-fir needles (Pseudotshuga menziesii). They are commonly found in the Olympic Rain Forest.

It is my hope that you are having a blessed holiday season with your family and friends.

HOLIDAY MEMORIES WITH FERN

2010-12-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Trowbridge met her friend, Fern, one day when Fern was passing by on the path to the village. Mrs. T was at her mailbox, retrieving her morning mail. Fern had just moved to Huckleberry Hollow from a village in the North Woods. They chatted at the mailbox and soon became fast friends.

Fern cherished her portrait. Mrs. T wrote in one of her journal entries that Fern proudly hung her portrait over the hearth in her parlor. It would undoubtedly have become a family heirloom.

There's nothing like friends and family to enrich our lives, especially at Christmas time.

WINTER IS HERE!

2010-11-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

Winters were challenging for the small creatures of Huckleberry Hollow. But afterwards, there was always the spring and summer months to enjoy. In one of Mrs. T's previous pages, from November 7 2006, she explains in greater detail the process of creating shafts in the snow in order to vent the smoke to the surface. Here is that episode, from my birthday in 2006. Today is my birthday in 2010. Wow...four years ago. Where has the time gone?

ANCIENT FOREST WISDOM

2010-09-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Trowbridge was very fond of her brother, Thaddeus. He was a skilled wood craftsman, using only time-honored, old-fashioned methods in all of his woodworking tasks. It was Thaddeus, you may recall, who provided his roomy cottage in the village for family gatherings. As he grew older, he took a bad fall on his back porch and severely injured his shoulder. That unfortunate event dampened his enthusiasm for climbing ladders. From that point he began to seek out other less hazardous ways of using his skills, preferably indoors.

The Indian tribes that inhabited the rain forests for thousands of years, specifically the Makah and the Ozette people, used sphagnum moss for plugging holes and insulating their lodges. I found it not surprising that the small creatures of Huckleberry Hollow used the same ancient forest wisdom as did the Indians that lived nearby. Mrs. T's painting above shows how the Trowbridge shrews used sphagnum moss as a roofing material to keep their dwellings warm and dry through the winter months. I shot the above photograph just a few miles west of Huckleberry Hollow, near Irely Lake in the Quinault region. It is a of grouping of shelf fungus cloaked in a thick layer of sphagnum moss. An interesting footnote: We who live in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States are more than willing to pay someone like brother Thaddeus good money to keep moss off of our roofs.

FAMILY GATHERING

2010-08-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Most of the Trowbridge family reunions were held at Violet's brother's cottage in Huckleberry Hollow. His name was Thaddeus. She often spoke fondly of him in her writings. Thaddeus' nest went deep underground, allowing plenty of room for fun and revelry, and making his nest ideal for large family gatherings.

The flowers in the window box of Mrs. Trowbridge's painting (above) are the Western Bog-laurel (Kalmia microphylla). The yellow flower in the clay pot is the Shrubby Cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa), a member of the rose family. Finally, the Nootka Rose (Rosa Nutkana), pictured above. We've encountered this lovely flower often in open areas of the forest on our way to the high meadows.

The hips or seed pods of the Nootka Rose are edible but a little bitter. They are said to be delicious after being frozen and thawed, which seems to destroy most of the bitterness. Many of you may have enjoyed rose hip tea. Mrs. T was immovable in her fondness for rose hip tea...it was her favorite drink on cold winter mornings.

PLACES OF REFUGE

2010-08-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Trowbridge had a special love for the lush rain forest world that surrounded her, near the village of Huckleberry Hollow where she lived so long ago. She loved drawing and painting her tiny world, and writing about her busy life in Huckleberry Hollow. On warm summer afternoons she would watch the wind blow through the high meadows, causing the wild flowers to sway to a breezy rhythm. On clear summer nights she loved staring up into the black night sky, star gazing with her family.

She also loved sunrises and sunsets. She painted the above sunrise scene while sitting in a steep mountainside meadow. This scene reminds me of our long trek down the steep mountain meadow from Grand Pass to Cameron Creek on our cross-Olympic mountain trek.

I noticed that Mrs. T included in her painting the familiar flower that we have seen so many times in the alpine meadows, the bistort. These little white puffs dot the high meadowlands by the thousands. Those who know the plant know its nickname: the "dirty sock", because its pungent order resembles a ripe gym sock.

BROOKSIDE TEA SHOP

2010-07-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

Among my favorite of Mrs. Trowbridge's paintings were her moonlit night scenes. The lighting effects that she created were so soft and natural, unlike some of today's hyped-up fantasy illustrations that display more artificial lighting effects.

In her notations, Mrs. T mentioned that their favorite table is the one just under the chimney pipe. Any of the tea shop windows provide a commanding view of Wild Rose Creek as it cascades through the village of Huckleberry Hollow.

GIANTS OF THE RAIN FOREST

2010-07-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Many of Mrs. Trowbridge's journal entries and richly detailed paintings were done in the early morning hours, before breakfast, often down by the stream. Then she would follow the pathway that led from her cottage into the village of Huckleberry Hollow. There she would meet with her friends for tea at the tea shop and bakery owned by her husband, Woodrow.

Her elaborately detailed journal entries left us with a rich legacy of life as it was among the little creatures of the rain forest over 200 years ago. When I first viewed the painting above I was reminded of the similarity of the root dwellers to our modern day apartment and condo dwellers.

MORE SUMMER GAMES

2010-06-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

In this age of speed-of-light satellite communications, it's hard for us to imagine the simple life that the residents of Huckleberry Hollow lived. But they enjoyed their simple life immensely, as demonstrated by the children's summer fun and games.

I was struck by the paisley-design flag that the frog is holding. The teardrop paisley design originated in India and Persia, and is based on the mango fruit. But I have traced Trowbridge shrew culture to the Mongolian Steppes. It leads me to wonder if there was some cultural connection between the shrews of Mongolia and India, though they were separated by the Himalayan mountain range. Hmmm...perhaps another expedition is in order.

SPLASH!

2010-06-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Just up the trail, upstream from Huckleberry Hollow was a calm spot in Wild Rose Creek that served as the swimming hole for the shrew children. They would while away many summer days frolicking in the swimming hole.

If you look carefully at Mrs. Trowbridge's painting, you will see some orange flecks of color on the rocks. This is lichen (pronounced "liken"), a composite organism made up of fungus and green algae. Lichen that grows on rocks is called crustose lichen. I photographed the example above on the summit of Blue Mountain in the Olympic Mountain Range.

RAIN FOREST ENCOUNTER

2010-05-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Trowbridge was fearless in defense of her friends. And she had many friends throughout the forest community. The page above describes her chance encounter with an old school chum. Friends and close family ties are indeed a great blessing. I was reminded of that today as we sat on our back patio on this sunny Sunday afternoon visiting with our family, including two new daughters-in-law.

As a veteran rain forest trekker, I usually recognize the flowers that Mrs. T painted in her journal pages. White rhodedendron and pink mountain heather carpet the landscape as she passes over the crown of the hill on their way to the village of Huckleberry Hollow.

2010-04-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Many have asked how Mrs. Trowbridge's tiny journal pages found their way into a blog . Here's the short version.

It all began with a solo trek into the Quinault Rain Forest about eight years ago. I was hiking up Wild Rose Creek in search of one of the world's rarest flowers, the Albino Pipers Bellflower. Climbing over a fallen snag, I caught a sudden glint of light from the corner of my eye. The source of the flash was coming from the other side of the creek. My curiosity piqued, I crossed the creek, scrambled up a small scree slope until I reached the source of the light flash...a small gold box on a mossy ledge. I dropped it into my back pack and continued on with my quest for the Piper's Bellflower.

That night in my studio I examined the tiny box, and discovered a minuscule key protruding from the side of the box. The key was so small that a pair of tweezers were required to grasp the key. After a few failed attempts at turning the key, the lid of the box popped open.

What I saw inside the box took my breath away. It was a tiny book, with the words "The Trowbridge Chronciles" scribed in an exquisite Old English calligraphic style on the cover. The book was a brownish-green hue, appearing to be made from a delicate paper-thin hide, perhaps toad skin.

I was utterly amazed by the contents of the miniature book, which required a magnifying glass to read. I stayed up most of that night, transfixed by the beautifully hand-scribed text and tiny delicate watercolors. It was the personal journal of a Trowbridge shrew, named Violet Trowbridge. She lived in a village inhabited by small creatures on Wild Rose Creek, a tributary of the Quinault River.

It required considerable detective work to locate a lab that would carbon date the book. I found a facility at the University of Washington in Seattle and learned that the the journal is about 200 years old. That dates the book back to the time when Lewis and Clark were arriving at the western shores of the continent.

I put the book away in a drawer in my studio, where it remained for about three years. Then, one day I decided to share Mrs. Trowbridge's journal with the world, one page at a time, via a blog. The Trowbridge Chronicles debuted on January 1, 2006.

When I tell this story at my school visits the children are always amazed and spellbound. It pains me to disappoint them and reveal that it is only a made up story. But then I use it as an illustration of how they too can be creative and write similar stories themselves.

You might be interested to know that I did find, and photograph (above) the Albino Piper's Bellflower. This truly is one of the world's rarest flowers. There are only a few dozen plants known to exist, and only a select few wildflower enthusiasts like myself know its location. An endemic plant (found nowhere else on earth), it grows in crevices of boulders in the subalpine region of the Olympic Mountains.

THE GREAT HOLE

2010-03-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Trowbridge mentioned the great hole several times in her writings; the reason being that the husband of one of her dear friends was severely injured in a fall during an exploration of the hole. A rescue was attempted, but he expired.

Through the course of my numerous treks into Wild Rose Creek, I was never able to find the fabled hole that she wrote about. To my knowledge Mrs. T never entered the hole, so she must have created this painting from descriptions combined with her brilliant imagination.