© Lalla Porter. All rights reserved.
Weekends at the Art Shanty Projects on Minnesota's Medicine Lake are when all the action takes place. I enjoyed wandering around in the quiet of a Friday afternoon with two of my children. We made the town our own.
After the experience, I can wax poetic. The truth is I went while the temperature was a balmy global-warming 35F (2C), to see if it was worth exposing myself to the weekend windchill so that all of my kids could check out the little village on the ice.
THIS IS MY MENTAL IMAGE OF THE WEEKEND WEATHER
Photo © Glenn Gooch All rights reserved. Published with permission. Taken on a trip to NWT Canada, Glenn's excellent photo set titled North of Yellowknife gives another take on ice houses.
Imagine: My Visit to Cape Cod
© Lalla Porter. All rights reserved.
Pick the row up, transform these cozy cottages into canvas tents, and plop them in Canada's Arctic Circle. Click on Glenns' link to see if your mental image coincides with his reality.
>Is this descendent of Arctic Circle Sami's really complaining about the cold on Medicine Lake? Yes.
The visit is worth the drive, but I will wait and suffer the crowds when the Walker Art Center runs shuttle buses of families out next weekend, or better yet, wait for February 10th, when local art cars are promised to be on the ice and let's for hope warmer temps. Yesterday's numbing wind is gone, but it's 0F (-18C) out there. Brr!
AT LEAST I DON'T DRIVE THE KIDS TO SCHOOL IN THIS FROZEN CAR
Photo © Jeff Harkness All rights reserved. Published with permission.
If the the concept of driving on ice worries you, Art Cars on Ice will only make you elated to be on terra firma. Surreal images of strange cars and even stranger objects on snowless ice in the rain sends my imagination off in about five tangents.
The owls on the roof of OurBurr Shanty are made with bark. I've seen the name of this shanty spelled two waya OurBurr and OurBrr. Rather than braving the aforementioned cold and knock on their door, I rely on the fact checking of Judy Arginteanu. If your curiosity about ice shanties is fired up, read her article, then dig out your warmest clothes and head to the beach.
© Lalla Porter. All rights reserved.
