Tri-Town Notes

Community news from Freeport, Pownal and Durham, compiled by Kathleen Meade

Exhibit provides color ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’

A colorful new collection of acrylics on canvas, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” is Pownal artist Wren Pearson’s latest attempt to survive the long Maine winter by injecting it with color and contemplation. Her works will be hung in the Freeport Community Library Main Reading Room Jan. 6-31.

“My first winter back in Maine after living in Texas I was numbed by the shades of white and gray that played out across the fields surrounding our home. I found myself looking keenly at the red berries on the viburnum and waiting with anticipation for the daily visits of the scarlet cardinals to our bird feeders. Color was going to be the key to not going absolutely mad. In a sleeping landscape, even the smallest bit of color is a powerful reminder that life continues and you can, too.”

A self-taught artist from a family of painters and poets, Pearson combines the simplicity of traditional folk art with the borderless reaches of outsider art to create whimsical and contemplative pieces.

Mountaineering lessons learned to be topic of talk

A talk titled “Trouble in the Presidentials: What a Mountaineering Accident Can Teach Us,” will be presented in the L.L.Bean Flagship Store Camping Department Atrium at 7 p.m. Jan. 13.

Although strikingly beautiful, Mount Washington and the surrounding Presidential Range is also world-renowned for the challenging terrain it provides for alpinists. As such it has been the scene of hundreds of mountaineering accidents over the years. Ty Gagne will provide an in-depth analysis of a recent tragedy on the range and discuss lessons learned above the tree line, extending them into everyday life.

Freeport Woman’s Club to host Maine wildlife game keeper

Howie Powell, superintendent and game keeper at the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, will speak to the Freeport Woman’s Club at Freeport Community Library at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20. Powell is a wildlife biologist educated at Eastern Illinois University, Unity College and the University of Illinois. The public is invited and refreshments will be served.

Powell will share the park’s history, a description of the resident species and his role in creating and maintaining habitats for the animals who live there.

The Freeport Woman’s Club meets once a month at the Freeport Community Library for a business meeting and program that is open to the public. New members are welcome; contact Betty Duckworth, 847-0240 or elizhard32@aol.com.

Singers invited to join Community Chorus

The Greater Freeport Community Chorus, directed by Virgil Bozeman, will begin rehearsals for its spring concerts Sunday, Jan. 15, at the Freeport Performing Arts Center at Freeport High School, 30 Holbrook St.

Registration will run from 6-6:30 p.m., with rehearsal to follow. Rehearsals are held on Sundays from 6:30-9 p.m. at FPAC. Spring concerts this year are scheduled for May 6 and 7.

GFCC is a mixed-voice group of adults who come from about 20 Mid-Coast towns. No audition or previous experience with choral singing is required. All singers are welcome, but the chorus is especially in need of tenors and basses.

Membership dues are $70. New singers are welcome to attend up to three rehearsals before deciding whether to join.

For more information call 666-8817, visit www.gfccsings.org or find the chorus on Facebook.

New tunnel at Wolfe’s Neck Farm

Wolfe Neck farmers and apprentices hustled before the snowfall to push a new mobile high tunnel into place. This is one big way they are extending the growing season and contributing to local food pantries. During the winter months, garden- fresh food is appreciated. There has been harvesting going on already.

The project was largely supported by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s Healthy Food Fund.

RSU 5 Special Election

A special election to vote on a bond of approximately $1.5 million for a turf field and track at Freeport High School will held Tuesday, Jan. 10, when the polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Durham Community School, 654 Hallowell Road; Freeport Town Hall, 30 Main St.; and Mallett Hall, 429 Hallowell Road, Pownal.

Send Freeport, Pownal and Durham community notes to tritownnotes@gmail.com Kathleen Meade.

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