Come, for all things are ready...
The mail has arrived and with it a small package of great value: Author Norb Blei's book, MEDITATIONS ON A SMALL LAKE
Norb enclosed a cassette of some of his poetry-reading that includes our favorite chapter from his Winter Book about a solitary Christmas Eve he spent in his beloved Door County WI. What a pleasant surprise to sit listening to that this morning, drinking our first cup of coffee, well-behind the draft catcher. As he drives around his territory on a quiet Christmas Eve, Norb describes so well, and poetically, the northern land, the illustrious peninsula - the thumb of Wisconsin - ........ well, tears came to our 'haven't seen it in too long' eyes.
Admittedly, we find tears come more frequently to old eyes, but here, not without good reason.
So, we've battened down the hatches and now settle back for a cozy winter reading of our new book., semi-draft-free. Norb Blei runs his diminutive but solely-owned CROSS + ROADS PRESS near Ellison Bay and works from a heated chicken coop alongside his old farmhouse, in 'secret', away from the madding crowd on Hys. 42 and 57. He is also something of a local curmudgeon and habitual counter-bum at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay. His resume is truly impressive, counter-bum notwithstanding. Look up Norb Blei on the web. See Chicken Coop News, for example.
A year-round Door resident since 1969, Norb has been known to decry the too-rapid commercialization of Wisconsin's natural wonderland. He's proposed a closing of the Sturgeon Bay bridge and a toll over the old bridge, for ex.
Blei's press published ferryman Dick Purinton's WORDS ON WATER last year. It is in its second printing, a journal of a year in Purinton's long career as a deckhand, captain and eventual president of the ferry line.
For more, search 'Dick Purinton' and 'Norb Blei' on our SRN search window at top left..
And Purinton's website: http://ferrycabinnews.blogspot.com/ Visit Washington Island and Death's Door from your armchair. A great read!
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For books:
Norb Blei, Box 33, Ellison Bay WI 54210
Read on!
