There are two articles about Russell in the ...

Dutch Flat Community Center 'Community' newsletter Fall 2008 issue aka Volume 21 - No. 3:

  "Russell Towle, A Passionate Life" on page 11 by Susan Prince.

  "Tribute to Russell Towle" on page 13 by Jim Ricker.


There is another article about Russell in the Protect American River Canyons (PARC) online newsletter 'The Confluence' Fall 2008 issue:

  "PASSIONATE NORTH FORK ENVIRONMENTALIST, WRITER, HISTORIAN RUSSELL TOWLE DIES" on the cover by Jim Ricker.

On page 7 is this:
  "Euchre Bar Trail to Southern Cross & Black Hawk Mines"
    Sunday, October 12
    Rugged, approximately 6 mile round trip hike in memory of Russell Towle led by Ron Gould.

Russell wrote about this making ?same? hike with Ron Gould on his NorthForkTrails.blogspot.com blog entry "Down and Up and Down and Up".

A panorama ...

made from eleven pictures taken from "the cliffs" near the cabins:


Full image is 13,699 x 2,775 pixels and 54.1MB.

A view into Green Valley from ...

the cliffs near the cabins:

I updated the "Books by Russell" posting with ...

a picture of the cover of "The Dutch Flat Diary of Isaac Tibbetts Coffin".

This particular blog post can be seen here: "Books by Russell".

I am certain that this list of books is incomplete and I am still in search of the cover from "The Seven Ages of Dutch Flat". Please leave a comment with any additions or corrections.

Four pictures of a small table ...

crafted by Russell for Carol from old barn wood salvaged from near Año Nuevo and Manzanita.

Russell and Janet during an early ...

guitar jam session.

Sadly for us, Janet plays the guitar in the same 'style' today.

Photo almost certainly by Gay Wiseman, used without permission.
Scan courtesy of Carol Towle.

An early Polar Zonohedra ...

whatchamacallit.

Dot-matrix outlines, hand colored. The colors have been faded a bit by the sun.

Scan courtesy of Carol Towle.

My favorite portrait of Russ

I took this photo shortly after Janet was born, probably Spring of 1990.
~Gay

Russell playing guitar

Russ loved the music of Brazilian artists Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. When he was home he sometimes spent hours a day playing music, both guitar and piano—and in recent years it was often a version of a piece by one or both of these two men. Using the Macintosh software GarageBand, he would make multi-track recordings of his favorite pieces, playing all the parts himself. In the photo below, he's playing for friend, Rick Creelman, who shared a love for this poignant music.

Listen to Russell playing A Felicidade.



Russ learned Portuguese so that he could understand and sing these songs in their original language. For those of us who don't know Portuguese, here is an English version of the lyrics of:

A Felicidade

Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes

Sadness has no end,
Happiness does.
Happiness is like a feather
That the wind carries
through the air;
It flies so lightly
But has a brief life,
It needs to have a wind that never stops.
The happiness of a poor man
is like
The great illusion of Carnaval;
People work the whole
year long
For one moment's dream,
To play the part of
A king or a pirate or a gardener,
And everything ends on
[Ash] Wednesday.
Happiness is like a drop
Of dew on a flower's petal,
It shines peacefully then swings lightly
And falls like a tear of love.
My happiness is
dreaming
In the eyes of my girlfriend,
It is like a night that
passes by
In search of the dawn.
Speak quietly please,
So she wakes as happy as the day,
Offering kisses of love.
Happiness is a crazy thing
And so delicate, too;
It has flowers and love of all colors,
It has bird nests,
It has everything nice.
Because it's like this, so
delicate
I always treat it
very well.

Russell Summer 1981

Russ came to Anderson Springs (Lake County) to put the finishing touches on our deck... this was the only time he came to our house... he hated the drive! The deck benches were spectacular, and I remember he had to calculate the corner cuts very precisely, as they had multiple angles to match.