Frank, a raccoon coat and the hummingbirds....

Add one more name to the list of interesting people and places that I have met and seen: Frank Turner.
Who is Frank Turner? Well, that IS the question, isn’t it? Frank is a retired postal worker who also put in many years working for Levitz Furniture. Originally from Stratford, Connecticut, he has lived in Foxton, Colorado, just down the road a piece from Conifer, where I have been staying, for many years. Frank’s house, which we visited recently, is a small appearing and modest wooden structure high up on a hillside on a road that I can only describe as one of the most beautiful pieces of asphalt ribbon that I have yet seen in my life. As the movie and book were titled, a river runs through it. The South Platte river winds along the side of the road, past, and even underneath some of the houses on it, as it does a house owned by Frank’s lady, the lovely Sandy, a woman whose age I will not divulge, except to say that if everyone of her years looked as good as she does, our later lives would not be as depressing as they seem to be nowadays. But, I digress.
The steep hillsides and their thick stands of trees and rocky cliffs on either side of the road hide many houses and structures. Truly a wondrous place. But back to Frank Turner.
Frank is a collector, in his own words. If you are wanting an elk skull, complete with full rack, Frank has one. If you are looking for an Eskimo shaman mask with wolverine claws and hair from a different critter, he has one of those as well. Stacked in a corner in his house is a pile of deer antlers that any hunter would drool over. Frank found them all while walking in the woods near his house. There is a display case with small ivory carved tchotskes, including a frog carrying a little person (I don’t have one of those. Do you??) An ottoman made from deer antlers and fur, a raccoon coat, a rubber alien, an M&M candy phone, artwork made from butterfly wings, a ram’s horn, huge rocks that look like someone took quartz crystals and dropped them ina mixing bowl with jello, Indian arrows and artifacts, a Yoda Pez dispenser, an Austrian nutcracker that looks like a butler carrying a tray…it was all too much for me to process, but Frank has them all, and much much more.
What really fascinated me about Frank, the man, is his good nature. He is a funny and interesting man with as many stories, which he loves to tell, as he has interesting things in his house. Oh, did I mention the deaf, blue eyed dog with three pupils in his eyes? Or the furniture set that looks like Adirondack furniture on steroids? Or the table made out of one solid piece of wood? Or the zillion Tweety bird collectibles?
Speaking of birds…the most fascinating thing about Frank’s house, and by extension , Frank, is the hummingbirds. With a half dozen or more feeders hanging outside near his patio, hummingbirds by the dozen buzz and flicker and float in midair while humans stand around talking. There is a sound almost like electrical impulses in the ozone, snapping though your brain…..zzzzzt zzzzzt, all around, and when you look up, the air is thick with them. Frank says that if you stand around long enough and put your hand near the feeders they will land on your finger. I wasn’t that fortunate, but as I stood next to a feeder, they were landing on it and drinking, not afraid of me or my camera. All around the sound of other ones buzzing by my head was nonstop. Words to adequately describe the experience escape me, but it was magical.
Frank told me that one year he went through 90 pounds of sugar feeding them. He doesnt bother with red food coloring. Just water and sugar in a clear mixture. The hummingbirds actually will linger outside his kitchen window while he is mixing the stuff up for them, little redthroated, hyperactive kids, waiting for candy.
So cool, so beautiful and so memorable. And another reason for me to return someday soon.
As I said, Frank Turner is a collector, and a very very unique and interesting guy. Im proud to know him. And his lovely Sandy. And his birds.