7/7/07

Saturday, 7/7/07


WHOA!! Julie’s DAY!! (Her favorite number is 7) And today I got the news that she has made a serious career move—training for catering manager at a deli/bakery! You go girl!!

Just wanted to tell you all about two wonderful days this week which involved Stonington, ME. If you look on a map of Maine and find Mt. Desert Island, look south and then west and you will see another big island, Deer Isle—which has a tiny town of Stonington at the very bottom of it—about 50 miles and an hour and half drive from Steuben.

My friend Agnes (the lady from NJ who built a house just down the road) came back up for the week. (Coincidentally, it was with Agnes that I spent last year’s 4th, in Bar Harbor ( that foggy evening of fireworks I told many of you about)—and that was the trip on which I saw my house and made arrangements with Agne’s real estate lady to proceed with purchase!)

We cast about for a 4th outing for this year and decided on Deer Isle/Stonington, as they were said to have good celebrations to see. We set off early Wed AM and gaped at the lovely scenery and OLD houses and villages—including the Village of Blue Hill, which is famous for MONEY and antiques and ART. After Blue Hill we came to Caterpillar Hill, where one can look out over the entire Penobscot Bay and archipelago in it. A breathtaking sight on a sunny, fresh morning. We could see Isle au Haut, a part of the national park clear at the southern end of the bay, beyond Stonington, and part of the bay between Mt. Desert and Deer Isle. Gorgeous. Probably the second best view after the view from Mt. Desert itself.

On down the hill we came to the body of water separating the Blue Hill peninsula from Little Deer Isle—the Eggemoggin ( Egg a moggin—hard g’s) Reach, (What a wonderful name!) down which were sailing not one, but two schooners—one three-masted, one two masted. The reach is crossed by a picturesque old bridge with a very high arch in it to permit boats to go under. Down the other side of the bridge is Little Dear Isle—just that—a little island---and then the highway crosses a long causeway to Deer Isle itself—and few miles on, the town of Deer Isle—founded mid 18th century on points of inlets—very picturesque sort of hilly little town. That was where the parade was. The crowd was already pretty thick, so we found a parking place in some high weeds, grabbed Lily and our folding chairs and headed down the street with hundreds of others. We were lucky to arrive just at the corner where the parade was to turn and where the stationary band was located in someone’s front yard, serenading us during the entire parade with great band music.

There we ran into friend and neighbor Ann and her children and parents –the parents live just over the Reach on the Blue Hill Peninsula. I knew Ann and family would be there, but had no idea we would see them!

We quickly found great seats on the grass surrounded by a large crowd of people and dogs!! As I was looking for a place to sit, a lady came rushing up to me and hesitated a bit and then announced she was delegated to be the one to ask me what kind of dog Lily was. Just as I was explaining, another in her party ran up and announced, “ We live in France and fly back and forth a lot and our dog has gotten too big to fit under the seat. Your dog is just the right size. What IS she?? “ ( THAT is the kind of crowd it was and the people who live on Deer Isle!!) (Interestingly, I had just taken my kitty to the vet the previous day and Lily was with me—the vet said right away there was terrier there, and a lady waiting pronounced that the terrier piece was Yorkshire—so now I need a new appellation for her—Pomershire?? Yorkiranian? Pomiyorkishire?? )

The parade was hilarious. It was peopled by participants from the whole island. Stonington, as the name implies, was –still is—famous for its granite quarries, so the highlight of the parade for us was the group called Quarryography—some “dancers” had large pieces of rectangular pink “ granite blocks” (of foam) on their heads and they would put themselves together in a solid block. Then the other “dancers” would pretend to “quarry” them by pounding pipes on real stones to sound like quarrying. Pretty soon the blocks would “break apart” and everyone would cheer loudly!! They were preceded by the lobster group—first a little child’s train of lobster cars made from oil cans with claws attached and tails made of parts of those soft tunnel things for kids, all painted bright red---the little train was pulled by a garden tractor.

Then a group of people dressed up as lobsters—and of course there were boats sprinkled through the parade in one form or another and other fishing themes. Agnes and I also liked the wonderfully glittery float on a flat bed that had the residents of the home for people needing assistance due to mental or physical impairments—they were happily waving away at the crowd.

The parade made its way up through town and then turned around and came back—we walked up behind it to the Congregational Church—one of those impossibly pretty white New England churches—where there was the “Clearwater Café” serving crab rolls and other goodies, raising money for efforts against domestic abuse. Of course we had to support that. (Agnes runs a literacy program in Ocean Co. NJ, and is deeply involved in all such community efforts.) On the way we toured the grounds of a house that is a gallery—the artist invited us to look around—it was really neat—he and his wife had put paths around the back of the house a little ways into their deep woods and then had placed sculptures along the paths—he makes things of a special kind of cream-colored concrete and found wood and other objects. He makes some impressionistic or abstract art and some more real—fish, men in boats--really neat stuff. Sorry I not more eloquent about describing art!

After a quick foray into a large antique shop in the parish house for another old church—the parish house had all walls covered with pressed tin—wonderful –we explored a bit around Deer Isle and saw many gorgeous houses and views. Then on to Stonington itself—at the foot of Deer Isle. A cuter, more Maine village and views would be hard to imagine. One person at the parade sort of dismissed Stonington as a “working village”—well, it is that and much more. It is perched on a huge, huge granite outcropping, so all over there are granite ledges sticking out into the harbors with little shanties perched on them; then there are HUGE lobster pounds arranged in the fingers of the ledges and little peninsulas that stick out from the bottom of the island. (lobster pounds for you non-east coasters are penned off inlets where lobsters are raised or held for marketing—pasture for lobsters, in other words). It turns out that experiments in lobster farming are happening there, plus clam farming and other activities. It also turns out that Stonington has recently re-dredged part of the harbor so large boats can come in and tie up-which they do—at the very large fish pier, which is where the rest of the festivities were located. That and all the other piers were like the ones at our island—about 15 feet off the water because of the huge tide, and with large floating docks at the end of ramps—except of course, the fish pier, which had deep water at the end and on one side.

Stonington is made up of dozens of adorable cottages and houses, some Victorian, mostly just Maine coastal cute, perched on that granite and looking out over harbor and islands and wharfs and anchored boats and views to DIE for—sort of Mediterranean in the way the houses climb the hillside overlooking the harbors and inlets. Nearly all of the houses appear to be summer-occupied and in splendid condition. It seems that the rich people “from away” have been coming there for generations—so there is a healthy variety of upscale gift shops, clothing stores, antique shops, bookstores, inns, restaurants etc. – all terribly, terribly tasteful and patronized by the terribly, terribly good looking rich and their offspring and dogs. It has none of the hustle and bustle and commercialism of Bar Harbor and ALL of the Maine charm and coastal culture one could want. Agnes and I are seriously in love with Stonington, and you, too, can have a two-level condo looking over the harbor for $395 K…….or a house big enough for an entire extended family for over a million—or a trailer on a half acre on the highway out of town for around 150K…

The afternoon/evening festivity was the Fish ‘N Fritter—a food event on Fish Pier to raise money for college scholarships for the local children. It started at 4—so we had a lot of time to while away—I walked with Lily—the beach was covered with moon jelly fish (Mir and Karen, remember the ones we saw and swam among on Culebra in PR??) --turns out there is a ‘bloom” of them all over the east coast—they are pretty and harmless. It was actually quite chilly (one man we had a conversation with at the lookout on Caterpillar Hill noted that summer was last Thursday…..!!!) Agnes was quite dismayed, thinking summer in Maine was going to be hot—HA!! I had a couple of sweaters and a jacket, knowing full well that seaside in Maine = chilly wind more often than not.

The people watching as preparations for the food proceeded was great—I told Agnes you could tell in a heartbeat who was “from away” and who was local. The local hot boys were the “insane clown posse “ (it said so on their shirts) with one with a full-blown purple Mohawk and the others in skater outfits and pierced parts. They spent the entire afternoon and evening parading up and down the pier with various females in tow.

Once the food got going, it was pretty crowded—the build-up reminded me of those videos you see where time is speeded up and at first there are two or three people, then 20, then 120—then masses of people! All the time we were waiting, the two schooners we had seen were plying the harbor near and far away, disappearing behind the little islands and then being framed picturesquely between islands, etc.

Food was clam fritters, fried fish (as in fish and chips, only they had regular white vinegar—no malt vinegar, sigh…) popcorn shrimp, onion rings, “doughboys”—large doughy fried things, different from fried dough, believe it or not--and various other things. Another stand had sausages and hot dogs—but most were thronging the Fish ‘N Fritter. Every time someone donated money to the fund over and above the cost of food, a large bell was rung—bells rang all afternoon and evening.

Lily was a big hit with everyone—reminded me of being in France with Petunia and Ogden—everyone wants to talk. One man from Britain who was asking about Lily’s mix told me that someone has developed a swab that one will be able to buy anywhere---swab the inside cheek of your dog, send it in and you will get results telling you exactly what mix your dog is!! Pretty neat—Karen, too late for Howie and for us and Tessie.

Finally it was so windy and chilly we retreated to the car—and ate and waited for fireworks—which were out over the harbor. It was late and we were cold and I had a LONG drive ahead, so I wasn’t overwhelmed by the fireworks,--but they were pretty good nonetheless—by the time we were home it was 15 hour day!

We had noticed that one building perched up the hill from the pier was the ‘Stonington Opera House”—on the Register of Historic Places—and found a flyer (Is that the right one??) saying they were doing a production of “Taming Of the Shrew”.

On Thursday, Agnes got a paper in Ellsworth with a review of the play—turns out it had 7 equity actors and this company has done productions every year for many years ( I TOLD you it was peopled by people from away—heard an elderly lady musician interviewed on MPR about her book, Comfort Cove, or something—about coming to Stonington for EONS from New York—she commuted for music jobs sometimes—you have NO idea how difficult that must have been!!!) (And ANYONE, said the theater manager, can “buy” a seat for the fundraising for only $1,000!) Anyway, the review was very favorable, so we decided on Friday to go see it.

BACK to Stonington – another beautiful drive—and we were NOT disappointed. It was a terrific production—the conceit was a group of women in a prison—group cell—circa 1935—this was a way to deal with the power issues in the play, which are difficult to portray to modern audiences. A new arrival in the cell is sulky and resistant to discipline—so the matron has the women do a production of TOTS for the new one to learn her place (she was Katarina, of course). In the best Shakespeare tradition, almost all played multiple roles—using minimal costume pieces to indicate their roles. One excellent actor with a long blonde page-boy and lots of red lipstick, played Senior Grumio (the elderly neighbor of Senior Battiista, father of Kate and sister Bianca—whom he is hoping to marry) and Senior Hortencio, also a suitor of Bianca. She played Grumio with a walker and Hortencio with a scarf and cap, and often had consecutive lines for each part–switching back and forth breathlessly—she was hilarious. Bianca was played by the only male, a WONDERFUL comic actor who was the guard, and when he was Bianca, minced around wearing the light blue prison uniform the other women wore, still wearing his socks with garters and then with a silly little red headband with a flower—it was sidesplitting. As I said, all but 2 were equity actors and the others are two high school girls heading to college—and acting—in the fall, so it was extremely well acted. What a joy to watch!! The most interesting aspect was how the prison theme and interpersonal conflicts between inmates were mixed in with the play. I have gotten to more cultural events in three weeks than I have all YEAR!!

I had grabbed a rotisserie chicken and some salads for a quick dinner—we got there too late to eat before the play, so ate on the fish pier after the show–now warm—even at 10 PM—Maine weather! To my shock, Agnes—81 yrs old-- had NEVER had rotisserie chicken! I reminisced about all the wonderful places I have eaten rotisserie chicken—in front of cathedrals in Italy, under the Pont du Gard in France, outside the Lescaux caves in south western France, on rocks on the coast of Maine, and in a wonderful, funky Central American restaurant in Wheaton, MD, where they turn out hundreds of spit-roasted chickens an hour and you eat them out of the cardboard box on the spot–delicious!

The weather here is what is called “unsettled”—meaning thunderstorms, temperatures up and down, occasional fog and sunshine—but NOT warm—though the locals run around in shirts and tank tops like it was the Caribbean or something. The lupines have finished, but roses are thick, blue vetch is abundant and buttercups are everywhere—the wild flowers are astounding! Fresh strawberries are for sale all over the place.

Things are progressing on my house between research and reading stints. Got up the “RLS memorial shelves” in the DR –which are now full of familiar treasures—the plate from Sweden with the painting of Renneslav Kirke, the church where my great grandfather was baptized, the Bremen Town Musician figurine my grandmother bought in Bremen on the famous family trip to Europe in 1962, the great celadon teapot Julie gave me in Boston, etc. --it is good to have them all around me. I also put up the lovely Belgian wooden cookie molds—and the mudroom now is spacious since I put in plastic shelving for stuff and hooks for jackets, leashes, umbrellas and tote bags—plus a great bench to sit on a change to boots—found the bench in a collection of “freebies” sitting in front of a house for sale.

Still no word from Ray about moving the boat—I sure hope that happens. Today I went to the Steuben library to get on line briefly and there was Caroline—Jason’s sister—I haven’t seen anything of the family since A & J left—It was a shock to see someone familiar!

And good news—FINALLY heard from the lady at Salem State College in MA who has volunteered to be the third person on my doctoral committee!! Sounds like she might be a good match. She is a professor of ESL—teaching teachers how to be ESL teachers.

Well, back to reading about second language reading. Nerdy me--I love it—but first the evening walk with Lily—a transcendental experience: Tunk Stream, which empties into a pond, and then the sea behind my house, is full of rain and rushing loudly over its boulders parallel to the road where we walk; the bull frogs across the street are “gunking” earnestly in their tiny pond, and the fireflies are flashing in trees and meadows behind the neighbors’ houses like laser-light shows. It’s too cloudy tonight for the usual star display—milky way literally milky white and constellations so clear even I can see them….!! More next week after more adventures. Love to all, Mom/Robin