HEY MY GIRLS!! I am moving--not to Maine as previously planned--but to DC!!! I have been offered a job at the school where I have been consulting for a year and a half--they have been so pleased with my work that they want me to to be there more!!
Babbo knew I was MAYBE going to do this, but I swore him to secrecy because I did not want to tell YOU three until I had a firm commitment from the school-=---and that just happened THIS MORNING. Whew!! The principal has had me on a string for 6 weeks deciding if they could hire me at the rate I need.
It will be a half-time hourly job, 20 hours a week--at a good rate--enough to live on and some more--no benefits, I think, but actually I can get health insurance until I finish my degree-- and I will be almost old enough for Medicare by that time!! (SEE?? There IS a reason for my sloth.)
I am going to try to live in the general neighborhood of the school-- Columbia Heights or up Georgia or 13th-- in fact, there was a nice English basement at Arkansas and Emerson....--it would be too funny. Actually, I want to be a bit closer so I can walk as often as possible. As you know, Columbia Heights is literally booming-- new condos being built at Georgia and New Hampshire, 14th and Irving--and there is a new shopping center at 14th and Irving-- Target, Marshalls, Best Buy-- fantastic--plus the restaurants and night life are amazing.
On the 2nd I go to DC for the last session of this year and will house hunt then. Babbo has left his car for me to use--so nice. Gwen and Ken were cheering for me, too--Janet, too--Libe doesn't know yet. It will be so fun to have lots of friends again!!
The OTHER part of the story is that Aunt Carolie is coming for two weeks-- I pick her up tomorrow from Minneapolis--she is ostensibly going to help me pack, but really will decompress from a major stew of problems in Alb--the soap opera continues....Will we survive two weeks together??? Well, as noted above, I will be gone for 4 days anyway, so that is GOOD.
I have to start the new job around August 18-- so will do the actual move the first week of August. I am coming to help you , Moommie, whenever you can figure out you want to move--I am guessing the last week of June? I will try to get to Maine mid-June and will come in and out of Maine until towards the end of July. I have two contracts then--one in South Dakota, one in New Orleans-- July/August in N'awlins----MISERY!!--MONEY!! After those, I will come back here and load my load and head for DC.
I would LOVE it if you guys would call me so we can chortle over this wonderful news. I am excited to get out of Wisconsin and even more excited to have regular money coming in--=work has been good, but so irregular that I can never quite get far enough ahead to weather the dry spells.
So much going on for us ladies, huh???? Mir, we will have to post pictures all over the web--and Julie, too-- keeping us up to date on plans-- and 'Na showing us what she is creating over the summer!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
1/17/08
Bragging rights: Just shoveled a good 6 inches of snow from what I calculate is about 100 feet of sidewalk. I worked up a REAL healthy sweat.
What I have learned about shoveling snow:
Do it while it is 6 inches or under-- shoveling 10-14 inches of snow is a lot more work.
Shovel regularly to keep ahead of what the plows throw back into walkways and driveways.
Shoveling is easier without glasses-- they just get steamed up and then it looks like there is more snow than there really is.
Shoveling while it is 20 or warmer is better because the drips from the nose do not freeze right away.
Keep the bouncy dog away from the newly shoveled sidewalk--she drags snow right back onto it.
Well-insulated boots are a blessing.
Well-insulated dogs LOVE snow-- Lily thinks it is the gift of all time-- she literally swims in it-- digging holes and then rolling and flipping around like she was on peyote buttons-- and I swear she is not!
No matter that it means a lot of work if you live in the city, white, fluffy, newly fallen snow is one of the loveliest things I know of--
---along with the field of bluebells I remember in a valley near our cabin in West Virginia-- or the Maine coast on a foggy afternoon in summer--or the sky over the west side of the valley of Albuquerque at late sunset with moon rising over the mountains and sun setting over the desert and sky a purple that cannot be described.
What I haven't learned well enough
DO NOT LIVE ON A CORNER LOT IN THE CITY WHERE THERE ARE TREES/SNOW-- RAKING AND SHOVELING ARE TRIPLED IF NOT QUADRUPLED!!
What I have learned about shoveling snow:
Do it while it is 6 inches or under-- shoveling 10-14 inches of snow is a lot more work.
Shovel regularly to keep ahead of what the plows throw back into walkways and driveways.
Shoveling is easier without glasses-- they just get steamed up and then it looks like there is more snow than there really is.
Shoveling while it is 20 or warmer is better because the drips from the nose do not freeze right away.
Keep the bouncy dog away from the newly shoveled sidewalk--she drags snow right back onto it.
Well-insulated boots are a blessing.
Well-insulated dogs LOVE snow-- Lily thinks it is the gift of all time-- she literally swims in it-- digging holes and then rolling and flipping around like she was on peyote buttons-- and I swear she is not!
No matter that it means a lot of work if you live in the city, white, fluffy, newly fallen snow is one of the loveliest things I know of--
---along with the field of bluebells I remember in a valley near our cabin in West Virginia-- or the Maine coast on a foggy afternoon in summer--or the sky over the west side of the valley of Albuquerque at late sunset with moon rising over the mountains and sun setting over the desert and sky a purple that cannot be described.
What I haven't learned well enough
DO NOT LIVE ON A CORNER LOT IN THE CITY WHERE THERE ARE TREES/SNOW-- RAKING AND SHOVELING ARE TRIPLED IF NOT QUADRUPLED!!
9/1/07
Hi Fam-- I realized as I was cleaning out my in and out boxes that I haven't really sent a newsy letter in a while-- Julie has called faithfully, and Jerry --and I know Mir, you are up to your arse in alligators in various swamps.
It is a gorgeous early fall Labor Day weekend here-- the Gresches have gone to Ashland to load up Elsie's basement with wood for her back-up furnace and to harvest the last berries and vegetables from her gardens. I am at the end of my first week back from Maine and finally feel sort of here.
This week I went to a concert in the square downtown-- polka, folk, cajun--all sorts of music by a very energetic group --the lead female played about 7 instruments and sang, too--the square was FULL-- about 2,000 people--all very social and Wisconsin-looking-- pretty white crowd, too--a few Hmong and other Asians and a very few black persons sprinkled in the happy crowd. I walked with Lily--about a 20 minute walk-- and met the Gresches==Anna was equipped with snacks and Al read the paper while Anna and I visited about the news with music blaring in the background.
Wednesday and today I went to the farmers' market, which is along the river, near downtown. Wednesday it was small-about 12 vendors--all Hmong and Amish-- today it was much bigger-- maybe 30 vendors-- and such riches of gorgeous, truly locally grown vegetables and flowers, honey, maple syrup, cheese, meat and processed meats of grass-fed animals, etc. All for a third of what any of it would cost in a supermarket-=-except the honey and syrup, which are normal prices. But fresh dug potatoes, tomatoes that "swam 5 minutes ago" as we used to say at the farm and other goodies are cheap cheap cheap.
Today I met my friend Mark, the alcoholic welder who works for Al between welding jobs and keeps Lily for me a lot-- he is in LOVE with Lily and she with him-- he asked to have her last night, so we met up at the market to pass her off. Then we went to the back of the market to the flume along the river built for kayakers and watched a lot of kayakers practicing running rapids, turning around, turning over, etc. It was so colorful--the Wisconsin version of colorful lobster boats, as it were.
Then Lily and I walked back, me listening to Rumpole stories which Babbo so nicely provided for me. (Mark is my Wisconsin version of Warren, but not so compliant and companionable--he is usually partially wasted, totally a mess, argumentative and negative. A smart guy who CANNOT get his shit together. His brother, who is way more functional (he is a top-level welder at a plant outside of Milwaukee)--but also lacking a few neural pathways-- got arrested this week for an illegal left turn--AND for having no driver's license--it was suspended a year ago and not reinstated because he did not go to DUI school. A cascade of bad judgments-- Mark is even worse-- finally it gets very tiresome...Al loses patience with the whole scene about once a week. He has to call Mark the night before he wants him to work and remind him not to drink in the AM--and then calls in the AM to remind him again-- rarely works, though....and Lutheran Al is totally disgusted-=-but employs Mark, who appears to have no other idea of how to get work when not welding...)
Last night, while Mark had Lily, I went north about 17 miles to Merrill-- I went to an antique store Anna G introduced me to last week to pick up a bowl for her and one I had put on lay away--a green glass bowl with a lid, sort of like a large refrigerator box-- gorgeous. Then I had the traditional mid-west Friday night fishfry at a local family restaurant--Skippers : "No one sails away hungry." The fish was not QUITE as good a fresh-caught Maine fish, but over all very tasty-- this little frumpy restaurant is special because it has a "patio"--indeed, a cemented empty slot next door with nice wire mesh tables and umbrellas and a little Italian fountain at the end surrounded by large pink petunias. Very pleasant place to read the paper and eat.
I stayed for dinner because I wanted to see Ratatouille, which opened at the little local theater in Merrill last night-- $4.00 senior ticket, too! It isn't as quaint as the Milbridge one-screen theater where I saw Harry Potter this summmer, but almost. Ratatouille is WONDERFUL-- no kid flick, really--and a paeon to good cooking and the restaurant business, if you ask me. Very odd to have rats as heroes--but that is the joy of movies, huh?
Yesterday during the day, since Al was not employing him then Mark and I worked on my patio-- when I moved in, Al had put in a patio door on the south side of my living room to let in more light--it then took months of prodding to get him to put in stairs down from the door to the grass, and by late spring I had decided to add a patio at the bottom of the steps.
There is a NICE patio between the back of the house and the garage and little barn along the alley, but the lady upstairs uses that and her huge pit-bull is tied to the fence beyond it every day and uses the tall grass next to the little barn as his own poopatorium,(and has for 3 years-- he is never walked-just tied out three times a day) so it isn't a very inviting place to sit. The house is sort of long and narrow and has quite a bit of yard along the south ( the long side, which faces a neighboring house), so decided to make the end of that yard, which is where the door from the living room comes out, my own patio area. Mark and I laid weed blocking cloth, then special gravel, then red paving blocks--it will be pretty nice once it is done, but I need more blocks. I'll have my little fountain (the dolphin from Newport--remember, Julie--I had it on the balcony outside my room at Dwight? And behind my house in Columbus.) alongside the patio and will put up a couple of lattice panels to make it a little private--then lots of pots.
The steps are terrific-- I have them filled with flower pots on the side where the door does not open. My gorgeous hibiscus is loving the sun out there, too.
I have lots of weeding to do in the beds I planted before I left for Maine, but thanks to my neighbors, who watered, almost every thing I planted survived. The garden and patio keep Anna G's hopes up that I will stay in this house a while-- til the end of the blinkin' degree anyway.
Anna has had a tough couple of weeks-- she has had light vaginal and urinary bleeding since mid-July and lots of pain in her lower back--she has been undergoing zillions of tests and fortunately for her, the doctors seem to be really paying attention and doing all they can to figure it out. The urologist ruled out anything at all worrisome in that system this week, so she was very relieved-=-but there is more to discover in the other system. She has never been so close to a breakdown before--- she calls all the time and we are together a lot. It is what she dearly wanted- a sister, as it were.
Her friend Jan--whom Babbo and Miriam know-- still has no job and is slipping further into serious depression--it has been almost two full years now since she lost her job in Chicago.(She is the one whose mother has slipped far into dementia, too--Jan keeps her at home because they live off the mother's SSI benefits). Anna tries her darndest (and that is pretty good, as you know) to keep Jan busy and fed and distracted, but finally Jan is resisting. Very sad to see. Jan did a wonderful job keeping my houseplants alive while I was in Maine--but she will not socialize or call or do anything she is not prodded into doing.
I have a list a mile long of work I am pushing away at. September will be busy travel-wise-- the 12th I go to Rochester, NY to start a new project with ESOL teachers there (it will be the second night of Rosh Hashanah; maybe I will do a dinner here for friends on Tuesday)-- I expect to go back several times this year to visit the teachers.
Then to Florida in the last week of Sept for a couple days at an adult literacy conference. I will also confer with a wonderful lady who is a researcher at U Fl -Gainesville-- she wants me to be expert consultant on a huge federal grant she has to study non-literate adult ESOL learners---couldn't be better for my doctoral work! They will pay me to design tests for these learners and then study the results!
At the end of Sept. I go to Madison to the Wisconsin TESOL Conference, where I will present and will facilitate a panel for the people from the tech college here. They have a wonderful project to help older ESOL teens transition to career or college courses out of high school, where they did not have enough time to do the ESOL they need for college. This will launch my year of involvement in Wisconsin--the same man who arranged for so many workshops for me to do last year will pay me to do this, and then we will plan with programs what other professional development they want me to do.
Soon after that, I head off to S.Dakota to do a keynote at a conference, then a couple of sessions for them--next to DC to keep going on my work at the charter ESOL school--that will be the 9th 10 and 11th-- as you know, I will head back home through Detroit, for Moji's Nikki's huge birthday/celebratory bash.
I am scheduled to go to Mid-state NY on the 24th of October--and am planning to either be in Maine before that or to go to Maine after that for a couple of weeks. Take note, Miriam-- maybe you and a few friends could come up.
Meanwhile, I am writing stuff like crazy-- articles, courses, and lit-review chapters. It is a rich time for me. I tried hard to get that lady from Salem State College in MA to consider being on my doctoral committee, but she turned out to be a fizzle--she answered e-mails three weeks late, and was languid about setting up a personal encounter or a telephone conference, so I told her to forget it. My co-author from U of Minn, who is an ESOL person herself, suggested a lady at U-Mass Amherst, whose publishing at least, seems to coincide amazingly with my work. I am going to contact her this week to see if she will consider it.
On the home front I have been plagued by failure of Charter Communications to figure out how to reinstate my bundled services after a vacation interruption , which THEY suggested and implemented!! Over 8 days, I have called 11 times and spoken to now l7 people--quite of few of whom promised to have service up and running in "the next 24 hours". Since it is now Saturday and I have no service, they were all unsuccessful. I keep reminding them when they put me on hold for another 30 minutes, that I am calling them on MY Time on MY cell phone plan--that only serves to make them apologize more for putting me on hold. I was unfailingly polite-- really, Julie, I was-- until yesterday, when I got extremely testy when that 17th person started asking for my name, address, phone # SSN etc-- AGAIN.
Today I will just go to their voice menu and instead of bullying through by pushing 0 over and over until I get a human, I will select the option to disconnect service-- and go to Verizon--surely they cannot be WORSE than this-- I have to say, Al warned me heartily about this last fall, but until now I had no real reason to complain.
In the meantime, as you know, I have been able to grab a weak, but usable free signal from some neighbor and usually can do e-mail or internet work with little problem--sometimes the signal fades and sometimes connection is slow, but mostly it works.
I have resorted to DVD's for rare entertainment interludes-- or the live movie, like last night. So maybe I will go the Maine route and have NO external services at all!
Well--must buckle down to some work--- please do write or call when you can. Wisconsin seems far more remote than Downest Maine ever did. I asked Charlie and Barb what they were doing for Labor Day but they are busy--and decided not to invite myself to my aunt's house--and the Robinson's are busy helping their neighbor, who is just back home finally after a terrible accident in Colorado in June left him a paraplegic. The neighbors--60 of them, including Jim, built him a new accessible bedroom and bathroom-- that is community, huh?
Love to you, my fam. Mama
It is a gorgeous early fall Labor Day weekend here-- the Gresches have gone to Ashland to load up Elsie's basement with wood for her back-up furnace and to harvest the last berries and vegetables from her gardens. I am at the end of my first week back from Maine and finally feel sort of here.
This week I went to a concert in the square downtown-- polka, folk, cajun--all sorts of music by a very energetic group --the lead female played about 7 instruments and sang, too--the square was FULL-- about 2,000 people--all very social and Wisconsin-looking-- pretty white crowd, too--a few Hmong and other Asians and a very few black persons sprinkled in the happy crowd. I walked with Lily--about a 20 minute walk-- and met the Gresches==Anna was equipped with snacks and Al read the paper while Anna and I visited about the news with music blaring in the background.
Wednesday and today I went to the farmers' market, which is along the river, near downtown. Wednesday it was small-about 12 vendors--all Hmong and Amish-- today it was much bigger-- maybe 30 vendors-- and such riches of gorgeous, truly locally grown vegetables and flowers, honey, maple syrup, cheese, meat and processed meats of grass-fed animals, etc. All for a third of what any of it would cost in a supermarket-=-except the honey and syrup, which are normal prices. But fresh dug potatoes, tomatoes that "swam 5 minutes ago" as we used to say at the farm and other goodies are cheap cheap cheap.
Today I met my friend Mark, the alcoholic welder who works for Al between welding jobs and keeps Lily for me a lot-- he is in LOVE with Lily and she with him-- he asked to have her last night, so we met up at the market to pass her off. Then we went to the back of the market to the flume along the river built for kayakers and watched a lot of kayakers practicing running rapids, turning around, turning over, etc. It was so colorful--the Wisconsin version of colorful lobster boats, as it were.
Then Lily and I walked back, me listening to Rumpole stories which Babbo so nicely provided for me. (Mark is my Wisconsin version of Warren, but not so compliant and companionable--he is usually partially wasted, totally a mess, argumentative and negative. A smart guy who CANNOT get his shit together. His brother, who is way more functional (he is a top-level welder at a plant outside of Milwaukee)--but also lacking a few neural pathways-- got arrested this week for an illegal left turn--AND for having no driver's license--it was suspended a year ago and not reinstated because he did not go to DUI school. A cascade of bad judgments-- Mark is even worse-- finally it gets very tiresome...Al loses patience with the whole scene about once a week. He has to call Mark the night before he wants him to work and remind him not to drink in the AM--and then calls in the AM to remind him again-- rarely works, though....and Lutheran Al is totally disgusted-=-but employs Mark, who appears to have no other idea of how to get work when not welding...)
Last night, while Mark had Lily, I went north about 17 miles to Merrill-- I went to an antique store Anna G introduced me to last week to pick up a bowl for her and one I had put on lay away--a green glass bowl with a lid, sort of like a large refrigerator box-- gorgeous. Then I had the traditional mid-west Friday night fishfry at a local family restaurant--Skippers : "No one sails away hungry." The fish was not QUITE as good a fresh-caught Maine fish, but over all very tasty-- this little frumpy restaurant is special because it has a "patio"--indeed, a cemented empty slot next door with nice wire mesh tables and umbrellas and a little Italian fountain at the end surrounded by large pink petunias. Very pleasant place to read the paper and eat.
I stayed for dinner because I wanted to see Ratatouille, which opened at the little local theater in Merrill last night-- $4.00 senior ticket, too! It isn't as quaint as the Milbridge one-screen theater where I saw Harry Potter this summmer, but almost. Ratatouille is WONDERFUL-- no kid flick, really--and a paeon to good cooking and the restaurant business, if you ask me. Very odd to have rats as heroes--but that is the joy of movies, huh?
Yesterday during the day, since Al was not employing him then Mark and I worked on my patio-- when I moved in, Al had put in a patio door on the south side of my living room to let in more light--it then took months of prodding to get him to put in stairs down from the door to the grass, and by late spring I had decided to add a patio at the bottom of the steps.
There is a NICE patio between the back of the house and the garage and little barn along the alley, but the lady upstairs uses that and her huge pit-bull is tied to the fence beyond it every day and uses the tall grass next to the little barn as his own poopatorium,(and has for 3 years-- he is never walked-just tied out three times a day) so it isn't a very inviting place to sit. The house is sort of long and narrow and has quite a bit of yard along the south ( the long side, which faces a neighboring house), so decided to make the end of that yard, which is where the door from the living room comes out, my own patio area. Mark and I laid weed blocking cloth, then special gravel, then red paving blocks--it will be pretty nice once it is done, but I need more blocks. I'll have my little fountain (the dolphin from Newport--remember, Julie--I had it on the balcony outside my room at Dwight? And behind my house in Columbus.) alongside the patio and will put up a couple of lattice panels to make it a little private--then lots of pots.
The steps are terrific-- I have them filled with flower pots on the side where the door does not open. My gorgeous hibiscus is loving the sun out there, too.
I have lots of weeding to do in the beds I planted before I left for Maine, but thanks to my neighbors, who watered, almost every thing I planted survived. The garden and patio keep Anna G's hopes up that I will stay in this house a while-- til the end of the blinkin' degree anyway.
Anna has had a tough couple of weeks-- she has had light vaginal and urinary bleeding since mid-July and lots of pain in her lower back--she has been undergoing zillions of tests and fortunately for her, the doctors seem to be really paying attention and doing all they can to figure it out. The urologist ruled out anything at all worrisome in that system this week, so she was very relieved-=-but there is more to discover in the other system. She has never been so close to a breakdown before--- she calls all the time and we are together a lot. It is what she dearly wanted- a sister, as it were.
Her friend Jan--whom Babbo and Miriam know-- still has no job and is slipping further into serious depression--it has been almost two full years now since she lost her job in Chicago.(She is the one whose mother has slipped far into dementia, too--Jan keeps her at home because they live off the mother's SSI benefits). Anna tries her darndest (and that is pretty good, as you know) to keep Jan busy and fed and distracted, but finally Jan is resisting. Very sad to see. Jan did a wonderful job keeping my houseplants alive while I was in Maine--but she will not socialize or call or do anything she is not prodded into doing.
I have a list a mile long of work I am pushing away at. September will be busy travel-wise-- the 12th I go to Rochester, NY to start a new project with ESOL teachers there (it will be the second night of Rosh Hashanah; maybe I will do a dinner here for friends on Tuesday)-- I expect to go back several times this year to visit the teachers.
Then to Florida in the last week of Sept for a couple days at an adult literacy conference. I will also confer with a wonderful lady who is a researcher at U Fl -Gainesville-- she wants me to be expert consultant on a huge federal grant she has to study non-literate adult ESOL learners---couldn't be better for my doctoral work! They will pay me to design tests for these learners and then study the results!
At the end of Sept. I go to Madison to the Wisconsin TESOL Conference, where I will present and will facilitate a panel for the people from the tech college here. They have a wonderful project to help older ESOL teens transition to career or college courses out of high school, where they did not have enough time to do the ESOL they need for college. This will launch my year of involvement in Wisconsin--the same man who arranged for so many workshops for me to do last year will pay me to do this, and then we will plan with programs what other professional development they want me to do.
Soon after that, I head off to S.Dakota to do a keynote at a conference, then a couple of sessions for them--next to DC to keep going on my work at the charter ESOL school--that will be the 9th 10 and 11th-- as you know, I will head back home through Detroit, for Moji's Nikki's huge birthday/celebratory bash.
I am scheduled to go to Mid-state NY on the 24th of October--and am planning to either be in Maine before that or to go to Maine after that for a couple of weeks. Take note, Miriam-- maybe you and a few friends could come up.
Meanwhile, I am writing stuff like crazy-- articles, courses, and lit-review chapters. It is a rich time for me. I tried hard to get that lady from Salem State College in MA to consider being on my doctoral committee, but she turned out to be a fizzle--she answered e-mails three weeks late, and was languid about setting up a personal encounter or a telephone conference, so I told her to forget it. My co-author from U of Minn, who is an ESOL person herself, suggested a lady at U-Mass Amherst, whose publishing at least, seems to coincide amazingly with my work. I am going to contact her this week to see if she will consider it.
On the home front I have been plagued by failure of Charter Communications to figure out how to reinstate my bundled services after a vacation interruption , which THEY suggested and implemented!! Over 8 days, I have called 11 times and spoken to now l7 people--quite of few of whom promised to have service up and running in "the next 24 hours". Since it is now Saturday and I have no service, they were all unsuccessful. I keep reminding them when they put me on hold for another 30 minutes, that I am calling them on MY Time on MY cell phone plan--that only serves to make them apologize more for putting me on hold. I was unfailingly polite-- really, Julie, I was-- until yesterday, when I got extremely testy when that 17th person started asking for my name, address, phone # SSN etc-- AGAIN.
Today I will just go to their voice menu and instead of bullying through by pushing 0 over and over until I get a human, I will select the option to disconnect service-- and go to Verizon--surely they cannot be WORSE than this-- I have to say, Al warned me heartily about this last fall, but until now I had no real reason to complain.
In the meantime, as you know, I have been able to grab a weak, but usable free signal from some neighbor and usually can do e-mail or internet work with little problem--sometimes the signal fades and sometimes connection is slow, but mostly it works.
I have resorted to DVD's for rare entertainment interludes-- or the live movie, like last night. So maybe I will go the Maine route and have NO external services at all!
Well--must buckle down to some work--- please do write or call when you can. Wisconsin seems far more remote than Downest Maine ever did. I asked Charlie and Barb what they were doing for Labor Day but they are busy--and decided not to invite myself to my aunt's house--and the Robinson's are busy helping their neighbor, who is just back home finally after a terrible accident in Colorado in June left him a paraplegic. The neighbors--60 of them, including Jim, built him a new accessible bedroom and bathroom-- that is community, huh?
Love to you, my fam. Mama
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
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
7/2/07
Notes from Maine—Sunday July 1
Just had to share some wonderful things:
At dinnertime today I walked over to Agnes’ (the lady from NJ) for dinner—tide was out and the all the huge rocks of the cove exposed (for those of you who don’t know, this part of Maine has an 11’ tide, so much is exposed when the tide is out!) ---there on a BIG rock was a bald eagle, waiting patiently for fish—herring—which leads me to last night..
Lily and I often walk out Agnes’ road, which is the old Steuben wharf—dating from the late 18th century—so last evening because the moon was full, pale gold and brilliant, we walked out to admire the light on the water—as we walked along the side of the cove, I heard what sounded like waves lapping gently-only we don’t get much lap way up in this cove and there was no wind at all—then I began to look closer—the tide was clear in and the surface of the water was BOILING with herring—brit, my neighbor Ray, the fisherman says they are called== young herring. It was like a pond full of Koi at feeding time only not quite so frantic-- every now and then there would be splash or plop or roiling that WAS frantic—Ray says that happens when seals or large fish come under the school of herring and start feeding ---it was an amazing sound and sight!
Saturday I celebrated the 4th a bit early with my new suitor, Warren. To say Warren is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, brightest bulb in the chandelier….is to be kind, but he was so pitifully happy to get out of his group house it was worth it. Sat AM we went to Cherryfield—about 20 minutes north (REALLY north, not east) of Steuben, to see their parade—a very cute affair well attended on a splendid Maine day—blue sky, puffy clouds—about 60—65 in the sun. The parade went right by Frederick and Richard’s antique shop—these are the two old men who are my neighbors.
Highpoints were a fabulous bagpipe unit kitted out in lovely blue plaid kilts and the whole affair—no sporrans, though ( the purse in the front.) Also the horse unit—I was hoping to see Alicia Fish, but she chose not to ride—my neighbor, Shae Lynn ( I think that is the spelling) was riding-=-she is 14 and a wonderful girl—good friend of the Fish girls. And of course the Shriners—Anah temple from Bangor in their mini vehicles—the first wave had car-sized fishing boats of all kinds and a light house—pretty cute. Then there were the miniature 18 wheeler trucks—miniatures of the trucks of the companies sponsoring them—including my Dead River Oil company—they were pretty cute, too—and then the now de riguer go-karts with grown men roaring around and then zipping up and over a truck with tracks on it---it moves, they zip—Lily nearly fainted from the noise of those—all with their red fezzes on.
There was also a terrific community band that played on a truck—all ages, and GOOD. I wished the girls had been there to see the local princesses—the best was the one on the end of the platform on the truck who was about 9, round as a pumpkin and nearly as homely—hair skinned back in a ponytail, wearing a yellow chiffon princess dress with sash saying she was a princess—with a look on her face that was –well, both ecstatic and totally robotic and she waved her right hand as parade people are taught to do—again, totally robotic—it is hard to describe how funny she was.
There were all kinds of food stands and few other things—lots of noise and music jammed onto one little street in one little town.
Warren and I returned to Cherryfield in the evening to participate first in the monthly meat raffle at the American Legion hall—yes, meat raffle—no not, girls….meat. Pounds and pounds of meat, one set of lobsters, a picnic basket and several wads of money. Very simple--- you buy a “paddle “ (paint stir stick painted red with a number on it) or many at a buck a pop, some lady spins a big gaming wheel, and whichever number comes up wins that lot of meat, lobster etc. or else half of the take,, whatever was at stake. We didn’t win anything, of course—I was trying hard for the Porterhouse steaks –
Then we stepped outside and got barbecued ribs at a stand that Anna and Jason would have recognized as the Cherryfield version of the one Jason took me to in Christiansted in Feb—GREAT ribs!! About 4 pounds for $12 –fries and the inevitable white bread….
Then back inside for a Karaoke dance evening, which Warren was VERY excited about. (Warren has a GIANT belly and is unprepossessing at best to look at , so I was a bit nervous about his enthusing all the way there about how eager he was to dance….) Well, another unforgettable experience—about 25 people came—sitting at folding tables on either side of the middle of the huge hall—the middle was the dance floor. It was BYOB so some arrived with beer as we did, some arrived with 8 packs of rootbeer and jugs of Hawaiian punch.. ….. mostly the crowd was large middle-aged ladies in t shirts and saggy knit pants, a few couples. Warren knew several of the women, who are or have been caretakers at his group house. The best was the couple with the 4’8 woman and the 6’guy —she resembled the Michelin man—seriously—she weighed about 200 lbs—one tire for boobs and one truck tire for middle—and she was in a sort of stretchy dark evening dress with spaghetti straps and gold sparkle over a t shirt and with tennis shoes—the dress was a bit too long so the shoes were not much visible. Long stringy dark hair –they were the ones with the rootbeer and Hawaiian punch—and they had so much fun dancing…he had to bend clear over so they could dance holding on around each other’s necks!!! The “DJ” was a local lady with her computer Karaoke set up—
And like all Karaoke crowds, some could sing and some couldn’t –one of the older middle aged ladies was TERRIFIC—and some cleverly changed lyrics to suit their purpose—the lady who could sing did Coal Miner’s daughter and changed it to fisherman’s daughter. Everyone loved that! It was sort of oldie but goodie music—and Warren turned out to be a terrific dancer—especially to country and Western music—so we danced quite a bit—then went out at 9:30 to watch the 20 minute fireworks across the little river—and then home.
Warren has plans for us to hit every dance and event for the summer—I am certainly not intending to do that, but we did have a nice time. All day his only conversation was to ask me about every 7 minutes how I was doing, and then to comment on the weather ( how hot it had been last week) how much he hates his home, how grateful he was to be out of it for a day—until the ride home, when we got to talking about the moon—you could literally see the valleys and hills on the moon—and he announced without much preamble that he did NOT believe we were alone in this universe—whereupon my opinion of him rocketed up~~!! He told me he had witnessed a pretty significant UFO incident as a teen in his hometown of Cutler, which I gather is down the coast a ways—and he decided it was pretty real and therefore we humans could not possibly be the only ones inhabiting space. YAY for Warren.
And since I am hunting culture, I did two other things this week—Thursday went down to Prospect Harbor—about 20 minutes west and then straight south down the Schoodic Peninsula—to hear a group known as Acadian Consort—at a GORGEOUS inn that had pounding surf across the road—and the event was in a restored barn with white walls and beams showing and the most amazing 14-18 inch old, dark floor boards I have ever seen.
The trio== violin player, Irish pipe/banjo player and harp/ percussion guitar player—did “folk” songs and were earnest and awful. The violin player never seemed to know what to play and the harp player—who talked and sang, too,--could never—I am not exaggerating here—find the right note when they sang……the pipe/banjo player was fair, but outnumbered. I was so mad at myself for sitting clear through their endless, 27- piece program—but I had paid and it was a small crowd –couldn’t really walk out.
The next night more than made up—I went to Winter Harbor—which is across the bay from Bar Harbor and further down on the same peninsula as Prospect Harbor. There was a coffee house—a venue for professional folk singers. Mary had introduced me to coffee houses in MA and I love them. I was not disappointed. I heard the Tim Rowe trio—fiddler, guitar and bass guitar (electric instruments all—any of you ever seen an electric violin??? Pretty weird!!) –these guys, who are true professionals and perform all over New England and even farther ( they will be in Milwaukee in September) were TERRIFIC. Very energetic—they sang sea chantys and other similar music about ship wrecks and sailors and a few other things thrown in—one Acadian piece, Danny Boy, etc. These events always have fabulous home made desserts, coffee, tea and soft drinks. This one was held in a wonderful old hall that the people from away—and probably some year-round people --have clearly restored for all – there is a major arts festival there at the end of July which I am looking forward to.
Agnes and I will no doubt return to Bar Harbor for the 4th—it was a good celebration last year despite the fog…..
And I am so excited because Ray promised I could come along as he and his family sail his boat back this week from Southwest Harbor to Milbridge or another place—SW Harbor, for those of you who don’t know—is one of the villages on Mt. Desert Island (Where Bar Harbor is) and has a deep water dock, which Ray uses when fishing for sea cucumbers and eels. He wants to show me what Mt. Desert and the peninsulas look like from waterside. How fun will THAT be???!!!
More after that—Happy Birthday Anna and Chris Mundie—and Happy 4th to all.
News alert to all who enjoyed Casco Bay: Chebegue Island just succeeded in declaring itself independent of Cumberland Township (which is what Clapboard was part of .) The people on Chebegue said they wanted their town to “remain a viable, healthy working class community and not a seasonal playground for the wealthy…!!! It one of only 13 year round island communities, down from over 400 in the late 1800’s. Good on them, I say.
Forgot to say I also hiked one of the trails in the Petit Manan ( yes with an N in the middle) Wildlife Refuge, which is in the town of Steuben, a few miles away. For anyone who loves scenery and wildlife this is a MUST--- WOW!! Giant granite ledges, terrific views of Dyer’s Bay—which looks right into the ocean, and amazing flora of all kinds—it was terrific.
And to assure all of you I am not just enjoying local culture and scenery, I have submitted a 3,000 word article to an adult ed journal that invited it, reorganized all the files I brought, put 25 entries into my bibliography software—a HUGE job since I lost most of my bibliography several computers ago….and am working on outlines for a paper and a short article for some folks in Ohio. I also submitted proposals to the Wisconsin ESL conference in September, which, if accepted I will get paid to do.
And just took the kitty to the vet—lots of tests for lots of dollars to see if it is realistic to try to save her—she can’t eat—mouth is swollen and sore---she has a chronic abscess on her left cheek, she is painfully thin and so arthritic….. vet wouldn’t really concur on euthanasia until we checked to see if she could come out of all this.
Good news is that it will cost less than half here to have Lily spayed later this month compared to what it would have cost in Wisconsin—and she doesn’t have to spend the night, either—so, as Mormor used to say, what I lost on the roundabout I will make up on the swing…..
Still staggering from the $58 in roaming charges form Verizon for calling in Canada—isn’t it teeth-grindingly annoying how a $59 plan turns into $150/ mo?????
Love to all again. Mama/Robin ( AKA Roibin)
Just had to share some wonderful things:
At dinnertime today I walked over to Agnes’ (the lady from NJ) for dinner—tide was out and the all the huge rocks of the cove exposed (for those of you who don’t know, this part of Maine has an 11’ tide, so much is exposed when the tide is out!) ---there on a BIG rock was a bald eagle, waiting patiently for fish—herring—which leads me to last night..
Lily and I often walk out Agnes’ road, which is the old Steuben wharf—dating from the late 18th century—so last evening because the moon was full, pale gold and brilliant, we walked out to admire the light on the water—as we walked along the side of the cove, I heard what sounded like waves lapping gently-only we don’t get much lap way up in this cove and there was no wind at all—then I began to look closer—the tide was clear in and the surface of the water was BOILING with herring—brit, my neighbor Ray, the fisherman says they are called== young herring. It was like a pond full of Koi at feeding time only not quite so frantic-- every now and then there would be splash or plop or roiling that WAS frantic—Ray says that happens when seals or large fish come under the school of herring and start feeding ---it was an amazing sound and sight!
Saturday I celebrated the 4th a bit early with my new suitor, Warren. To say Warren is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, brightest bulb in the chandelier….is to be kind, but he was so pitifully happy to get out of his group house it was worth it. Sat AM we went to Cherryfield—about 20 minutes north (REALLY north, not east) of Steuben, to see their parade—a very cute affair well attended on a splendid Maine day—blue sky, puffy clouds—about 60—65 in the sun. The parade went right by Frederick and Richard’s antique shop—these are the two old men who are my neighbors.
Highpoints were a fabulous bagpipe unit kitted out in lovely blue plaid kilts and the whole affair—no sporrans, though ( the purse in the front.) Also the horse unit—I was hoping to see Alicia Fish, but she chose not to ride—my neighbor, Shae Lynn ( I think that is the spelling) was riding-=-she is 14 and a wonderful girl—good friend of the Fish girls. And of course the Shriners—Anah temple from Bangor in their mini vehicles—the first wave had car-sized fishing boats of all kinds and a light house—pretty cute. Then there were the miniature 18 wheeler trucks—miniatures of the trucks of the companies sponsoring them—including my Dead River Oil company—they were pretty cute, too—and then the now de riguer go-karts with grown men roaring around and then zipping up and over a truck with tracks on it---it moves, they zip—Lily nearly fainted from the noise of those—all with their red fezzes on.
There was also a terrific community band that played on a truck—all ages, and GOOD. I wished the girls had been there to see the local princesses—the best was the one on the end of the platform on the truck who was about 9, round as a pumpkin and nearly as homely—hair skinned back in a ponytail, wearing a yellow chiffon princess dress with sash saying she was a princess—with a look on her face that was –well, both ecstatic and totally robotic and she waved her right hand as parade people are taught to do—again, totally robotic—it is hard to describe how funny she was.
There were all kinds of food stands and few other things—lots of noise and music jammed onto one little street in one little town.
Warren and I returned to Cherryfield in the evening to participate first in the monthly meat raffle at the American Legion hall—yes, meat raffle—no not, girls….meat. Pounds and pounds of meat, one set of lobsters, a picnic basket and several wads of money. Very simple--- you buy a “paddle “ (paint stir stick painted red with a number on it) or many at a buck a pop, some lady spins a big gaming wheel, and whichever number comes up wins that lot of meat, lobster etc. or else half of the take,, whatever was at stake. We didn’t win anything, of course—I was trying hard for the Porterhouse steaks –
Then we stepped outside and got barbecued ribs at a stand that Anna and Jason would have recognized as the Cherryfield version of the one Jason took me to in Christiansted in Feb—GREAT ribs!! About 4 pounds for $12 –fries and the inevitable white bread….
Then back inside for a Karaoke dance evening, which Warren was VERY excited about. (Warren has a GIANT belly and is unprepossessing at best to look at , so I was a bit nervous about his enthusing all the way there about how eager he was to dance….) Well, another unforgettable experience—about 25 people came—sitting at folding tables on either side of the middle of the huge hall—the middle was the dance floor. It was BYOB so some arrived with beer as we did, some arrived with 8 packs of rootbeer and jugs of Hawaiian punch.. ….. mostly the crowd was large middle-aged ladies in t shirts and saggy knit pants, a few couples. Warren knew several of the women, who are or have been caretakers at his group house. The best was the couple with the 4’8 woman and the 6’guy —she resembled the Michelin man—seriously—she weighed about 200 lbs—one tire for boobs and one truck tire for middle—and she was in a sort of stretchy dark evening dress with spaghetti straps and gold sparkle over a t shirt and with tennis shoes—the dress was a bit too long so the shoes were not much visible. Long stringy dark hair –they were the ones with the rootbeer and Hawaiian punch—and they had so much fun dancing…he had to bend clear over so they could dance holding on around each other’s necks!!! The “DJ” was a local lady with her computer Karaoke set up—
And like all Karaoke crowds, some could sing and some couldn’t –one of the older middle aged ladies was TERRIFIC—and some cleverly changed lyrics to suit their purpose—the lady who could sing did Coal Miner’s daughter and changed it to fisherman’s daughter. Everyone loved that! It was sort of oldie but goodie music—and Warren turned out to be a terrific dancer—especially to country and Western music—so we danced quite a bit—then went out at 9:30 to watch the 20 minute fireworks across the little river—and then home.
Warren has plans for us to hit every dance and event for the summer—I am certainly not intending to do that, but we did have a nice time. All day his only conversation was to ask me about every 7 minutes how I was doing, and then to comment on the weather ( how hot it had been last week) how much he hates his home, how grateful he was to be out of it for a day—until the ride home, when we got to talking about the moon—you could literally see the valleys and hills on the moon—and he announced without much preamble that he did NOT believe we were alone in this universe—whereupon my opinion of him rocketed up~~!! He told me he had witnessed a pretty significant UFO incident as a teen in his hometown of Cutler, which I gather is down the coast a ways—and he decided it was pretty real and therefore we humans could not possibly be the only ones inhabiting space. YAY for Warren.
And since I am hunting culture, I did two other things this week—Thursday went down to Prospect Harbor—about 20 minutes west and then straight south down the Schoodic Peninsula—to hear a group known as Acadian Consort—at a GORGEOUS inn that had pounding surf across the road—and the event was in a restored barn with white walls and beams showing and the most amazing 14-18 inch old, dark floor boards I have ever seen.
The trio== violin player, Irish pipe/banjo player and harp/ percussion guitar player—did “folk” songs and were earnest and awful. The violin player never seemed to know what to play and the harp player—who talked and sang, too,--could never—I am not exaggerating here—find the right note when they sang……the pipe/banjo player was fair, but outnumbered. I was so mad at myself for sitting clear through their endless, 27- piece program—but I had paid and it was a small crowd –couldn’t really walk out.
The next night more than made up—I went to Winter Harbor—which is across the bay from Bar Harbor and further down on the same peninsula as Prospect Harbor. There was a coffee house—a venue for professional folk singers. Mary had introduced me to coffee houses in MA and I love them. I was not disappointed. I heard the Tim Rowe trio—fiddler, guitar and bass guitar (electric instruments all—any of you ever seen an electric violin??? Pretty weird!!) –these guys, who are true professionals and perform all over New England and even farther ( they will be in Milwaukee in September) were TERRIFIC. Very energetic—they sang sea chantys and other similar music about ship wrecks and sailors and a few other things thrown in—one Acadian piece, Danny Boy, etc. These events always have fabulous home made desserts, coffee, tea and soft drinks. This one was held in a wonderful old hall that the people from away—and probably some year-round people --have clearly restored for all – there is a major arts festival there at the end of July which I am looking forward to.
Agnes and I will no doubt return to Bar Harbor for the 4th—it was a good celebration last year despite the fog…..
And I am so excited because Ray promised I could come along as he and his family sail his boat back this week from Southwest Harbor to Milbridge or another place—SW Harbor, for those of you who don’t know—is one of the villages on Mt. Desert Island (Where Bar Harbor is) and has a deep water dock, which Ray uses when fishing for sea cucumbers and eels. He wants to show me what Mt. Desert and the peninsulas look like from waterside. How fun will THAT be???!!!
More after that—Happy Birthday Anna and Chris Mundie—and Happy 4th to all.
News alert to all who enjoyed Casco Bay: Chebegue Island just succeeded in declaring itself independent of Cumberland Township (which is what Clapboard was part of .) The people on Chebegue said they wanted their town to “remain a viable, healthy working class community and not a seasonal playground for the wealthy…!!! It one of only 13 year round island communities, down from over 400 in the late 1800’s. Good on them, I say.
Forgot to say I also hiked one of the trails in the Petit Manan ( yes with an N in the middle) Wildlife Refuge, which is in the town of Steuben, a few miles away. For anyone who loves scenery and wildlife this is a MUST--- WOW!! Giant granite ledges, terrific views of Dyer’s Bay—which looks right into the ocean, and amazing flora of all kinds—it was terrific.
And to assure all of you I am not just enjoying local culture and scenery, I have submitted a 3,000 word article to an adult ed journal that invited it, reorganized all the files I brought, put 25 entries into my bibliography software—a HUGE job since I lost most of my bibliography several computers ago….and am working on outlines for a paper and a short article for some folks in Ohio. I also submitted proposals to the Wisconsin ESL conference in September, which, if accepted I will get paid to do.
And just took the kitty to the vet—lots of tests for lots of dollars to see if it is realistic to try to save her—she can’t eat—mouth is swollen and sore---she has a chronic abscess on her left cheek, she is painfully thin and so arthritic….. vet wouldn’t really concur on euthanasia until we checked to see if she could come out of all this.
Good news is that it will cost less than half here to have Lily spayed later this month compared to what it would have cost in Wisconsin—and she doesn’t have to spend the night, either—so, as Mormor used to say, what I lost on the roundabout I will make up on the swing…..
Still staggering from the $58 in roaming charges form Verizon for calling in Canada—isn’t it teeth-grindingly annoying how a $59 plan turns into $150/ mo?????
Love to all again. Mama/Robin ( AKA Roibin)
6/29/07
Wednesday, June 27, 2007—looking out my back windows to the Tunk Stream pond –a HOT hazy day in Maine—RARE!!
Dear family ones all---
Whoohoo!! On Merm’s computer at last!! The cretins with 2-digit IQ’s sent the missing powercord pronto…(for those of you who don’t know, Andrew Bennett picked up the computer from repair last week and sent it to me, but the store did not give him the power cord that goes with the computer…..duh…so I called them yesterday and said I was a doctoral student without a computer and they had better send it ASAP, which they did.)
Although I am loaded with work to do, I have been waiting to be on this computer to be able to write a letter to you all to catch you up on Maine.
I arrived here the 8th, after three long days of driving in my PACKED Honda with cat and Lily crammed in the front passenger space. I had with me a very cute drop-leaf table and 4 leaves, a gorgeous vanity and large round mirror (fully 36” in diameter), lamps, rugs, pillows, bedding ( two eiderdowns, covers, electric bedpad and blanket), table linens, pots, pans, books, dishes, dishes and more dishes and decorative items, five folding chairs of different kinds, 4 tote bags of clothes and one of shoes (no room for suitcases) and 7 ( count them SEVEN) briefcases and bags of files and references. Plus jammed in the back I had camping “e-qvipment” –inflatable mattress, bedding, single burner camp stove, tent, and minimal food and prep stuff.
After leaving my pretty apartment in Wausau with newly planted gardens all around in the hands of neighbors and Anna G’s friend Jan, I drove from 1 PM to 9:30 and got as far as the Sault Ste. Marie (known to all in Michigan, Canada and Wisconsin as simply the “soo” (Sault is pronounced soo). I found a gorgeous state (Michigan) run camp ground that cost $8/ night and was on the shore of Lake Superior and had only camping trailers besides me. I gleefully figured out how to put up the tent and mattress etc., took a walk in the dark with Lily to explore a bit—and then it started to rain—there went plans for a hot dinner. I stuffed cat and dog and food and clothes in the tent—poor animals were FREAKED out by rain pounding on the tent—Lily –a tick anyway—would not even let me go to the car right next to the tent without barking wildly—in a campground that was quiet as a proverbial cemetery… sigh.
I kept my chin up and set up the bedding—but found I did not have enough—and shivered in the damp and cold all night. Lily was wild to go out at 6 AM –so I gave up and decided to strike camp and get on with my trip. Everything was wet ( not bedding –except damp from surrounding air)—but rain held off for a couple of hours and I was able to partially dry the tent while I tried out my little burner and my Italian coffee pot, which worked like a charm.
Whether or not the border would be easy to cross had worried me for literally weeks—and I made the large tactical error of applying for a Wisconsin driver’s license just a few days before I left—only to find out that TSA has made our lives even more complicated by delaying delivery of licenses by 10 days while they check you out. I argued like crazy that I was going to be crossing the border and driving all over and the receipt they gave me for a license would not be enough, but of course it is like arguing with a bronze statue. I also had the foresight to get the animals vaccinated and get the appropriate papers, and to find out from Geico that the papers I had telling me I had insurance was sufficient for Canada. To my pleasant surprise, the Canadians were happy enough with my passport (still in the name of Lovrien Schwarz) , looked at my papers for the animals and waved me on with a smile.
Driving in Canada was both wonderful and awful—wonderful because I had never been in that part of Ontario and found it enchanting—rivers and lakes and mountains in the distance—very pretty—and lots and lots of gorgeous waysides—everyone on a beautiful body of water of some kind. Awful because highway 17, which is pretty much a straight shot from the Soo to Montreal, is 2-lane—with the addition of passing lanes every 8- 10 KM—and plagued with trucks and it passes through every GD town in central and eastern Ontario, too.
We got to the west side of Montreal, bypassing Ottawa, and again it was very late—I had stopped often to let dog AND cat out—cat on a harness and leash, though she is too arthritic to do much running—and to eat and get coffee because I was dead tired from stress and not much sleep…..I had decided after a rough night of camping to bag camping and find a motel—easier to let out the animals and get a hot shower without Lily going wild outside the shower house.
I had gotten AAA travel information on Ontario, but it was not much help with motels where I was, so I turned off the road and went to the first thing I saw—the Hotel Capri—Capri it was NOT……an east-Indian run dump of a place—but I asked the manager if he took animals and he hesitated a minute and said, “Sure, why not? Can I put you in a smoking room at the back?” It was—location wise—perfect –just a few feet from the back door of the hotel, which opened to a weedy parking lot and empty lot next door—Lily heaven.
But the room—let’s see—two beds of different sizes with different covers, two TV’s on a Home Depot folding table—one for games one for snowy local stations—IF you could match remotes and plug in the right TV…huge mirror in bathroom—5 feet by 3 at least—coming off the wall and wedged in behind the sink counter at a scary angle, one bulb of 5 in the lights over the sink, rusty toilet….but he took animals…and we all slept much better.
The third day was much easier—for having slept-- I still had cereal and milk and made my own coffee on my burner in the bathroom—greatest idea since I don’t know WHAT!! Off we headed through AWFUL roads and construction around Montreal to a gorgeous highway in high hills in southern Quebec Province and then headed past lovely little towns to New Hampshire. I stopped in one town in Quebec at what looked like an ordinary IGA to get some lunch stuff—and it was at least as good as Whole Foods—only with French/Quebecois goodies like paté, unusual yoghurts, etc. I loaded up! (no veg, though—border ahead…) Once again getting knots thinking about the border, I was seriously surprised—I crossed at a TINY little station with one lady in charge—she glanced at my passport and said “Welcome back” and did not even look at the animal papers……if anyone wants to smuggle in anything—might want to try there……
Now we were on seriously 2-lane roads winding, and I do mean winding, through a corner of New Hampshire and then on into Maine—passed Dixon Notch then Grafton Notch and miles of rivers, lakes, and deep, remote forest. It felt like a foreign country—soon arrived at Route 2, which comes to 95 below Bangor and finally were on the home stretch—arrived at 8:30-still broad daylight—to a yard with waist-high grass and things just as I left them—so many familiar things!!
I had already made arrangements to meet my friend Anne at the bakery first thing Sat. AM—so Lily and I walked down there – about ¼ mile—and then to the bakery-another ¼ mile—where we met the whole neighborhood and had great coffee and organic blueberry squares. Everyone knows the Fishes, so saying I was Jason’s mother-in-law always brought smiles. One man told me Jason had worked for him for several summers.
Then it was off to Milbridge—the next sizeable town up the highway—to the organic farmers’ market. How to describe the little gathering of about 6 vendors—in tie-dye, overalls, long hair, unshaven arm pits, children with blond dreads or just plain unkempt hair…..named Oceana and Blue and Sky —selling EXPENSIVE goat’s milk cheese and yoghurt, maple syrup, handmade castile soap, rugs made from hand raised sheep—(rugs started at $1,000…..) organic herbs and vegetables, etc. …It was hard not to imagine that these were all children of solidly middle class homes in Boston, NY, Chicago, etc who chose to “live natural” –it was 1968 in the flesh….not one was a native Mainer and the natives do not buy there—but there are enough people “from away” now to support them.
As Mormor would say—“each to his own, said the old lady as she kissed the cow…”
On to the newly expanded Bayside Supermarket—which puts every Wisconsin super market to shame with its variety and carefully chosen selection of goods—also chosen with the people from away in mind—great wine, organic fruits and vegetables, great cheeses, premium meats, etc—and lots of choices of high fiber bread, to my joy.
Needless to say, once I got the groceries home, I pretty much collapsed! Lily and I went down to dinner at Anne’s—she is yet another splendid soup maker (how do I fall on them—Mary, then Laura, then Anna Gresch, now Anne??) --and enjoyed fresh corn, my bread from the fancy store in Quebec, goat’s milk mozzarella balls in oil with basil and garlic, and some soup sort of like pho—yum!!
The next few days were spent getting stuff out of the car and getting a room ready for Anna and Jason, who were due the 14th on their way to Jason’s sister’s wedding. I had to go shopping at Marden’s—remember Marden’s you guys????? (it’s one of those job lot stores—we shopped there in island days) Heaven—got all kinds of things on my list for the house—tools, kitchen stuff, pint, garden tools, and a new mattress-=-the one here is pretty awful. Then it was off to Providence, where I stayed with Lisa and she took in Lily while I continued on to DC—that chapter you all pretty much know about. The best part—other than Babbo’s and my outing to a wonderful production of Pirates of Penzance—was that the school where I have been consulting reported that they were extremely pleased with my work and the effect of it and they want me back for next year, which puts me in DC about every two months.
I drove to Providence because Lisa had offered a futon for the house—but once I looked it over, I realized it was huge and gainly and there was no place for it, really. So back to Boston, where, as I had privately plotted, I hit the big three in Brookline: Clear Flour Bakery (got about 2 weeks worth of bread and morning buns—and some of that fruit spread I had longed for and never tried) then on to Cheap Chic, the best second hand furniture and furnishings store in the east, on Harvard at Brighton Ave, where I found a great bookshelf, ironing board and blender—not having the futon was the key here!!—and then to TJ’s on Beacon—the HOME TJ’s. Passed Dwight with great longing—what a great apartment.
Got in late Sat the 16th and realized Anna and Jason had never made it—turns out there had been an air traffic controller slowdown on the 14th and they sat for hours in three different airports and spent the night in Portland instead.
It has been a busy time since then—ALL the Fishes—well, all here in Maine—6 plus Anna--came for dinner for Yassa---got to use my cute new table—except that when I went to open it, one half fell over because it was not fastened to the leg mechanism… spent 45 minutes on my back putting it together—but later had to redo the entire mechanism. But I got to use all the Hadley and Babbo’s stem glasses he gave me, and the Dansk silver ware and candle holders from Anna Gresch—it was great!!! I did the yassa the day before—something like 6 pounds of chicken—and there was not an onion piece left!!
I had dinner at the Fishes twice, too—lots of fun to have the big family meals. Anna and Jason spent one night here—Jason was too long for the antique bedstead—Anna stayed one more night and then moved to the Fishes. She enjoyed the gorgeous vanity and she and I got to do one day of junking together--- we went further north to Cherryfield –about 20 miles from Steuben-- and found a pretty, tiny antique and art shop in an old bank building. The shop was being minded by an elderly gentleman who turned out to be a neighbor here in Steuben along with his partner—he was Frederic, the other is Richard—of course they have one of the cutest houses and by far the most beautiful garden!! Transplants from Virginia. Anna and I found two other wonderful junkier shops, where, Jules, we can find many dishes etc. for your future store!!
Last week, the new friend Agnes- the one who has property near me and whom I met in New Jersey when there with Laura in Feb. 06 and with whom I came to Maine last summer and found my house—came up last week with her daughter, Annette, to their new house—a prefab cape cod –cute as a button—which sits out on the point of the wharf road. Agnes is 80+ but a ball of fire—runs a literacy program in Ocean County, NJ—her daughter is in her 50’s—very nice 5th grade teacher who works in a greenhouse in the summer. We hung out all last Saturday—bakery, then booksale in Milbridge supporting the library, then antiquing—I introduced Agnes to Richard and Frederick—then lunch and they came for dinner here—chicken korma with that amazing sauce from TJ’s.
Other neighbors, Steve and Linda, are from Maryland—Frederick—and have had us ( me, and then Agnes and Annette) in twice for wine and cheese and a look at their amazing 200 yr. old house with original fireplaces, double staircases and views to kill for down the cove. They are redecorating in high “rich” style—deep reds and creams, oriental rugs on dark floors, library lined with fancy books and leather furniture. They have two of the unruliest dogs imaginable—a boxer and a setter—both just 6 months old—Lily HATES them!!
And last night I had Anne and her two little kids, Hattie (6) and Beckett (9), in for more yassa. (Dad was at a school board meeting.) They ate like there was no tomorrow—corn and salad and rice and chicken—ice cream and nectarines for dessert. They are cute kids—even if they have been raised in full “natural’ style- never disciplined, never apart from parents—literally—and Beckett and three other 4 year olds were present at Hattie’s birth… in a tub of water in the middle of their living room. I paled….Beckett is in public school this year because they couldn’t afford the Waldorf-type program where he had been—he was not, says his mother, “introduced to reading yet” at the Waldorf school—which caused considerable consternation at the public school when he started second grade essentially illiterate…..their house is built entirely of recycled material and they have their own solar power-they are entirely “ off the grid”—in more ways than one…. Anne now has a conventional job running the adult learning program in Sumner, down the coast—she has lived all over—a long time in Sri Lanka, where her parents were educators, I think, and in eastern Europe. She is really interesting—and a fun friend.
(WOW—here I sit in the middle of nowhere in downeast Maine and in three days I have had three special deliveries from UPS and FedEx (computer, its cord and a contract)—the neighbors must be puzzled….)
(And more Maine-only news—three people killed when they collided with a moose—and another vehicle attempting to avoid it….I have yet to see a moose—Linda ( neighbor) said she saw a moose cow and calf last week across the cove from them)
So--- Maine is FUN—social and gorgeous. Every morning Lily and I walk down to the wharf road, past Agne’s house, and observe the state of the tide—dead low in the days when we first arrived, now high-- the shore is muddy here so it is hard to walk at low tide, but the bubble sea weed is everywhere, and the sea lavender is just getting ready to bloom ( remember Jane Braun collecting it on the island?)
Yesterday I heard a lot of laughing and screaming just below the house and Lily and I went down to see what was going on. The wonderful family next door, the Martins, were all ) Mom, dad, 12 yr old son, 14? Yr old daughter, 6 yr old daughter) down at the stream and pond—son Tylor and littlel girl and dad were swimming and throwing sticks for their gorgeous big black lab, Tunk. Mom and older girl sitting on huge wonderful rocks in the rapids. It was a lovely afternoon and the view down the cove was amazing. The bald eagle was hovering in the tree near by ( I am just listening to a report from Maine Things Considered that the Maine bald eagle is about to be taken off the national endangered species list—429 nesting pairs were sighted this year) – right out of Norman Rockwell
Today Lily and I walked around on Roger’s Point, which is the point past the Fishes—it sticks out facing east and west and has little satellites which are islands at high tide—I love to walk around them at low tide because they are so reminiscent of the island—tall pines and grass surrounded by rocky beaches and ledges of granite covered with that bubbly seaweed,- beaches crunchy with mussel shells and snails and broken clams and those little conch-looking shells the seagulls eat--boats everywhere—it is a fun place. There were several people there today because it is so hot—everyone was cooling off. Three ladies were up to their knees in the water—I asked if their legs were numb—one said, “Well, if you stand in one place a few minutes you can stand it” – remember that feeling at the island??? Only the crazies swim in the ocean!!
Needless to say I have been gardening, too. I have discovered a few plants here—but have had to re--dig beds—I did the one in front of my house and put in hostas, which I harvested in DC in March—poor things flew to Wisconsin in a suitcase, then sat in bags for weeks and weeks and then got sent to Maine in a box because they couldn’t go to Canada—they are slowly recovering. I painted the window boxes fresh black and put in impatiens and put boxes of flowers on my little deck along with rail pots with herbs—it is even better than Wisconsin in being so handy!! I have wonderful new friends from up the highway toward Milbridge who come to mow and they are going to help me rototill the gardens because I am sick of sod busting. Then I will transplant irises, daisies and roses—LOTS of roses. I have so many plans for here—but will do like the island for now—plant things that will survive on their own. Lupines grow wild all over here, so I have several already—and a fat bed of blue flags –small irises – I used to gather them with golden daylilies for grandpa’s birthday bouquet—never missed a year while they were on the farm—except when I was in Africa.
Moving in completely is taking a long time—I keep opening boxes with more treasures in them. The egg cabinet is all arranged—but seems twice as full as I remember. I decided to paint the little room that will be my office and another guest bedroom—it has planets around the top of the walls—not my taste—and I got a piece of indoor outdoor dark red carpeting, so furniture will sit more easily—the whole house leans this way and that,--the office sinks to the middle, so the office chair rolls downhill—will have to move the secretary…;) I am also working on the mudroom, which is quite spacious—but now full of gardening tools and camping stuff—I got plastic shelves for storage and will put up hooks. I gleaned two porcelain door knobs off an old door in the hopes of creating a coat rack like I saw in Santa Fe—all made of old door knobs—very chic.
–Oh, and Babbo—tell Mohammed that the sideboard he rescued for me is up and functioning and looks VERY nice. I was able to replace one leg and put a square of wood under the corner that is not visible in the room. I got shelving and brackets to put up the Robin Lovrien memorial shelves, that I have in every house I live in—over the sideboard. Anna and Jason can attest to the way everything seems to fit right in and look great in this house. Everyone has commented on how homey it looks already. I polished one brass table and am contemplating the other……and the wooden box shelves—Julie,, do you remember those from your childhood at Farragut Street? --look great in the living room/ In the interest of the shabby chic look, Anna has forbidden me to stain them so they would look newer---they are full of the usual artifacts—shells, boxes, iron pieces, the Haitian angel, that iron candlestick thing, books, games, African pottery….you know….
I have been going to the local libraries to get on the computer—Steuben has a nice, tiny library literally up the street from my house—it has only one computer but free wireless, so I will be there a lot now that I have Merm’s computer. I have also gone up to Milbridge, which has a tiny library in a terrible, run down crowded building housing the town offices among other things. It has four computers that are hardly ever in use so I can stay there a long time (Lily permitting). I asked the librarian why they were there, and as any librarian can relate, I am sure, she told me the whole long sad story of Milbridge locals basically not wanting to pay for a library because they don’t think they need one. Beatrice Fish told me the Steuben library suffers from the same attitude—it is the people from away who are increasingly supporting the libraries.
I also went down to Ellsworth yesterday—it has a grand, newly renovated library in a beautiful old house on the Union River—but limited time on the computers…Ellsworth reminds me of Georgetown—shops like “ Seaglass Creations, The Plot Thickens ( garden shop, of course) The Bookshelf and Cleonice—a FABULOUS tapas bar—plus one of the world’s BEST kitchen shops—money is a wonderful thing.
Speaking of money--- I have three –no, five—wonderful contracts (haven’t heard from the dissertation grant application yet) and will be able to pay for my credits as soon as I can submit them!!! AND < I will be able to buy myself a laptop at last—One of my contracts is to create and facilitate an online course!! I am so excited about that—and I have an invitation to a conference in Dallas in early August—I HATE Dallas in early August—but it is good money—and I will get to see the Lovrien boys, I hope. ( I am hearing that Texas around Austin is about to float away—poor people—they don’t know what water is……)
But to get this $$ I have to spend a lot of time writing and researching—thank you MOOMIE, for letting me use your computer to get started. It will give me good focus to be able to work at home—then run up the street to connect to the internet and send things and check e-mail. I have to balance work and house stuff—my carrot. I work 4-6 hours and then launch on some project or other.
Kitty Baby is loving this house—she sleeps in the sun and climbs the stairs to perch on my feet. Lily loves Maine a lot---she gets to be out a lot—though there is no fence yet—we can walk in lots of places where she can be off leash. The only hard part is that she will not be apart from me without hysterical barking. I finally decided to leave her at home rather than leave her in her cage in the car—it is cooler and she might as well suck it up. I am missing a water dog, though, and may decide to get her a spaniel companion. I miss Tessie to this day.
Well—I am trying your patience, I am sure—but it is hard not to have anyone to share all the fun with. Write me---all of you—and come when you can. I was due for visits from the Bennetts, but they didn’t come and Lisa can’t come because she is waiting for hip replacement surgery. Gresches ARE coming at the end of July. Except for this week, it is usually cool and lovely here—have only slept WITHOUT a duvet one night!! The huge bullfrogs across the street in the tiny pond croak me to sleep…
Oh –forgot to tell you about the newest suitor—a navy veteran in the assisted living house next door—he is so lonely—Lily and I stop and talk and now he says he is looking for a mate, should I be interested……he is fat and unkempt ( I am talking dried snot on the nose…) but may clean up nice—I promised him we could go to eat somewhere sometime—no cost to being nice to him. He brought me a lobster last week—made great lobster salad…..:))
Love, Mama.
Dear family ones all---
Whoohoo!! On Merm’s computer at last!! The cretins with 2-digit IQ’s sent the missing powercord pronto…(for those of you who don’t know, Andrew Bennett picked up the computer from repair last week and sent it to me, but the store did not give him the power cord that goes with the computer…..duh…so I called them yesterday and said I was a doctoral student without a computer and they had better send it ASAP, which they did.)
Although I am loaded with work to do, I have been waiting to be on this computer to be able to write a letter to you all to catch you up on Maine.
I arrived here the 8th, after three long days of driving in my PACKED Honda with cat and Lily crammed in the front passenger space. I had with me a very cute drop-leaf table and 4 leaves, a gorgeous vanity and large round mirror (fully 36” in diameter), lamps, rugs, pillows, bedding ( two eiderdowns, covers, electric bedpad and blanket), table linens, pots, pans, books, dishes, dishes and more dishes and decorative items, five folding chairs of different kinds, 4 tote bags of clothes and one of shoes (no room for suitcases) and 7 ( count them SEVEN) briefcases and bags of files and references. Plus jammed in the back I had camping “e-qvipment” –inflatable mattress, bedding, single burner camp stove, tent, and minimal food and prep stuff.
After leaving my pretty apartment in Wausau with newly planted gardens all around in the hands of neighbors and Anna G’s friend Jan, I drove from 1 PM to 9:30 and got as far as the Sault Ste. Marie (known to all in Michigan, Canada and Wisconsin as simply the “soo” (Sault is pronounced soo). I found a gorgeous state (Michigan) run camp ground that cost $8/ night and was on the shore of Lake Superior and had only camping trailers besides me. I gleefully figured out how to put up the tent and mattress etc., took a walk in the dark with Lily to explore a bit—and then it started to rain—there went plans for a hot dinner. I stuffed cat and dog and food and clothes in the tent—poor animals were FREAKED out by rain pounding on the tent—Lily –a tick anyway—would not even let me go to the car right next to the tent without barking wildly—in a campground that was quiet as a proverbial cemetery… sigh.
I kept my chin up and set up the bedding—but found I did not have enough—and shivered in the damp and cold all night. Lily was wild to go out at 6 AM –so I gave up and decided to strike camp and get on with my trip. Everything was wet ( not bedding –except damp from surrounding air)—but rain held off for a couple of hours and I was able to partially dry the tent while I tried out my little burner and my Italian coffee pot, which worked like a charm.
Whether or not the border would be easy to cross had worried me for literally weeks—and I made the large tactical error of applying for a Wisconsin driver’s license just a few days before I left—only to find out that TSA has made our lives even more complicated by delaying delivery of licenses by 10 days while they check you out. I argued like crazy that I was going to be crossing the border and driving all over and the receipt they gave me for a license would not be enough, but of course it is like arguing with a bronze statue. I also had the foresight to get the animals vaccinated and get the appropriate papers, and to find out from Geico that the papers I had telling me I had insurance was sufficient for Canada. To my pleasant surprise, the Canadians were happy enough with my passport (still in the name of Lovrien Schwarz) , looked at my papers for the animals and waved me on with a smile.
Driving in Canada was both wonderful and awful—wonderful because I had never been in that part of Ontario and found it enchanting—rivers and lakes and mountains in the distance—very pretty—and lots and lots of gorgeous waysides—everyone on a beautiful body of water of some kind. Awful because highway 17, which is pretty much a straight shot from the Soo to Montreal, is 2-lane—with the addition of passing lanes every 8- 10 KM—and plagued with trucks and it passes through every GD town in central and eastern Ontario, too.
We got to the west side of Montreal, bypassing Ottawa, and again it was very late—I had stopped often to let dog AND cat out—cat on a harness and leash, though she is too arthritic to do much running—and to eat and get coffee because I was dead tired from stress and not much sleep…..I had decided after a rough night of camping to bag camping and find a motel—easier to let out the animals and get a hot shower without Lily going wild outside the shower house.
I had gotten AAA travel information on Ontario, but it was not much help with motels where I was, so I turned off the road and went to the first thing I saw—the Hotel Capri—Capri it was NOT……an east-Indian run dump of a place—but I asked the manager if he took animals and he hesitated a minute and said, “Sure, why not? Can I put you in a smoking room at the back?” It was—location wise—perfect –just a few feet from the back door of the hotel, which opened to a weedy parking lot and empty lot next door—Lily heaven.
But the room—let’s see—two beds of different sizes with different covers, two TV’s on a Home Depot folding table—one for games one for snowy local stations—IF you could match remotes and plug in the right TV…huge mirror in bathroom—5 feet by 3 at least—coming off the wall and wedged in behind the sink counter at a scary angle, one bulb of 5 in the lights over the sink, rusty toilet….but he took animals…and we all slept much better.
The third day was much easier—for having slept-- I still had cereal and milk and made my own coffee on my burner in the bathroom—greatest idea since I don’t know WHAT!! Off we headed through AWFUL roads and construction around Montreal to a gorgeous highway in high hills in southern Quebec Province and then headed past lovely little towns to New Hampshire. I stopped in one town in Quebec at what looked like an ordinary IGA to get some lunch stuff—and it was at least as good as Whole Foods—only with French/Quebecois goodies like paté, unusual yoghurts, etc. I loaded up! (no veg, though—border ahead…) Once again getting knots thinking about the border, I was seriously surprised—I crossed at a TINY little station with one lady in charge—she glanced at my passport and said “Welcome back” and did not even look at the animal papers……if anyone wants to smuggle in anything—might want to try there……
Now we were on seriously 2-lane roads winding, and I do mean winding, through a corner of New Hampshire and then on into Maine—passed Dixon Notch then Grafton Notch and miles of rivers, lakes, and deep, remote forest. It felt like a foreign country—soon arrived at Route 2, which comes to 95 below Bangor and finally were on the home stretch—arrived at 8:30-still broad daylight—to a yard with waist-high grass and things just as I left them—so many familiar things!!
I had already made arrangements to meet my friend Anne at the bakery first thing Sat. AM—so Lily and I walked down there – about ¼ mile—and then to the bakery-another ¼ mile—where we met the whole neighborhood and had great coffee and organic blueberry squares. Everyone knows the Fishes, so saying I was Jason’s mother-in-law always brought smiles. One man told me Jason had worked for him for several summers.
Then it was off to Milbridge—the next sizeable town up the highway—to the organic farmers’ market. How to describe the little gathering of about 6 vendors—in tie-dye, overalls, long hair, unshaven arm pits, children with blond dreads or just plain unkempt hair…..named Oceana and Blue and Sky —selling EXPENSIVE goat’s milk cheese and yoghurt, maple syrup, handmade castile soap, rugs made from hand raised sheep—(rugs started at $1,000…..) organic herbs and vegetables, etc. …It was hard not to imagine that these were all children of solidly middle class homes in Boston, NY, Chicago, etc who chose to “live natural” –it was 1968 in the flesh….not one was a native Mainer and the natives do not buy there—but there are enough people “from away” now to support them.
As Mormor would say—“each to his own, said the old lady as she kissed the cow…”
On to the newly expanded Bayside Supermarket—which puts every Wisconsin super market to shame with its variety and carefully chosen selection of goods—also chosen with the people from away in mind—great wine, organic fruits and vegetables, great cheeses, premium meats, etc—and lots of choices of high fiber bread, to my joy.
Needless to say, once I got the groceries home, I pretty much collapsed! Lily and I went down to dinner at Anne’s—she is yet another splendid soup maker (how do I fall on them—Mary, then Laura, then Anna Gresch, now Anne??) --and enjoyed fresh corn, my bread from the fancy store in Quebec, goat’s milk mozzarella balls in oil with basil and garlic, and some soup sort of like pho—yum!!
The next few days were spent getting stuff out of the car and getting a room ready for Anna and Jason, who were due the 14th on their way to Jason’s sister’s wedding. I had to go shopping at Marden’s—remember Marden’s you guys????? (it’s one of those job lot stores—we shopped there in island days) Heaven—got all kinds of things on my list for the house—tools, kitchen stuff, pint, garden tools, and a new mattress-=-the one here is pretty awful. Then it was off to Providence, where I stayed with Lisa and she took in Lily while I continued on to DC—that chapter you all pretty much know about. The best part—other than Babbo’s and my outing to a wonderful production of Pirates of Penzance—was that the school where I have been consulting reported that they were extremely pleased with my work and the effect of it and they want me back for next year, which puts me in DC about every two months.
I drove to Providence because Lisa had offered a futon for the house—but once I looked it over, I realized it was huge and gainly and there was no place for it, really. So back to Boston, where, as I had privately plotted, I hit the big three in Brookline: Clear Flour Bakery (got about 2 weeks worth of bread and morning buns—and some of that fruit spread I had longed for and never tried) then on to Cheap Chic, the best second hand furniture and furnishings store in the east, on Harvard at Brighton Ave, where I found a great bookshelf, ironing board and blender—not having the futon was the key here!!—and then to TJ’s on Beacon—the HOME TJ’s. Passed Dwight with great longing—what a great apartment.
Got in late Sat the 16th and realized Anna and Jason had never made it—turns out there had been an air traffic controller slowdown on the 14th and they sat for hours in three different airports and spent the night in Portland instead.
It has been a busy time since then—ALL the Fishes—well, all here in Maine—6 plus Anna--came for dinner for Yassa---got to use my cute new table—except that when I went to open it, one half fell over because it was not fastened to the leg mechanism… spent 45 minutes on my back putting it together—but later had to redo the entire mechanism. But I got to use all the Hadley and Babbo’s stem glasses he gave me, and the Dansk silver ware and candle holders from Anna Gresch—it was great!!! I did the yassa the day before—something like 6 pounds of chicken—and there was not an onion piece left!!
I had dinner at the Fishes twice, too—lots of fun to have the big family meals. Anna and Jason spent one night here—Jason was too long for the antique bedstead—Anna stayed one more night and then moved to the Fishes. She enjoyed the gorgeous vanity and she and I got to do one day of junking together--- we went further north to Cherryfield –about 20 miles from Steuben-- and found a pretty, tiny antique and art shop in an old bank building. The shop was being minded by an elderly gentleman who turned out to be a neighbor here in Steuben along with his partner—he was Frederic, the other is Richard—of course they have one of the cutest houses and by far the most beautiful garden!! Transplants from Virginia. Anna and I found two other wonderful junkier shops, where, Jules, we can find many dishes etc. for your future store!!
Last week, the new friend Agnes- the one who has property near me and whom I met in New Jersey when there with Laura in Feb. 06 and with whom I came to Maine last summer and found my house—came up last week with her daughter, Annette, to their new house—a prefab cape cod –cute as a button—which sits out on the point of the wharf road. Agnes is 80+ but a ball of fire—runs a literacy program in Ocean County, NJ—her daughter is in her 50’s—very nice 5th grade teacher who works in a greenhouse in the summer. We hung out all last Saturday—bakery, then booksale in Milbridge supporting the library, then antiquing—I introduced Agnes to Richard and Frederick—then lunch and they came for dinner here—chicken korma with that amazing sauce from TJ’s.
Other neighbors, Steve and Linda, are from Maryland—Frederick—and have had us ( me, and then Agnes and Annette) in twice for wine and cheese and a look at their amazing 200 yr. old house with original fireplaces, double staircases and views to kill for down the cove. They are redecorating in high “rich” style—deep reds and creams, oriental rugs on dark floors, library lined with fancy books and leather furniture. They have two of the unruliest dogs imaginable—a boxer and a setter—both just 6 months old—Lily HATES them!!
And last night I had Anne and her two little kids, Hattie (6) and Beckett (9), in for more yassa. (Dad was at a school board meeting.) They ate like there was no tomorrow—corn and salad and rice and chicken—ice cream and nectarines for dessert. They are cute kids—even if they have been raised in full “natural’ style- never disciplined, never apart from parents—literally—and Beckett and three other 4 year olds were present at Hattie’s birth… in a tub of water in the middle of their living room. I paled….Beckett is in public school this year because they couldn’t afford the Waldorf-type program where he had been—he was not, says his mother, “introduced to reading yet” at the Waldorf school—which caused considerable consternation at the public school when he started second grade essentially illiterate…..their house is built entirely of recycled material and they have their own solar power-they are entirely “ off the grid”—in more ways than one…. Anne now has a conventional job running the adult learning program in Sumner, down the coast—she has lived all over—a long time in Sri Lanka, where her parents were educators, I think, and in eastern Europe. She is really interesting—and a fun friend.
(WOW—here I sit in the middle of nowhere in downeast Maine and in three days I have had three special deliveries from UPS and FedEx (computer, its cord and a contract)—the neighbors must be puzzled….)
(And more Maine-only news—three people killed when they collided with a moose—and another vehicle attempting to avoid it….I have yet to see a moose—Linda ( neighbor) said she saw a moose cow and calf last week across the cove from them)
So--- Maine is FUN—social and gorgeous. Every morning Lily and I walk down to the wharf road, past Agne’s house, and observe the state of the tide—dead low in the days when we first arrived, now high-- the shore is muddy here so it is hard to walk at low tide, but the bubble sea weed is everywhere, and the sea lavender is just getting ready to bloom ( remember Jane Braun collecting it on the island?)
Yesterday I heard a lot of laughing and screaming just below the house and Lily and I went down to see what was going on. The wonderful family next door, the Martins, were all ) Mom, dad, 12 yr old son, 14? Yr old daughter, 6 yr old daughter) down at the stream and pond—son Tylor and littlel girl and dad were swimming and throwing sticks for their gorgeous big black lab, Tunk. Mom and older girl sitting on huge wonderful rocks in the rapids. It was a lovely afternoon and the view down the cove was amazing. The bald eagle was hovering in the tree near by ( I am just listening to a report from Maine Things Considered that the Maine bald eagle is about to be taken off the national endangered species list—429 nesting pairs were sighted this year) – right out of Norman Rockwell
Today Lily and I walked around on Roger’s Point, which is the point past the Fishes—it sticks out facing east and west and has little satellites which are islands at high tide—I love to walk around them at low tide because they are so reminiscent of the island—tall pines and grass surrounded by rocky beaches and ledges of granite covered with that bubbly seaweed,- beaches crunchy with mussel shells and snails and broken clams and those little conch-looking shells the seagulls eat--boats everywhere—it is a fun place. There were several people there today because it is so hot—everyone was cooling off. Three ladies were up to their knees in the water—I asked if their legs were numb—one said, “Well, if you stand in one place a few minutes you can stand it” – remember that feeling at the island??? Only the crazies swim in the ocean!!
Needless to say I have been gardening, too. I have discovered a few plants here—but have had to re--dig beds—I did the one in front of my house and put in hostas, which I harvested in DC in March—poor things flew to Wisconsin in a suitcase, then sat in bags for weeks and weeks and then got sent to Maine in a box because they couldn’t go to Canada—they are slowly recovering. I painted the window boxes fresh black and put in impatiens and put boxes of flowers on my little deck along with rail pots with herbs—it is even better than Wisconsin in being so handy!! I have wonderful new friends from up the highway toward Milbridge who come to mow and they are going to help me rototill the gardens because I am sick of sod busting. Then I will transplant irises, daisies and roses—LOTS of roses. I have so many plans for here—but will do like the island for now—plant things that will survive on their own. Lupines grow wild all over here, so I have several already—and a fat bed of blue flags –small irises – I used to gather them with golden daylilies for grandpa’s birthday bouquet—never missed a year while they were on the farm—except when I was in Africa.
Moving in completely is taking a long time—I keep opening boxes with more treasures in them. The egg cabinet is all arranged—but seems twice as full as I remember. I decided to paint the little room that will be my office and another guest bedroom—it has planets around the top of the walls—not my taste—and I got a piece of indoor outdoor dark red carpeting, so furniture will sit more easily—the whole house leans this way and that,--the office sinks to the middle, so the office chair rolls downhill—will have to move the secretary…;) I am also working on the mudroom, which is quite spacious—but now full of gardening tools and camping stuff—I got plastic shelves for storage and will put up hooks. I gleaned two porcelain door knobs off an old door in the hopes of creating a coat rack like I saw in Santa Fe—all made of old door knobs—very chic.
–Oh, and Babbo—tell Mohammed that the sideboard he rescued for me is up and functioning and looks VERY nice. I was able to replace one leg and put a square of wood under the corner that is not visible in the room. I got shelving and brackets to put up the Robin Lovrien memorial shelves, that I have in every house I live in—over the sideboard. Anna and Jason can attest to the way everything seems to fit right in and look great in this house. Everyone has commented on how homey it looks already. I polished one brass table and am contemplating the other……and the wooden box shelves—Julie,, do you remember those from your childhood at Farragut Street? --look great in the living room/ In the interest of the shabby chic look, Anna has forbidden me to stain them so they would look newer---they are full of the usual artifacts—shells, boxes, iron pieces, the Haitian angel, that iron candlestick thing, books, games, African pottery….you know….
I have been going to the local libraries to get on the computer—Steuben has a nice, tiny library literally up the street from my house—it has only one computer but free wireless, so I will be there a lot now that I have Merm’s computer. I have also gone up to Milbridge, which has a tiny library in a terrible, run down crowded building housing the town offices among other things. It has four computers that are hardly ever in use so I can stay there a long time (Lily permitting). I asked the librarian why they were there, and as any librarian can relate, I am sure, she told me the whole long sad story of Milbridge locals basically not wanting to pay for a library because they don’t think they need one. Beatrice Fish told me the Steuben library suffers from the same attitude—it is the people from away who are increasingly supporting the libraries.
I also went down to Ellsworth yesterday—it has a grand, newly renovated library in a beautiful old house on the Union River—but limited time on the computers…Ellsworth reminds me of Georgetown—shops like “ Seaglass Creations, The Plot Thickens ( garden shop, of course) The Bookshelf and Cleonice—a FABULOUS tapas bar—plus one of the world’s BEST kitchen shops—money is a wonderful thing.
Speaking of money--- I have three –no, five—wonderful contracts (haven’t heard from the dissertation grant application yet) and will be able to pay for my credits as soon as I can submit them!!! AND < I will be able to buy myself a laptop at last—One of my contracts is to create and facilitate an online course!! I am so excited about that—and I have an invitation to a conference in Dallas in early August—I HATE Dallas in early August—but it is good money—and I will get to see the Lovrien boys, I hope. ( I am hearing that Texas around Austin is about to float away—poor people—they don’t know what water is……)
But to get this $$ I have to spend a lot of time writing and researching—thank you MOOMIE, for letting me use your computer to get started. It will give me good focus to be able to work at home—then run up the street to connect to the internet and send things and check e-mail. I have to balance work and house stuff—my carrot. I work 4-6 hours and then launch on some project or other.
Kitty Baby is loving this house—she sleeps in the sun and climbs the stairs to perch on my feet. Lily loves Maine a lot---she gets to be out a lot—though there is no fence yet—we can walk in lots of places where she can be off leash. The only hard part is that she will not be apart from me without hysterical barking. I finally decided to leave her at home rather than leave her in her cage in the car—it is cooler and she might as well suck it up. I am missing a water dog, though, and may decide to get her a spaniel companion. I miss Tessie to this day.
Well—I am trying your patience, I am sure—but it is hard not to have anyone to share all the fun with. Write me---all of you—and come when you can. I was due for visits from the Bennetts, but they didn’t come and Lisa can’t come because she is waiting for hip replacement surgery. Gresches ARE coming at the end of July. Except for this week, it is usually cool and lovely here—have only slept WITHOUT a duvet one night!! The huge bullfrogs across the street in the tiny pond croak me to sleep…
Oh –forgot to tell you about the newest suitor—a navy veteran in the assisted living house next door—he is so lonely—Lily and I stop and talk and now he says he is looking for a mate, should I be interested……he is fat and unkempt ( I am talking dried snot on the nose…) but may clean up nice—I promised him we could go to eat somewhere sometime—no cost to being nice to him. He brought me a lobster last week—made great lobster salad…..:))
Love, Mama.
6/12/07
Merm-- so glad you sent this-- this is my first chance at a computer ( at the local library down the street from my house-- god bless libraries!!) and I haven't read the blog yet, but will do so. NO I have not heard from the Apple people-- will call before I go down to Provi tomorrow.
To all: Maine is beyond sublime. I will have a very hard time leaving here, for sure. I have already spent great time with my friend Ann, who lives down the road 1/4 mile and who runs a county literacy prorgram nearby. We have been to the local organic bakery for breakfast with the entire wider community, shopped at the local organic farmers' market( read seriously HIPPIE and expensive farmers of wool, goats, beef and pigs who turn those things and their by-products into wildly expensive "natural" products while looking like they are living in 1968-- no lie. Needless to say they are ALL from away, and none of the locals actually shop at that market....) and had dinner with her adorable 6 year old Hattie while husband Bob and son Beckett were away fixing up rental cottages Bob's family owns. Then I had wine and snacks with another neighbor closer==she and her husband moved here from Marlyand last summer. All these people are of course PLU in the sense of being connected to outside affairs and not being flaming right wingers, which some of the locals are. However, the locals have been great too--particularly my next door neighbor Joan who gets the Angel of the Year award for looking after my house and sending her kids over to help me carry things. etc.
My house it just perfect-- now sort of topsy turvy as I try to place the newest load of candles, dishes, linens, lamps etc --most from Anna Gresch--
Yesterday I shopped at Mardens-- oh bliss oh joy-- and found many wonderful things I had on my must have list-- such as can opener, measuring tape, level, kitchen scrub brushes and a MATTRESS. The one that was left to me would be less comfortable than an Alpine slope....
We have had hot weather interspersed with the usual Maine showers=-- it is a lovely time of year here-- green and full of wildflowers. Lily and I take regular walks down the wharf road nearby to look at the beach at high tide low tide and inbetween tides. We also go to the point of the peninsula--about 3 miles down--where the little coastal islands look JUST like our island area.
I do hope you can one by one come and enjoy the house soon-=Merm, it will be more than ready for you and a crowd to enjoy in the fall.
Jules and Babbo--doesn't Moomie's message make you want to see East Africa? I just can't imagine how interesting it must be. Sounds like the adjustment time has been good, Moom. I mean getting used to a so much slower pace and type of life-- THAT is pretty much the same all over Africa, from what I know and hear about.
It is wonderful you are staying with M'Kaya's aunt--what a great set up. I wish like crazy I was there with you.
Must get to my work for now --don't want to hog this computer. More very soon all-- Love you Mama.
To all: Maine is beyond sublime. I will have a very hard time leaving here, for sure. I have already spent great time with my friend Ann, who lives down the road 1/4 mile and who runs a county literacy prorgram nearby. We have been to the local organic bakery for breakfast with the entire wider community, shopped at the local organic farmers' market( read seriously HIPPIE and expensive farmers of wool, goats, beef and pigs who turn those things and their by-products into wildly expensive "natural" products while looking like they are living in 1968-- no lie. Needless to say they are ALL from away, and none of the locals actually shop at that market....) and had dinner with her adorable 6 year old Hattie while husband Bob and son Beckett were away fixing up rental cottages Bob's family owns. Then I had wine and snacks with another neighbor closer==she and her husband moved here from Marlyand last summer. All these people are of course PLU in the sense of being connected to outside affairs and not being flaming right wingers, which some of the locals are. However, the locals have been great too--particularly my next door neighbor Joan who gets the Angel of the Year award for looking after my house and sending her kids over to help me carry things. etc.
My house it just perfect-- now sort of topsy turvy as I try to place the newest load of candles, dishes, linens, lamps etc --most from Anna Gresch--
Yesterday I shopped at Mardens-- oh bliss oh joy-- and found many wonderful things I had on my must have list-- such as can opener, measuring tape, level, kitchen scrub brushes and a MATTRESS. The one that was left to me would be less comfortable than an Alpine slope....
We have had hot weather interspersed with the usual Maine showers=-- it is a lovely time of year here-- green and full of wildflowers. Lily and I take regular walks down the wharf road nearby to look at the beach at high tide low tide and inbetween tides. We also go to the point of the peninsula--about 3 miles down--where the little coastal islands look JUST like our island area.
I do hope you can one by one come and enjoy the house soon-=Merm, it will be more than ready for you and a crowd to enjoy in the fall.
Jules and Babbo--doesn't Moomie's message make you want to see East Africa? I just can't imagine how interesting it must be. Sounds like the adjustment time has been good, Moom. I mean getting used to a so much slower pace and type of life-- THAT is pretty much the same all over Africa, from what I know and hear about.
It is wonderful you are staying with M'Kaya's aunt--what a great set up. I wish like crazy I was there with you.
Must get to my work for now --don't want to hog this computer. More very soon all-- Love you Mama.
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