Here was the view from my office desk this morning...How does it compare to yours?

She visits every morning, sometimes alone and sometimes with another, smaller female. I'm getting very attached to her and look forward to seeing her each day. Cross your fingers that she makes it through hunting season.....

Today is the first of four days of non-stop fun!

I have been working waaaay to hard - so I had only a half day today and then met with my Writing Sisters of the Kick Ourselves in the Ass Club. We met at the Bohemian Moma's Bakery - need I say anything more???

Tomorrow I head to Detroit (Maine) to play with my newest grandson, Karlin, YAY YAY and YAY, and then meet friends in Bangor for the annual art studio tour and a pub visit! On Saturday a.m., I'm meeting more friends in Ellsworth for our yearly shopping-for-ourselves-while-we-pretend-to-shop-for-others extravaganza!

Sunday a.m. I am beginning to tile the bathroom floor - I'll post pix!
Could this be any better of a line up?
WAHOO! Let the fun begin!

oh allergies! oh allergies!

Well it turns out the very medicine we had all been forcing down Kiley's throat for her ear infection was one she was allergic to - it was actually making her sicker!

Today = new medicine = sleeping 12 hours through the night = a happy baby.

Finally, oh joy!

Well, it will be back to the doctor's office tomorrow.

Look at that poor sick little girl and her fever-struck red lips...how miserable is she?

We seem to just be passing the germs around and around and around here. First me, then Matt, then Kiley and Faye. Then we all seem to get better and then Matt gets sick again. Now poor little Kiley.
Last week's fever turned out to be an ear infection (she told her mom she had a bug in her ear!) and once the meds kicked in, she almost seemed her same old self.
Until about 1 a.m. this morning. She awoke with the fever again and is so listless and sick.
I think it is her throat now as she is visibly cringing when she swallows.
I wish the weather was a bit colder - we could turn off the heat, open all the windows and kill all the rotten germs we seem to be passing around....

ooooooooooo somebody is sick...

Faye just brought Kiley to my door on their way to the pediatrician's office. She woke this a.m. (2 a.m. to be exact) with a 103 degree fever and although there has been some cooling off and on throughout the day, she appears worse this afternoon.

It is so hard to see them sick: she is such a lively, active little girl and she is just so listless with her flushed cheeks and her bright red lips. You can tell it hurts her to swallow and so it has been pedialite frozen pops all day and Tylenol...

Sorry, I got distracted!

Introducing Karlin Thomas Mack - one day old. My son Danny and my daughter-in-law Amanda had him last night at 10:05 p.m. 7 pounds 20 inches long and perfect. I didn't make the birth because she went so quickly. Amanda was put on bed rest three months ago and she has been incredible - no matter how bored or scared or worried she got, she did exactly what her doctors told her to.
And look at the perfect result!!! I spent the day nuzzling and smelling and hugging and kissing him. I got to feed him and darn near kidnapped him when I left......This is happiness. AHHHH.

I'm painting!

Tomorrow I'll post some photos that show a painting in progress...but for now, I'm having so much fun that I'm not going to stop!

Look at this cute little face....but don't be deceived!

Hello. My name is Anthony the Awful. And Yes, I am sitting right inside your bird feeder.

I dazzle you with my good looks - my big brown eyes. My cute little hands. My big bushy tail.
And then I attack.
I tear apart your bird feeders, ripping the plastic apart like it was a Vanilla Wafer.
I fight with my brothers, banging off the side of the house as I drive your dog to distraction, and I knock everything down.

What? You think tapping on the window will drive me out of the flat bird feeder?
HA and another HA
I'm not afraid of you, you silly woman.

After all, I am Super Squirrel. Leader of the Pack. King of the bird food station. I laugh at your attempts to feed the stupid little chickadees, or the sad little mourning doves, and even the noisy bluejays.

You can't stop me. I am an eating machine. And I'm here to stay.
Now get your ass out here and fill this feeder back up. And bring a couple of those apples too.

I love my buying club!!

A bowl full of fresh carrots - liberally sprinkled with sea salt from the Narrows at Lubec and fresh cracked black pepper...

A panful of brussells sprouts sauteing in butter and oil, and soon to be finished off with a splash of fresh squeezed lemon...

Every week, I get an email telling me what the special offerings are for the upcoming week and I email my order back. It couldn't be simpler: the email arrives each Thursday and I have until Saturday night to make my choices.
About six farmers participate in my buying club and so there is a wide range of produce and products. I can get fruit spreads, cow and goat milk, artisanal goat cheeses, organic meats, lobsters, all kinds of veggies, handmade breads, and even natural soaps. I can buy as little as a pound or as much as a gross. I pick up my order each Tuesday at a nearby coordinator's home and I pay $1 for the handling of the order. Fresh from the farms that very morning!!!!

These glorious veggies were part of last week's order. Today I ordered Spicy Rye Bread (which is so dark and contains raisins and nuts), ricotta, and frozen blueberries.

Eat your hearts out.....yummmmmmmy.

here's a riddle: what could be worse than

first, breaking a big toe (right before a big walking trip),

and then going to a Haunted House and catching the flu and ending up in bed for 4 days,

and then having that flu fly up into your head as a full blown head cold,

and then staying up til 2 a.m. counting ballots when the entire F'ING state votes the WRONG WAY,

and then having to ride around Cobscook Bay the next morning in an open boat when it is 41 degrees?

What could be worse than all that?

Waking up this morning with a giant stye on my left eyelid.

Please. please... just shoot me now.

It was a great Hallowe'en party!

Nikki (Cianchette) Steeves drove up to Machias from Pittsfield with her two adorable (and extraordinarily sweet and well behaved) boys for a special Halloween celebration with my daughter. The two "girls" were schoolmates and have remained close. There was pizza, a scavenger hunt and lots of making scary faces! Cole was a vampire and Drew was The Hulk, but had to forgo his mask because it scared Kiley!


It took him a while to figure out how to get the stem, but Drew did well in the apple dunking contest.

Cole plowed right in and went under - he was a bit tentative about biting, though - he has a loose tooth in the front!

Even my daughter Faye got in on the act!

And here is Kiley's booty: She thought it was much more fun to grab an apple from the water, eat a bit of it and then go for another. Not a bad idea after all....

cranberries galore!

Aren't they beautiful?? I went to a harvest this week and it was so interesting: men and women in waders, waist deep in 47 degree water, and the berries were so beautiful. Berries grown in Maine are three times the size of others and a much darker red...Yummy. I swear I would eat dog poop if it had cranberries in it. My favorite? Cranberry Orange Marmalade....wow.

What a week: a stabbing, a trial for two boys accused of beating some other kids because the other kids are Indians, and a WHOLE bunch of other stuff. I'm not complaining though - some of my dear friends had to literally lock themselves in their homes because there was a manhunt for a killer in their neighborhood...Luckily they caught the guy nonchalantly having a cup of coffee this morning in a nearby restaurant. Clearly looney....

Today and this weekend are likely to be just as hectic. They still haven't found the two missing fishermen and I'm headed back to court today to deal with forgers!!!

Here I am ! Thanks for all your kind words....

This is my daughter, Faye, getting a tattoo from Tom - more on that later.

Friday actually was quite special. I was able to turn off and put away my little light in the window that I keep lit for Eric, who has been serving with the Army in Afghanistan. That handsome sergeant left Thursday night for the good old U.S.A.!!! He'll be home soon and I can't wait to get my hands on him!! We thought he wasn't going to be back until between Thanksgiving and Christmas so this is even more special.

In an effort to put that rotten week behind me, my daughter and I went on a shopping day in Ellsworth. No baby, no husband, just the two of us - I think it was the only time we've been just a pair in the 18 months since she had Kiley!

We had a ball - we hit Mardens first: great items!!! I got three new tops and a jacket, two new Halloween decorations and a Halloween book for Kiley that plays creepy sounds and I didn't spend $50!! We then went to Reny's and scored new winter mittens, etc., and some amazing malted milk balls covered with expresso and latte - oh my goddess, they are heavenly! We went to Home Depot and I got that puffy stuff that you seal up cracks with?? Wish me luck, I am attempting to seal the skunk out of my crawlspace tonight. I have already sprinkled flour around the hole so I'll know when he leaves, I have a dozens rocks that I'm going to fill the hole and pile on top and then I'll seal the whole thing with the puffy stuff. I also have a pile of golf balls waiting so that if he returns, I can pelt him and scare him away. If this doesn't work, I'm moving...

Our last stop on the shopping spree was Tom's Terrific Tattoos. I got the crown put on my little girl, officially making her a Queenie, and Faye got a sprinkling of stars that start up high on her shoulder and go to the front. Each star represents a family member and is the color of their birthdstones. It came out beautifully!

It poured on the way home and the wind and rain POUNDED all night but today is gorgeous - we spent much of the morning finishing outside chores to get ready for winter. I smashed my left pointer finger with the hammer - oooooo it is a ghastly shade of black and red - but we got so much done. Now I'm putting the finishing touches on my dinner. Faye and Matt and Kiley are coming over and I'm making a special caramel pudding cake for Matt since he not only let the dog out yesterday while we were gone, but he kept filling my woodstove so the house would be all warm and cozy. Now this is the kind of son-in-law everyone should have!!

Can't post tonight. I'm broken hearted.

I spent the day talking to sea urchin fishermen who are mourning the loss of three of their colleagues.

The Bottom Basher sank late yesterday in Cobscook Bay taking three young men with her to the bottom. One body has been recovered.

I am numb as is the entire Down East fishing community. This makes the sixth loss at sea in 11 months.

Quebec is a city full of art!

Even the garage doors are masterpieces - stupendous! Quebecians take advantage of every little space to bring art and beauty into their lives. There were tiny rooftop gardens, little backyard sanctuaries, and the window boxes were extravagant and still in bloom. The old city is enclosed in a wonderful stone wall - this is where the British and French fought with Canada as the prize - and even though the French lost, it is the predominant language. The beauty of the people, their language and their ways makes a visit oh so special.

Their ability to fine beauty everywhere obviously extends to the food - here at a restaurant called Largo - fabulous staff, unbelievable food. This is an olive tartine...

Even a simple Cobb Salad is divinely presented...

A little chocolate shop offered these amazing desserts....

And of course there is art at the Museum of Quebec - this chandelier, made completely of mismatched cups, saucers, dessert plates, candy dishes, etc., all in colored glass strung with fishing wire was so inspiring...

Even a simple door becomes art...

Or a light that represents a sea urchin.

Art, friends, wine - what more could I ask? We had a ball - we walked and ate and visited and laughed. All 11 of us enjoyed the weekend. Even the 4 1/2 hour ride up was entertaining because we had walkie-talkies in the three car caravan. Each evening, exhausted by all the walking up and down the hills of the old city, we gathered in my hotel room. We purchased salami, prosciutto, cheeses, olives, pate, fruit and candy at an amazing French market and then fig bread at a nearby bakery. We talked and laughed until we all began falling asleep.

Over and over this weekend I was struck by how fortunate I was to have this group of friends. They are smart - they are funny - and they are so dear to me. They are kind and caring, students of the world and loyal friends. I will save up each memory of this weekend and hold it close all winter long....

A vacation week...

Heading out tomorrow to spend a day and night with my dear friend Sue on Unity Pond before she heads to Florida for the winter....
All those chairs the artists decorated will be auctioned off Friday night, and then Saturday morning 11 of us good friends leave for Quebec City. Oui oui - it is a French vacation for me!
I'll post when I can but be assured I may be in a food and wine induced coma.

The tax man went DOWN!

I met with the Machias assessor today - he had revalued my home at $30,000 more than I paid for it, based on faulty information. He was able to remove two bedrooms that I don't have, a 1/2 bath that I don't have, a full basement that I don't have, remove the deck as it is dangerously decrepit, and since the kitchen and bathroom haven't been redone since the 1950s, mark them as "not modern.'' The result? He dropped $14,000 off my assessment, cutting my taxes by nearly $300.

Not bad.

Thank you Trudy. Sometimes it really does pay to speak up for yourself.

I am never swimming in the ocean again!

I was on a sea urchin dragger today - for those of you not from Down East, sea urchins are spiny little mollusks, about the size of a small apple, that crawl along the bottom of the ocean eating seaweed with a beak on their underside.
When cracked open, they reveal a bright orange-colored roe called "uni" in Japan, where it is an expensive delicacy.
Just 10 years ago, urchins were considered a nuisance but after the Japanese fished out their own urchin, they turned to Maine, Russia and China for a new supply. The critters are now worth around $2 a pound and the Cambodian importers were meeting the boats right there on the dock this afternoon. The guy whose boat I went on got $4,000 for just today's harvest.

So, I was on this urchin dragger and when the basket is opened up and dumps its contents on a big work table at the back of the boat OH MY GODDESS what unGoddessly creatures there were to behold:
There were sea cucumbers, a shapeless thing that sort of looks like a cucumber on steriods that can puddle itself into a black, slimy pancake. oh so gross.
There were sea caterpillars, all hairy and tentacley on one side, and all fleshy and ribbed on the other. an even worse gross.
There were unknown and unnamed things that looked like a big giant snot and then small red and white critters that looked like a shrimp gone beserk.
There were also rocks, lovely starfish, small green crabs (which eat the urchin and so the deckhands stepped on each and every one of them) and scallops that sat and clacked their big shells open and shut.
We were only in about 31 feet of water. I am never sticking even so much as a toe in the ocean again now that I now those disgusting creatures are so close to shore.
NEVER.
I just know I'm going to have nightmares tonight....

The Cardinal Family: who knew?

Here is Mr. Cardinal - I call him Red - watching carefully from the branches of the evergreen next to all the feeders.

Here is his daughter, Coral Cardinal, boldly gazing back at me while eating the seeds that have spilled on the ground.

And here is the son, Rusty Cardinal, who is completely ignoring me today....All these pictures were taken at the same time: I have a cardinal family that visits my feeder center several times a day. Who knew that cardinals were so family-oriented? There is papa - so gorgeous in his brilliant red coat; mama, a soft brown with touches and hints of red and a pretty feather sticking up on the top of her head; and the kids, at this point I think there are two females and a male but they move back and forth so quickly I may be counting someone twice.

They come in and hide in the brushy limbs of the evergreens and then jump down to get all the seeds off the ground that the chickadees and nuthatches have dropped from the feeders.

Twice or three times a day they visit: parents watching from the branches, kids much more brazen about eating. Is this normal, for a bird family to take outings to the local drive-in together? I really thought that birds were solitary creatures....

I may be projecting but from my desk, but the view outside my window of this family coming to visit is the highlight of my day.

wounded and barely walking...

Last weekend Kiley stayed with me while her mom and dad got a bit of a weekend away in Bar Harbor. We had a ball! We went to the library for a bug show, visited the playground at the nearby school, washed windows, picked up pine cones in the yard and had a feast on grilled cheese sandwiches.
But on Sunday afternoon, I did it again. Ms. Clumsiness personified went into the attic to get the Halloween decorations and in my rush to hurry back down the stairs to show Kiley, I fell. I broke my big toe. Actually, I cracked the area at the base right where my poor bunion is.
Damn this hurts. ouch. ouch. ouch.
I've been icing it and taking Tylenol (the ER doc told me that any other pain product inhibits the healing of bones - did you know that???)
I did too much Monday and paid dearly. My foot looked like it belonged to the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man. Yesterday I behaved myself and it was much better, although it has turned all black and gray. It still keeps waking me up throughout the night but it better be completely healed for the gang's upcoming trip to Quebec City!!!

Work has been amazing this past week - I found a new trail and beach: Bog Brook Preserve in Trescott. So incredibly isolated and beautiful. I will be bringing ALL my visitors to this one. Interviewed two guys who used to sell fish off the back of a truck and are now launching a national seafood product...and drove to Eastport to interview scallop fishermen (In case you want to know, I got it from the fishermen's mouths that it absolutely is pronounced SCOLLOP.)

I also got unbelievably lost trying to find a fatal tractor accident. The road dispatchers indicated was not on any map or in Google so I headed out blind and kept calling my photo department, other reporters, photographers, even our secretary to help me find my way. Of course I lost my cell signal every three feet so it became really challenging, to say the least.
I ended up on the back of the radar site in Columbia in the blueberry barrens when I should have been miles to the east in the woods. Eventually I spotted a rescue worker and followed him in. A poor young man had lost control of a farm tractor and tipped off the side of a wooden bridge (with no side rails) and ended up crushed under the tractor in the water.

The setting was incredibly beautiful - just feet away was a spectacular waterfall and this lovely bubbling brook was shrouded by autumn colors on the trees....so often I am struck by the raw horror of events that take place in some of the most spectacular environments. It seems so wrong, so inappropriate somehow. We all know that bad things happen to good people...as unacceptable as that is, it is insult to injury when the setting is beautiful. I've stood in peaceful woods while police recovered bodies; by the side of a lovely river, while accident victims were pried from their mangled cars; under flowering apple trees when firefighters collapsed and died at house fires.

I suppose I can find some peace in that if this horrible thing had to happen, let it happen in beauty. But it seems so oppositional - death should not visit in lovely places. It should not walk in gardens; alongside babbling brooks; near stunning waterfalls. It should creep through dark alleys that are littered with stinking garbage....

I am also finding that it takes longer and longer for me to spiritually get past one of these accidents. This boy was 21...what an incredible waste.

Today I have an a.m. interview with an amazing music professor and an afternoon story at a large animal rescue farm. And I'm looking forward to Friday - taking a pottery lesson at a nearby learning center. yay!

Going, going, almost gone.

I stopped by my favorite beach today after lunch. I sat for a bit and read, wearing long pants and a sweater. The sun warmed my face and I slid my bare feet along the hot sand.

But it won't last. As I tucked my beach chair into the back of the car, I wondered how long before it is replaced with the snow brush and scraper.

Even the beach roses appear to have shrunk, as if in readiness from the cold onslaught from the sea. Only a blossom or two can still be found and the rose hips are red and ripe and full.

Last night I heard an owl and then the haunting sounds of geese flying overhead.
It's time to settle in; time to await the cold, the wind, the solitude winter brings out in me.
For me, this is a sad time. A tipping point - waiting on the edge of winter. And mourning the loss of summer.

The amazing walk....

Look at the people!!! There were more than 5,000 people - men, women, children and one crazy guy who painted his entire self pink - in the Race for the Cure Sunday in Bangor. Eight of us - nine including Kiley - were the Tu Tus for Ta Tas team. We raised more than $500 and I still can't get over how good I feel!

Here's the amazing team: workers at the Fat Cat Deli, my daughter's business, sons and boyfriends (my son in law behind the camera) myself and Kiley - perfect weather and perfect company.

Just when my feet started to hurt and I thought about complaining, I spotted this guy and said there was no way I wasn't finishing all 5K - and I did! Today my hips hurt a bit and my feet were killing me last night but it was worth every step.

On the backs of walkers/runners were the people they were walking for. I wrote the names on my sleeve: Babe Mack, Beth Hathaway, Brenda Beal, Sherry Thomas.

And this was how Kiley felt when the walk was over and we were enjoying a great dinner at the Texas Roadhouse - a great day!

ahhhh the beauty of art and artists...

It was a breezy and chilly Saturday. Even the seagulls huddled on the breakwater at Lubec. It was this coastal town's fall festival and a whole bunch of brave vendors lined Main Street: homemade jewelry, homemade sweaters, felted purses, little girls' dollies, extraordinary photography, dried sea grass wreaths... It was really nice and I bought a beautiful, funky pair of glass earrings.

My friend Chessie and I left the fair and headed on the Two Countries, One Bay art tour....45 different artists along Down East's most northern coast and around Cobscook Bay.

We visited four in Lubec: the glass artist, an assemblage artist (I didn't care for hers), a gallery full of wonders and an amazing, fabulous potter and weaver. I may be taking weaving lessons this winter! Her work is extraordinary and an inspiration...

Then, we crossed the FDR bridge onto Campobello and went to several more artists there. Chessie then showed me some beautiful beaches and hiking trails in Provincial Park, across from FDR's summer home and camps. The park is immaculate, with lovely viewing platforms, incredible views and wonderful beaches. To get to the different beaches you drive through woods where the trees have grown as a canopy, creating tunnels of the roads. I can't imagine how incredible it would look in the winter. Each little road off one of these "tunnels" brings you to another special spot: Sunshine Beach, Raccoon Beach, Friar's Head.....amazing. I can't wait to show my friends and family some of these places next summer!

It was a day of inspiration and regeneration. I haven't painted much (except walls!) since I've been here and I really needed to recharge my batteries. I have a half dozen ideas swirling in my head now. I just need to find the time! I've also been asked to teach a late-winter art class at Senior College at the University of Maine here in Machias. Stella needs to get her groove back!

Sunday was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Bangor - more than 5,000 of us. Our little team - The Tu Tus for Ta Tas - numbered nine, counting Kiley, and we wore tu tus for all 5K. Can't wait to show you the pictures tomorrow...it was so moving and impressive and meaningful.

Now I have to go soak my feet.....
Just a bit of color for you - some flowers in pots on one of the artists' porches Saturday. Thought you could use a bit of springtime as autumn bears down on us.

Oh I know I have been a slacker.....but I have a very good excuse!

I was kidnapped by PIRATES! Avast me hearties, it is true. This scalawag (who, I might add with a sad smirk, looks NOTHING like Johnny Depp) who is clearly impaired by too much rum and a bit of B.O., slung me over his back and whisked me away from all the fun I was having at the Eastport Pirate Festival! It was frightening...it was scary.....it was entirely expected... He offered me silver beads and gold doubloons but I refused. "You shiver me timbers! Away, you dirty buccaneer!'' I said, fighting for my long lost virtue. He wanted me to walk the plank but he forgot where he put it, so, it was off to the stocks for me...

My cries for help were not heard...the wenches were too busy baring their booties and the pirates were all over at the salmon tent gulping down kebobs. Where or where are my rescuers??? Then the fiend of the seas threw me on a big bed and raced me down the Main Street - everyone thought my cries of terror were screams of joy. ARRRGHHH - not true!! Luckily he gave me a helmet...and a life preserver.....

Then, just when I had given up all hope of seeing my loved ones again, who should appear but THE CENTRAL MAINE PRECISION MARCHING LAWN CHAIR DRILL TEAM!!!! (This is where the symphonic music plays.)
There was an amazing struggle but the scalawag and his motley crew were no match for middle aged people armed with webbed aluminum lawn chairs. My long lost virtue intact, my friends whisked me back to the parade, we all took a rest in chairs, and then hit the streets much to the delight of hundreds of people - the cheering was awesome, the compliments were many and we truly felt like heroes.
There was no trophy, no prizes, but since we were the only PRECISION MARCHING LAWN CHAIR DRILL TEAM in the parade, we declared ourselves the winners. Of course we then retired to other fun events and ended with a party in my living room - all my dearest of dearest of dearest friends....it was spectacular!
Here they are: MY 16 HEROS and SHEROS!

Vacation Day #14: A wonderful shower

This is my sweet daughter-in-law Amanda - opening gifts at her baby shower Saturday. It was held at her home in Detroit to make it a bit easier and she isn't due until Nov. 9 so she has plenty of time to go through her gifts and see what she is missing. I don't think she can be missing anything - she got a bazillion outfits, stroller, car seat, bike carriage, swing, diapers, books. Everything was wonderful!

Look at that crazy pile of presents!

There were 11 little girls in sundresses at the shower - the older girls grabbed a front row seat for present opening.

And then they spread out in my son's fields to find butterflies.

Some of the younger ones decided that under the dining table was a great fort while Kiley pointed out that the food was on top!

And here is a tasty treat! Cupcakes and cheesecake - the buffet was scrumptious, with finger sandwiches, lots of salads and a great punch.

I stayed at BFF Donna's house which was lovely - it gave us a chance to talk and catch up. Faye and Kiley stayed at my son's and we all headed back to Machias early Sunday. Only one more day of vacation and I'm going mackerel fishing on the Eastport pier. I know my fishing ability so I'm bringing lunch and a good book!

Vacation Day 12:

A whale watch trip extra-extra-ordonnaire!!!!! This is the lighthouse on the end of Campobello Island, New Brunswick - gorgeous! The herring pens are empty because the fish haven't started running yet.


Here is a finback - the second largest whale in the world!! They were everywhere and at one point the boat was surrounded - when they blow the water we were getting showered..


Here are THREE finbacks, playing together - they went up and down dozens of times.


This was a tour boat nearby and you can get some perspective on how really HUGE these whales are!

In the cove at Wilson's Beach, this minke whale decided to put on a show - propelling herself completely out of the water and then (below) slamming back down - wonderful!!!


One of the most special moments was the surfacing of an endangered right whale - I wasn't quick enough on the camera to catch anything more than the tip of its tail as it submerged again....I was awed!

All in all, a wonderful day - which also included dozens of seals and other wildlife. Anyone who wants to go and be 100 percent guaranteed of a good time and plenty of sightings: Captain Riddle's on Campobello. I promise it is an adventure you won't forget!

Vacation Day #10:

What a spectacular day! Under a brilliant sky, I got to tour Cobscook Bay and watch seaweed harvesters work. These boats are loaded with rockweed, a seaweed (the one with the little pods that you can squish and make them squirt your friends) that is being harvested in Cobscook Bay and near Jonesport. The seaweed is used for livestock feed supplements and fertilizer. It is harvested by Maine people who work for Acadian Seaplants of New Brunswick. The seaweed is dried on runways at a NB airport that the company owns. In the photo, the harvesters are loading the seaweed into net bags on the platform that will then be closed tight and floated alongside the platform until the processing barge picks them up.

This is a very hunky 17-year-old (I feel like a cougar) harvesting the seaweed. The rake they use has tines on top and a VERY sharp blade on the bottom. Because he is experienced, he can harvest about 5 tons a day at $43 a ton - pretty good job for a high school kid! Can you even see the boat under all that weed? The harvesters usually start about 5 a.m. and they said they can often hear the whales blowing in the bay, even on a foggy morning.


The bales of seaweed are being loaded onto a barge that will take them to Canada for processing. Each bale has the tag of the harvester hooked to it so they will get paid. Each bale weighs about 1 ton. Below, Bonnie, one of the barge workers, walks on top of the floating bales and uses her body weight to push them closer to the crane. She then jumps up on the boat and climbs the bales to help guide the new bale in place. She is amazingly lithe and strong!

Vacation Days 8 and 9

Day eight included a late afternoon trip to the beach. Some days it is about the water, some days about the sand. Yesterday was about mud. It was too cold to swim but Kiley had a wonderful time digging, sitting in wet holes, throwing rocks, filling her little hands with mud and then flinging it willy nilly. We had to strip her in the parking lot and bring her home in my sweatshirt - what a wonderful mess of joy and discovery!!

Then it was back to reality and the renovations........................


This is one wall in my guest room - which my home's previous owner used as an office. Yes, that is a Delorme map of Washington County on the wall! And isn't that the most stunning ceiling light - which isn't even a ceiling light and has to be plugged into the MIDDLE of the wall!?! There was no removing the map so I primed over it and that worked. All of the rest of the room was dark, dark wood paneling. I began the makeover by removing it. That's when I found.......

Plastered walls.....
With lots of damage......Now I know why they paneled everything.

And some amazing vintage wall paper.

I consulted the Internet and figured out how to repair the plaster. Once it dried and was lightly sanded, I began painting. I picked a beautiful color called clay - which is sort of a creamy grayish cream. I painted all the walls, all the trim and even the ceiling in the same color. The room now looks about twice the size as before, and is so fresh and clean....
Pictures of the completed (nearly) project will come tomorrow. I ran out of paint with a bit of trim left to paint.

Meanwhile, I'm still painting my bedroom floor. It takes two full days for the paint to dry and I couldn't do another coat while I was babysitting Kiley because the floor enamel is so stinky!! Tomorrow I will begin painting the green stripes - such a soft color, it doesn't even look green until it is up against the white.

But - this afternoon I went on a boat trip!!! ON THE OCEAN!!! It was a seaweed harvesting trip - what an event. Informative, interesting, hunky guys in boats, brilliant sun....ahhhhhhh.
I'll post those pictures tomorrow. Now I am pooped and it is time for a glass of wine and an early bedtime.....

Vacation Day #7:

She's back!! After careful consideration, listening to all your comments and talking it over with my daughter and son-in-law, I've decided to keep posting Kiley here for a while longer. After all, that is the entire reason I began the blog - to share photos of my life, and girl oh girl is she a big part of my life. As I write this, the cutie patootie is sleeping in my room while her mommy and daddy have a "private afternoon" away. When she wakes up, we are going to bake cookies and have supper ready when her parents return. FUN!! Here she is at the school playground - I painted for part of the day and then spent a wonderful hour at the swings and slides.


She is absolutely fearless! She dives down the curly slide HEADFIRST! She has a fit if you stand next the slide - she wants NO help!

Miss Independent - at 15 months.... yikes... we are in for trouble....

The bubble was confusing - she expected it to be flat and couldn't figure out the curve!
What a fun afternoon...peaceful, full of laughter....

And then I continued my house renovations....I am so achy....I'm painting and plastering in the guest room. STILL waiting for the first coat of white to dry in my room (Thank you very much, Tropical Storm Danny for all the humidity)

It'll get done and you will LOVE IT... But, if the sun comes out again, I DO have my priorities straight - I'm headed straight for the beach and painting be damned...

Vacation Day #5 and 6:

5 was back breaking!!! I spent hours with an ice chipper removing the tiles from my bedroom floor....some popped right off, others shattered. These are the most brittle tiles I've ever seen - not to mention they are the dark mustard color of calf poop.

Anyway, I scraped them all off, cleaned up the mess and prepped the floor. I am sleeping on one side of the room and am doing 1/2 at a time.

My arms feel like jello .... and my shoulders feel like they have been popped out of their sockets! After supper, I went with Matt and Faye to take Kiley to a nearby playground. I couldn't even pick her up to put her on the slide!

6 was worse...I can barely move my arms this morning. Faye and I took Kiley out to breakfast at Helen's (which, I must say, is not the Helen's everyone remembers except for the pie - the 10'' high pie slices are still there! It is going quite upscale and hoity toity. A hamburger cost me $9 last week.)
Anyway, when I came home I put the first coat of the paint on. No excitement here, except it looks really clean. The base is going to be pure white. When the white is all done, I'm painting some wide stripes of a very light green (sort of a lime green). The walls are navy blue and light blue - the furniture is natural wood and my dresser is teal with green showing through. The artwork in the room is in very beachy colors (the lime, blues, teals) so the stripes will definitely pick up those colors. The bedding is white. Seriously, it'll look good - I'll show you with pictures! And the best part is that once the floor is done, at least one room in this house will finally be completed!!! Then I tackle the guest room: plastering, putting up molding, painting and new floor........it just never ends.

This afternoon I head to Bangor and the American Folk Festival. I'm meeting five of my dearest friends there for supper and fantabulous music!!! I'm thinking I'll have to drive with my knees and give my poor wrecked arms a break. See you there!

Vacation Day #4 -

I'm so bored I could croak....stacked wood for HOURS Tuesday, cleaned the house, made a kick-ass batch of barbecue sauce and snuck an interview for a story in. My justification: it's important. I don't care that I'm on vacation. News doesn't stop.

This story is about the dike, or causeway, on Rt. 1 in downtown Machias. The dike travels from White's Point to Potato Point and is very wide. There is the salt water of Machias Bay on the south side and fresh water of the Middle River on the north.
It has become a carnival of vendors on weekends - sea glass, fresh fish and clams, handmade bird baths, the farmers' market, antiques and junk....Many people sit in their cars and watch the tides change, enjoy the sunrise or sunset and their brilliance, or just visit with each other.
It is a place of commerce and socialization.

But the dike is much more than that - underneath, in concrete bunkers, are tidal gates, or flappers. They swing open when the tide is low and let the river empty into the bay. But then they swing closed at high tide to keep the salt water from entering the river basin.

The problem is that the dike is due to be replaced and one of the options under serious consideration is removal of the flappers. Residents that live along the river say the sea water will flood their land - some property owners' acreage will completely disappear - and it will also destroy a wild habitat for deer, moose, birds.
Those who favor removing the flappers want to see the basin return to the state it was in more than 150 years ago - a tidal basin that shifts with the tides and provides a place for sea run fish, such as Atlantic salmon, to spawn.
It's an interesting story but while investigating it, I also learned about Machias history and some very captivating stories about pirates and treasure....what a fascinating place I've moved to.

Vacation Days #2 and #3:

Hurricane Bill roared out to ocean but produced some enormous tides up here. This is a lovely place called Starboard (I still haven't figured out if it is a separate community or part of Machiasport) which normally has NO waves at all, just a gentle lapping of the rocks. I spent Day 2 visiting the coast and watching Mother Nature at her best - blowing and swirling the water, pushing the tides up higher and higher... It was really beautiful and awesome.

Day Three however was so sad....my sweet beach, Roque Bluffs State Park, is completely buried in kelp. In some places it is three feet deep. It is starting to stink and the flies have arrived. I'm hoping and assuming that there is some clean up planned - this is such a popular beach: salt water on one side of the road and a fresh water pond on the other. Little tables, nice clean bathrooms, great parking. All for a donation of $3 - $3, can you imagine!?!

Today is dark and drizzly - a perfect day to stay home, read and eat... and probably give Miss Emma another bath.
We have been invaded by fleas - not the house, thank goodness, but poor Miss Emma. Everytime she steps her tiny toes outside, she is jumped on. I've been trying to avoid the chemical stuff like Frontline but this is too much for us. I've been spraying the house, washing her bedding every other day and now giving her a nightly bath. Every night I find fleas...the poor little girl!
Faye and Matt have it worse. They have bombed their house three times and still can't get rid of the fleas. Tomorrow is their final stand: the cat is headed to the vet to get shaved, bathed and de-flea-ed and they are setting off flea bombs in every room and the basement.

I'm headed out again tomorrow - hopefully the beach is cleared. I will park myself with a good book and RELAX....if the stinky kelp is still there, I'll head to the fresh water side. Either way, it will be a day to do nothing. If it goes well, I'll keep repeating it each day!

Vacation Day #1:

The theme for my vacation is EXPLORE and COMPLETE - I will be exploring Washington County and completing at least one ONE of the unfinished rooms around here.....


But first to the IMPORTANT stuff: RETAIL THERAPY.

I went to Ellsworth shopping today - an hour and a half away, and even a bit further cuz I went to Orland to The Big Chicken Barn which has all kinds of antiques. I am looking for a red vintage chrome kitchen table set. No luck.

So then I went to Rooster Brothers kitchen store. Nothing.

Next stop = Reny's. Zip.
Then Marden's = Nada.
Same goes for a couple of dress shops and a shoe store and a toy store on Main Street.

Empty handed at all.

The only place I found something exciting was Home Depot - got some copper fittings and pipes for an art project.

What a total bummer of a day...........

Oh my faithful readers,

I'm having to make a decision here and I need your help. I'm worried about posting family pictures here on this blog, especially pictures of Kiley.
I'm thinking that maybe I will stop - and just do scenic stuff etc.

Please let me know what you think?

I'm heading out for two weeks' vacation and I'll be posting every day (I promise) about what I am up to!

A sunny day, a $3 sprinkler and a very happy little girl....

This was Kiley's first day in a sprinkler...curious at first...

Then a little surprised...

And then unbridled joy!

Which turned into bravado and curiosity! priceless...

The end of a wonderful day - got to ride a boat, a 16' motorboat, up the Pleasant River in Addison to Columbia Falls. It was so relaxing I almost forgot I was working. Eagles kept us company, as did kingfishers. Miles and miles of salt marshes with grasses every shade of green and blue imaginable. Our tour guide was a lobster fisherman who supplements the ridiculously low prices they get paid for the lobsters ($4 a pound off the boat) by hosting boat tours. This one was inland through the salt marshes but you can also spend an afternoon pulling lobster traps or cruising the shore.....

After several grueling weeks of work, I have tomorrow off and I'm planning on tearing apart the spare room. I'm putting up new trim, tearing off some paneling, and changing light fixtures. Then, when I'm on vacation after next week, I'll paint everything - ceiling, walls and woodwork - all a light cream. Then I'll replace the floor tiles and add the new rug and freshly decorated side table. Finally I'll have at least ONE room completed here at Sweet Pea Cabin. I might even get brave on my vacation and tackle putting the new tiles on the bathroom floor. Of course that involves removing the toilet, washer and dryer for a day.....yuk.

I think I'll avoid thinking about that and just enjoy tonight's sunset....

Happy Birthday to ME!

I had to meet some blueberry rakers at the butt crack of dawn today but when I returned I found two cards propped up on my computer - one had been "signed" by little Kiley.

I also have a bottle of wine and a bouquet of gladioli (a stunning orange) from friends...a new purse from my daughter-in-law...a phone call with good wishes from my BFF Trudy and my sister Debra.

And my son-in-law Matt just popped his head in to say "Pick a restaurant - we're taking you out to dinner'' and to present me with a gift certificate for more garden plants. My wish is going to be yellow and white hollyhocks!

Jealous?

Monday photographs...

Kiley is saying "come on Queenie - let's run in the grass!"

Wild blueberry season is here and the fields are turning blue - mechanical harvesters are at work in some places while hand-held rakes are being used in others. The Machias Wild Blueberry Festival is this weekend with more than 250 craft vendors, plays, concerts, etc. What fun!

This could be the scene for a horror movie but it is a lobster pound - an indoor tank, filled with sea water chilled and aerated and home to lobsters, crabs and other seafood. The lobsters can be held indefinitely while awaiting sale or mail orders. This facility, in Lubec, also wholesales periwinkles, scallops and clams. There are elegant apartments and suites on the second floor of the warehouse, which has its own wharf and serves more than 200 fishermen as part of Maine's working waterfront. When you buy a lobster here, it is still alive and kicking, not in a coma as the one's in the supermarket are. SWEET!

I went mackerel fishing - well, I was fishing for a story - and one of the fishermen threw this gull a mackerel. He swallowed it in one bite!!! HOLY MACKEREL!!!!

Happy Monday!

It's party time!!!

Headed to not one but TWO parties this weekend at my old stompin' grounds. A birthday party tonight and a wedding party Saturday.

Won't be posting until Sunday when I'll dish all about it.



Still no skunk in the trap. **sigh**

The skunk man returneth!

All we caught was a squirrel and he ate ALL the peanut butter bait. So, amazing Ted the skunk trapper returned this evening, reset the trap and PROMISED that tonight we would capture King Kong. We'll see...

I spent nearly all morning today on the pier at Eastport. The sun was glorious and the mackerel were running and I interviewed the greatest group of guys. I thought I was going to do a story on mackerel fishing but I found a group of buddies - all retired - that spend every day together on the pier. They were so funny and they let me reel in a mackerel and they called me "sweetheart." The story ended up being about friendship. I had a great time!

I didn't see any whales or porpoises, though. But I did see lobster boats, starfish, crabs, a sculpin (the world's most ugly fish, sort of looks like a very fat eel with a fish head), two gorgeous young Coast Guard men, and lots of mackerel.

I found a great chowder house right on Cobscook Bay, down where you can almost see Old Sow, North America's largest whirlpool, and you can watch the ferry go back and forth to Indian Island.

They had wi-fi and I was able to send my pictures and then write and send my story all while enjoying the view and eating a great spinach salad...
two more afternoon meetings and I got home just in time to hug Kiley who smelled like heaven, right from her bath.

holy mackerel, what a life....

W.O.W. - a special event

Last night I took a chance - sat in the parking lot of Tall Barney's Restaurant while the fog moved slowly in from the ocean, trying to find courage. I had been invited to W.O.W. - Women On Wednesday - an informal gathering of area women.

Everyone brings a bottle of wine, the entire back room of the restaurant is reserved and a spectacular buffet is presented.

For the first half hour, it is schmooooze time. I met so many people! Some artists, some not; older, younger; such a broad spectrum of women.
The noise level was beyond belief - 50 women all talking at once. For a while I talked to an art teacher from New Jersey; then I visited with a watercolorist/gardener from New Hampshire (we have lots of "summer people" here) who graciously shared a fabulous bottle of white wine, and ate much of my dinner with a local artist and a visitor from South Carolina.

Dinner was veggie bruschetta, toasted shrimp points, mexican layered dip, brie, fresh fruit platter, barbecued pork and fat crabmeat sandwiches.

For dessert - warm peach cobbler - I joined Etta at another table. I first met Etta last fall at a meeting of a local writers' group. I loved her from the first: bawdy, straightforward, funny. She is an incredible writer. She had two other women at her table, one visiting from Cambridge Mass and Nancy T of Great Wass Island - who I hope will become a new friend. We've already emailed back and forth and plan to meet for lunch next week. I have also signed up for Paint Jonesport Day and may end up at Nancy's house for the painting part (she has offered her bathroom as well!)

Etta and I have also made plans to take a creative writers' course this fall/winter at the University of Maine's Senior College. Just the kick in the pants I need to write more personal stuff!

As I left for home, an incredible sunset of red and orange and stripes of yellow accompanied me. It was easy to smile.
It was a good night, a very good night - lots of laughter, conversation, surrounded by the company of women.

P.S. No skunk yet.

Skunks, zero. Squirrels, one.

No skunks in the trap at bedtime but I did hear it slam shut this afternoon and went to peek.

There was one reeeeeallllllyyyy pissed off squirrel in there - he took to the peanut butter like, well, like a squirrel to peanut butter. I lifted the door and that squirrel high-tailed it straight into the woods. He must have been doing 45 miles per hour....

I've reset the trap but when I just got home from a WOW dinner (Women on Wednesdays) the door was still open.. Let's hope he's a night owl...he he he.

The skunk man cometh!!

I took an ad out in the local weekly paper yesterday. It read:

"HELP HELP HELP! The King Kong of skunks is terrorizing our neighborhood. Small children and dogs are trapped inside. Please call quickly! HELP!"

My hero called tonight. His name is Ted and he will arrive tomorrow in a red Ford Ranger with a live-trap for the King of Kongs.

He will set the trap and I am supposed to call him when his royal Kingness is trapped inside. Then I pay him twenty bucks and he takes away the King.

And then let's hope that peace will reign in my little kingdom again.

What an afternoon at the auction!

I'm sharing just a few pictures (more will come tomorrow) including the boobie bowl, made by yours truly. The auction was not as well attended as I wanted and it scared me - I thought uh oh less people, no money. But we raised an amazing $1,440.50 for breast cancer research!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My friend Dawn stepped in at the last minute, volunteering to be auctioneer, and my BFF Trudy played Vanna White, carring the bras around and semi-modeling some. Some of the stories with the bras were stunning....and moving....and inspiring. For more pictures, you can go to www.bras4thecause.org. Here's more:

These are retired badges from former girls scouts, submitted by a current GS leader on behalf of all her little girls who have yet to get their boobies.
Carolyn did this exquisite tiled bra....

And this one represents several: lots of frills, buttons, bows, jewels. Just plain fun!

The weekend with my friends - laughing, hugging - was just what I need to chase the blues away. And we are such a party crowd, there are TWO more gatherings this coming weekend: a birthday party and a wedding party - so I get to see them all again!!!

More pictures tomorrow - I'm still trying to catch up from being away all weekend. Stopped at Home Depot on the way home and bought eight gazillion floor tiles for my kitchen, a new kitchen sink and hardware, new blinds for the bedroom, new curtain rod for the kitchen and a new living room rug. And I still have $70 left on the gift card all my dear friends gave me when I moved away. Now I'll have a bit of each of them in nearly every room in my house!

I'm interviewing the head of the Down East Community Hospital today and a group that is expanding their processing ability to market organic blueberries - the market is growing rapidly. Work, work, work. Gotta admit, I love it.

The BRA Auction!!!!

Getting ready today for tomorrow's bra auction (www.bras4thecause.org) The works are amazing and the my spirit is high that we will raise a lot of money. Please go to the website and check them out....we have glass, metal, buttons and bows, quilting, painting, feathers and even one with little baby faces that plead: cure this before I get my breasts...

I'll be in court all morning - a bad man is pleading guilty to killing another man with his car, and then heading to Bangor for an editorial board meeting with some reps from a national farmers' organization (I am very suspicious about their intentions in Maine.....I'll keep you posted.)

Then I head to Pittsfield and right into the arms of the GODDESSES....boy I miss my peeps. I'm staying at dear BFF Donna's house and Miss Emma is staying in a new kennel for the first time (Cross your paws THAT goes well...)

Ta Tas for now - I can't wait to tell you all about the auction!!!

All I can say today is AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I found the most wonderful masseuse - a huge man who found all the nooks and crannies and squashed all my stress, tension and pain away.

He's worth is weight in gold and I will be heading back his way often.

This is my horrible day:

* Miss Emma woke me at 4 a.m. running and crying at every window in the house because there was a giant skunk, I mean a skunk on steroids, outside my bedroom window.

*They are building an addition on the house next door and they hammer, hammer, hammer ALL day. They are also renovating the house across the street. Ditto on the hammering.

*Thought I had to do two fairly uncomplicated stories this morning and ended up with four - two stressful ones. I still have to work tonight.

*My atm card won't work at the !@#$%@!! credit union here.

*Miss Emma peed on the spare room rug (she is having settling-in-at-the-new-home issues, I think.)

*When I went downtown, I forgot AGAIN to stop at the post office and file for my passport.

*I tripped over my own door sill and fell down getting into my own home. My knee hurts.

*I'm out of Ovaltine.

*A fun boat ride up the Pleasant River was canceled due to fog. I was counting on this to balance everything else out.

*I'm homesick. Really, really homesick. I miss my son Danny and his pregnant wife Amanda. I miss my Goddesses and I can't hear them laugh from here and I can't feel their hugs from here. I miss my cops and my firefighters. I miss the great chicken Ceasar salad at the Mill Pond Pizza joint. I miss sitting with the dog in Manson Park and watching the river flow by. I miss driving on roads that are as familiar to me as my children's voices.

This is a very, very sucky day. And now it is starting to rain. Again.

So I went to this public supper...

and they auctioned off all the desserts. There were cakes and cupcakes and fudge and a gazillion pies. The auctioneer was a beefy fellow, a fisherman wearing a well-worn red long john shirt, with glasses on the end of his nose and a great sense of humor. He knew every single person in that gymnasium.

"What we have here is a gen-you-ine deah meat mincemeat pie,'' he says.

"ooooooooo" goes the crowd.

"15, 15, am I bid 15?'' he begins.

There's a shout from the back of the room: "Does that mincement come from the neck a the deah?''

There's a quick check with the baker, who is busy in the nearby kitchen washing dishes.

"Yes it does, right from the neck,'' he assures the buyers.

The price begins to rise.
"20, 20, 20 dollars?'' the auctioneer asks.

"20 dollars and 62 cents,'' offers one woman, counting out her change on the table.

"22, 22?'' counters the auctioneer.

Another shout from the opposite side of the room: "That isn't road kill, is it?"
Lots of laughter this time.

"No, absolutely not,'' the auctioneer asserts. "I have it on good authority that this here deah was killed on Back Cove Road.''
More hearty laughter.

"25, 25, 25?'' he continues.

"Wait a minute here,'' another voice shouts out. "I need to know if it were a Chevy or a Ford that hit that poor deah!"

The room fills with hoots and hollers and a few men pound their hands on the tables and the pie goes for $40. And one of the cakes goes for $40. And even six little chocolate cupcakes bring $40.

People in this poor, small fishing village, spent $40 for a cake they could make for $3.50, all to help a neighbor who had lost his home to a fire.

My right hand to God, every word of this is true. And I am swelled with pride for these people and how they care for each other.

Paradise....that's what it is.

I worked this weekend. This is my view at one of the jobs. I still can't believe I get paid to work in Paradise.

Open Farm Day was Sunday - did you visit a local farmer? That's where I was - this is Tide Mill Farm, a ninth-generation family farm that grows organic meat, vegetables and milk. The farm is on Cobscook Bay in the tiny town of Edmunds. The farm is at the site of a tide-powered grist mill (now long gone - only the grinding wheel is left) that was built in 1765 by a Scottish immigrant who was shone the magical spot by a Passamaquoddy Indian. Today the farm is home to six families decended from that Scotman. The farm sits on 1600 acres of mostly forest with more than six miles of shoreline.

Spectacular.
That's all. Just spectacular.
I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring...

I'm finally making new friends here...These two came to visit today, along with the sun FINALLY!

My dear friend Sue was right - the finches came back as soon as the rain stopped. This little beauty stood sentinel while all his "women" filled up on thistle seed.

Of course the squirrel - whom I have named Harold - is stealing the bird food. But he's cute to watch too. He is really funny - he attacked a seed bell by hanging upside down and then dropped to the ground to get the little bits he spilled. He hasn't bothered the feeders - just the bell. It's nice to see him high and dry, though. Everytime I have seen him in the past month he has been soaking wet...poor little Harold.


Anyway, a new friend - actually I haven't even met her yet (only talked to her a few times on the phone) - has invited me to go to a benefit supper with her in Lubec. This is for a family who lost all to fire so it is a great cause.
Kind of fun to go on a "blind date" so to speak - I wonder if we'll hit it off? Will we dislike each other from the first moment? Will I want to toss her out of the car half way there? Or will she not like me so much that the entire return trip will be in silence?
We'll seeeeeeeee!

Kiley learned the words boo boo today. My poor daughter was bitten by her cat this morning and spent a couple of hours in the emergency room. The cat has been unwell for two weeks and doesn't seem to be getting better. He has an abscess on his belly and has been on some heavy duty drugs. She was cleaning today and went to pick him up and he bit her right hand. He locked his jaws and wouldn't let go. She - who loves her cats more than anything - was forced to hit the cat against the wall to release his bite! Her hand is mauled and such a mess, all swollen. The x-rays showed no broken bones but she'll be on antibiotics herself for days and I'm afraid it will get worse before it gets better. Cat bites are notorious for infection.

On Monday, I would expect the cat to "take a ride to a nice farm in the country" so to speak.

What's wrong with these pictures?

First here are my bird feeders - notice there are no birds. Notice the wet trees, wet grass, wet birdfeeders.

Notice my poor trike, abandoned in a puddle, drenched.

And notice there is a fire in my woodstove ON THE 24TH OF JULY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
IT WAS ONLY 58 DEGREES THIS AFTERNOON FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!

HELP HELP HELP HELP

There was a war here yesterday.

Not a lobster war, as in other places on the Maine coast.

It was a war between (and here you can pretend I'm talking low and loud into a microphone hanging from the ceiling) The Goldfinches in the left corner, and The Chickadees on the right.

It was a turf war. All fought over one little bird feeder. The Chickadees, I might add, were definitely here first - flying back and forth, enjoying the seeds - when this gang of Finches, wearing their colors - yellow and black - suddenly swooped in from the south. It was an all out attack and when the screaming and yelling and swooping and pecking was done, the Finches had claimed the bird feeder.

They swarmed over it and after about three seconds determined it didn't contain the kinds of seeds they like. They left as fast as they came. Leaving the poor little Chickadees defeated but with plenty of bragging rights.

So of course today I ran to four different stores (ha ha you didn't think we had FOUR stores in Machias, now did you?) and bought three more feeders, a double shepherd's crook and a thistle sock. They are all installed outside my window and although I've been here for hours, I haven't seem one damn bird. Not even a feather. Nothing. Nada.

So much for trying to orchestrate world piece.

I'm off to prison today.

But first, the obligatory Kiley picture - finally enough hair for a barrette - barely. She's 15 months old now and still no hair. Couldn't you just smooosh that sweet little face! Of course her mother reported that she kept it in for all of 15 seconds.

So I'm going to prison.
Not a good place for a claustrophobic.
Well, not actually a claustrophobic - I just have to be able to see the way out. Sometimes just a window will do or a shaft of light from an entrance. I'll be sweating bullets, you know I will.

I'm interviewing a young man who is addicted to prescription drugs - the drug of choice here in rural Washington County. It's for a series that three of us reporters are working on. It will examine the overall drug problems in Maine and then contrast rural vs. urban. There are some very scary statistics out there!

Think of me in my "cell" today - and you know I will head right for the beach - even though it is raining - just to clear my soul afterwards.

How can I compete with a tractor trailer???

So I meet this lovely man - born in South Africa so he has that beautiful lilting British accent - at a food co-op in town for an interview about his pet project.

He's fuming.

He has been stood up by a previous appointment (who, I might add, got my man to MOVE his interview with me) and he waited inside the co-op for two hours. This is not a good way to start an interview.

However, he suggests we go somewhere else as he is sick of sitting in this place and so we step outside.

And there we are presented with a lovely set of iron chairs and a table, gracing the sidewalk. A little lawn rolls off to the left and on the store are some extremely pretty window boxes with Gerber daisies in plum and poppy and carrot orange, offset by waterfalls of deep purple lobelia. Very lovely.

So he says, "Oh. Let's sit here." And we do.
And he begins to talk and not 300 feet behind him is U.S. Route 1.
Yes, THAT U.S. Route 1.
The one that goes from the border with Canada to the Keys of Florida.
Today, it is carrying every tractor trailer on the eastern seaboard and I can't hear a word this sweet man is saying.

Wonderful.

Finally the sun and a beach day for us all! We found stuff...

Kiley found the water! She is a beach rat and loves it - we were at Roque Bluffs, a wonderful state park right on the ocean, and surprisingly the water was warm...it was low tide and there was a wonderful sandbar where we played.

Then she found seaweed - the wind was blowing and she ran up and down the sand pretending it was a kite. "Go ! Go !" she shouted as she ran.

Then she found her sunglasses in her beach bag. This clearly helped her see the bunches of little rocks that she picked up and carried everywhere.

And of course there was the wildlife! She found a snail, pulled him off his rock and then put him back on - upside down. She saw crabs, clams, some little crayfish that might have been tiny shrimp, and of course, the sea gulls.

To see the ocean and beach through the eyes of a child is a wonder all over again. I think we might have to go back tomorrow afternoon!

Salmon, fog and extremely good company....

Went to Lubec today - driving in fog the whole way - to interview two amazing photographers - a husband and wife - who have collaborated on a new book about Venice. They live on Cobscook Bay in a beautiful house with weathered shingles and amazing gardens all around - not manicured city gardens. Winding paths, little benches, a bowl for water, birdhouses. Nearby was a lovely guest house for when visitors come. Two cats waited by the door: one the color of vanilla ice cream and the other a soft grey with lime green eyes. We had pate and wafer thin slices of smoked salmon and goat cheese and hearty bread and homemade potato salad and good red wine followed by lemon-soaked pound cake and tea.

They were beyond charming. His work has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and hers hangs in museums.
So, as we lingered at the lunch table, we talked about Venice and newspapers and John Glenn and raising sons and what a joy granddaughters are....I toured their home so they could show off their photographs of a church tent revival and wardens tagging a hibernating bear and a beached whale on a foggy beach and I almost swooned with envy because they have a real, honest to goddess DIVING SUIT hanging over their bed.

They call him Richard.

And then we began talking about their book and Venice.
What does that have to do with Maine? I asked them.
Everything, they said. Look out the window. The beauty, the fog, the history. It's all the same, they said .... well, I was thinking, not quite.
Look at today's picture, a picture I made nearby the photographer's beautiful coastal home.
What you see here is aa typical Down East yard: fog shrouded garage, lobster pots everywhere and a boat. A very large boat. On dry land.
No canals. No men in little striped shirts singing gondola songs wearing tiny little hats.
Not here, no - here we have hearty fishers in high rubber boots with yellow waterproof overalls and flannel shirts. With deeply tanned and lined faces and hair bleached blonde by the sun and salt of the sea. With arms the size of logs and deep laughs and boats in their front yard and colored ropes coiled by the back steps and piles and piles of brightly painted buoys by the driveway.

And this is the mystery for me, what I can't figure out in the month that I've been here: Why are all the boats in the front yards and not in the water?

It was skunk'n time last night!

Right at dusk I let Emma-the-dog-that-hates-water outside and expected her to hover right around the back door - she usually does. Instead she hot footed it around the corner of the house. I followed, calling her, when she suddenly came streaking back to me at 121 miles per hour, every hair on her back standing up straight.

I picked her up and that was when it hit me:
SKUNK !!!!!

TWO baths later and cream rinse for her, a full load of laundry for me (since I picked her up and it was all over me - a fact politely pointed out to me by my kids next door who sent me packing when they got a whiff), and a shower and shampoo in tomato juice for me, and I think we smelled a lot better. Of course, the scent of skunk hung so heavy in the air that I couldn't tell if it was me or the atmosphere. The "incident" happened just outside my bedroom window (of course) so the smell even woke me up several times in the night.

The perfume is still so heavy in the air this morning that I have scented candles burning everywhere. So now my house smells like: cider vanilla, juice of orange, creamsicle, clean linen, and eau de skunk.

Today I'm teaching Emma to use the potty.

wild blueberries - amazing!

I went to the wild blueberry field day today at Blueberry Hill, the University of Maine research center in Jonesboro, and among many other things scored some fabulous blueberry recipes. I was promised that this one was one of the best (I won't get to make it until Sunday) so I'm sharing it with you:

Chicken Sate with Wild Blueberry Peanut Butter Sauce

Sauce:
3 T. grated fresh ginger
1 shallot or 1/2 cup onion, finely diced
1 t. olive oil
6 oz. water
3 T. crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups frozen wild blueberries
1 t. cornstarch
1/2 t. salt

Heat oil and briefly saute ginger and shallot. Add water and peanut butter over medium heat and whisk together. Add frozen berries. Mix small amount of water in the cornstarch and add to berry/nut sauce. Bring to a boil and then simmer for three minutes.

Sates:
2 double chicken breasts
1 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
wooden skewers

Cut the chicken breasts filets lengthwise into thin strips. Flavor with salt and pepper. Put the strips in an accordion manner onto a lightly oiled skewer. Heat oil in deep fry pan and cook the skewers on each side for three minutes or until done.

Serve with the blueberry sauce. Serves four.

More recipes can be found at www.wildblueberries.com

ENJOY! and if you try it, let me know how it was!

Fairpoint finally found me....sort of.

The man with the truck and the know-how arrived this afternoon. Took him 10 minutes and he had my two phone lines hooked up. But - and I love how half-assed this is - no Internet. He has to put in an order.

PUT IN AN ORDER ?!$%????!#&***@???????????

We put in an order six weeks ago............................................still have to pirate the signal from next door.

4:22 p.m. Fairpoint is lost. Their headquarters just called for directions.

This is the funny part: I told them the end of Water Street. Instead, they wanted the phone number of someone on my street. Do you suppose that helped?

4:02 p.m. No Fairpoint in sight.

2:28 p.m. Still no Fairpoint.

1:37 p.m. No Fairpoint yet.

Today I wait for Fairpoint...

It has been SIX weeks since the work order was first put in for a land line and Internet service here in my office at Sweet Pea Cabin. It is now 11:19 a.m. Let's just see how long it takes them to find me.....

The fabulous chairs project.....it was an overwhelming success!

There were 18 chairs in all - all either donated by Walpole Woodworkers or sold to sponsoring businesses at cost - What a generous, giving company, especially in this economy! This first chair was painted by Jim Hammond who patterned it after an Icelandic jacket that his late daughter had as a child. Jim's chair is displayed in front of the salon where his daughter worked.
This one is a lady going to the local Egg Festival by Pam Peltier Dickinson of Detroit. All the chairs gathered Friday night for wine and cheese and schmoozing. Many of the artists had not met each other so it was really a great time! Pam's chair is in front of the town office.
This is Connie LaGross's chair - which fittingly is at the town's library! so special...
Glass artist Alyssa Oxley did up this beautiful pastel chair - it's at Mill Pond Pizza.
This one is by Jill Schwartz, the art teacher at Maine Central Institute, our local high school. It is at Bud's Shop 'n Save.
My good buddy Hazel Mitchell's chair is none other than Humpty himself! It is also at Mill Pond Pizza.

Bonnie Mitchell took an old photograph of the original Peltoma Bridge and rendered it in black and white....what a history lesson. It is at the town office at the special request of the town manager.
And here is Russ Cox's creature - we put it at the library so the children could sit right in its mouth!
What a group of talented people, right?
I started this community art project as a goodbye gift to the people of Pittsfield after working there for 23 years as their reporter. The project is called "Get Comfortable In Pittsfield,'' which is just what I did and I hope people will use the chairs to also get comfy there! They were a gift to the town and in the fall, the council will hold a silent auction and the highest bidder for each chair gets to keep it - the proceeds will benefit the chair replacement fund at the community owned theater.

Aren't they spectacular....aren't I lucky to know or get to meet such creative, artistic and generous people??? This project turned out to be a real gift for me, to get to see the spirit of the town, the companies that sponsored the chairs and the artists that brought them to life.

One more day of rain....that's all I can stand.

This is my poor bird bath, getting pummeled by rain - big rain. Do you see the size of those drops???? And notice that the columbine has gone beserk with all the wetness and is trying to drown itself...Even a rock has thrown itself into the water in despair.

29 days of rain in June.
rain every day so far in July.
eye yi yi.

Everything here is so wet - the rugs are wet, the towels won't dry, what hasn't rotted in the garden is stunted from lack of sun and heat, the doors won't open and if you get them open, they won't close. There is mold in the shower - attacked daily but it grows back in minutes.
There was a murder of crows in my back yard this morning and they were brazenly walking and eating - a slug was every two inches, an entire yard for a buffet.
I washed a scatter rug and it took four days to dry on the clothesline and even then, I had to finish drying it over the back of a kitchen chair.
And if I hear one more joke about building an ark....

Last Saturday night a brilliant moon peeked out for six minutes. My friends that were visiting from P'field and I jumped in the car and drove 8 miles to the beach, hoping for a view of the sea by moonlight. By the time we got there, it was raining again and we had to settle for a peek by the light of Donna's mini-flashlight. (It amazes me how prepared for everything Donna is. Need a Band Aid? She pulls one out. How about hand sanitizer? Coming right up. A bologna sandwich or a refreshing beverage? No problem.)

Yesterday it was 52 degrees in Eastport and the wind was howling off the bay so hard that I thought it would blow the hairs off my head. I built a fire in my woodstove when I got home but nearly killed myself out getting some wood because my deck is so wet that it is now covered with a fine layer of mossy mold and has become a 24-foot Slip 'N Slide.

I have had it. I'm ready to do a sun dance naked on the top of Cadillac Mountain if it will only stop. And believe me, no one - including the sun - wants to see that. I think when the rain finally stops, thousands of Mainers are going to believe they have suddenly gone deaf...no drips on the metal air conditioner housing, no rumble through the gutter pipes, no hiss from the roadway traffic, no shhhhhhh from the leaves on the trees.

And then we will finally be able to hear it - it's coming closer, louder, nearly on top of us now:

The Drone of the Mosquitoes.

Finally I slept...

I have been having some sleep issues here in Paradise. Sweet Pea Cabin is dark and cozy at night, the window by my bed is always open and if it is not the sound of rain lulling me to sleep, it is the sound of the Machias River through the woods....sometimes I can hear night birds calling too.

So, it's not the setting and it is the setting. I think since the job is unchartered territory for me here, I'm being hypervigilant and I just can't shut it all off when I go to sleep. I think: did I call Calais today? Have I checked with the Machias cops? When is the next meeting...interview....call....story....

Yesterday, I awoke at 2:30 a.m. Wide awake. Of course it didn't help that the Coast Guard shouted out a bulletin about a disabled ship every 15 minutes.....I was so used to the sounds that my old scanner made that it never woke me unless it was important. My brain even filtered out the useless stuff and could kick in only when a dispatcher or cop's voice sounded a bit urgent. But here, it is all new: the voices, the sounds, the call numbers. And even though it is far less busy here, with lots of empty air time, that scanner is driving me cuckoo.

Washington County is the size of Delaware and Rhode Island put together. That is a lot of territory for one person.....I think I'm just going to have to accept that I can't do it all and just do the best I can. Knowing me, however, that is a lot easier said than done.

Last night, though, I really slept. I was sacked out by 10 and didn't wake until 6:30....a solid, hearty night of sleep. Thank goodness. Today the kids and baby leave for a little trip to Portland so I will really have a quiet night (no playing tag before bed, no splash fests at bath time, no more little feet coming to visit me in the office for the next five days) I'm also leaving on Friday - headed back to Pittsfield for a special project (pictures will follow soon!) and a much needed visit with friends. Dominoes, laughter and hugs all await!

Let's hope I can sleep in my son's guest room!

P.S. Yesterday I stopped in The Commons in Eastport (a don't miss for anyone traveling up there) and while I was looking around at the extraordinary art work for sale, I found two handmade bowls created by my dear friend Renata. It was like a hug from home - I could have cried. Sometimes those little touchstones in the midst of a lost day can really work...

What did I do when the interviewee lit up a cig and popped the top on a PBR?

I smiled.
I said, sure, it was okay. After all, it's your business.
And I took a shower as soon as I got home!
That was the bad part of the day.
But then I thought about where I was......see above and below. And I smiled for real this time.

I'm back! Did you miss me? Here's what I've been up to...

First - here is the anchor that I ran over in South Addison Harbor. Scraped up the fender. Tire okay. The entire anchor was 22 feet long - how did I miss that, anyway?????

Look! It's Janet, Marian and Donna at Quoddy Head Light - I had my first summer company this weekend. This intrepid trio came up late Saturday, we had a big dinner and a bit of a slumber party and then Sunday hit the road for Lubec. We did the lighthouse, visited some art galleries, watched children hold relay races carrying a 20 pound salmon (Could I make this stuff up?), walked on the beach and had a dinner out. We came back to Sweet Pea Cabin for blueberry pie and then they left......suddenly Sweet Pea is so very, very quiet!

This is the entrance to one of the beaches at Lubec - the Rugosa roses are all in bloom and the air is heavy with their scent.

Janet and Donna scanned the Lubec harbor for seals and eagles (or were they looking across the water for hot Canadian men???) while the remants of a dory and a lobster pot are trapped in the seaweed at low tide.

Yup - that's a dead old salmon in his arms. I told ya.

Good food, good laughter, good friends. Add a beach, a lighthouse, and the scent of wild roses.
It doesn't get much better, does it?

Unbloggable!!

Here are the bride, Cassie, and the groom, my nephew David. For their first dance they sang the love song from Moulin Rouge and she sang the girl's part to him and he sang the boy's part to her - as far as those two were concerned, there was no one else in the room. So romantic!! It was a fun, lovely wedding - lots of dancing, laughter and surprises. Cassie is a swim instructor at a huge YMCA in Connecticut, and Dave is a swimming and diving coach at Central Connecticut State College. They recently bought a home and have spent most of the winter and spring renovating and doing a spectacular job! They are just wonderful people!

For the past two days, Blogger wouldn't let me in to download these pics - sorry for the delay!

This is my daughter-in-law Amanda and my daughter Faye watching that incredible first dance at the wedding.
Isn't she just such a beautiful bride?

Things here are chaotic!! I relocated on Tuesday and have worked my arsky off every day since. Work had to come first so you can imagine the looks of the house - even though I'm working this weekend, it will be at a slower pace than the last three days so I should start putting things in order. My son-in-law is getting the washer/dryer/air conditioners out of my office today so I can start straightening there. This will be a much needed improvement! I don't know about you, but I need my work space neat and in place before I can work. If not, my thoughts are all jumbled!

I haven't had a chance to enjoy the coast because it has rained every day and today we are completely socked in by fog. Is this almost July??? I had to wear a jacket last night and this a.m. I have a sweatshirt on! I will say that all this dampness has my flowers positively exploding - for first year growth they are truly impressive! But inside the house, I can't open some doors and can't close others. The deck is so damp that moss has started to grow on it!

The other bad thing is that FAIRPOINT - the spawn of the devil - still can't find my house. I'm pirating the Internet from my son-in-law next door. I have no Internet, fax or land line for work. urg.... Let's hope next week brings the sun and the Fairpoint service man!

The good ( ?), the bad and the just plain ugly.....

My sons Russell and Daniel - now known as The Blue Brothers - think that my brother Christopher is the funniest person on earth. Apparently, from these expressions, he is. We had a great time at the wedding and I'm only sharing the worst pictures....The pretty ones will come tomorrow. No - there wasn't a two-for-one sale; Danny lives in Maine and Russ lives in New Jersey so the twin blue shirts was a pure coincidence.
This the Y of YMCA - too bad everyone forgot how to spell it after this.....
My daughter Faye was apparently suffering from a bit of gas...
And my little sister Robin, Mother of the Groom, was thoroughly disgusted that she forgot her breasts.
And here is the final bonus: My grandson James and the Amazing Tower Of Onion Rings. James - 0, Onion Rings - 1.

Today I leave my beloved Pittsfield.

Well, this is it...Today I leave for the family wedding in
Connecticut. At first I looked at this as if it were the worst of
timings - I finish today in Pittsfield (You should see my car -
I look like a homeless person who now lives in her
Chevrolet) and start work Tuesday in Machias. But now I am
hoping for a respite, four days to breathe. I'll get to hug
brothers and sisters, love my sons to bits and take my
grandsons to the movies.

It is also absolutely amazing that a mini-reunion has been
set up for Saturday in CT. During my pre and teenage years,
I was a member of the Windsor Locks Cavaliers, a color
guard extraordinaire!

We marched all summer with the drum and bugle corps, but
in the winter we competed on our own with dozens of other
color guard drill teams and we were good, really good - for
many years we were the reigning New England champions.

I started off at about 10 years old as a rifle. Was promoted
to flag (whipping them around took some strength!) and
eventually got my saber! I KNOW - you are quaking in your
boots at the thought of me whirling around a sword. You
should be, too.

Oh the stories from those days: mooning a car load of nuns
from the back of Joyce Asselin's father's station wagon;
learning to smoke from a very hot bugle player; stabbing
captain Terry O-Donnell just under her eye with my saber;
spinning that same saber but losing control until it flew
through a closed window on the second floor of the practice
hall and ended up spearing the lawn - just feet from the
sidewalk; being able to throw myself completely into an
activity that for just a while, enabled me to forget a
miserable home life. This was my teenage sanctuary.

Whenever I hear a song with a terrific beat (some of the
new hip hop stuff has actual snare drumming) I cannot help
but march around the house. I still remember the counts
from our last drill: 12 forward, turn right, eight
forward...and don't even get me started on the movie
"Drum Line."
Today this type of activity might be thought a bit nerdy. But back in the early 60s, we were the absolute coolest - walking the halls of the high school with our Cavaliers' jackets...we were hot!

Ten of us are meeting for lunch Saturday - can you imagine?
We have not seen each other in 40 years! I'll definitely be
posting pictures for you...

Between the wedding, the reunion and the move, posting
here may be sporadic for the next few days. Forgive me - I
will be having the time of my life crying and laughing all over the place!

Two new paintings are headed to their new homes.

The first is a pair - a journey from the owners' home (bottom left) in Pittsfield, to their camp on Unity pond. This one was lots of fun - the dancing trees and the oversized daisies give it plenty of movement and each of the buildings has special meaning for the owners. My patron is picking it up tomorrow - I hope she likes it too!
And then there is "Forget-Me-Not, Trudy,'' a gift of a bouquet of forget-me-nots for my BFF Trudy. I'll give it to her before I leave for my new home.....I KNOW she'll never forget me, silly, it's symbolic of course!

We had a "Not Going Away Party"

There was of course the most amazing food - plus veggies, meat on the grill and lots of good wine!
And the dearest friends anyone could have....
We gathered all evening, it wasn't maudlin. I made no speeches. No one cried - we would hug and say, not goodbye, but see you soon.
We ate and drank and had a delightful carrot cake baked by Karen (how fabulous!) I was given a Home Depot gift certificate to continue remodeling Sweet Pea Cabin. Midway through the evening I felt a hand on my shoulder and there stood Dustin! My BFF Trudy's son who has been in France this semester! What a surprise and a beautiful sight!
Nearly the last to leave was Trudy and we didn't want to let go of each other but we managed to keep it all together.
Four more days and then a family wedding and then I'm in Machias. This is getting kind of scary.

Thanks for all your kind words...Miss Emma is well.

Just like someone flipped a switch, all symptoms are gone. She's still a bit tired but recovery is here! When I got back to Pittsfield yesterday, I built a big fire in the fireplace and she curled up on her pillow and cooked herself well. Snored like a jet plane. Farted to beat the band. But didn't choke, didn't reverse sneeze and didn't chew her little feet. WAHOO! Crisis passed.

Thanks to all the kind words about my vet experience...I've decided to make an appointment with the vet once I'm settled in Machias, update her on Miss Emma's allergies and reactions, and tell her what happened when I sought treatment last week at HER clinic. I want a GUARANTEE from her that if I come running in with a dog in distress, that dog WILL be treated. I won't settle for anything less.

I really didn't need that mess on top of everything else. I'm like a split personality right now:
I have one foot in Machias and the other in Pittsfield - trying to think in two places. My brain is scrambled eggs and I feel like I'm not accomplishing much in either place. 12 more days and I'm permanently in Machias. I hope things settle down then. But of course you know the rub: that's just 12 more days of saying goodbye down here. Actually only 7, because I head out of state for a wedding before I make the final step to Machias. How about this for a schedule: next Thursday - I work in Pittsfield; Friday through Sunday - I visit family in Connecticut; Monday - I come back to Pittsfield; Tuesday - I leave for the last time for Machias. Who's on first? Who's on second? Where did I pack my underwear?

Meanwhile, the best thing that happened today was meeting my friend Hazel for lunch and having a great dish of shepherd's pie. I loves me some shepherd's pie. And I loves me Hazel too.

Hazel and I have made a swap: she's going to watch Emma while I go to my nephew's wedding, and in return I will stay at her house and watch her dogs and her horses when she and Mike want to get away. Isn't that a great deal? Maybe I'll make her a shepherd's pie and leave it in her refrig as a little surprise!

I am shocked at the treatment we didn't receive...

Miss Emma has been in the throes of an allergy attack for two days. I have been dosing her with children's Benadryl (per my vet's advice) but yesterday afternoon I felt this choking and breathing problem had gone on long enough.

I had my daughter call HER vet - since I'm up here in Machias and 2 1/2 hours away from my beloved vet - and she explained the situation and the breathing problems and how Emma should get a steroid shot asap. The vet's asst. said she needed to see the dog right away.

We drove lickety split to the vet and were told WE HAD NO APPOINTMENT!!!!
We said it was an emergency.
We said there was difficulty breathing.
We said the dog was clearly in distress.

Sorry, the vet tech said - with a smirk, I might add - you don't have an appointment.
Drive to Brewer, we were advised, which has an emergency clinic, because this vet had no time for non-appointees.
Brewer, by the way, is about two hours away.

If the dog had been hit by a car, would the treatment have been the same?
If she had STOPPED breathing, would the treatment have been the same?

To put your mind to ease, we dosed her with a higher level of benadryl and she seems to be breathing much better. (Since there is no other vet up here our options were limited. I will be home in Pittsfield tomorrow and take her to MY vet for a shot.)

You can see that since I am moving here, and this is the only vet for hours, I am beyond thrilled at this lack of care......what to do. what to do. I think I will be dropping the vet a note, explain what happened and ask if this is the kind of treatment I can expect for Miss Emma if I choose her as my vet....and I will still be exploring other options.

My heart is heavy today.

Sea Cup - Lili's amazing entry in the Bra Project

This certainly speaks for itself - inspired, inspiring and just plain gorgeous! This is Fearless Nesting's entry in the Bra Project. She titled it Sea Cup and added this little script:

Adrift and lost, amidst sea creatures and Mermaid tears,
I return,
washing up on shore at your feet.
You are the one that can help save me.
You are my cure.

Everything she used was found on the beach of her seaside home in Maine. Just superb.

Of carnivals and shadows and Lili by the sea -

The Amazing Kiley rode on a mini-train today at a small carnival in Machias with her friend Faye-bulous, and then got to go in the bouncy house and down a big puffy slide. But it was nothing compared to the joy she found when she discovered her shadow....At first she was a bit concerned that it kept following her, but she quickly decided she had found a new friend. She ran all over that parking lot, clapping her hands and squealing! Look at those turquoise socks....what a sense of style that girl has!

Yesterday, on the way to Machias, I stopped at Fearless Nester's (a faithful reader of my blog whom I had NEVER met before - please go visit her blog and see her amazing Raku pottery) to pick up her bra for the breast cancer auction. I'll post a picture tomorrow - you are going to be amazed and awed!
This sweet new FRIEND baked a banana cream pie (oh my goddess it was spectacular) and we toured her beautiful home and gardens by the sea. We talked and laughed and the visit was much too short so we are going to have to do it again really soon! It was so great to meet you Lili - and thanks a million for the tip on the antique shop in Dexter!

I spent much of today gardening (I planted a bleeding heart given to me by my dear friend Sue - "every liberal needs one,'' she said) and put a whole bunch of lobster compost and cow manure around the gardens. All that rain last week has everything looking so lush - there are 42 blooms on my begonia - all peachy and beautiful. I was going to say there were 27 blooms but I thought maybe I was exaggerating (who me?) and so I just got up and went outside and counted them. 42...so so pretty.
I also spent a bunch of time getting my office in order. It is all set - just waiting now for Fairpoint to get off their .....es and hook up my phones and Internet. Luckily I can pirate a wireless signal for a while from my daughter's house next door....

My desk(another gift from the Stunning Sue) is right in front of two large windows that look out into the woods. There is a small section of lawn right under the window and I plan on making this a bird station with bird houses, bird feeders, bird baths, bird carnivals....whatever will attract them and make them happy. Wait! Wait! How about a bird spa for the ladies and a bird dude ranch for the gentlemen...or space camp. I could even create a mini-McDonalds, complete with a fly-through window for their Egg McMuffin in the morning. (OH MY GODDESS!!! EGG McMuffin??? What was I thinking?)

Any ideas for bird feeders or feeding suggestions will be much appreciated!! Right now I have just one feeder, in the back yard, and although the chickadees came last fall, the only thing I seem to consistently attract is crows!

I never could keep those boys from climbing on things.

It's my beautiful Eric - standing proudly atop one of his helicopters in Afghanistan. I mean, really, couldn't he have just stood by the door or posed in front of the nose or even peeked out from underneath?
Considering all the crazy stunts he pulled in the past (canoeing the Allagash in APRIL???? at just 17??!) I'm surprised he didn't tether himself to one of the propellers and go for a spin.

Ooops. I may have just given him a new idea.
Prayers and love, my sweet Eric. Stay safe and Christmas cannot come fast enough!

The move is official!

I will be leaving The Mansion and heading Downeast to my Sweet Pea Cabin before the end of the month!

I am replacing the Calais, Maine, reporter, who is retiring, and starting a Washington County Bureau in Machias - all for the same paper that I have worked for these past 23 years - the Bangor Daily News.

I'll be working right from my home...just think, if a winter storm rumbles in, I can report the news in my pajamas. Miss Emma can sleep at my feet as I work and the Amazing Kiley can toddle over for a pb&j! And before I have to write about mischief and mayhem, I can take a pit stop on the beach and sit for a while.......heaven....

We are moving the office itself this Friday and I will be up there getting acquainted with officials and meeting with my new editor on Tuesday. Then I head back to Pittsfield, work for the next two weeks, cry my way through a good-bye party (which my friends are calling the "I'm not saying goodbye" party, and go to Connecticut for my nephew (the superior swimming/diving coach) and his beloved Cassie's wedding.

My last day of work in Pittsfield will be the 18th and by the 23rd, I'll be writing from Machias. I'll be a bit schizophrenic for a while since I will be covering some things in Pittsfield via phone and email until they replace me.

I am so excited: how challenging is this to explore new territory, meet so many new people and gather such new stories. All with my family next door!! It will be invigorating and I'm sure it will shake me out of my comfort zone...Sweet Pea Cabin here I come!

The downside is saying goodbye: the fire department in Pittsfield recently invited me to their annual supper and gave me a plaque and a standing ovation for chasing them around for more than 20 years. I told them it was my HONOR and they are my HEROES, and I meant it. The work goodbyes are hard - these are some of the finest people to work with. They have opened their homes, their offices and their hearts to me. So I'm saying goodbye to them:

"For the past 23 years, I have served as your local reporter
for the Bangor Daily News. As I prepare to relocate to
Machias and new writing and life adventures there, I want to
thank the thousands of people that I encountered while
here.

To the troopers, police officers, deputies, firefighters, EMTs
and rescue personnel: my admiration for the heroic work
you do knows know bounds. For the many times you let me
tromp through fire scenes, get too close at accidents and
provided me with critical information, I thank you.

To the town managers, council and select persons, state
legislators and town clerks: I could not have done my job
well without your cooperation and assistance. For the
unselfish dedication you have shown while serving your
fellow citizens, I thank you.

To the farmers and others in Maine's agriculture community
who have let me wander through your barns, welcomed me
into your kitchens and walked me through your fields, I
thank you. You are the heart and soul of Maine and your
work often goes unnoticed and unrewarded.

To all the artisans, craftspeople, business leaders, and just
plain people next door, I am so grateful that you let me into
your lives and allowed me to share your joys, your sorrows,
your successes and your work. It has been my pleasure to
tell your stories.

To all of you that called with information, tips and story
ideas, you were my backbone and I thank you.

It has been my great honor to have written the history of
Central Maine for the past two decades and tell the
remarkable stories of the people who live and pass through
here. I hope I have treated you fairly and have adequately
represented the amazing people that live here. There will
always been a large part of my heart running up and down
the back roads of Pittsfield, Detroit, Burnham, Skowhegan,
Newport, St. Albans, Hartland, Canaan, Corinna, Plymouth
and Palmyra - and beyond. I will sincerely miss working side
by side with many of you.''

But the goodbyes to all my friends - my dear ones - I cannot put that into words.

Just tears. Lots of tears.

Remember the bra project?

Well, here is the first submission!!!! It's called Twin Peaks and has little clay lemmings on the front, straps and inside. Sorry, the flash washed out the rich colors...

Hazel Mitchell, a book illustrator and a dear friend, created it! She sewed wire in the bra and along its edges to keep its shape and then applied four layers of Plaster of Paris. She sanded it, created the little lemmings and then painted it. She wrote an inspirational little note that is attached.

For those of you who don't know, 42 women are creating bra art projects for an auction to benefit breast cancer. They are being made of glass, steel, beads, quilted, floral, etc., etc. We have a retired fashion photographer who has volunteered to photograph them and we will soon have a website.

The auction is not until the first week in August - but we need plenty of time for publicity. I really am excited about this project and I have to admit, it was pretty emotional to see the first bra. This is real - dozens of wonderful creations are under way!! When I first started the project and put out a call for entries, I was hoping for about 20. I figured at $20 each, we could send in about $400.....Now, my goal is way higher. Some of the bras should be exhibited in galleries - they are that special. Every one of them represents the sincere efforts of someone that cares. We have 42 entries coming from Connecticut, Florida, Maine...I am amazed.

I can't wait to see everyone else's efforts to save the ta tas! I'll keep you posted with pictures as they continue to arrive!

And speaking of toenails...

I like mine blue. I have been painting them sort of a shimmery, light blue for about two years now. I just like it. It makes me smile.
Red makes my toes look like they are bleeding and pink is just so wrong. I've tried green but that makes the little piggies look like they are growing some sort of fungus....

Let me defend toenail polish.
I don't wear makeup. My hair is so short it is hardly hair, really just a fuzz now. I don't paint my fingernails or even get a manicure. Sometimes I go MONTHS without shaving my legs and my lip gloss is used only to stave off chapping. I wait so long between eyebrow shaping that I often can't even find my tweezers.

But, I really like my toenails painted. It's the one girlie concession I make. I feel good with my piggie toes all shiny and new. Even if the little toe has now completely disappeared under its neighbor. Ahhhh, age.

So, I like the blue. Problem is, some people feel the need to comment on my color choice in a professional setting. You know: open toed sandals, board of selectmen, "OhMyGod, Your toenails are blue!"

Like did they think they weren't when I hopped in the shower and, sort of like mood rings, changed color after I dried off on the towel?

Today, however, it was all made right. A little old lady, a really OLD grammie, like about 85 or 86, put her little crepe-y hand on my arm in the grocery store and whispered "I just love your toenails dear.''

There you go, you stuffy little town clerk. Blue it is.

If you like real life, REAL life, this book is for you...

Little Bee was hard to read at times. The gruesome truth of Nigerian oil wars and the status of refugees; the impact on those around them; a woman's choices that destroy her family and nearly herself...and a hard-hitting ending.

Okay, I've warned you. But the language. Oh my word, the language. It is a beautifully written book and I highly recommend it for those of you who like REALISTIC reading and not fairy-tale happy endings.

I am so engrossed in this book!

"Little Bee" by Chris Cleave - unbelievable. I cannot put it down. It is an extraordinarily beautifully written ( I just love good words!) story of choices, everyday choices and extreme choices, and how they affect our lives. Gotta keep going - I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

By popular demand = PANTS WINE!

picture this....I forgot to give it to you yesterday...

This is a blueberry barren - millions of low (8-10 inch) bushes, topped with blossoms being furiously worked by a gazillion honeybees....Click on the picture and you can actually see some of the bees in the air. Some of the blossoms are white, while others are pink or creme - it depends on the variety of the bush.
Wait until August when I'll take the same picture but everything will be blue as the bushes will be laden with berries. Then I'll take another for you after the frost has hit and turned the fields scarlet. These are wild blueberry bushes (although they are managed by farmers who de-rock the fields so the bushes can spread, control weeds and bring in the commercial bee hives) and Maine - mostly in Washington and Hancock Counties - produces more than anywhere else in the world. There are so many that native bees cannot keep up and commercial hives are trucked in from Pennsylvania. Just before they came to Maine, the honeybees were down south in the citrus groves and apple orchards. When they leave here, they head to New York to pollinate pumpkins.

If you eat a 1/2 cup of blueberries a day, they can help stave off cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease and high cholesterol. Those Native Americans really knew their stuff, didn't they? I prefer to take inoculations of blueberry wine, sweet and cold; or blueberry jam on hot biscuits; blueberry muffins, pancakes, crepes, pies......yummmmy any way you fix 'em. If you don't know the difference, wild blueberries are small berries, packed with flavor and goodness. Commercial, high bush berries are much bigger and plumper but lack the intense flavor.

Some fields are harvested with mechanical processors but most are harvested by hand. Workers, bent in half, use a big scoop with long metal tines. They pass the scoop through the bushes and the berries are pulled off. It is hard, hot work.

And since many of the fields are remote and not near any kind of development, theft is a major problem. People sneak in under the cover of darkness and steal TONS of berries, selling them on the sides of the road as their own. Me, I'd be afraid of those bears that roam the fields (you can't see it, but there is an electric fence around that stack of bee hives in the picture.) I learned this week that the bears aren't after the honey - they actually want the bee larvae. Stupid bears. BTW - we only have black bears in Maine. No grizzlies. Grizzlies skip the bee larvae and go right for the humans.

There. Now you know all about blueberries. And stupid bears.

What a weekend: Pants Wine, fires, candidates, horses and potato salad!

It was a great Memorial Day weekend - weather cooperated, a great cookout was held and I invented "PANTS WINE.'' Pants wine is what happens when you have a HUGE potato salad in your left hand and a HOT broccoli/cheese casserole in your right hand and you NEED to carry the very large bottle of wine. Stick it in the back of your pants! From this day forward, we will be having Pants Wine at all affairs....

The weekend began when I hit the blueberry barrens to do a story about commercial bee hives - there are millions of them arriving in Maine this month to pollinate the blueberry bushes. It was fabulous and beautiful : 8,000 acres of low bushes blooming with white, pink and cream flowers. There were so many bees working that the bushes actually hummed!

I had just sat down at my kitchen table in Machias to write the bee story when my daughter called that smoke was pouring out of the building across the street from her deli! Off to the fire - I have not had a chance to see the Machias firefighters at work and I am impressed...the contained the fire to minimal damage and remained incredibly focused, even when one of their own men collapsed. The next day, I attended a forum for seven selectmen's candidates...it was a great opportunity to see what people felt the issues were.

The rest of the weekend was spent planting flowers, playing with the glorious Kiley (who is trying to say Queenie and it is coming out knee-knee-knee), eating, painting and spending time with my daughter and her husband. It was restful, relaxing and very much needed. Especially the Pants Wine.

P.S. I discovered an incredibly easy but delicious casserole:
1. cook up a couple of heads of broccoli (cauliflower and/or carrots would also work)
2. put them in a casserole dish
3. make a sauce by blending a softened package of cream cheese, about 1/2 cup of milk and a package of the ranch salad dressing mix (the powder stuff) - blend well. Add more milk as needed to make a smooth, thick sauce.
4. pour it over the broccoli and liberally sprinkle shredded cheddar on top
5. bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes

EVERYONE, including Kiley, raved about this at the cookout. If you try it, please let me know if you liked it.

Oh, I almost forgot - it is best served with Pants Wine.

Well after yesterday's mystery post, anything will be an improvement!

I could not post. Blogger just wouldn't let me.
The result was a bit like constipation - my words got all backed up and today I can't get rid of them fast enough!

Yesterday was never-ending: Two fires; a truck pulled down a telephone pole causing a chain reaction that dropped two more; there was no quorum at a town council meeting; but one of the councilors walked with me to a nearby ice cream stand and bought me sherbet. Nice. Lemon. Not the councilor, he's a giant sized state trooper and father of two sweet girls. The sherbet was lemon. The councilor is also nice, but he's definitely not lemon. I'd have to call him rocky road with nuts.

Today I spent a ton of time packing - I'm headed up to the house in Machias for the long weekend and am taking all non-essentials from The Mansion. This includes dishes, plants, artwork and painting gear, warm clothing, the big t.v., a bench, and I don't know what all else. I do know there is no room left in the car. Only one spot for the dog.
I've left myself two plates, two coffee cups, one glass, three forks, a knife and a spoon. A saucepan and a frying pan.
And two half empty bottles of wine. That should do me nicely for the next few weeks.

The Mansion is getting very empty and echo-y and there is a tremendous excitement building in me for my move. At the same time, there is a ribbon of sadness running through me and pulling me down and making me cry over stupid stuff, like this morning's news. Did you see the story about the lady that rescues all the dogs? Had me on the floor.
This is such an emotional roller coaster. How will I say goodbye to my friends, my son that lives nearby, the places and people I know so well.
Once I'm settled in the Sweet Pea Cabin, who will meet me for breakfast on Tuesday mornings?
How will I replace Holly at the library, who knows what I want to read even when I don't?
How will the new restaurant know when I walk through the door that I want a chicken Ceasar salad with no bread and a bottle of peach iced tea?
How will a new hairdresser know that I have two cowlicks and my hair grows sideways in the back?
No one will call me by name in the stores. No one will wave at me when I'm walking down the street. No one will call me up for an impromptu game of Saturday night dominoes.
I can see that I have to build a new circle, new friends, and I know that will take time, but the gratitude I have for these ones here in the Pittsfield area will not wane - I can see I'll be coming back VERY VERY often! It has taken decades to develop these friendships - that really doesn't even seem like the right word. I LOVE these people. This is not a house of sand - these relationships have a solid foundation and I hope they all know just how often I'll be taking advantage of all their offers to sleep in spare rooms.

Tonight, however, the firefighters have invited me to their annual dinner - this is getting so hard. Now I have to say goodbye to all my local heroes! Let's hope the 11 o'clock news tonight doesn't focus on children, puppies or grandmas. I'll be a real goner.

I have no snakes...but I do have 42 bras!

SOOOO sorry to disappoint all you reptile fanciers but there were no reptiles this weekend. I ended up at a town meeting instead. I know! How disappointing is that!

Anyway, I am very excited because one of my favorite high school students is giving a presentation at school tonight. He is so gifted! He read "Their Eyes Were Looking At God" and then composed a piece of music to tell the story! It's Jin, of the apple pie at Thanksgiving success.

I am some excited this week about a face-to-face meeting with "Fearless Nester,'' a fellow blogger and artist here in Maine, who has created one of the bras for the art bra project. I'm going to meet her Thursday and pick up her bra! I saw a picture of it in mid-creation: shells, seaglass, etc., hanging from a beautiful piece of driftwood.

If you don't remember the bra project, we have 42 women decorating and creating bras for an auction to benefit breast cancer research. Some are glass, some are welded steel; there are beaded bras, quilted bras, even a cartoon strip bra! Some of the decorated bras belong to breast cancer survivors even. It will be amazing. Right out of the blue, a retired fashion photographer volunteered to photograph them and the hubby of one of the bra artists is creating a website. As soon as we confirm the address, I'll post it here and you can check out some of the wonders (and possibly make a silent bid?) for yourself!

Off to school now, to hear the beautiful music. Wearing my bra, of course. Where else would I hide my cell phone and keys?

Snakes and such...

I'm working all weekend and it starts today with a reptile event. Should be interesting, she says in a sort of shaky voice while backing away....
Then I go to an annual 10-mile yard sale and a town meeting. A very full day.

We had a party at The Mansion last night, probably the last one I'll have here before the big move.
Food was superb, as usual - everyone always brings their best. We had jambalaya, dips, enchiladas, salads, including one with fresh local greens and another with tortellini, and three different kinds of brownies. By the looks of the pile of empty wine bottles, it was a great success! Trudy narrated a slide show of her trip to Europe - it was fabulous. She's a great photographer and her shots were not only wonderful, but oh so interesting. Including shots of what she ate! The food was amazing and its a good thing she walked miles and miles each day!

I invited a new couple - they moved here from Pennsylvania. He is an artist and began talking about starting a local Art Club. Two of my other guests are also artists so something exciting is brewing. It was interesting to watch all my OLD friends with NEW people - they were so welcoming. They each took turns getting acquainted with the new folks, chatting them up and finding out common interests.

I am thinking of this as my goodbye party, although BFF Trudy says they will have an official goodbye party in two weeks, because it was not maudlin or sad. It was a fun, laughing, silly, celebration of having my friends together in my home. Surrounded by good wine, great food and the best friends I could ever have asked for and love so much - what could be better?

Well, it could be better if those snakes I have to interview today are all asleep and are not interested in me at all...

I was bitten by a tick

and really, this is scary. Apparently the little bastard climbed up my sleeve while I was raking leaves and dug in just behind my armpit. I never felt it there, even in the shower. But I did feel the result: a saucer sized, raised welt that really, really hurt. It was absolutely disgusting to think he was there and I didn't know.

My best friend, Dr. Kathy, prescribed me antibiotics and the swelling and pain in the bite area is WAAAAAY better but the drugs make me feel like I fell off the house. Achy. Grumpy. Nightmares. And I went asleep in my chair yesterday afternoon in the middle of the day.

So today I head out to a horse farm - I'm doing a story on the impact of the horse industry to Maine's economy. What do you want to bet there will be more ticks there?

I'm going over myself with a magnifying glass when I return.

By the way, does anyone know if I can drink alcohol while on antibiotics? I definitely think that would help.

temporary beauty, long-lasting destruction

The tiny little snowflake seeds of this dandelion are so tricky. Tricky, tricky, tricky.
Get close, really close, and their beauty is staggering. Thin filaments with little rotors on top to propel the heavy seed on the bottom to its new home. And the dandelion flower that preceded it - wasn't that the first one you ever picked for your mother? And the first flower ever presented to you by your child?

Well, GET OVER IT! The lawn here is COVERED with dandelions and I feel so bad for the homeowners. They put mulch on a flower bed in the front of the yard two years ago and the ENTIRE thing is covered - it's a carpet, I tell ya. A feast for the bumblebees. You can't even find the tiny purple violas in there!

And it will be doubled or tripled for next year. Every one of those creamy yellow blooms contains about a million seeds.
Beware - there is deceit in those beauties...

Sweet Pea Cabin - or home sweet home..

Here is my front door: an old pew, some pots still awaiting spring annuals, a rusty witch hanging from the eave and the "sweet peas" sign. Last year I put moss in a blender with beer and poured it in all the cracks around the paving stones. I think it is working - little mosses seem to be appearing this spring. You can see the pile of pine cones and needles in the background. I rake them up and save them in buckets to start the woodstove - they work amazingly well!
This is my living room. And no, that is not dog pee on the rug. I had to wash up some spilled soda. When I peeled up all the floor tiles I found an oak floor - why do people do that? - and so I'm having it refinished this summer. The drum is from the University of Maine marching band and there are four of those long windows - two on each side. The side walls are chocolate and the end walls, where the brick is, are copper. I want a larger carpet (this one has big loops and Miss Emma keeps catching her toenails in it - ouch!) Any color suggestions?
This is one corner of the living room - you can really see the chocolate and copper walls here - and some chairs I picked up at a flea market for my grandchildren. The cupboard is painted with goddesses and was inspired by the winter solstice. The drapes look white but they are really a dark tan see-through. And isn't the lampshade attractive all tipped over like that? Tsk.
Here's my shotgun kitchen. Would you believe this was all dark brown paneling? I painted it three shades of green, tiled the backsplash and will replace the sink and floor this summer. I'm also hoping to get a new window for by the kitchen table. I'm also on the hunt for a retro red and chrome 1950s kitchen set - I think it will fit perfectly and I can't wait to replace this mismatched set.
MY STUDIO!! This was my former kitchen table but it is much too big for this house so it has been pressed into duty in the studio. This room is on the front of the house, overlooking a wooded area, with light on three sides. Great for painting, tiling, any craft project. This room sold me on the house - my own studio!
And here is half of my bedroom. OH DEAR LORD look at those tiles! Couldn't you kill yourself? They are coming off this summer and I'm painting the floor white with wide light blue stripes. Eventually I want a wood floor but it is not in the budget this year. I made the whimsical goddess that hangs over my bed and the pillows are cut from old chenille bedspreads. The rugs are also chenille. The other side of the room is sort of a sitting room, reading space. I love all the ocean colors and I'm hoping to make some plain white valances for the windows.

So there you have my house in Machias - where I have been trying to move to for a year and a half. The good news? It looks like the move will only be about a month away!! YAY WHOOPEE AMAZING FINALLY STUPENDOUS FANTASTIC THANK GODDESS WHEW and did I say YAY?

Oh, and why Sweet Pea Cabin? My grandmother always called me sweet pea and I've taken to saying that to Kiley, who lives across the driveway. I found the sign in an antique shop in Cherryfield and it was perfect - a place for sweet peas to gather, love and thrive.

Creme brulee French toast with fresh berries: do I have your attention?

That was the fabulous Mother's Day breakfast my son-in-law made for my daughter and I. I got to travel to Machias and visit my little house! I was able to hang these bathing beauties I made in glass class in the kitchen window. See the grass? It is already turning green!
Today I had to go to a funeral so I'm cutting this short....HAPPY Mother's DAY to all of you mom's out there! Tommorrow I'll post some pictures of my house - Sweat Peas Cabin. You will love it!

Rain is green and so solitary.

It is raining as I drive through the woods of Maine this morning, headed west, and the greenery is exploding.
Trees are popping their leaves before my eyes, a kaleidoscope of colors: yellow, red, every shade of green. I know how the deer, the cows feel: this green is so tempting I want to eat it, to rip the little budding leaves from the branches and swallow them.
The water has made the tall evergreens so dark that with their limbs tucked so close, they seem to be tightly hiding secrets in close to their trunks. I can't see, but rather sense, the little birds weaving and weaving a safe little home of twigs and string and other bits of refuse for their lovely blue eggs.
Flowers, freshly bloomed, bow their heads under the weight of the rain, genuflecting to Mother Nature in awe of the spectacle she has wrought.
Fog lingers along the edges of the fields, slowly retreating into the forests, and there, right there in the water-filled ditches, the wood ferns are unfurling their stiff stalks.

The car windows are wet and it mutes and wobbles the view. I stop at an intersection and the neighborhood and its little houses become a Monet.

The truck ahead of me tosses up the water from the roadway in little misty clouds while my wipers beat a steady rythmn: wap, wap, wap, wap.

I am thinking how lonely rain can be. It puts me in a solitary state of mind. Reflection is almost a requirement.
I must drive slower, slower still, so as not to miss a single color, a single tree or flower that is awakening for me. Everything is clean, fresh. Renewal. Rebirth. A chance to start again, perhaps to get it right or do it better this time.

And so I drive on, accompanied by the hard splat of rain on the windows and Vivaldi on the radio.
I am lost in the rain,
lost in my thoughts,
lost in spring.

This is a great day. A great, great day.

This is so important that I'm offering up the formal press release.

I could not be more proud of Maine - the fifth state to legalize gay marriage. As a dear friend of mine said "We make California look like Texas.'' Amen.

AUGUSTA – Governor John E. Baldacci today signed into law LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom.

“I have followed closely the debate on this issue. I have listened to both sides, as they have presented their arguments during the public hearing and on the floor of the Maine Senate and the House of Representatives. I have read many of the notes and letters sent to my office, and I have weighed my decision carefully,” Governor Baldacci said. “I did not come to this decision lightly or in haste.”

“I appreciate the tone brought to this debate by both sides of the issue,” Governor Baldacci said. “This is an emotional issue that touches deeply many of our most important ideals and traditions. There are good, earnest and honest people on both sides of the question.”

“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

“Article I in the Maine Constitution states that ‘no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor be denied the equal protection of the laws, nor be denied the enjoyment of that person’s civil rights or be discriminated against.’”

“This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instead, it reaffirms the separation of Church and State,” Governor Baldacci said.

“It guarantees that Maine citizens will be treated equally under Maine’s civil marriage laws, and that is the responsibility of government.”

“Even as I sign this important legislation into law, I recognize that this may not be the final word,” Governor Baldacci said. “Just as the Maine Constitution demands that all people are treated equally under the law, it also guarantees that the ultimate political power in the State belongs to the people.”

“While the good and just people of Maine may determine this issue, my responsibility is to uphold the Constitution and do, as best as possible, what is right. I believe that signing this legislation is the right thing to do,” Governor Baldacci said.

Yes, John, it is the right thing to do. And the right thing is not always easy. Thank you for hearing the thousands of people in this state that wanted the right thing to finally be done.

100 Free Pizzas!!

My daughter Faye owns The Fat Cat Deli in Machias. Tonight, from four to closing, she's giving away100 free pizzas to thank her customers for sticking with her this winter in a tough economy.
The sauce it will be flying!

Can you imagine if Toyota decided to say thanks with 100 cars?
Or Sears with 100 washing machines and dryers?
How about the local grocery store, it could give away 100 meals, from soup to nuts...
Or businesses could give away 100 fishing poles to children, or 100 pairs of sneakers to teens or sit down for 100 hours worth of card games at a local senior citizen center...
How about 100 cleanings at a local pet shelter?

What could you be challenged to do 100 times?
Or maybe it is what you could be challenged NOT to do...

How about walking to the store or the library 100 times rather than drive the car?
Or how about picking up debris or litter, 100 pieces worth?
You could read 100 stories at a nearby day care center.
You could make 100 thank you cards and send them to everyone who has touched your life.
How about 100 kisses for a special someone?

Let me know what you think about this 100 gratitude expressions idea....

Me? I'm going to make sure I say ''thank you" 100 times over the next two weeks to special people....the first one was Amanda, my daughter in law, who called this afternoon to tell me she and my son Danny were having a boy!

Here is my second: thank you faithful readers for giving me a place to ramble, think and brag...THANKS!

I was totally poopified last night and went to bed as soon as Movie Night was over.

We watched Bride Wars which was cute and made us laugh a couple of times, which was the point since we have been sobbing over the past three movies.
So everyone grabbed their eggs (not THOSE eggs, silly... I sell organic eggs at Movie Night for my ex-husband, the farmer). I went to bed with Miss Emma curled comfortably behind my knees.
About 3 a.m. I awoke to a NOISE, a tiny little noise that sounded very much like chewing.
"What is that?" I quietly asked Miss Emma.
Snore, snore, snore, she replied.
"Does it sound like a mouse in the kitchen?" I asked.
Snore.
"I left a bowl of peanuts on the counter," I whispered.
A grunt, a sigh, another snore.
"I think there is a mouse eating my peanuts,'' I breathed in her ear.
More snoring.
So without my 12-pound watchdog to assist me, I took matters into my own hands.
I grabbed the tennis racket by my bed which I know you all have too, strategically placed there to whack the dreaded bats that I hate and fear and appear each spring to torture me.
I began creeping out of my bedroom with the racket ready to whack.
I creeped through the foyer.
I creeped down the hallway.
I peeked around the corner into the kitchen while simultaneously turning on the lights.
"I'm blinded,'' I shouted, which would have scared any sneaky mouse to death, but

No mouse.

What I heard was the sound of the rain dripping off the eaves. You know, it was almost a let down after all that careful creeping.
Seems as though the snoring Miss Emma figured it out looooooong before I did.
Next time I'll pay attention to those little snores.

Jasper Beach and Russell hugs...aaaaahhhhhhhh

Sunday was spectacular and some of my family (Matt and Kiley, Faye, Taryn and Russell) headed to Jasper Beach - miles of coastline that consists of finely worn rocks, all tumbled and tumbled until they are smooth as silk. Everyone that goes comes back with their pockets filled with beautiful stones.
Kiley and daddy got to feel just how cold the water can be in Maine!
And we all got to see how beautiful it can be....
Russell found a driftwood saxophone and played us a tune...
And Kiley spent a happy hour picking up stones and putting them in daddy's hand.

We also had a rock throwing contest targeted at a driftwood log but SOME of the kids got carried away and began throwing them at me while I was taking pictures. The one that hit me in the head was small and Russell said he was very sorry...

Sunday ended with a wonderful meal - meat on the grill, roasted onions, white and sweet potatoes, a big salad. We drove on down to The Shake Pit but I was so full I couldn't even fit a baby cone. Taryn got a "black and white" which we learned is vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce (or the reverse) and it took her three times to explain to the teenage clerk what she wanted. I guess the Downeaster didn't speak Jersey.

We collapsed on the sofas and in the morning, Russ and Taryn left for the horrifically long drive back to Bayonne. I will never, ever let this much time go by without seeing them (six months!) and I'm already checking plane fares for mid-May.

A highlight of the weekend was early Saturday morning, when Russ woke up and came into the kitchen and wrapped me in one of his big bear hugs. "I don't get to do this often enough,'' he said.

So to all you mothers out there that are being kept up all night by crying babies, or are wallowing in the terrible twos, or struggling through the horrid teenage years, I promise you there will come a Saturday morning when you will get your special hug.
I promise.
And it will be so incredibly, overwhelmingly worth it.

The luau was fantabulous!

Here's the birthday girl with her frosting face, celebrating the great age of ONE!
Could there have been any more presents?!?!?
These were the fun flamingo and palm tree cupcakes that were the birthday cake - just the right size for a baby's hand! Lots of fun, good friends, my wonderful sons and their wives/partners, amazing, amazing, amazing! No time today to write, though - will fill you in tomorrow!