Still Chilling in Maine

Still laying a bit low and trying to recoup from things. Meanwhile we took a trip out Bar Harbor way and visited Acadia national park for about the "umpteenth" time in our lives. It's a beautiful spot at all times of the year and in all types of weather. This visit found us with plenty of sunshine and visibility although as it almost always does, a fog bank or two came rolling by.....


On another day we visited again with Dickie and Sarah who fired up the pizza oven that Dick built in his back yard just off the deck. We roasted the ingredients for the pizza first, then applied them to the top of the special dough for baking. Meanwhile we roasted some blue mussels in wine and garlic and "tasted on them." Talk about fast cooking time! With temps in the stove at over 750 degrees, everything cooks in mere minutes- literally. The time to prepare the meal is in the firing of the oven, not in the cooking of the ingredients themselves. Soooo good!

Strolling Castine

A friend once questioned why I would express melancholy or a bit of anguish or similar on a blog post. I wish I never had to do that. But I started out writing this more for me, and us, than I did for anyone else....so not expressing such things when I am feeling them to any degree seems like a personal injustice. Perhaps not a lie, but not-the-whole-truth. And I like to look back at my thoughts every bit as much as my pictures. In the pictures- memories. But in the thoughts and feelings- the history of the growth through the journey. There are mountains. There are valleys. Even when you live on the mountain there are times when you must pass through the valley. And if you find yourself dwelling in the valley, there are times when you must cross the mountain as well. Living on the plains between the two may be possible, but has never seemed totally appealing to me, so I suppose I must conclude that all of life's ups and downs are necessary...and not to be ignored.

We continue to be seemingly unable to escape the sadness of recent personal losses, but we are trying to get back our healthy and happy perspective as best we can. A stroll around the coastal Maine town of Castine seemed just the thing. If there is anything flat about Castine, I wouldn't be able to tell you what it is or where. The little league baseball field had to be nestled into the interior of the Fort that overlooks the scenic harbor- as I suppose it was the only parcel of level land, however small, that they could find. Main Street is hilly in all directions. "Being in shape" greatly benefits anyone walking around town- which, for the shopper in you- is more about real estate offices and less about souvenirs and basic merchandise. But the scenery is calming and spectacular and inspirational even for those in the distraction of the doldrums. Doldrums. A nautical term referencing "calm" and "directionless" befitting the situation as the winds of fate have seemingly stopped pushing us on a predictable course for the time being. There is only one thing to be done in the doldrums- wait. And try to find a way to enjoy the calm that comes before the exhilaration of the next wind.

It was a slow and deliberate stroll. There was not so much to see... as there were images to reflect upon:

Farewell To Abby The Wonderdog

The thing about dogs (and Abby was the best of the best of the dogs) - they love you unequivocally. The more love you give them, the more they have to return....and so it was in this household where Abby, and her sister before her, Carly, shared our space and our lives and our trials and our tribulations. The hole in our universe now that her time, their time has passed is huge. The day we knew had to...and would come...did. Abby's heart was still strong. Her eyes were still vital and alert, but the rest of her had pretty much shut down. The legs that needed to carry her up and down the stairs to the coach were failing fast. The ramp was no longer enough to carry her in and out. She had trouble standing up...and trouble getting back down. Pain, despite the doctor's remedies, was her constant companion. And this day it just became too much for everyone.

So Abby The Wonderdog is no longer on the road with us. Our journey will be longer and lonelier. But memories will be our new companion. Abby was born in Honduras and flew to America. Believe us, she was a LEGAL ALIEN. She accompanied us to 49 of the 50 states- (we all missed Hawaii) and three countries. She visited Alaska twice. She was cool, calm and collected in the presence of buffalo, elk, caribou, all manner of bears, even wolves and coyotes. German Shepherds? Not so much!

She never met a snack or a treat she didn't fully appreciate. Next to the first walk of the new morning, dinner time was her favorite time of day. She never protested being dressed up in ridiculous fashion for a blog post- wearing a pirate's three cornered hat, comes to mind...and I swear to you she loved putting those gigantic sun glasses on for our annual Christmas Card shot each year.

Somewhere tonight I hope and pray she is fine without us. Resting comfortably. Sniffing good smells. Sharing munchies with a friend. Barking only when necessary. Getting lots of pats from adoring fans. Wearing her signature scarves. Loving...and being loved. That was her specialty!

We hope to be OK again soon too. But not right now. And for sure- never the same....








And wrapping it up with images from Roatan, Honduras, where we lived for 5 years and which is the birth place of Abby and her twin sister Carly. If there is consolation in this day, it is that they are inseparable again in the afterlife as they were in life- chasing each other round and round and round a coconut palm there on our beach, or chasing the iguanas that usually managed to say out in front....or the yard chickens that usually didn't manage to stay out in front...or maybe just resting under the avocado tree munching their choice of select fruits of the day. They came into this world filled with love and they left it the same way they found it. If only we could all do as well.............

North To Maine

We wrapped up our stay in Pennsylvania with a get-together with a bunch of the guys that were in the award winning Wilson High School band together back in 1966 (Oooo, that sounds lousy). It was a great event. From there we headed north to Connecticut to spend a wee bit of time with my BFF Steve and his wife. Then a stop-over in Boothbay Harbor to visit Marilyn's BFF Nancy. We confess to eating every last bit of the "Five For $30" lobster special while camped out there at Shore Hills. Yesterday we landed in our main (Maine) destination at Patten Pond near both Ellsworth and Sedgewick, Maine. We'll be visiting with Dick and Sarah and seeing what trouble we can get into around the house that they built. Hopefully we get some "dirt" time in the greenhouse- that's opretty much what we miss most about being on the road full time- the gardens. True, we have two traveling herb pots that are pleasant enough, but that's just not the same.

I'm gonna put up a few shots from our day trip to Camden, Maine- a town just north of where we ran our business. It's cute. It's quaint. maybe even picturesque- but didn't seem to be so to the degree it always used to be. Of all the coastal towns that we drove through on the trip north I have to say that my old Rockland looked the best. Cudos to them. They seem to be "up" while much of the coast looks "down" to me. Places where a reservation was not only a must in the past but also darn hard to get- you can now just drive in and pick your spot. Staycations seem to be the norm pretty much where-ever we go right now. It's a shame, especially in places where the tourist season is short but oh so important....

I'm finding it hard to get back into the routine of posting and photographing, photographing and posting. Dealing with the loss of someone who has been such a big part of life takes some of the wind from your sails to be sure. So please be patient if the pace of the blog comes back however gradually. Much of what we can do right now is more internal that what we have been doing in the past.......

Below: Camden, Maine- where the mountains meet the sea and the harbor is punctuated with a waterfall that cascades out from under the main street businesses like The Smiling Cow

Minding Your "Bees and Cues"

I suppose if you make a conscious decision to confront your demons- things that you fear in one way or another- you may as well get them all over with at once. Well, Mr. Man, I had no more intention of going up against a hive of ticked off honey bees than I did the extreme height (and swaying back and forth) of the observation tower. But opportunity is where you find it- and once again it came knocking. With all their interests and activities, Dick and Sarah somehow find the time to be rather accomplished bee keepers along with everything else. So when Dick offered to take his mom (Marilyn) out to the blueberry barrens to check on one of their hives, there was never any doubt that I should and would go along to capture this on "film" for the blog. He had two bee keeper suits- not three- and while I was determined to get this done, I was equally as determined to take care of business from a distance and not get attacked by bees suffering from a bad case of hyper annoyance. Off we went. Like the tower the day before, it really wasn't so bad! Dick had Marilyn keep the bees on the mellow (all things being relative) side with a fogger that burned cardboard egg crate pieces to produce the smoke to settle the hive. It worked well and I could get just close enough for some decent, if not perfect, shots- given the point and shoot camera I happened to have on me at the time.

Piece by piece they disassembled the hive and examined it drawer by drawer, tray by tray. The bees were doing great, comb was building the way it should in a healthy hive, and the top drawer was dripping with honey already. With continued progress between now and the Fall, there should be some honey to harvest over and above what the hive will need to over-winter. Hey, worker bees gotta eat too, and winter can be long here.

Marilyn got an up close and personal introduction to each phase of the hive as first they took it apart and then as they built it back again. While the bees got a tad roiled from time to time, the suits were adequate protection for the two of them and at 10 to 12 feet away, I never felt like I was pushing my luck. A good thing.

After this terrific experience, everyone was just fine. If you "mind your P's and Q's" as well as your "bees and cues," I guess this is a pretty non threatening activity. For sure it was an unexpected and much appreciated look inside a hive. We did this and I am writing this during the 08 Winter Olympics. There may not be any Olympic Bee Keeping- but do these two look like they just finished an Olympic Fencing match....or What???? Touche!

Another of their hives is "no more." We all know that Winnie the Pooh is a harmless and lovable honey-eating bear. But real bears love honey too and one of their hives was smashed to bits by a Maine Black Bear intent on tasting that honey before they did. Unfortunately, the bees were destroyed along with the hive- so this one was lost. Sarah who does some teaching of science and marine biology at the lab at Maine Maritime Academy, and who does a weekly radio piece on Public (Community) Radio on WERU, did one of her radio lectures on the demise of the hive. You can listen to her tell the story in her own words by clicking on this link to her radio "column" called The World Around Us. Click the "PLAY" arrow ON THE FOLLOWING LINK once the link opens-it's an audio archive.

Slide Show - Examining The Hive: Dick and Marilyn

Only Three In The World

At the Fort Knox State Historic Site in Prospect, Maine, there is something you won't see every day. And unless you venture here, you may never see such a thing ever. The new bridge over the Penobscot River houses a bridge based observatory. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory to be exact. Some 41 months under construction, it rises not unlike the Washington Monument some 42 stories above the river. Yet it is the primary arch pin and support for the bridge across the river. Technologically, it is a marvel and even has its own innovative nitrogen gas protection system to protect it from the effects of moisture and other corrosive elements. There are enough epoxy-covered strands that make up the cables that would stretch 331 miles- enough to go from Portland to Fort Kent. The list of bridge and observatory facts is simply amazing. The bridge and observatory are artistically striking, to say the very least.

Sometimes the most amazing moments are achieved when you realize a dream. When you do something you always wanted to do. Or saw something you always wanted to see. But, for sure, that is not what happened here. I already admitted to not liking heights. Honestly, I'm a "scare-dee-cat". I didn't really want to go up that tall, skinny, intimidating, swaying in the breeze tower in the first place! But in truth, sometimes those amazing moments come along when you force yourself to do those things you feel the most uncomfortable doing. And if not now, when? And if not here, where? The only other such structures in the entire world are in Thailand and in Slovakia- and I'm pretty sure I'm not going there! At least not in the motorcoach!

It was breath-taking. It was exhilarating. And the fast cat elevator ride to the tippy top wasn't half as bad as I expected. Well, maybe half- but no more than half. I'm happy I went to the top. And I am equally happy to have made it down before today's thunder storm rolled on in- as I could see it coming in the distance from way up there....

Views Over, Under, Sideways, Down

The Original Fort Knox

You might get the idea that someone who loves prospecting for gold as much as we do would be doing a piece on Fort Knox and writing about the gold depository in Kentucky. Not so this time. The original fort named for Major General Henry Knox was here in Maine- built on the Penobscot River in Prospect (get the parallels?), Maine, just outside of Ellsworth. It was here for the express purpose of guarding the river against the British in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. It is one of the best preserved forts on the eastern corridor. I'm not one to subscribe to haunted places but there was a spiritual presence in the halls of the old fort, especially the underground tunnels and passages that gave us an eerie feeling. Who is Charlie, anyway???? I would suggest the link within to check out the history of the fort. I'll put up a couple images and a brief slide show. The fort was not the focus of our visit. Rather, we were here to visit the Penobscot Narrows Observatory that is part of the same Maine State Park.

Exploring Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine

We've already made three visits to Acadia National Park, and we'll probably visit a bit more if we can fit it in before leaving the area- headed to Canada for 5 weeks. I made a conscious decision NOT to try to show you and tell you all about Acadia. Better you should click on the link above and see more about that park there. While it is one of the smallest of the National Parks, it is one of the most "inclusive" as far as things to do and see. There is more natural wonder packed into Mt. Desert Island than almost any place I can think of. It puts the "grand" in grandeur! perhaps the best long distance view on the East Coast of the United States. It's been a fog drenched week for us, so the dimensionality of the photos will seem limited. But, "On a clear day you CAN see forever...."

The best thing I could get a picture of at the summit was the summit sign itself. While we had pretty good views and vistas on the way up, the top was socked in big time. At least it's a really nice sign!

The island contains the only fjord on the East Coast and one of only a tiny few in the lower 48. Because of photographic conditions, I'm including a look at the fjord from the park model at the visitor's center. We have been fortunate to have seen it previously many times on a clear day, and also to have seen it from the water as we boated from Rockland to this area on several occasions.

There were a few moments of "clarity" along Somes Sound, so I took this photo of our little rig- looking very much like we found a nice bonsai tree to throw in the back seat and bring home. Not so!

Even in the fog and haze, this is a beautiful place. The obvious thing about the image below is the color of the granite which forms most of the island- it is pink. But you will have to look more closely if you wish to see what's going on with the vegetation. Much of the island and much of Cadillac Mountain is covered with low bush blueberries. One hiker recounted the dilemma of whether to keep hiking or to keep stopping to pick and eat blueberries.
The berries are nearly everywhere!

Above you saw granite at the top of the mountain. Same pink granite down here where the mountain meets the sea.

And on the pink granite grows a flurry of lichen and various mosses...

Even with three visits to our favorite spot- Thunder Hole- we failed to catch the proper mix of tidal position and wave action and wind that create the "thunder" and the geyser-like water spray that makes this spot so noteworthy. But in truth it doesn't matter. While that makes it spectacular, it never fails to impress at any time of night, day, tide, or condition.
The most I could muster on this visit was a sputter! magnify this by a thousand fold or more and you will get an idea of what the hole is capable of.

Invariably, the spot is visited by people who have no knowledge of, and perhaps no respect for, the capabilities of the sea. Waves are not regular and predictable. So while images like this make for an interesting photo, they are in fact evidence of life threatening behavior. The rocks are slippery and the barnacles are razor sharp. A child, perhaps anyone, swept off these rocks by a larger than expected wave is in dire straights. It happens, but luckily not today.

Marilyn's son Dick and his wife Sarah are amazingly talented and skilled outdoor aficionados. They hike, bike, rock and ice climb, guide, teach, kayak- you name it they are probably quite expert at it. On this visit to the park, they guided us to this cave. We climbed down the rocks to investigate the tide pools inside the cave. How neat! The "young'uns" helped us old fogies down and back up. They sure make it look easy. It's not.
Going down...
Inside the cave, Sarah points out and discusses things to be found in the crystal clear water of the tide pool. She shows me species of sponges I am totally unfamiliar with, and shares her in-depth scientific knowledge of the eco system in the pool.


The light in the cave was rather dim, so some of the pool inhabitants were difficult to see while there. But once on the computer- a little fill light added shows lots of anemones and sponges, algae, seaweed that had been really hard to pick out in the cave.

We scramble back up the rock face to move on to Otter Point- a site where rock climbing classes can be observed. Hey, wait for me!!!!
Sarah, Dick, and Marilyn look up, down, and all around from the rocky outpoint at Otter Point.


I don't know how to describe the degree of difficulty involved in climbing up and down the rock faces at Otter Point. I just know I can't do it. Maybe I could, but I won't! Just standing on the precipice to take the photos was weirding me out a bit. Never did like heights very much.


You have a sheer cliff to climb (above) and a "chimney" to practice on nearby.

There is a temptation to think that rock is solid and stays just where we find it. Here is evidence that is not the case. Climbing on rocks mandates knowing what you are doing. Ever see the "Falling Rocks" sign as you travel down life's highways?

What goes down, must come up. Wait a minute. Is that how that saying goes???

Water, wind, surf, rocks, fog, birds. Calm, surging, violent. The possibilities at the edge of the sea are infinite and no better place to ponder the universe than on a perch overlooking the mystery and marvel of the sea.
Our "private guides" hiked us in to this "local knowledge only" skinny dipping spot on the Otter Creek. I know what you're thinking....and NO! The unbelievable clarity of the stream belies the depth at something around six feet.


Then on to Four Seasons Organic Farm. Sarah works here part time in the summer. She is a natural for this work. We found the farm to be absolutely amazing- growing things I had never seen (and I love gardening) in ways a I was unfamiliar with. The visit to the farm was another great learning experience for us. Dick and Sarah took us from National Park secrets to tricks of the organic farming trade all inside a week. We were very fortunate to have time to spend with them.


Artichokes- a biennial crop, are tricked into growing to maturity in a single season!

On the way back to the coach from the farm- we found this roadside stand that offered something different than most!

And finally for now, a look at Marilyn's perennially favorite Maine Garden- the Terrace Gardens of Asticou and Thuya in North East Harbor.

You hike up the side of the mountain adjacent to the harbor and are rewarded by commanding views of the harbor that get better and better as you get higher. Atop the mount is a splendid flower garden with something for everyone from the elaborate flower beds, to the hiking trails, to the wishing well. I found the "Owl's eye" on a tree along the path up- it was as though the tree kept special watch over the harbor.



The overall appearance of the garden is very nice, but close ups are where the action is....



And "What About Bob?" That was the name of a hilarious movie quite a few years back now. We have kept the title phrase alive and well with running "Bob" gags. But here's a new one on us: BOB- Blue Orchard Bee. Since honey bees have been in short supply of late, Maine horticulturists have taken to building bee condos for "bobs." 5/16 in. diameter holes drilled exactly 4 inches into a board no closer that 3/4 inches to each other- apparently form the perfect requirements for these little guys with two sets of wings on each side of their buzzing little bodies. Why that's more rules and regs than it takes to build a condo in Miami for goodness sake!