Alert! Critters are on the move – skunks, raccoons, porcupine, etc. Keep an eye on your pets!
The osprey are back. And all those single out in the open high in the air landing zones are back in use.
Read moreAlert! Critters are on the move – skunks, raccoons, porcupine, etc. Keep an eye on your pets!
The osprey are back. And all those single out in the open high in the air landing zones are back in use.
Read moreBack in March when I turned in my old worn out knee for a new one, I eventually returned home to recover. A physical therapist came to the house and we made over the den into a bedroom for me so there were no stairs to climb, with the sprints to the bathroom substantially shortened. My “Chief of Staff” nurse wife was also more able to keep an eye on things as I gradually climbed my way back from being one wheel down. It worked out very well with one exception.
Read moreWe got our first measurable snow this past weekend. Not a huge dump, maybe five inches here on Southport. It started to snow in the late afternoon, light fluffy stuff. But when it hit the warm ground, light fluffy turned into wet slushy. Once the snow got going, the light fluffy took over. We could hear the snow plow crew out during the night making passes along the state road and down some of the side roads to Cozy Harbor and beyond. Adam Harkins has taken over as the person in charge of keeping the island in good shape and I think he wanted to make a good first impression. He did. Thanks, crew!
Read moreJean Strollo called me the other day from LeRoy, New York, a small town in the western part of the state, about half way between Buffalo and Rochester. This is a place I know a little about. My mother's family is from that area. Mother's father was a station manager with the New York Central railroad and he worked all along that line throughout his career. I have oodles of relatives in towns in that neck of the woods.
Read moreBill Sherman (not famous local fish boat captain) started the Bar Harbor Sherman's in 1886. In 1962, Jeff Curtis's parents bought the Bar Harbor business from Bill Sherman's daughters. Jeff worked for the store summers and weekends all of his growing years. In 2006, Jeff bought the business from his mother when she retired.
Read moreI grew up around heavy equipment. John Deere, Farmall, Allis-Chalmers, International Harvester, on the farms. On construction jobs there was Ingersoll Rand, CAT, Euclid, Lima, Manitowoc, Bucyrus-Erie, etc., long before the newer technologies we see today on job sites. Back then nothing was hydraulic. Machinery was less refined, more blunt and heavy. Today's sophisticated excavators may have been in the pipeline, but nobody I worked with could have imagined something so precise and well designed. It was a man's world. In all my years of work in the coal fields, in power station retrofits, on road construction, I never saw a woman on a job site. It just didn't happen.
Read moreI am reminded of the song by my third cousin twice removed, Joni, “Clouds.” “I've looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it's clouds' illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds at all.”
I am a fan of clouds. Over the years I have observed and photographed a lot of them. And, as the song says, “I really don't know clouds at all.” But, that hasn't stopped me from admiring the wonderful light shows which treat us, especially this time of year.
Read moreSometimes after many years of frequent flyer miles you come to think that you know the route pretty well. But, when travel plans change, you may have to rethink how to get from point “A” to point “B.” Passing over the same terrain, repeatedly, doesn't always mean you get the lay of the land. Often times, much is missed.
Read moreOver the 45+ years we've lived in the region I've had the distinct honor of photographing at many area shipyards and boat-building facilities. The places I have photographed vary in complexity and size, from back yard outdoor set-ups to some of the largest companies in the area. Places like, Goudy & Stevens, Hodgdon's, Washburn & Doughty, Jones, Nutt, and Sample’s. Other smaller but no less impressive shops were at Mr. Blaney's, Roscoe Rand, and Chetley Rittall, to name a few. What I did learn through my boat building observation and recording is that boats can crop up almost anywhere, with the right amount of ingenuity and skill. It has been an amazing run.
Read moreI sent this week’s adventure photo to a friend in Germany. We met on a flight from Paris to Cameroon. Anette was hoping to adopt a child from an orphanage near Douala. I was doing some photography with Dr. Patricia Toro and the Mailman School at Columbia University reestablished medical clinics in sub Saharan Africa. Anette and I had a lot of time to talk on the flight.
Read moreI met my B-flat metal clarinet in junior high school. We had a very active love/hate relationship. I loved the sounds, hated to practice. My music career didn’t last long.
Read moreBefore trailing off into the tall grass in search of new adventures, I wanted to share a tiny bit of post-Father's Day best wishes for dads here and gone. It’s just a small item, please bare with me.
Read moreOK ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, its time for this year's obligatory lupine photo.
I know that everyone with an image making device is out there crawling through the pucker brush, transiting the shorelines and hopefully, not trampling over this year's crop of Lupine Lady contributions to the already exceptional beauty of our Maine. For me, this is an annual visual adventure. Where will they come up, what colors will they be, and how many attend the big dance.
Read moreDoes anyone (other than me) wonder how birds know when the feeders are full? The red squirrels certainly seem to have figured it out! Last year there were very few red squirrels munching at the trough of life. This year, it’s a bumper crop! It’s like, “Your order is ready” at FAT BOYS! They are aggressive and numerous. Fortunately we have one of those spring loaded feeders that the squirrels can’t climb. But they sure can chew their way to stardom trying. Traffic control at our feeders is overwhelming!
Read moreIt was just about a year ago that we visited Blue Tin Farm on the Cross Point Road in Edgecomb. I knew of the farm and its animals and hoped that Crystal Theall and her family of people and animals would allow us to vist again.
Read moreOver the years I have owned and used many chainsaws. In my younger years, the metal of choice was either Homelite or McCulloch. The McCulloch saw was enormous, heavy and loud with a bar that was over two feet long. It was like lugging a small Evinrude outboard through the woods. But, once you set that baby on a log, it was so heavy, you needn’t do anything but wait for it to finish the cut. No pressure needed. Don’t get it bound up though, it --- took a backhoe to dislodge.
Read moreEvery now and then I get the urge to blast off from the island and adventure out. So late Saturday morning I wound up the Jetta and headed up to Wiscasset to annoy my old pal Erika Soule at Rock Paper Scissors. She always freaks a little when she sees me coming through the door. Over the years I generally do not land lightly. She’s been in her shop for 20 years now in 2020, and generally has reason to fear my arrivals. We usually get hysterical in about five minutes, driving all customers from the store. Even her pup runs for cover.
Read moreThis past weekend some New York City area friends visited.
Tom, a retired Wall Streeter, and Dwight, a retired Navy Seal and current real estate consultant. Both old salts of sorts. Tom a veteran of “Outward Bound” and Dwight a veteran third generation sailor, and, of course, military service. Both had spent time in Maine but never visited our Boothbay region.
Read moreFor as long as we have lived here, we have collected pot buoys. They float onshore everywhere.
When I first lived in Maine at “Treasure Island” on Little River in East Boothbay, I did not collect much of anything. I didn't even know what a pot buoy was, or did. But one day while out messing about on the rocks near the Treasure Island pier, Winfield “Cooney” Dodge and I crossed paths as he was on his way out to haul his traps from his modest outboard powered skiff. Our visit turned out to be a bit more than bargained for, but a good lobstering primer. My knowldege of many things was further expanded as I joined a group of esteemed elders for weekly “bid wist” card encounters at the American Legion, which, by the way, Mr. Dodge did not tolerate losing very gracefully.
Read moreWe are gaining daylight, I think, finally.
You’d think after all these years that I would be a little more accustomed to the lack of winter daylight, but I'm not. The short daylight of winter gets to me. It may actually have to do with that seasonal lack of light thing. The one where it can be pretty dark at 4 o’clock on a heavy overcast day. I become a slug.
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