Give Don Viens a cocktail napkin and a ballpoint pen and he can sketch an idea for just about anything. In fact, I’d put money on a Don plan that doesn’t even require hard copy. Need a piece of furniture or an ornate item for your roof peak, a garden shed, or an entire house? Don can make it happen. And, quite possibly, he can make it happen in a way that you may never have envisioned using unusual materials from a 150-year-old barn stored under a tarp next to his shop. It’s as if wood has been waiting for Don’s next unique project, waiting for it to arrive. The more irregular, in many cases, the wood, the more uses revealed. Recycling is part of the genetic fabric of Don’s vision. Ideas present themselves in a karmic fashion. Wood offers reuse and Don finds a way to create new from old. It’s almost surreal.

Eleanor is in town!

The Boston Tea Party vessel made a significant 17-hour trip from Boston with tugboat help, landing at the Bristol Marine pier on Wednesday morning last week. The Eleanor is already in the hands of the exceptional Bristol Marine crew which is very focused on a substantial checklist of work. The same day the ship arrived in the Harbor it was floated onto the awaiting car and transported up the main railway, properly managed by a dozen yard workers, a tender boat and skilled diver who confirmed proper blocking support. The process of moving the ship out of the water is tedious and well thought out. A blocking plan had been in place for two weeks anticipating Eleanor's arrival but weather delayed the trip from Boston.

Recently three area residents have been honored publicly for their many years of living among us. The Boston Post Cane is shared by New England towns with elder members of communities who have approached a century of life on the planet. In some cases, I suspect, some recipients have been over 100 years old.

Lesley Carter Blethen, postmaster at Boothbay Harbor Post Office, is retiring in a couple weeks. After 32 years with the postal service and five and half years in the Army, she is passing on the keys to the kingdom. It’s been quite a journey.

Madisyn and Hayden, grandchildren of Garry Blackman, learned to play instruments at Southport Central School. They both learned to play the ukulele and Hayden added the piano. For Garry, an accomplished musician, this is not small potatoes. Learning how to play a musical instrument is a very significant skill.

It’s a good thing the weather gods in our neighborhood have been considerate of late because the last rain we had motivated me to repair a big section of roof that I have put off for too long. It became painfully obvious to me that when we had discolored rainwater flowing from a dining room ceiling light, my time had come.

Captain Bill Campbell has worked on the waters in and around Boothbay Harbor for 50 years.

He started with Captain Bob Fish at the age of 15 on the Maranbo II, then operating as the Squirrel Island ferry. Captain Fish, no entrepreneurial slouch, realized that there might be an opportunity to expand his business by additionally running tours for people visiting the region. Bill worked as a deckhand eventually graduating to “tour guide." After that Bill even got to drive the boat a bit.

Jim Jellison, resident interesting person, never imagined growing an 800-pound pumpkin. It was not his life’s goal nor a project he had ever investigated. He just did it because he could and because he was curious to see, once the idea landed, how successful he might be. He actually grew four pumpkins, but one of them, which would have been the largest, blew up during a growth spurt. The 800-pounder can be seen on Route 27 in front of the old Boothbay fire station, now home to MITCHELL & CO studio. Two other slightly less large pumpkins can be seen at the YMCA Child Enrichment Center annex and Boothbay Harbor Elementary School. I think Jim told me they were around 700 and 500 pounds. Still a John Deere tractor needed to unload and place.

What do you think these fellows have in common? It’s not their hairstyles or their fancy clothing. It’s not their magnetic personalities. It’s not because they all get up at 5 a.m., and it’s not that they have all run the Boston Marathon. 

We all can enjoy many food venues here in the area. There is Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Greek, Turkish, sushi, deep fried fish, take out, breakfast, pizza, gourmet, catered, dining-over-the-water, meat and potatoes, burgers, lobster and crab roll, and Hannaford variety of everything! Plenty of ice cream, homemade to imported. No fried bubble gum though!

I think that “Woodstock” was the zenith of my tie dye exposure, for those who remained under exposed. The over exposed shall remain nameless. It was sort of the hey day of personal expression and colorful exploration and definitely a time when clothing, such as it was, remained optional. However, the tie dye phase seemed to fizzle a bit as things moved on through the ’70s and beyond. But not entirely.

This is my “F bomb!”

Many years ago, while photographing in the bowels of steel ships, I purchased a used and rather unique Canon lens – the 50mm F1.0. It is a lens that Canon manufactured for a relatively short time. They didn’t make tons of this lens because not many folks figured there was a need for it. But, in my case, working in dark places, it could be very helpful giving me the opportunity to go “flashless,” which could be very distracting to workers and in some cases dangerous around abundant fumes.

For many, Labor Day marks the end of summer and the start of the school year. When we first moved here, the streets rolled up after Labor Day. Restaurants and motel/inns closed and things got real quiet. The “season” such as it was, pretty much ended and summer visitors, for the most part, went home. Local folk resumed conversations with themselves, both literally and figuratively, as the run up to fall and winter began. Community activities became more internally directed. We re-calibrated our lives and slowed down.

Is it time to rejoice, or time to buck up some firewood? Clearly, we just got a touch of fall in the recent weather shift. And I love the fall!

After some very warm and humid (un-Maine like) weather in recent weeks, the 55F breeze in through the bedroom window was, for me, a breath of fresh air. I do not do heat well, so the recent weather shipping up from the south, loaded with humidity, was a trial by fire. It was all I could do to get out of my own way. The air was unpleasant, possibly somewhat aided by the smoke from fires out west and in Canada. At least that is what the weather people were suggesting.

The plans for our next annual family gathering on Monhegan Island begin on the boat ride back to the mainland after our stay. We so look forward to this event that little time is wasted planning to return.

To me, one of the more fascinating things about folks who perform at the Opera House is their observations about visiting Maine and Boothbay Harbor in particular. People come from far and wide to our wonderful stage and, in many cases, for a first time visit to Maine. The experience of visiting here is interesting, in that these visitors offer us a view of ourselves from a unique vantage. In many cases, performers will arrive a day or so before they share their talents, which often results in some revealing experiences. Garrison Keillor did not disappoint in that regard. Maine is not your grandmother’s “Lake Wobegon!”

For some reason, Leica the wonder dog (it’s a wonder she’s a dog!), made several executive decisions recently.

About six months ago Leica abandoned her crate. She gave us no notice, no explanation. Just suddenly she decided to take up residence on our living room couch, across from the fireplace and TV and within earshot of the radio which she often has tuned to a classical music station or old James Taylor songs. We have no idea why she made this decision. Maybe she was annoyed by my snoring or frequent (and annoying) awakenings during the night. Good sleeps are not part of my repertoire.

The storms of this past winter did a lot of damage throughout the region but the east-facing shore of Southport took a serious hit. I am most familiar with the waterfront from Gray Homestead to the All Saints by-the -Sea chapel. That section of the shore was extremely vulnerable to the strong seas and surge from the southeast. Piers were destroyed, cottages lifted, and much of the shore wiped clean. All Saints lost its entire pier with serious damage to the porch area that surrounds the chapel. What the high tides didn’t damage, the surge did. I have heard that the water at high tide got to 14.5 feet, which included a two-foot surge. Bad enough for one storm’s damage, but we had three consecutive events. It was a mess and, in some cases, still is.

Mamie Louise Anderzohn grew up on a small farm in the Midwest. How she ever landed at the small state school in western Pennsylvania which I attended is beyond me. She taught a “methods” course in the geography department. This was, at that time, a program designed to help students prepare for entering the teaching profession, lesson plans, use of visual presentations, classroom organization, etc. Part of the certification process.