7/29/08 A walk in the park

enny and Elphius (Elf) wanted to go for a walk in the dog walking park in Farmington. (I think that's it's unofficial name, it's just the big field behind the movie theatre where everyone goes to the trail around the field to walk their dogs). So their owner called (MRM) and asked if I wanted to go. This is the beauty of a summer day in Maine at sunset that is literally outside my door.

This is the Sandy River . . . the same one I look at from my verandah when looking across the field, in fact, this is that same field.

Queen Anne's Lace:

The flowers are closing up as they do every night. This one is still open and you can see the purple center that they all have.

This is the opposite of most verandah pictures . . . in this one I'm in the field looking up at the verandah instead of the other way around!

My house is the one in the middle:

7/29/08 Remembering Rosemary

Rosemary and her twin brother Walter were born on Easter morning, 2002. Early this morning, she died. No one really knows how or why. She was sick, her mom took her to the hospital, and she died. Her dad is in the wilderness of Canada and he doesn't know yet. Her 6-year-old twin brother can't understand why she's not with him as she has been his entire life. Please say a prayer for sweet Rosemary, her family, and our choir family. We will miss you, Rosemary!



This photo of Rosemary is from March 4, 2006, when our choir was on one of our amazing campouts at Beaver's Bend. She and I were counting pretzels.

7/28/08 Garden Party

MRM had another Garden Party like she did when my parents were here last September. Rodney, MRM, RBF and I sat outside next to her garden in the cool summer evening and ate peas and green beans from her garden. We had potato salad in honor of her potatoes that will soon be ready for harvest and we had a salad with green peppers and tomatoes to encourage her green peppers and tomatoes to hurry along in their growing. We also got a tour of her gardens which was very fun. Good food and good friends . . . God provides many blessings.

7/25/08 Schmooses Pub and Grill in Jackman

After all that touring, we headed back into Jackman and ate a nice dinner at this cute pub. Good burgers and we watched the first couple of innings of the Red Sox game. We listened to the rest of the game on the way home. The drive home was at dusk with the sunset behind us. It was just as beautiful, though very different on the way back. I can't wait to make this drive in the autumn. I know it'd be beautiful in the winter but I'm not sure I'm the one to do the driving on that trip!

7/25/08 Moose River Outpost

Marcus is Rodney's nephew that runs this camp called Moose River Outpost. He gave us a tour (in that little Renegade Jeep) of the camp, but not of all 7,000 acres. Here's Marcus, Jenn's mom (Jenn is Rodney's sister-in-law), and Rodney. Jenn and her mom had been in Quebec and stopped at camp on their way DOWN from Canada. [Notice that in this sentence, the word "camp" is used to describe an organized facility for camping and not the traditional Maine "camp."]

Here is one of the camping areas at the camp. There are 25 wooden platforms with tents on them and some nice amenities.

This lake is only 186 of their 7,000 acres but it's all theirs.

7/25/08 The Photographer and his Assistant

Here's Rodney taking photos (imagine that) with his big camera (not the iPhone) and a little help from "Little H".

7/25/08 Attean Lake Scenic Overlook

We passed up several rest stops and scenic overlooks but Rodney kept saying the best one is coming. Here it is at Attean Lake and it turns out, he wasn't kidding.

7/25/08 Celebration Tour #4

We're off! It's time for Celebration Tour #4! We headed north this time instead of the coast. We had an added bonus of an extra passenger, Rodney's niece, whom we'll just call "Little H". She was such a great traveler. :-) She'd been visiting Grandma and Grandpa for a week and they were planning to take her home that day, so we saved them a trip since we were on our way to visit mom and dad at the camp outside of Jackman.

Here's "The Forks" section of the Kennebec River where it meets up with the Dead River. A lot of white water rafters go through here. We saw a lot of gorgeous scenery on the way, but this was our first stop. My favorite sign before we got here was the green mileage sign that said, "Canadian Border 65 miles."

This is the rest stop at The Forks. See the buses in the background? Those are used for carrying white water rafters. Those are empty but in our 5 minutes at this stop, we saw at least 3 full buses go by.

7/25/08 Beautiful Flowers at the Farm

I don't know what kind of flower these are but they're big and beautiful and these pictures don't do them justice. Rodney and his "Mum" planted them right outside the porch window where she could see them and enjoy them.

7/25/08 Strawberry Festival "Arts in the Park"

Today I drove through town and drove by a lot of activity in the park. Then I remembered that it was Strawberry Festival time. Now when you say "Strawberry Festival" in this town, the most common reply is, "That used to be called Moonlight Madness but they changed it up because they wanted to be more artsy and because there were so many hoodlums ruining the night time events." I think next year's posters should just go ahead and proclaim, "Formerly Known As Moonlight Madness."

I never did see any strawberries, but I also didn't stay too long. I was on my way out of town but took the time to stop at the "Arts in the Park" exhibits and eat a lobster roll lunch.

St. Luke's Episcopal knows how to work these events. They offered a $9.95 Lobster Roll Sack Lunch. It included a lobster roll, chips, drink, and cookie. In my case, they had one bottle of water left, so I lucked out on that. And my cookie was really a brownie which was okay by me because there are a lot of cookies that I don't care that much about but a brownie, anyway you make it, is always delicious. Their lobster roll had a lobster salad in it that was quite delicous. They had the tiniest bit of mayonnaise and a touch of celery in it, but the lobster meat was sweet and tender and obviously very fresh. YUM!!

As I walked up to the St. Luke's sign to figure out how to frame my photograph, I hear someone say, "Theresa?" I looked up and there's Amity, one of my graduate students from last spring! (That's her in the photo.) While I was paying for my lunch, Erin--another graduate student--walked up to Amity and then spotted me and we said hello. As we were talking, Andrea from church came down the sidewalk towards us so we, too, said hello. I didn't see the sheriff yet, but I expect him any minute.

7/24/08 Farewell Reception

Melvin was on the Leadership Institute Planning Committee with me this past spring. Thank goodness we did that together or I never would've met him. And now he's leaving! Today they held a reception for him. His boss asked him what he wanted served at the reception and he said, "Nothing healthy." So that's what she did. We had a choice of Whoopie Pies or cookies. Now this is my kind of party! His boss, Kirsten, was also on the Leadership Institute Planning Committee so I got to know her as well. She gave a fabulous presentation to honor him at the reception. The attendee list was a who's who of UMF folks, which is especially impressive in the middle of the summer when so many people are on vacation. I was impressed.