Crazy weather . . . record-breaking crazy

In October, Maine broke its record for most snow in the month of October, according to the New England Post. It just took one storm to do it. I had about 7" of snow in my front yard. It was great! The Wednesday before Thanksgiving. There wasn't any school anyway--Thanksgiving vacation had already started. I was planning on staying home and getting work done, which I did. But it was a lot of fun to keep looking out the window and seeing snow falling. On Friday after Thanksgiving, it was still a perfect picturesque view out the window while I decorated the apartment for Christmas.

All my snow pictures start to look alike, don't they. There is one thing that's different in this photo. My car is not in the driveway . . . it's in the garage! The Landlords are spending a lot of time at their Florida home this winter and in exchange for taking care of my own trash, I get to park in the garage. It didn't take me long to decide to take them up on that offer!!

So after this "record-breaking" snowfall in October, guess what happened in November? Maine was the warmest state in the country. In November! Check out this map from The Weather Channel as seen in the Bangor Daily News. The warmest states in the country were Maine and Florida and Maine won. The 62 was in Bangor, Maine.

And according to the Portland Press Herald, it looks like November could break the record for warmest November. Crazy!

8/26/2011 Preparing for Hurricane Irene

They say she's going to make it all the way up to Maine. She started in the Bahamas and is making quite the L O N G trip up the east coast. She's not predicted to hit Maine until Sunday evening, but here on a Friday afternoon, I received an email from BJ's, a local warehouse-type store. The subject line was "In-Club -- Your Hurricane Stock-up HQ" and this was the bulk of the email:

I guess it doesn't matter where you live in the United States, people will always find a way to capitalize on opportunity. Or in this case, to turn a negative into a positive potential.

7/7/2011 Castine Update

Check out this article in the Castine Patriot about the 4th of July. And pay particular attention to the photos and the photo credits.

Mrs. C's daughter-in-law got a phone call at 7am on the 5th of July from a local reporter who told her that the camera of the paper's photographer wasn't working right and they didn't have any photos of the parade. The photographer knew Mrs. C's d-i-l and had seen her taking photos, so she called to ask her if she had any that she could use. Mrs. C's d-i-l said Karen had a better camera and had been taking tons of photos so she should ask her. So the reporter called Mrs. C. who came and got Karen (who was just getting out of the shower), apprised her of the situation, and put her on the phone with the reporter. Karen actually had over 1,000 photos from the day but was able to pick out 30 or so to send to the reporter and the rest is history. :-)

7/6/2011 Jackman, ME

Not sure if this belongs in my Maine blog or my travel blog because though it happened in Maine, it's really just the start of my trip to Quebec City and Toudassac in Quebec, Maine. So I'm posting it in both blogs. :)

Quebec City is only 4 hours from Farmington. That's such a weird thought that a major foreign city is as close as south Boston. So my sister KMO and I are going there for 3-day whirlwind tour of Quebec City, then heading to Toudassac (which I never heard of but KMO discovered in her research), and then back to Maine for the Potato Blossom Festival in Fort Fairfield, ME. Can't wait.

Halfway to Quebec City is Jackman, ME. I've had the privilege of being here several times when visiting Marcus and Heidi and their kids. One of the things I learned is that the rest stop outside of town at the top of the hill is the only place in the area to get cell phone reception. When you pull in, you never know if the other people around you are tourists like you or locals who've come out to place a phone call!

What I didn't expect at the rest stop were lupines in full bloom and black flies. The lupines were gorgeous. The black flies were horrid. I've never seen this many in one place at one time. I've heard about the swarms of 'em, but never experienced it. Ugh. Hope I never experience it again! I tried to take pics of the lupines and the scenery but could only get this one. The original version has my finger in the top left corner, this is the cropped one. hahahaha. It took us a while to kill off all the black flies that got into the car. It really was bad.

We stopped at Bishop's convenience store and gas station for lunch and a fill up. Saw this wagon that has a cooler on the back and the whole thing collapses for easy storage. This is what we need for Kingfield Pops!!

Now go read the other blog and follow this trip into Canada!

7/5/2011 John's Ice Cream in Liberty

I need to do more traveling with Stephanie. She knows so many great places! John makes ice cream using real cream and has this cute little place right on the highway that we were traveling to get back to Farmington. But we probably would've missed it and that would've been too bad 'cuz the ambiance was fun and the ice cream delicious.

That's John himself serving a customer. He hand-dipped our ice cream for us:

7/5/2011 Belfast

On the drive home, Stephanie asked if we would mind stopping in Belfast for a quick errand. What?? See a town in Maine I haven't been to yet? Twist my arm! Belfast is awesome! There's a bustline downtown with great shops and a gorgeous port. There was even a newspaper article about the booming businesses in Belfast in a local paper recently.

Fun way to cover up a door that's no longer in use:

Lots of galleries with beautiful as well as eclectic art:

One of many unique benches in the downtown area:

Wow. Picture postcard perfect:

Hahahaha Thank you Stephanie for helping us find this awesome photo opp!:

7/5/2011 Farewell Castine

I do love a good Dutch door. And in Castine, the weather is so nice (and in this case, the view of the elm and the yard) that you can actually use your Dutch door. Of course, Mrs. C. has one.

KMO, Mrs. C. and me in Mrs. C's backyard.

Stephanie and me.

We had breakfast at Bah's Bakery. KMO and Stephanie had quiche, I got the famous crab cake (for breakfast?? why not!). It was delicious and the view of the harbor while eating was nice, too.

Because you can see a lot of people on this schooner, Mrs. C. said it must be the Bowdoin. A Facebook friend suspected it was the Bowdoin as well. I'm doing well to know it's a schooner. What nobody said was that the Bowdoin is owned by the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. It's a teaching ship!

7/4/2011 Town Band concert program

7/4/2011 4th of July Concert, Castine, ME

Not sure what this was about. This car was parked at the Town Commons for the Town Band Concert. I'm thankful for the 4th of July, does that count?

Instrumentalists getting ready for the big concert. Look right between the T and the I in the word Castine on the big drum, now go up to the rim of the drum, . . . there's my sister!

The Tarratine Fifes and Drums made a guest performance at the concert. Oh look! There's my sister--second fife from the right.

The Dice's Head (or Dice Head or Dyce Head . . . depends what you read) Lighthouse right on the edge of town.

We had a big barbecue tonight. Mrs. C. and her son and daughter-in-law and 3 grandkids plus 4 family friends plus my sister, me, and my friend Stephanie. We ate barbecued brisket, sausage, and ribs sent from The New Braunfels Smokehouse by Mrs. C's daughter Katy who is my sister's best friend which is how we got here in the first place. Gorgeous evening. We all sat underneath Mrs. C's really big elm tree. Yes, elm tree. Castine's elms didn't get hit by the Dutch Elm Disease blight and in fact, all the trees are carefully cared for and tagged and baby elms are now being planted across the country from cuttings from Castine's elms. Anyway, it was a gorgeous tree to sit under and enjoy our wonderful meal. Then we went inside for dessert of brownies and strawberry-rhubarb pie. What a great 4th of July!!

Next on the agenda was the fireworks display at 9:15. At 9:00, two fireworks went off into the fog and just kinda, sorta set the fog aglow. Not much to look at. At 9:15, the harbor lights went out and one more firework went off and glowed. Even the bang didn't sound right in the fog. Next thing we know, they're announcing that the fireworks are postponed to Friday night. :-( A smart decision, just not the evening we were expecting. (This photo is of the Maine Maritime Academy's big ship at the harbor . . . you can kinda tell that there was a lot of fog.)

We came home to Mrs. C's house with a welcome flag. The US flag flies high and proud on a lighted pole on her rooftop, but this flag hangs proud and welcoming in the front porch.

7/4/2011 4th of July in Castine, Maine

KMO was invited to return to Castine to visit the mom of her best friend and most especially, to play flute for the Castine Town Band and fife with the Tarratine Fifes and Drums. She's been to Castine many times before but this time I got to play chauffeur and it was my first time to this historic Maine town. My good friend from UMF, Stephanie, joined us for the fun. I picked up KMO Sunday night at the airport and we spent the night at a hotel in Portland. Left by 6:45 this morning and headed to Augusta where we picked up Stephanie and then headed to Castine. We arrived at 9:45, in plenty of time to get to the Children's Costume Parade at 10:00. The parade was around the Town Commons area. No floats, no bands, no commercial or political statements, just patriotic music blaring from the 1790 Congregational Church steeple and lots of children (and a few accompanying adults) walking through town. What a glorious way to celebrate!

After the parade, there is a giant celebration on the Town Commons including free watermelon, lemonaid, hot dogs, cotton candy, and fried dough. They also had sack races, a tug of war (with a REALLY long rope and a lot of people on both sides), a pie eating contest, and free fire truck rides. How Norman Rockwell can you get?!

This is The Abbott School on the Town Commons.

After the festivities on the Town Commons, we headed down to the wharf, but there were so many kids lined up for the fire truck rides that those were still going on. We got to see one in action.

We stopped at The Breeze, a local fast food place on the wharf. I got their chocolate chip ice cream sandwich made with fresh chocolate chip cookies. It's bigger than it looks. It was as big as it was delicious.

The morning started with a lot of fog ("marine layer" as some call it), but it started to burn off around 11 and though the rest of the day had a haze (and threatened rain off and on), we could still see the beautiful Castine harbor and I managed to get a good sunburn.

On the second floor of Mrs. C's house is a staircase that goes to the ceiling. But at the top of the staircase is a big hatch and you lift that door and you are on the roof of the house with room enough for 7 deck chairs and a big table with this dramatic view.

6/27/2011 Helicopter Hovering on the Horizon

For most of the morning today, this helicopter has been flying over the town of Farmington. In the late summer, we're used to a day or two of a helicopter flying low over the area looking for marijuana. We're not sure what this one is looking for. Later in the morning, it wasn't flying over anymore, it was hoving . . . low and long.

6/25/2011 Kingfield Pops

At The Kingfield Pops. This is David Mallett performing. His song "Garden Song" (Inch by inch, row by row...) has been recorded by over 100 different artists.

After a day of arts and crafts and mini concerts (we didn't go to that part of the day), there were a series of performances on the main stage, all building up to the main event: The Bangor Symphony. They mostly play short, familiar, patriotic, and/or fun songs so that the children will enjoy themselves and associate good times with great music. It works for the grown ups, too.

No burn ban here! Great fireworks top off a great evening of fun.

Nobel Prize Laureate comes to Maine

Yes, we rock in Maine. Check out this article about an amazing opportunity that some high schoolers in Maine had. But it wasn't luck and it wasn't politics, it was good kids doing great things that earned them this wonderful opportunity.

Maine Awnings

Sue's neighbor sent her this photo. It's a picture of Sue's house as seen from the neighbor's yard. This is called a "Maine awning." It looks like an awning protecting the porch from sunshine . . . until you look closely and realize that's snow that has slowly slid off the roof but stayed together as one giant sheet of frozen something and it's just hanging there. How does it do that??

Recycled Sled Contest

I saw this sign in the stairwell of my building last week.

Somehow I missed the first one last year, but I decided to attend this year! It was attended by a small but creative group of students. Here you can see two students riding their recycled sled down the hill by the amphitheatre (behind the student center).

I believe this is the sledder who used a snow shovel for her sled (the body in the foreground is a photographer).

This was constructed from a box that a mini-fridge came in (a dorm-sized refrigerator). That's a beaver (UMF's mascot) on it. One sledder used this as a sled with the beaver on the front and didn't get very far but the next sledder used the same sled but turned it 180 degrees and put the beaver on the back and was quite successful!

Cookies, music, warm beverages, and prizes -- it was quite a successful and very fun event.