Historical Tour of Farmington

The highlight of Summerfest for us was the historical tour of downtown Farmington in a horse-drawn wagon with the amazing Paul Mills.

North Woods Law

Local celebrity, Kris MacCabe, a warden on the television show North Woods Law (and a real warden in real life) was at Summeriest signing autographs. Maggi was beside herself (and beside him in the photo).

 
 

Summerfest Entertainment

Demonstrations, music, food, dancers on stilts, crafts and wares for sale… Summerfest has it all!

Summerfest Fun

Today is Summerfest in Farmington. Maggy, Stephanie, and Margaret all met at my place and we walked into town (all .5 blocks). First stop: story telling at The Octagon House. But it wasn't any ordinary story. Jane Parker read from her newest children's book "Lily of the North" about Lillian Nordica, a famous opera singer of the 1800's/1900's who is from Farmington. 20+ years ago, UMF put on an operetta about Madame Nordica. Jane played Lillian (because she can really sing), Margaret played the Aunt, and Maggy was a dresser and helped Jane with all her costumes changes (8 of them). So today, they are reunited and we have officially kicked off our version of Summerfest which turns out to be just one big reunion…how many people can we run into that we know?

L to R: Maggy, Jane, Margaret

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.

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.

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.

WinteRush

When I went to pick up the candidate at The Comfort Inn, I arrived earlier than we had planned, so I hung out in the lobby. I watched the news while I waited--that's a rare treat for me since I don't have any television reception in my apartment and I refuse to have cable. The ending story was on WinteRush in Portland. They were interviewing a team that was doing a snow carving and told of all the fun family activities that would be in Deering Oaks Park that day. It looked like fun but I didn't think much more about it until I happened to drive by Deering Oaks Park. So I pulled over and found a parking spot and checked out the snow carvings. Pretty fun!

After I voted for my favorite (I'll never tell which one), I headed back to my car and ran into Marisella, a friend from UMF! It was so great to see her. She was there with her family. Her little one had done the sledding on the hill and also the "book trail". There's a children's book about snowshoeing and they had made an enlargement of each page (poster-sized) and put them all around the park. The kids borrowed the snow shoes provided and followed the trail, stopping to read the book at each station along the trail. There were also snowball fights and hula hoop contests and many other fun events planned.

12/5/2010 Chester Greenwood Menu Items

Yesterday was Chester Greenwood Day (with parade et.al.) and today at The Homestead on the Daily Specials menu was this:

Nobody ordered any while we were there and I didn't feel like eating any of it, so I asked. Earmuff pancakes are poured to look like earmuffs--2 regular silver dollar pancakes and a connecting arch of pancake batter across the top. Pretty fun!

I used a great app, Genius Scan for iPhone, to turn my photo of the menu to this, which looks much better than the photo did.

12/2/10 Chester Greenwood Day . . . a little early

It's the first Saturday in December and it's Chester Greenwood Day. WAIT! I don't have to write about it, I can send you to my friend's blogpost about it (and about me):

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/12/04/happy-chester-greenwood-day-invention-creativity-maine/

Wes Fryer is a hero of mine. I listen to his podcasts whenever I can. He knows everything about technology integration, or at least all the stuff I wish I knew. So getting to spend all day Thursday with him was like having my own private professional development day. It was awesome! As we (his delightful daughter Sarah was here, too) toured Farmington, we found $5 Chester Greenwood Day long-sleeved t-shirts on sale at Black Bear Graphics. Very fun. See Wes's post for a photo.

9/26/08 Apple Pumpkin Festival

I had planned to attend the Livermore Falls Apple Pumpkin Festival tomorrow, but due to the impending rain from Hurricane Kyle, they've postponed it. The website says, "POSTPONED DUE TO HORRENDOUS WEATHER and Bad Field Conditions". Not just bad weather or rain but *horrendous* weather. October 18 . . . I hope I remember. I hope the pumpkins and apples are still good. Actually, that night I'm supposed to go to a pumpkin carving party that night that's BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin). I can just pick up my pumpkin at the festival and head over to the party.

8/2/08 Blueberry Festival Parade

I slept in this morning and missed the chance (yet again . . . two days in a row) to have blueberry pancakes at a festival. Wilton, the first town south and east of Farmington, has its annual Blueberry Festival the first weekend in August. MRM says they're the best blueberry pancakes she's ever had. I guess that's what next year is for.

I had a stack of dishes in the sink that really needed to be washed, so as I tackled that job, I turned on the radio for some background noise to make the task fly by. I love listening to local station WKTJ, FM 99.3. Ashley first introduced me to it. Not only is it nice to hear local weather and news, but their programming is delightfully eclectic. They carry all Red Sox games, which is great. Sometimes they play hits from the 60's and 70's, sometimes the 80's. But on Sunday mornings, they carry a syndicated show that plays hits from the 30's, 40's, and 50's! Local health and non-profit organizations have 20 minute time periods dedicated to their causes. I think my favorite is the daily call-in flea market. Call in and tell what you've got for sale, for how much, and give your phone number. You just never know what you're going to hear when you turn on the radio to WKTJ.

Today was no exception. I turned on the radio and what I was hearing was the play-by-play broadcast of the Wilton Blueberry Festival Parade. What a hoot! Oh, the dishwashing passed by quickly. The announcer knew practically everyone in the parade personally and obviously had done this before, so there were a lot of personal stories about the people themselves or their history in the parade. When you watch parades on television, The Rose Bowl parade, for example, you can tell that the announcers have scripts and detailed information about each entrant. They have access to more information than you could possibly be interested in: the length of the float, the theme, the history of the organization. This poor man didn't even know how long the parade was going to be. He kept marveling that there were still more groups coming down the street. Good thing it was local programming without a deadline because there's no way he could've compacted the coverage into an allotted time slot.

When a gymnastics group came along, he introduced them and described their costumes. Then the group stopped and started performing. He was literally at a loss for words as to how to describe that. You could tell because of the length of white noise coming out of the radio. Silence is not a good thing in most radio broadcasts, but it cracked me up this time. Suddenly, he said, "Looks like they're going to perform a whole routine here, so we're going to take a music break." And he played a song from the 70's. It had nothing to do with blueberries or gymnastics or even this year's theme "Say Thanks to our Firefighters and EMS Personnel." It was just filler music because there was nothing to say.

When he came back on the air, he had a guest "in the booth with him" who was to add to the "color". It was Michael, the son of the owner of Mt. Blue Hotel. We all know Michael because he has a tag line in the radio commercials for his dad's hotel. I'd recognize that voice anywhere, but the announcer also gave him a big introduction. I'm guessing from his voice that he's 7 to 9 years old. Thinking of things to say to describe something to people who can't see what you're looking at has got to be an incredibly difficult job. He did a really good job, especially for someone as young as he was. It added a layer of complexity for the announcer as he had to keep the audience informed of what was going on AND keep Michael engaged in the conversation and coach him into saying "colorful" things while on the air.

After a little while, a second guest color announcer joined. He was the regular sports guy on the station. Inbetween flag groups and Shriners on motorcycles, they got in a lot of promos for upcoming sports (mostly Mount Blue High School football and Jay High School football). He marveled, too, at how long the parade was but he didn't know when the end was in sight either. But all of that idle chit chat came to a halt when the tractors came through. Those two could describe a tractor like nobody's business. If I knew more about tractors myself, I'm sure I could have pictured each one vividly and accurately.

My friend and Games Night Charter Member Michael actually attended the parade. He made a blog entry with photos that describes the parade wonderfully.

Next year when I go The 27th Annual Wilton Blueberry Festival to have my blueberry pancakes, I'm staying for the parade. But I'm bringing a portable radio. I know that seeing it in person will only be enhanced by hearing the play by play live on WKTJ radio.

8/1/08 Theresa and the Lobsters at The Maine Lobster Festival

What's a Lobster Festival without some lobsters? We definitely had plenty to choose from. This giant lobster was "acquired" by the Lobster Festival this year (according to the sign) and they were having a contest to name it. I imagine we will see it at all future Lobster festivals but I bet it will make a couple of parade appearances, too. We found this early on and since I seem to have a knack for having my photo taken with larger-than-life lobsters, I decided to go on a quest for lobster photo opportunities.

Ann took the photo above on my iPhone. Ashley took the one below. You just can't have enough photos of yourself with a giant lobster.

How easy was this one?! The festival provided this photo op and even labeled it for me. That's a Port Clyde Root Beer in one pincher.

I don't know why I smiled in this photo. I should look very frightened as that is a very frightening lobster. This was the bigger-than-life, hang-it-over-your-fireplace-sized version. Further inside the artisans' tent, we found other various sizes AND we learned that the name of the piece is "Predetor" [sic]. Very scary.

Can you imagine having this job? Walk around in stilts wearing a raincoat with lobsters hanging all over you? Oh! But wait! And you get to shoot bubbles out of a bubble gun. It was the lobsters hanging on the raincoat that made this worthy of a photo to be included in the quest.

Here's Ashley's photo of the same moment. Is there any way to stand next to a man on stilts in a photograph and not look odd?

I love this one! Here's my best mermaid imitation. Behind me you can see a mermaid being carved out of clay. The ones to my right are statues (sorry . . . I don't know my mediums). The same artist that made the blueberry coffee mug made these. Here's the fun. Think of "Where's Waldo" except in this version, it's "Where's the lobster?"

An artist that painted pictures of lighthouses on tiny wooden lobster buoys that could be used as Christmas ornaments had a unique pen and brush holder. That's me, shaking claws with the lobster.