8/2/08 Gotta be a local

Here's a sign you won't see in Dallas. :-) This was at Fountain Fortune Chinese Restaurant.

8/2/08 The End of Summer?

Here is a goldenrod plant in full bloom. I don't think I've ever seen goldenrod up close and personal before, I've only heard about it in relationship to allergies. The dog-walking park/field is full of goldenrod in bloom. It's quite beautiful. The sad news is, around here, that's an indicator that autumn is on its way. Legend has it that once goldenrod is in full bloom, it's six weeks until the first frost. How can that be when we haven't even had a real summer yet?? I knew summers in Maine were short, but this one seems exceptionally short. I better hurry and squeeze in as much summer fun as I can.

8/2/08 Krazy Kite Kind of Afternoon

So it's a rainy drizzly Saturday afternoon (we're growing quite accustomed to this, which doesn't mean we like it, it just means it's been a very rainy drizzly summer) and MRM, RBF, Rodney and I are sitting around trying to think of something fun to do that doesn't involve getting wet. We're not having much success when MRM and RBF decide that they'll go on a walk around my neighborhood and get back to us later. There was some whispering going on before that announcement and MRM had a mischievous grin as they made their announcement. Soon, I get a phone call. "What are you doing?"

"Hmmmm, still sitting here like we were when you left. Why, what's up?"

"I have an idea of something to do, but it's a secret. You need to either stay there for 25 more minutes and not go anywhere, or meet us at the river in 5 minutes."

We opted for the meeting at the river option (this is the same as the field outside my window and is also known as The Dog Walking Park). We arrive first and as soon as they pull up, I knew what fun we were in for. You could see the giant bouquet of color through the car window. We were kite flying!

It turned out the little bit of breeze that MRM had seen in the hydrangeas at my apartment was what inspired the idea, but when we got to the park, the wind was very slight and not very consistent, so it wasn't the best kite flying after all. But it sure was fun to spend time with friends doing something different. From there we went out for Chinese food at Fortune Fountain restaurant. There are two Chinese restaurants in town and though I've never eaten at the other one, I've only ever heard people recommend the Fortune Fountain. After a fun dinner, we went back to MRM's and watched part of the Red Sox game and ate snow cones topped with tangerine snow cone syrup and Midori melon liqueur. MRM invented it as we watched and taste-tested. They were quite delicious.

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.

8/1/08 Free Food at the Maine Lobster Festival

It began to feel like we were at Costco on a Saturday afternoon. There were free samples of food and beverage all over the place. When we first walked in the gate, there was a booth of Vermont-based Cabot Cheese samples. I got to try some new flavors without having to buy a whole package. Here, Ann and Ashley are drinking free Starbucks. To the left, under the yellow tent, is free Lay's potato chips.

Fried dough! Not just fried dough, but FREE fried dough! I've only ever had the choice of powdered sugar or cinnamon & sugar. Here we had sauces and fruit as well. This very nice lady (we chatted with her for quite a while) told us her favorite was maple syrup sauce and powdered sugar. She then made up a batch of that and put it out for us to try. Mmmmmm. She was right. That was quite delicious.

"Try it before you buy it" beef jerky:

Kettle Corn is Ashley's favorite part of any fair or festival. She bought a whole bag and shared, but we took some free samples anyway:

Fruit sauces and chutneys:

Samples of homemade fudge:

This booth was run by a husband wife team. She sells blueberry jam and he sells pottery decorated in a blueberry theme. I actually bought one of his coffee cups for my apartment. Ashley asked why a woman who doesn't drink coffee would want a coffee cup, especially since I'm also a woman who doesn't cook and she knows I don't know how to make coffee. But I'm creative and use coffee cups for multiple things. And if I ever have a guest who wants tea, I can use a coffee cup to serve tea. (I do know how to serve tea . . . boil water and hand the guest a box of tea bags and a cup.)

8/1/08 Maine Lobster Festival

Yes, it was another rainy, drizzly day in Maine. They say this is an unusual summer, but they said that about winter, too. Here are Ashley and Ann (fellow UMF folks) as we walk in the front gate of the 61st Annual Maine Lobster Festival held in Rockland, Maine.

We chose not to arrive in time to eat breakfast, though it was tempting. They served lobster-shaped blueberry pancakes from 7am to 10am. But it's about a 2 hour drive and we decided that sleeping in on a summer day was more important than blueberry pancakes. After breakfast ends at 10am, the crew sets up the Main Food Tent for the lobster meals. Lobster is served starting at 11am and here's the line waiting to get in:

Check out these great lobster hats! This young man was selling Port Clyde Root Beer. It's a local root beer (Port Clyde is just down the coast from Rockland) and I a) love root beer and b) really like to support local merchants, so I bought a bottle. It was only $2 which was what other merchants were charging for their soft drinks. It turned out to be delicious! (Thanks, Ashley, for the great photo!)

Here's a new feature of the Lobster Festival. So that's how you cook all those lobsters at once to feed all those thousands of people!

If you look closely, those bricks are engraved. It's a fund-raiser to raise money for the cooker. There's a fun story about a man from Oklahoma who proposed to his future wife with one of those bricks.

Here they are at work, serving lobster in a very efficient method. You can tell they've done this more than once. On the other side of the tent, they have other lunch food for sale. But why come to the Lobster Festival if you're not going to eat lobster??!

I got a lobster roll and drank another Port Clyde Root Beer.

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.