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Another weekend in a somewhat rainy paradise. This week was dominated by a four hour drive to Lynn, MA for the funeral of Durelle's cousin George Gardner. When we got back, Tim and Wendy were here with all their wood fired paraphernalia and grilling skills. They treated the Friday evening Happy Hour crowd to wood-fired pizza and decided to host a potluck supper for the following night. During the event we were treated to a pair of loons diving for fish just off the edge of the campground. It took a long telephoto, so the pictures are not classic, but they do confirm that it was a loon.
We arranged a number of picnic tables and brought a few side dishes. John and Theresa brought a huge, outstanding lasagna, and there were ribs, jalapeno poppers and assorted goodies from the grills. Of course there were several flavors of jello shots (Thanks Theresa) that were used sparingly. Given the minimum lead time and planning it was an excellent potluck...the sort of thing best pulled off by a bunch of RVers.
How's that look for a "paper plate meal"? This is not "beans and hotdogs" camping. Sunday looks like steady rain, and we are looking for a day to squeeze in a Frogmore Stew before the major league grilling for the fourth of July.
Does it get any better than this?
Although we have had moments of fine weather, most of the time after the summer solstice has been 55 degrees with rain, fog or mist. We have the heat on. The heat pumps are perfect for this weather. For those of you who are familiar with motorhomes, I have moved my computer up to the pull out tray in front of the passenger's seat. I did so at Durelle's suggestion because it was a better seat for my back. I mention all that because from this seat, when I look out the corner of my eye at the driver's side mirror I can see the activity at the hummingbird feeder. Today I decided to take a picture of the mirror. The guy always uses the "spigot" away from Durelle's chair, but with the mirror I can catch him from behind.
Today I got some pictures in emails from nephew Dan Taylor. My sister, Marian, lives in Royalston, MA in a rustic place with a LOT of wildlife. She does not have internet access so she carried some pictures to Dan who forwarded them to me. I think you will like them.
In the ursine world multiple births are common, but quads are certainly not.
Thanks to Dan (and his mother) for making those pictures available.
Just as I finished populating my blog with someone else's pictures, Cindy sent me some pictures she took in our back yard with her I-Phone. Hey, I'm not proud; I'll use someone else's material.
When I told her that we had our heat on, she was astonished. Charleston was 93...feels like 102.
Summer is here...well, it will be tomorrow. We define the first day of summer as the day we steam up the first batch of lobsters. At this time of year the lobsters are getting ready to molt. The old shells are left behind and the new, soft shell permits the next growth cycle. The old, hard shell lobsters have more meat per pound of lobster, but they are more difficult to eat. The soft shells with the new shells have a lot of room to grow, and they are much easier to break down. The debate continues as to which tastes better. I tell folks that it is like sex or homemade bread; it's all good, only some is better than others.
Dick Roth and I went down to pick up the lobsters. Good corn on the cob is not ready yet. We used his auto and cooler.
Here's a picture of the happy group enjoying lobster.
Before the blossoms faded, I took a picture of the beach plum roses.
Maine is scrambling its way into summer (three days away). Most mornings have been in the low 50s. Depending on the sunshine we have occasionally had to turn on some heat. Please do not interpret that as a complaint. My back still inhibits my mobility, but I am doing my PT and I walked Baxter up the hill to the dog walk area this morning.
As a part of Maine's climbing out of spring into summer, the lupine are in full bloom. There's a nice patch at a gift shop a mile or so south on route 1.
The blossoms don't last long, but they are lovely at their peak.
Today was a special day. Durelle and I have been married for 55 years! I suppose that should warrant some profound thoughts and/or advice to the next generation. Unfortunately I haven't had any profound thoughts in a long time, and I doubt that the millennials are inclined to want any advice from the folks that remember the Ed Sullivan Show. We, the Floods, the Roths, and Dick Brann went out for supper. On the way back we stopped at the top of the hill and asked another camper to take a group picture.
For those of you that don't remember, that's Penobscot Bay in the background. When we got back to the motorhome, we found an anniversary present on our doorstep from the campground manager...a cold bottle of Champagne and a couple of flutes. Thanks Jim.
Those of you with unimpaired short term memories will recall that at the end of my previous post just two days ago I paraphrased Durelle as saying that there was no need to go sightseeing. This morning, out of the fog, a charter windjammer sailed into the Belfast harbor, "came about" and departed. Here's the sequence:
To prove Durelle's point, the pictures were taken through the small window in front of her recliner. That's just to the right of the hummingbird feeder which saw its first visitor this morning. Life is good. Eat your heart out, Ann.
As with an old saddle, we are already getting used to life on the edge of Penobscot Bay. We have yet to go out to eat except for hotdogs at Wasse's Hotdogs in Reny's Plaza. Baxter is doing just fine. Both he and the old man are making the walk up the hill to the dog walk area in the morning.
I have taken some pictures of the harbor in Belfast that are representative of the view from the bridge.
I have not yet wandered around the harbor or the shipyard to get any closeup pictures. I did take a couple of shots of a sailboat heading back to the harbor.
Later, as we were watching the sunlight evolve, I decided to take another picture through the windshield. The difference was that, instead of sitting up front, I was sitting in the back of the bus. I include it because it shows that, even with other rigs up front, our view is still there.
The indistinct shadow in the foreground is a plant that Durelle has set upon the dashboard. It gives you a nice idea of the wonderful views we have out front.
I asked Durelle if she would like to take a drive to see some of the local sights. Her reply was something along the lines of, "What could be better than this?"
We have arrived in Maine! It was a comfortable 225 miles from Brookline, NH with a fuel stop and a lunch stop. We are not the first ones in the campground, but there are only a couple of other folks here. We'll meet them tomorrow.
This is the view through the windshield before the campground begins to fill up. As you can tell, June 3rd is very much pre-season in Maine. I could have cropped the picture to get rid of the mirror, but I wanted to show that it was a windshield shot. We were greeted by Ron Lesage, a work camper we have met here before. He was very helpful in getting us properly parked and set up for a four month stay. We parked on "landing strips" to keep the tire rubber from leaching into the ground. We installed tire covers to protect them from ultraviolet damage. We don't go to the trouble for short stays.
Here's another shot of Penobscot Bay through the windshield. Even when other campers arrive, we will still be able to see the water.
We are very content. Durelle and Baxter took a walk to the top of the hill together. A lot of the "non short stay" amenities have been set up. Tomorrow we'll do the hummingbird feeder. We are PARKED, and will be for four months. Life is good.
