Another Christmas question… because we’re almost there.
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I can honestly say I don’t ever remember believing in Santa Claus.
Maybe I did as a very young child… but my earliest memories are of catching my mother wrapping presents behind closed doors and knowing the secret place she hid the gifts before hand.
Yes, we laid out cookies and milk for Santa… but they were always my father’s favorite kind so that was suspicious. What were the chances Santa preferred Walkers Scottish shortbread over Oreos or chocolate chip?
In case you hadn’t heard, we had a bit of weather up here in Maine.
Turn up your volume for full effect because it was crazy loud in person.
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At the time of year when we should be covered in fluffy white stuff, Mother Nature and climate change decided to throw us what amounted to a mini hurricane instead.
70mph wind gusts and rain that came in sideways.
Naturally it ripped shingles off our roof which my husband had to try and cover and weigh down during the storm.
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It was a crazy day of howling winds, torrential rain and of course no electricity.
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After dark, we turned on the battery operated camp lights and had a marathon 6 hour gin rummy game.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten supervised.
I won.
Around midnight we heard a big crash and called our neighbor to check that she was alright. A tree had fallen across her driveway and she asked if my husband could bring his chainsaw and help her move/cut it the next morning. My husband… being my husband… went down there right then, in the pitch black dark, with gale force winds practically blowing him down the hill.
The man is nuts, I swear.
On his return?
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He cut up the branch of my choke cherry tree that had fallen. Never a dull moment around here.
The next day was calm…. and people in our town still had their sense of humor.
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Thankfully the temperature was above 40 degrees since we still had no power…. and my poor guy spent 5 hours on the roof replacing shingles.
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It was a doozy of a storm and did a lot of damage across our state, mostly due to flooding.
Here are a few pictures from our area…
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Terrible timing so close to Christmas.
Though there really is no good time for storms like these.
Thanks to modern technology that keeps us in constant touch, I don’t write letters anymore… but I do still send cards. Not for every occasion like I used to, but definitely for birthdays, graduations, new babies, and weddings. Okay, I send sympathy, thank you and retirement congratulations as well.
Maybe I do still send them for everything.
But not the lesser holidays… no more Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day cards. Those are a thing of the past.
But I do enjoy the annual Christmas card swap. For some of our old friends it’s the only time of year we correspond and I look forward to seeing what brightly colored festive greeting they’ve chosen to celebrate the season.
Though I’ve cut back my list dramatically, dropping the dead beats who haven’t sent us one in 3 years or more, I send a lot of cards…. and it takes me a few days to write personal notes and hand address the envelopes. Don’t get me started on those impersonal photo cards and computer printed labels.
I’m old school.
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Every year I buy three different types of cards. There’s a Maine themed card with a moose or lobster for my southern friends. A sweet and glittery card for friends who like those, and then a slightly funky, artistic type of card for my more creative friends.
This year, those boxes were an assortment of four designs from an artist I was unfamiliar with but will be looking for again.
I had a birthday recently… though I swore I was done with all that aging nonsense, the years still keep coming …. and woke up to find these in the kitchen.
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Bless his heart, my husband does try.
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Two boxes of fat bomb truffles even though he knows I’ve been trying to cut back on sugar.
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And no, he didn’t buy me the usual unwanted expensive small appliance this year, but I did get a marble and river rock spoon rest… complete with spoon.
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And though I really wish he wouldn’t, he bought me jewelry. A rather odd silver bracelet with attached rock.
Now, I do love me some rocks…. but I have a feeling this particular one will be quietly exchanged.
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But there was a pretty flower arrangement delivered later in the day…
I love a good museum, and the fact that this one was a complete surprise made it all the more special.
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The Hudson at the University of Maine, Orono is billed as a Native American/Anthropology museum and features an impressive collection from indigenous people all around the world.
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I fell in love with Kachinas when we visited Arizona in 2019.
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They’re marvelous!
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Seriously, what’s not to love?
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For a small museum, the Hudson has some wonderful pieces.
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Both ancient and modern.
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Have you ever heard of a potlatch?
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I hadn’t either, but I really liked the whale in the back.
I saw an advertisement for a Native American gathering and craft show last week, so we headed north to Orono.
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Passing through Bangor we saw Paul Bunyan.
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And some lovely churches.
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On the way to our University of Maine destination.
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Which, with its giant blue M, was hard to miss .
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The Collins Center for the Arts was the venue and never having attended this yearly event, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The Wabanaki Confederacy (Waponahki) — translated as “People of the First Light” or “Dawnland” — currently comprises five principal nations: the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki.
There were some fabulous crafts on sale made by various artists but instead of the arena like setting I was expecting, they were set up in a curved hallway which made navigation a problem.
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Jewelry, textiles, root clubs, beading, woodworking, and birch bark items were all on display … but honestly? It was all about the baskets.
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Fabulously intricate pieces of art which went for extremely high prices. I would have photographed more, but almost every table prohibited it.
I really wanted to come home with one, but after picking up a tiny little jewel that fit in the palm of my hand and seeing the $600 price tag… I didn’t.
I also fell in love with an amazing root club carved with a bear head that would have been perfect for the Man Cave/Barn Mahal… but again, with an almost $600 price tag, I came home without that as well.
After oohing and ahhing over the crafts, we looked up.
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And realized there was something interesting on the second floor.
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Aside from the giant bronze and copper fire.
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As we climbed past the totem pole…
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We discovered there was an entire museum upstairs.
To be continued…
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 