Tag Archives: maine

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Gardens Aglow

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The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay puts on a fantastic Christmas light show every year. We went years ago when they first started and having heard they’d grown bigger and better I decided we needed a return trip.

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Bigger and better? Yes.

More crowded? Hell yeah. Judging from the steady flow of traffic, I think the entire state’s population was there.

The tiny parking lot had multiplied into lettered tiers and the small entry building had morphed into a massive welcome center.

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It was well organized, fully staffed and with advanced ticketing required, had no lines or long waits to enter.

How much bigger was it than our previous visit?

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Enough to require a map bigger.

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In a word?

It was magical…

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I’m not going to write a lot of commentary as it pretty much speaks for itself.

Just walk along with us and enjoy…

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Did I mention there were giant wooden trolls?

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The show only runs Thursday thru Sunday nights in December and has segmented entry hours. You have to reserve your spot weeks in advance as they sell out quickly. This means the weather is a crap shoot. Since it’s been unseasonably warm we weren’t worried…. until we woke up that day to 14 degrees and 35 mph winds.

Yeah, it was frickin’ freezing and we were bundled up like Nanook of the North and walking around with cups of hot chocolate to withstand the cold.

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To be continued…

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Out of the mouths of babes.

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The husband and I went to Portland the other day and as we were walking along Commercial Street in the Old Port, I suggested we go see his face.

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This requires explanation, I know.

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As a Christmas surprise for my favorite hero, I purchased a spot on the wall in his honor in 2009.

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I chose his boot camp graduation photo… and as the years go by we always get a kick out of seeing his innocent baby face.

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19 years old and sent to war.

Returning safely, but forever changed.

As we stood there looking at the wall, two young women with a large group of children stopped as well. They said hello… and started telling the children what the wall was for, whose faces were engraved and why it’s important to recognize veterans and their sacrifices.

One of the women looked over at my husband, saw his Marine Corps hat and thanked him for his service. The children all glanced over, heard my husband say thank you and tell the woman that he was actually on the wall they had come to see.

As he pointed out his picture the kind woman said, “You look exactly the same!” … which tickled us both as a sweet and ridiculous statement, but it what was one of the little girls said that made both of us choke up.

She looked at the picture on the wall, looked at my husband and said,”Mom… he’s a real live hero.”

❤️

She’s right of course.

He’s my real live hero, and always will be.

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Timber!

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By the time we finished the craft show and museum at the college we were famished, not to mention thirsty, and headed for a restaurant I’d heard good things about in Bangor called Timber.

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Upon entry we saw snow globe dining had made a return. This started during Covid and people liked the private option so much some places have continued the trend.

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I don’t want to eat in a plastic bubble, but to each their own.

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Timber was named to reflect the logging heritage of Northern Maine…

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So rustic woods met casual elegance in the decor.

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Being with my husband, naturally we sat at the bar.

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Which is never my first choice, but it is closer to the cocktails so I don’t complain too loudly.

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Round one? A blood orange cranberry margarita.

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Timber’s cocktail menu is multi paged and varied and I happily sampled a few.

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Round two was a Stoli blueberry fog with a fantastic elderflower foam. The only thing wrong with it was the size of the glass. Bring me a pitcher!

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Yes, there was food. Perfectly prepared crab cakes with spicy corn relish for me.

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French onion soup for the husband. He was a bit disappointed in this as it wasn’t the traditional preparation… but I thought it was wonderful.

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Round 3 for me was a Hendricks cucumber cooler. Crisp, green and herbal. Perfect.

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Loggers on the way to the rest room.

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Brick oven forest mushroom pizza with arugula and fontina cheese for me. Hand tossed and so rich I barely got through half… but it was heavenly.

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Butternut squash ravioli with cranberries, feta cheese, tomatoes and spinach for my other half. Thankfully he loved this.

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When it came to dessert I drank mine off the special menu.

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A sugar cookie martini. I don’t usually like these over sweetened concoctions but in place of pie? It works.

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Husband opted for lemon meringue cheesecake and coffee.

Heck, someone had to drive…. and it certainly wasn’t going to be me.

🤣

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Well that was (not) fun.

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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.

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Raise your hand if you still do this.

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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 love them!

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Very cool indeed Charlie.

❤️

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More Hudson Museum treasure.

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Sharing a few more interest items from our visit.

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That’s supposed to be a mask, but for the the life of me I don’t know how you’d wear it.

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The bat dance would definitely be more on point if you wore that.

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Ribbit!

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“She who catches the bird” is the best translation of midwife I’ve ever heard.

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Okay, that’s a bit much.

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Beauty is in the eye of beholder.

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As I said, for a small museum …. it was a decent collection.

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Though thinking about all these countries having their heritage looted a century ago is hard to swallow.

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This fellow was impressive.

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As well as too tall to photograph in detail in one picture.

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As usual, I liked the shoes.

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The beadwork was lovely and they look so comfortable.

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Inspiration for Madonna’s torpedo bra?

Could be…

😉

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The Hudson Museum and its treasures.

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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.

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So many beautiful handcrafted pieces of art.

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To be continued….

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The Wabanaki winter market trip…

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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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I’m so blue.

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Well, I’m not yet. But it looks like I’m going to be because every single furniture store I’ve shopped is dedicated to that color.

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I’m looking for two couches, a chair and an ottoman in this hardback, rolled arm style. The couches will be solid, the chair and pillows a coordinating pattern.

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All the floor samples are beige, which is fine… it’s not like I want neon orange. But the decided lack of color in the fabric choices is driving me batty.

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The fabrics are pretty…

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But I swear they’re all blue and grey.

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Everywhere.

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At every store.

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My kitchen and breakfast nook are blue and grey.

My den is blue and beige.

My spare bathroom is blue and grey.

Which is why my living room has always been green.

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But it looks like that’s not happening this time around.

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I’m going to be blue.

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Talk about being on point.

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Have you ever seen something that was simply too perfect?

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Okay, so it’s not a pear tree. But a partridge on your Christmas wreath is pretty damn close.

We had one of those beauties on our front lawn a few years ago.

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I had no idea what it was and had to look him up in my bird watchers bible.

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Native to the Middle East and southern Asia, the Chukar was brought as a game bird to North America, where it has thrived in some arid regions of the west. From late summer to early spring, Chukars travel in coveys, but they may be hard to see as they range through the brush of steep desert canyons. They become more conspicuous in spring, when the harsh cackling chuk chuk chukar of the territorial males echoes from the rocky cliffs.

They’re noisy little devils and if you’ve ever heard one… you’re not apt to forget it.

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