Tag: Downeast
One commute I can’t complain about
Some Sunday mornings, my drive to and from the Quaker meetinghouse a half-hour from my home is a meditation in its own right.
Even in fog or snow, it can be refreshing.
Much of the road is through forest, plus stretches along Passamaquoddy and Cobscook bays and their tributaries. The route also passes through a tribal reservation and a national wildlife preserve, which does sound a bit exotic though I take it as routine.
Eagle sightings are common, and I have had to stop for deer or turkeys in the middle of U.S. 1. Once I even spotted a moose far ahead on the pavement.
A radio program of classical choral music on a CBC station that comes in quite clearly is often also an element, depending on my mood.
Do you remember the freedom you felt when you first learned to drive? Some mornings, especially when there’s no other traffic, that elation returns.
While I’m tempted to proclaim “What could be more glorious than this!” I will also note many of the scattered homes I pass resemble junkyards – poverty in Washington County is a constant – so there’s a reminder of that reality, too. I suspect there are more dead cars and trucks here than people.
As an added touch, there are no traffic lights, either.
The buck stops here
Hikers atop a seaside bluff
If you see them, they’ll give you a sense of proportion for the experience of hiking the coastal trail at Quoddy Head State Park in Lubec.
Maybe this will help you locate them. There were five in the party, including a child, when we caught up with them.
Hobart Stream at Cobscook Bay
The tide’s out.
Baby spiders
I’m feelin’ some schooner excitement
Somewhere in my youth I fell under the spell of windjammers – vessels under full sail in the wild ocean. Those were as far away from my native Ohio as were the white-capped mountains that also caught my fancy.
Over the years, though, even as I came to know first the Pacific Northwest and later, coastal New England, I never considered actually going on an overnight windjammer cruise. Dismissed it as too expensive on our limited income. For contrast, I should note that I’ve never had any interest in an ocean-liner cruise. Zip.
But in late May, a dear friend from Vermont stopped by for a few days on his way to his annual windjammer trip on Penobscot Bay and that, well, reignited those dreams.
My wife looked at our budget and encouraged me to join him on his early autumn return. For the record, she’s declining to go too, remembering a bad seasick whale watch excursion when we were first together. No way would she venture forth for so many hours or days.
Upshot is at the end of next month buddy and I will spend the better part of a week under sail on a historic schooner exploring some famed Maine waters, especially the lighthouses along the way.
I have to admit, a windjammer should be my kind of excitement. And because my buddy grew up sailing, I’ll certainly be privy to a deep source of inside information. At least maybe I’ll have more of the terms right when I report on our adventure.
In addition, many of the classic sailing ships were built only a block or two from our house, back in the heyday of masts and canvas sails. The remaining keel of one schooner is exposed at low tide only a block or two from my house.
I’ve started counting the days till we set sail.
When the sun arrives here, the light can be blinding, reflecting off the water
Full moon rising into clouds
This is how the rising moon looked from across our street last night. The reflection is in the bay between us and Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. Some of those lights on the island are moving traffic.
This is a clue to what really occupies my mind some days
Ten random notes in no particular order:
- I’m still learning to spell Katahdin.
- Was it a mama moose I hit that cold night on my commute back from the office, rather than a deer? Now that I’m getting to know deer, I think the collision involved something bigger.
- Red states? They’re where nobody really wants to live. Or at least the paying jobs.
- How dark the house is at night in an electrical power outage! There’s no ambient light from the street lamps or apparatus power-on buttons.
- Glyphs = little typographic devices.
- I dreamed I was playing violin again. In an orchestra, no less.
- How deeply backpacking as a youth shaped my values (forget efficient as a factor). It’s that travel light thing.
- After living in New Hampshire, I’m still not used to a sales tax.
- English country dance lyric, “If love were an ocean / and water was gin / I’d walk a long plank / and throw myself in.” It’s not from “Robin, Mad Robin,” is it?
- A voicemail message for today: “Let me a message or text me. I’ll get back.”
Jnana's Red Barn 