Serving fresh scallops quickly became a Christmas Day tradition in our household once we moved to Eastport. The fishermen set forth before sunrise on each of their preciously allocated days, and only the worst weather can convince them otherwise.
Tag: Nature
Could this be how it ends?
The time to go has come. It should have arrived several years earlier, rather than continuing in so much wheelchair loitering, trapped in a dream-state. Now the phone call, “I don’t expect him to live another week,” leads into packing and flight.
Unable to awaken, fully, from the bewildering disconnections. This is not the heart attack or car crash I had predicted. Nor the old age of graceful evaporation into a vanishing point of history. No one will say now, “He lost his mind,” but the new names change nothing. This terminal illness, in stages, until the patient no longer remembers how to eat or breathe. Perhaps, mercifully, an angel will break through the sterile chambers of medical enterprise, and another nature will take its course.
This flesh, shrinking to bone, rather than feather.
Glad no one was home
Climatic change is bringing more frequent and fiercer storms to Way Downeast. Last winter felled many trees in the region. Here’s what of those did to a riverside rental cabin in Calais.
Gilkey Harbor memory
The member ships of the Maine Windjammer Association are independently owned and operated, and apart from setting firm departure and return dates, each of them ventures at the will of its skipper and the elements each day.
Watching the others in the course of a cruise is almost a game, and sometimes two or three wind up spending the night in the same cove, as happened here on Islesboro. We had the Heritage, above on one side, and the Angelique on the other, and the atmosphere was festive.
For more schooner sailing experiences, take a look at my Under Sail photo album at Thistle Finch editions.
Beaver lodge, too
The range of wildlife found in a healthy flowage like this can be quite impressive. Wetlands and open waters comprise about a fifth of Washington County’s landscape.
Quicksilver shifting and shimmering
Somehow, the sea looks metallic here. Just what would you call that range of colors?
Well, it does remind me that the Greeks lacked a word for blue. So did many other ancient civilizations, but let’s not get into a discussion of why.
For more schooner sailing experiences, take a look at my Under Sail photo album at Thistle Finch editions.
Square rigging
When you think of a tall-masted sailing ship, it’s probably like this, one with squared masts and rectangular sails. This one does have a gaff aft sail, resembling the sails on a schooner.
Square-rigged ships did require larger crews than did schooners and sloops, and they weren’t as agile in the wind, but they could carry more cargo.
As for the bird in the nest atop the rock outcropping? I think it’s an osprey.
Welcome to Rockland Harbor.
Two geese on a leisurely cruise
The Orange River in Whiting is becoming a prime wilderness water trail for canoeists and kayakers. The nature preserve, with holdings from several different organizations, is accessible principally by water.
It’s called the transom
The broad surface at the stern of a ship is called a transom. Usually above the waterline, it gives strength and width to the back of the vessel.
For more schooner sailing experiences, take a look at my Under Sail photo album at Thistle Finch editions.
Sharpened light
One of the sensations in watching a full solar eclipse comes as the light seems to become more focused before going into twilight. I skip the discussion of optics and physics. Here’s how it looked in the trees around us in the April 2024 event here in Maine. Something similar happened with shadows.
