For this year’s Maine International Film Festival (MIFF), the chickadee, Maine’s plucky state bird—plentiful but never common, as my friend Barbara observed—is being used on programs, T-shirts, and other material related to the festival.
This giant chickadee is in the park by the Opera House in Waterville, where many of the movies will be shown.
Our own ChickaDee is coming from New York today, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to post next week as we are looking forward to a fun and busy week of movies and even a play—Othello–slipped in.
As we Mainers like to say, it will be some week.
And, as a sad side note…the great director Jonathan Demme, who was a good and generous friend of the Maine International Film Festival, died this spring. This year’s MIFF is dedicated to him, and there will be several of his movies featured at the festival. One of them, Stop Making Sense, is my favorite. It’s a wild, rollicking documentary of The Talking Heads, the fabulous new-wave group that was popular in the 1980s.
Same as it ever was. So long, Jonathan Demme, and thanks for all the movies.
Three Things Thursday is a weekly tribute to being grateful for the good things in life. This tradition was started by Emily of Nerd in the Brain and is currently hosted by Natalie of There She Goes.
First, a deliciously rainy day. Now I like a sunny day as much as the next Mainer—especially in the summer—but we need rain, too, and today it came. This morning I woke up with the covers tucked under my chin, a cool room, and the sound of the rain as it fell on the roof, against the house, and on the lawn and gardens. As soon as the dog and cats were fed, I headed outside to take a few rainy-day pictures.
Second, this Saturday, our daughter Dee is coming to stay with us for a week. (Dee does not like having her picture taken, so I’ll have to make do with words. ) Both of our daughters live far away, and we don’t see them as often as we would like. Sigh. But the good thing is that when they do visit, it’s a treat. Dee, a movie buff, has timed her visit to coincide with an event that I’m ever so grateful for, and this brings me to…
Third, the Maine International Film Festival, better known as MIFF. In Waterville, a town about twenty-five miles away, is an independent movie theater called Railroad Square Cinema. The Square has brought to central Maine movies you would never see at the cineplex. The Square, in partnership with Maine Film Center,also started MIFF, which is in its twentieth year. At Miff, for ten days in July, there are movies, movies, movies, as well as speakers, special events, and all kinds of folderol. For various reasons, I am on dog duty during MIFF, which means Dee and Clif get to see more movies than I do. However, I’ll be going to three movies as well as to a talk about the art of Bambi. I’m very much looking forward to MIFF, and, of course, to spending time with daughter Dee.
Here is a picture Clif took of MIFF at Railroad Square Cinema many years ago. It is one of our favorites, and the Square even uses it on the opening page of their website.
For readers who live within driving distance of central Maine, maybe I’ll see you at the movies!
Yesterday was a lovely, hot summer day with a blue sky, puffy clouds, a slight breeze, and not a hint of humidity. To paraphrase a Facebook friend, yesterday’s weather more than made up for the misery of March, and it’s why people come to Maine in July. So far, summer in Maine has been splendid, and may it continue.
The first order of the day was to go on an eight-mile bike ride. Slowly, slowly, Clif and I are building up our strength. But after two years of being sedentary, we can’t expect to be super bikers after only two months of steady riding. Still, I am impatient to be the strong biker I once was, and by the end of the summer, I hope to be going on much longer rides.
Our town sponsors summer concerts at Norcross Point, a little park by the lake in town. This week’s featured group was The Sandy River Ramblers, and they play bluegrass and country music. We therefore decided to bring a picnic lunch to have after our bike ride and then go to the concert, which started midafternoon.
We ate at the Winthrop’s Public Beach, just down from Norcross Point. When our children were young, we spent many happy summer days here, and it was fun to watch children and their families swim and play in Marancook Lake.
After our lunch, we headed to Norcross Point. The Sandy River Ramblers comprise two men and two women. The men had decent enough voices, but my how those women could sing. “She’s a good-hearted woman with a good timing man. She loves him in spite of his wicked ways, which she doesn’t understand.” The downfall of many a woman.
Unfortunately, The Sandy River Ramblers don’t have a website, and their Facebook page isn’t up to date. Also, there was no program. The long and the the short of it is that I am not able to identify any of the singers.
Ah, well, the concert was free, and it was a fine thing to listen to this band on such a nice day. We sat in the shade of a flowering tree.
Two boys played soccer at the edge of the park. In matching smocks with smiley faces, little twin girls ran by, tumbling over each other like puppies. On a nearby swing set came a steady creak, creak, creak and the laughter of children. By the lake, a boy rested on a large branch of a birch tree. And on the lake, there was a cluster of boats full of people who had come to listen to the music as it carried over the water.
Three Things Thursday is a weekly tribute to being grateful for the good things in life. This tradition was started by Emily of Nerd in the Brain and is currently hosted by Natalie of There She Goes.
First, a box of goodness with vegetables straight from the gardens of our own Farmer Kev. Longtime readers of this blog will recall that Farmer Kev is an extraordinary young man who has been gardening since his early teens and is now a full-fledged farmer with his own land. The most amazing thing is that Farmer Kev isn’t even thirty yet, but through hard work he now has a farm. He offers delivery farm shares, and every other week from now until September, we will be getting a bin of his local, organic vegetables. Yahoo!
Second, it is strawberry season in Maine. Need I write more about these red gems of deliciousness?
Third, and so exciting, a shopping bag from across the pond. It was made by Jan of The Snail of Happiness, and I won it in a contest she sponsored on her blog. Such a treat to get this snappy bag, and soon I will be using it to pick up tea and biscuits—or cookies, as we call them here—from a shop in a nearby town. I’ll be sure to include pictures. In the meantime, here is a shot of this little beauty, sans tea or biscuits. And, for the cherry on the sundae, so to speak, Jan also included a lovely, handwritten letter. Thanks so much, Jan!
Tomorrow—July Fourth—is a big day for our country, a time to celebrate its birthday. Accordingly, there will be parades, picnics, barbecues, and fireworks.
We will be having friends over for an appetizers and salad party, where Clif will make his legendary grilled bread. I’ve made a homemade vanilla ice cream pie, and I’ll drizzle blueberry and strawberry preserves over the slices for a touch of red and blue to go with the white.
I wish I could write that I am approaching this holiday with excitement and joy, but I am not. Never, since I have been politically aware—a necessary qualifier—have I seen the U.S. in such a terrible state, with a leader who feels perfectly comfortable tweeting about women and blood and a congress gleefully intent on stripping millions of people of health care while giving huge tax breaks to the rich. In short, it is heartbreaking to see what this country has become.
I know. We’ve been in dark places before, and we’ve somehow manage to work our way out of them. So perhaps we will be able to shake off the greed, hate, nastiness, and fear that has gripped this country and emerge better and wiser. But, of course, there are no guarantees.
Therefore in sadness and in hope, I am posting a picture of this lily, a lone survivor of lily beetles and marauding skunks intent on finding grubs.
May this country survive its marauders and bloom, bloom, bloom.
Three Things Thursday is a weekly tribute to being grateful for the good things in life. This tradition was started by Emily of Nerd in theBrain and is currently hosted by Natalie of There She Goes.
Last week and this week were rough for us and for our dog, Liam, who’s twelve years old and blind. He had digestive/intestinal problems that kept us all hopping, sometimes twice during the night. My, we’re tired. At one point, we were even considering canceling our Fourth of July gathering. But, after a few days of a chicken and rice diet and a trip to the vets, Liam’s system seems to be settling down, and we can carry on with our Fourth of July plans. This is all a preamble to say that first, I am thankful for the Winthrop VeterinaryHospital and especially for Dr. Marie Barengo for helping to get Liam on the road to recovery. (The bacteria in his system was out of whack, and he’s on medication.) Twined with this is how thankful I am to have this wonderful dog. We love our dog buddy, that’s for sure.
Second, on a much lighter note. I have a fondness for cute little things, for knickknacks and garden ornaments and various other folderol. Mostly I keep this in check, but a couple of weeks ago I went to D. R. Struck Landscape Nursery and succumbed, coming home with a wee garden shed and a diminutive wheel barrow. I found a shallow pot, planted some begonias and few tiny hens and chicks, and voilà! A little scene to great me every time I come up the steps. And I must admit, it pleases me very much to see it.
Finally, I come to Blue Beauty, my bike of twenty years. I received her for my fortieth birthday, and to me she is as beautiful as the day I got her. Together, we’ve ridden miles and miles, up hill, down hill, past the lake, by woods, along fields, even by the ocean. Thanks to Blue Beauty, I can get the exercise I need, despite having arthritis. Plus, it’s just plain fun to zip, zip, zip with Blue Beauty. Any day I can go on a bike ride is a good day, and I am grateful that at sixty—or nearly so—I can ride twelve miles and not feel like collapsing. As my new blogging friend Tootlepeddle observed, if you can ride ten miles, then you can ride twenty. It’s just a case of taking things steadily. Twenty miles are what I’m aiming for by the end of the summer. Go, go, Blue Beauty!
For six days of the week, Clif and I eat a healthy, plant-based diet that includes plenty of fresh fruit, legumes, and salads. However, on the seventh day, we rest and eat what we want. We find that a regular splurge once a week keeps us on the straight and narrow the rest of the time.
This week, our splurge was at the incomparable Red Barn, where the fried food is so fresh and so reasonably priced that it has almost become a landmark in central Maine. All right. Maybe I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but I’m not kidding about the quality of the food and the prices. For a treat, the Red Barn is the place to go.
On Saturday’s trip to the Red Barn, we had mixed veggies—I guess we can’t totally get away from our plant-based diet—and homemade chips. Oh my, they were good.
The place was packed. All the tables were taken, and we had to sit on stools at the long counter in the new addition.
A woman who worked there was wiping the counter, and I asked her, “Is there any time when the Red Barn isn’t packed?”
“Not in the summer, ” she said. “It’s like this all the time.”
And why not? For the veggies, the chips, a drink that we shared, and a whoopie pie we split, the bill came to $11. Plus this is a very local business that pays its employees well. What’s not to like?
While we ate, it rained. The counter where we sat runs below a long bank of windows overlooking the parking lot, and we watched people hurry back and forth from their cars. Trees line the edge of the parking lot, and we saw two small birds—we couldn’t tell what they were from that distance—harass a crow.
By the time we were done eating, the rain had stopped, and we decided to go to Hallowell, to the long concrete deck by the Kennebec River, to see if the sturgeons were jumping.
Sturgeons are a fish that has been around since prehistoric times, and they do indeed look like ancient ones. They are an endangered species, but but according the website Maine Rivers. “the Kennebec River has some of the best habitat for sturgeon in Maine. When Edwards Dam was removed…the sturgeon regained access to their full historic range on the river. In time, these spawning grounds may help the fish to recover. ”
In late June, early July, the sturgeons spawn and jump. Did they jump for us? They did not. All we saw was were some big ripples and an occasional flash of white. But no leaping prehistoric-looking fish.
Notes From the Hinterland 