Category Archives: Celebrate

Celebrate, People

The Good, the Delightful, and the Hopeful

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The Good

Last Tuesday we went to Cushnoc in Augusta to celebrate our daughter Dee’s birthday. It is one of her favorite places, and I must admit that they have mighty fine pizza.

We started out with drinks, a coconut tequila concoction with a Halloween surprise.

Did I eat those gummy worms? Yes, I did. I might be old in body, but I am young in spirit, and I still have a fondness for chewy candy.

We ordered pizza

and nachos. Both were delicious.

As we ate, we enjoyed the fall decorations, the reflections inside and out.

We had a jolly good time, all the more fun for going out in the middle of the week, which we seldom do. Happy birthday, Dee!

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The Delightful

On Saturday, Clif and I went to a craft fair with our books, and a woman stopped by our table. We chatted for a bit, and I mentioned I grew up in Vassalboro, which is where my Great Library Series begins.

“Vassalboro?” she asked, giving me a keen look.

“Yes,” I replied. “My name was Laurie Meunier then.”

“Laurie!” she exclaimed. “I’m Cristina Lewis.”

“Oh, my God! Cristina!”

In seventh and eighth grade, we were really good friends.

“Sleep-over friends,” Cris said.

Yes, sleep-over friends.

But after we graduated from eighth grade, we went to different high schools, and we grew apart. I haven’t seen her since we started high school, all those long years ago.

She gave me a hug, I gave her a book, and we are now Facebook friends.

What an absolute delight to reconnect with Cris. It was the highlight of my weekend, and I hope to get together with her sometime soon.

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The Hopeful

In the United States, tomorrow is Election Day. My blog is not a political blog, and mostly I stay away from political topics, which I know can be very polarizing.

However, this election is so consequential that I felt I must write about it at least a little. The historian Michael Beschloss has called it the most consequential election since 1860 and 1940, and at The New Yorker Festival he said, “I think Donald Trump meets most of the parts of the definition of the word ‘fascist,’ ”

Longtime readers will know that I am left, left of center, a liberal or a progressive or whatever you want to call it. In the past, my candidate of choice was the inimitable Bernie Sanders with Elizabeth Warren being a close second. I believe that the role of government is to help folks deal with the complexities and the astounding costs of modern life. I am a firm supporter of a strong social safety net, and I admire the Nordic countries that provide this.

Tomorrow, without hesitation, I will be voting for Kamala Harris and hoping that we will at last elect a woman to be president of our country—someone who cares about all the people, not just those at the top; someone who respects the rule of law and who will concede graciously if the vote goes for Donald Trump; someone who will continue the progress made by Joe Bidden; someone who does not admire authoritarian rulers in other countries; someone who believes in a woman’s right to make choices about her own body.

Then there is Donald Trump, a convicted felon and a Putin admirer, a would-be tyrant who uses alarming words to describe what should happen to his opponents. Someone who bragged about grabbing women and how he could get away with it. Someone who incited his supporters to violence on January 6 and did nothing to stop it. I hope this election is the last we hear from Donald Trump, that he slinks back to Mar-a-Lago and leaves this country to heck alone.

In 2008 and 2012, even though I voted for Barack Obama, I respected both his opponents—John McCain and Mitt Romney, conservatives who nevertheless would have worked with Democrats to pass legislation for the good of the country. I remember how honorable both men were when they were defeated. How different Trump is from either of them.

To conclude on an upbeat note: one of the things that I especially like about Kamala Harris is her laugh. It makes me smile every time I hear it, and on Saturday Night Live, her laugh was the focus of the opening skit. Watch it and smile.

Fingers, toes, and everything else crossed that this lady with the wonderful laugh becomes the next president of the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrate, Food

A Birthday Weekend of Simple Pleasures

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Sunday, September 15 was my 67th birthday.  By a fun coincidence, it was also the anniversary of Agatha Christie’s 134th birthday. (I have been reading Christie and have joined our library’s Agatha Christie Book Club.)

Instead of getting a small present from Clif, I asked for a weekend of simple pleasures. He readily agreed, noting that we have a house full of lovely things, and we don’t need any additions.

Fortunately, the weather gods were on our side, and the weather was absolutely perfect—sunny and warm but not too hot.

On Saturday, we went to Bolley’s Famous Franks, not for their hot dogs—we are all vegetarians—but for their utterly delicious hand-cut fries. My oh my, they were good. Clif is a fan of onion rings, and we added that to the mix. Because the weather was so fine, we were able to eat outside.

After that, it was on to Hallowell to sit by the Kennebec River, eat donuts, and watch the rippling water.

A couple resting and enjoying the view
Upriver. Those clouds are irresistible.

 

By the river, two things happened that made me smile. First, when we got there and decided to move our chairs into the shade, a group of women jumped from their chairs to help us with ours.

The second was a hobbit’s birthday kind of thing, where you give rather than receive. As we left, I notice two bike riders, a man and a woman, not far from us. Clif and I were once keen bike riders, and I stopped to talk to them. As we spoke, I could see by their red faces how hot they were from their ride. I remembered feeling that way. I also remembered how warm the water would get in our water bottles on the bike. That water was better than nothing, but it wasn’t refreshing. In our cooler were a couple of cans of sparkling water, kept cold by an ice pack.

“Would you like a can of sparkling water?” I asked.

The woman hesitated only for a moment. “Why, yes we would.”

We tried to give her two, but she insisted that one was enough.

She thanked us kindly, and as I made my way to the car, I reflected on how we had received and we had given, a good balance, it seems to me.

Then home we went, to enjoy drinks on the patio and after that to watch the movie Get Shorty, still delightful after nearly twenty years.

Sunday, my actual birthday, was another fine day.  And what did we do? Longtime readers will not be surprised to read that we went to the movies in the afternoon to see the excellent thriller Speak no Evil. (For those who are little squeamish, the way I am, I want to assure you there isn’t much gore and no jump-scare scenes.)

Because it was my actual birthday, after the movie we stopped at Fielder’s Choice in Manchester for ice cream. Mine was a hot fudge sundae with peanut butter soft serve. So good!

Supper that night was by the fire pit, where we roasted veggie sausages and had  s’mores for dessert.

Here is the line-up.

We had never cooked veggie sausages over an open flame. As it turns out, they do very well cooked over a fire, and during the fall, we plan on roasting them again this way.

In the next to the last picture, you might have noticed two candles—making the number 66—in a bowl. Those were from my cake last year, and I decided to keep them until my 67th birthday, where I could burn them down.

In with the new, and out with the old.

Note: Next weekend, Shannon and Mike plan on coming to Maine where we can celebrate both Clif’s birthday (September 27) along with mine.

We certainly are a family that likes to celebrate.

Celebrate

A Meeting of Opposites

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Life is certainly exciting in Maine. On Thursday, April 4, we had a Nor’easter that brought us twelve inches of wet snow and widespread power outages. By, Monday, April 8, most of the snow was gone, and it was warm enough—60°F!—to sit on the patio and watch the solar eclipse. While we weren’t on the edge of the path of totality, we were close enough for a fascinating view of the moon meeting the sun.

Because the eclipse was, well, an event, we decided it would be all right to have drinks even though we don’t usually drink in the afternoon. Clif had gotten special glasses at our library, which meant we could safely watch the sun as the moon covered it. Nothing like burnt retinas to spoil an eclipse.

Clif swept the patio—the first sweeping of the season—and brought up two chairs and a little table. Here is Clif in his groovy sunglasses, toasting the eclipse.

The yard was a mess—downed branches everywhere courtesy of the nor’easter.

Still it was fine to be sitting on the patio and not need a heavy jacket. In the back woods, I could hear the little stream rushing to the Narrows Pond. A male cardinal sang his spring song, claiming his territory, our yard. Mourning doves cooed, and chickadees called to each other.

The eclipsed started at about 2:48, with the edge of the moon sliding over the sun. First a quarter of the sun was covered and then a third. The light from the sun grew dimmer. As Clif put it, the sun looked like a fat crescent. As the moon continued to slip over the sun, the crescent looked less fat until it resembled a crescent moon.

By 3:05, two-thirds of the sun was covered, and it felt chillier. But the birds were still calling and tweeting. It was not dark enough for them to stop. It was more like dusk. Except it was a little past 3:00, and even in the winter, dusk doesn’t come that early. By then the sun was a sliver, but even a sliver of sun throws quite a bit of light. (Solar power, baby, I’m looking at you.)

One of the loveliest aspects of the eclipse was the way the sun shadows danced on the patio. Over the years, I have seen the patio in shadow and shade, but never like this.

As I watched the eclipse, I thought about how poetic it was for the sun and the moon to come together. One is bright and extroverted; the other cool and introverted.

A meeting of opposites.

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Listening

Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles

Because, what else?

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A  Wee Break

For the next two weeks, I’ll be taking a short break from blogging. Lots to do, including a trip to Boston to celebrate my daughter’s birthday.

See you all on April 29.

 

Celebrate, Spring

When What to My Wondering Eyes Did Appear…

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But a beautiful flower in the front yard in my garden. So unexpected in April.

No, not really. April Fools’ Day! I have to wait until August for those beauties.

Here is an actual scene from my front yard, taken this morning of Clif with his trusty snow-gauge. He measured four inches of snow at its deepest.

And the weather gods aren’t quite done with their little pranks. On Thursday, snow is predicted, about nine inches, with gusty wind.

Something to look forward to.

Ah, well. At least Easter was a fine sunny day. We started in the morning with a Crustmas celebration, a wonderful idea we got from the podcast the Library of Lost Time. In short, Crustmas is a celebration of toast—one of my favorite things to eat–where you bring the toaster right to the table and toast a variety of breads and then slather them with a variety of spreads.

As the hosts of the Library of Lost Time noted, Crustmas is not just for Christmas. No, it isn’t. Crustmas is appropriate for any special celebration. It’s easy. It’s economical. Best of all, it’s delicious. For our Easter Crustmas celebration, we included scrambled eggs and veggie sausage.

In the afternoon, we went to the cinema to see Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

Ghostbusters is a fun movie where the plot is not that important. A powerful vengeful spirit who can freeze everything solid wants to take over the world. You know, the usual. What was enjoyable was the interaction between the characters, the old and the young, as they tried to figure out their place and purpose. Dan Akroyd was particularly moving as he acknowledged his  passion for hunting ghosts and his sympathetic reaction to the struggles of teenage Phoebe, the granddaughter of Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters.

Speaking of Ghostbusters, here’s something to jazz up your Monday. I hope there’s nothing too strange in your neighborhood.

 

 

 

Celebrate, Television, Winter

The Return of Snow-Gauge Clif

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Well, it happened. The weather gods decided to play one of their little tricks on us, and on Saturday a storm blow into the state. Where we live in central Maine, we got mostly snow, about ten inches, and we kept our power the whole time. The coast was not as lucky. From New Hampshire to mid-coast Maine, they got freezing rain, enough of it to knock down trees and power lines.  At its worst, after the storm, 184,000 Central Maine Power (CMP) customers were without power, and today, Monday, 80,000 still don’t have it. (CMP has 675,000 customers.)

However, as the saying goes, it’s an ill wind that blows no good, and so it is in Winthrop. Ten inches of snow means the return of Snow-Gauge Clif.

How long will it take for this snow to melt? I’m guessing it won’t be long. Rain is in the forecast as are temps in the 50s. Will Snow-Gauge Clif return next week? Stay tuned!

During the storm, from the bathroom window, I snapped a picture of this pretty fellow, a cardinal. The cardinal is not as clear as I would like him to be, but nonetheless I thought the red against the snow was pretty.

Last Tuesday, March 19, was our forty-seventh wedding anniversary. Holy cats, Clif and I have been together for a long time. Because Tuesday was a work day for Clif (he does book design), Me (I write books), and our daughter Dee (she does web work),in the evening we had a simple celebration of nuts and drinks as well as veggie sausages and dairy-free ice cream. The goblets were given to us by a good friend on our first wedding anniversary, and we bring them out every year for a celebratory drink.

On Friday, before the storm, we took the afternoon off and had a fried day. Both Clif and I love fried food, and we are lucky enough to have a digestive system that easily handles this kind of food. (I know from previous comments that not all my blogging friends can eat fried food.)

However, this capacity for fried food has its downside. Without vigilance, we could eat way more fried food than we should.  However, I am happy to report that we do use restraint and only have fried food a few times a year.

Here was our line-up for Friday: fried onions (Clif), fried mushrooms (me, although I shared a few), and fries (both of us). And a whoopie pie to share for dessert.

The food was very, very tasty and served piping hot. So cheer to us! In another three years we will have been together for fifty years. Yikes, that’s a long time.

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Watching

The Gentlemen, television series, 2024
Created by Guy Ritchie
Available on Netflix

Along with having an enthusiasm for fried food, I am also keen on quirky crime dramas. The Gentlemen definitely qualifies as a quirky crime drama, and Guy Ritche’s fingerprints are all over it. Clif and I were so caught up with the story and the acting that we blew through four episodes on Saturday morning while it snowed outside.

Eddie (Theo James), an aristocrat, is called home to the family estate where his father is dying. After his father’s death, Eddie learns, much to his surprise, that he has inherited the estate. He is a second son, and always thought his elder brother Freddie would be the one to get the estate. Neither Freddie nor Eddie is pleased with this turn of events, but the will is clear. Eddie gets the estate.

Eddie also receives another surprise. For some years, his father has been renting out a barn to a weed enterprise run by the delightfully deadpan Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), who is about the same age as Eddie. Eddie wants the weed business to move; Susie does not.

To complicate matters, they both have brothers who have a knack for getting in trouble. Naturally, complications ensue as do murder and mayhem. James and Scodelario have a wonderful chemistry. Are they attracted to each other? Are they out to get each other? Or maybe both? This tension gives the show a nice energy.

The supporting cast is equally delightful, with each character, no matter how brief the performance, being distinct and memorable.

I’ve read that season two of The Gentlemen might be in the works.

Fingers crossed.

 

Books, Celebrate

A Year of Books

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Last weekend we celebrated my son-in-law Mike’s birthday. Because they live in Massachusetts, Mike, our daughter Shannon, and the dogs came to Maine on Saturday to spend the night.

The day was astonishingly warm for early February in Maine.  When it comes to the weather nowadays, my thoughts always turn to my parents, who never would have imagined it could be so warm in midwinter. Such big changes.

Mike chose to go to Absolem Cider Company to celebrate his birthday. It is one of his favorite places in central Maine. It is one of mine, too.

Here we are, on the way to the barn at sunset. Note how shiny with mud the path is. It felt more like March than February.

However, inside all was cozy and dry. Soon we had our drinks, and it was cheers to the birthday boy.

Here is a picture of Mike and our daughter Shannon.

After our drinks, we went back home for presents, and this year, Clif and I had come up with something special for Mike—twelve books, one to be opened at the beginning of each month throughout the year.

I got the idea from my friend Doree, who had done this for her sister for Christmas and had written about it on Facebook. Immediately, I was smitten by the idea, and my thoughts turned to Mike and his birthday in February. Mike is an avid reader, and I knew he would be thrilled to get a book a month. Also, and this is sheer coincidence, of everyone in the family, Mike’s taste in books is most similar to mine, which made picking out books for him very easy.

Last Thursday, Clif and I wrapped and labeled the books. As we did so, I thought about how giving these gifts was a joy from beginning to end—choosing the books, deciding which books should go for which month, wrapping the books, and then seeing them laid out on our dining room table, small packages of delight waiting to be opened.

A closer look at February’s book.

And what was February’s book? Here is  New York, by the late great writer E.B. White, whom I mentioned in last week’s post.

It was so much fun to watch Mike inspect his books.

“This is amazing,” he said more than once.

Happy birthday, Mike, and happy reading!

 

 

 

Animals - especially dogs, Celebrate, Food, Winter

Second Christmas

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Because our daughter Shannon and our son-in-law Mike spent Christmas in North Carolina with his folks, we decided to have a belated celebration the first weekend in January. Unfortunately, the weather gods had other plans for us, and a storm kept Shannon and Mike home that weekend. The next weekend, then, we decided.

However, those weather gods were plotting yet again to send a storm our way, but this time we outsmarted them. Shannon and Mike came the day before the storm and left the day afterward. I am happy to report that we celebrated the holiday in our usual simple, cozy way, and it really did feel like Christmas.

It was lovely to see the girls again.

And the storm that came to central Maine on Saturday made it feel all the more like Christmas.

On Saturday morning, there were presents and pumpkin bread. In the afternoon, appetizers and a new game—Betrayal at House on the Hill. In the evening, homemade cheddar cheese soup.

Dessert, unfortunately, didn’t turn out that way it should have. I pressed chocolate chip cookie dough in a skillet to be baked and brought warm to the table and served with vanilla ice cream. But even though the skillet cookie was nicely browned on top, the middle was gooey to the point of being raw. We thought that perhaps I should have used only half the batter. Readers, any suggestions? I’m willing to give it another try.

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While the storm on Saturday wasn’t bad for central Maine—snow mixed with a little rain—it was devastating for our coast, which hadn’t recovered from the previous storm. More flooding, more property damage, more roads destroyed. It’s heartbreaking to see the damage. Even though I live inland, I love the coast, and as a Mainer, I feel connected to it. I have been to many of the places that were ravaged by the storm, driven on  roads now destroyed.

Governor Mills declared a civil state of emergency for all eight coastal counties. And rightly so. Those communities will need a lot of aid to recover from the storms.

All in all, in the past few weeks, Mainers have received quite the punch from storms causing damage that would have been inconceivable when I was young. Yes, we had a lot of snow, and the snowbanks really were taller than I was when I was a child. We plowed, we shoveled, and went about our business. As far as I can recall, there wasn’t much damage, and we hardly ever lost our power.

But these wind storms in the winter are something new, and because of the rising sea, the damage is made worse along the coast.

The effects of climate change are with us now, and we have to deal with increasingly destructive storms.

I can only hope that we have the personal and political will to stop the climate crisis from getting worse.

Here is a clip that shows one small part of the storm’s destruction. All along the coast, the story is the same.

 

Animals - especially dogs, Celebrate, cooking, News

Back Again in 2024

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As many of you know, in September my daughter Shannon, her husband Mike, their two dogs—Holly and Somara—and their cat Penny moved in with us. One phase of their life had ended, and they were starting a new phase with different jobs. Staying with us allowed them to take their time to find a place that was exactly right for them as well as for the dogs and cat.

This Shannon and Mike did, with a lovely new apartment overlooking the water. In late December, dogs, kit, and kids left, leaving the three of us—Clif, our daughter Dee, and me. The house is now very quiet. While I miss the hubbub, it feels great to return to my old schedule, which not only includes blogging but also working on my upcoming book, Darcy Dansereau, a slice-of-life fantasy set in Maine in the 1970s.

Along with Christmas, December included a challenge courtesy of Mother Nature—a rain and wind storm with gusts up to 70 miles per hour. This storm whipped through central Maine with the expected results—widespread power outages in the days leading to Christmas. We were without power for four days, and it was even longer for some people in central Maine.

The storm also brought about an unexpected result—flooding for communities by a river. While flooding is common in the spring, it is pretty much unheard of in December. As I am fond of saying, in these times of climate change, weird is the new normal. These floods were as bad as I’ve ever seen them, but as we don’t live near a river, we stayed dry.

Because we have a wood furnace, we were warm and cozy during the power outage. In addition, we have a camp stove, and in town there is a business with an outside spigot where we could get water. So we were all right during our time without power.

During the power outage, we were still taking care of the dogs and cat while Mike and Shannon were getting settled in their new apartment. Here is the expression on Holly’s face as the storm blew and raged outside.

Because the light was low, the focus isn’t the best. Still, I think it captures her mood, which was pretty much the same as ours: none of us liked the storm one bit.

But through it all we did have a light to shine with an old lamp that belonged to Clif’s parents.

The Thursday before Christmas, early in the morning, the lights came on, and we all rejoiced.

The dogs and the cat settled back into their comfortable routines.

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over to celebrate Christmas Eve with us, and what a jolly time we had. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of the event.

I did, however, take pictures of Christmas morning, and our first ever Crustmas feast. The idea for Crustmas came from a delightful podcast called Strong Sense of Place: The Library of Lost Time. The hosts, Dave and Mel, explained how they celebrate the holiday with Crustmas, which revolves around their love of toast. (I, too, love toast, and as soon as I heard their idea, I was all in.) They buy a number of nice loaves of bread and provide a bunch of yummy toppings: Nutella, jam, cream cheese, butter. They also have a charcuterie board, which we did not do this year but might next year. However, the genius idea is to bring the toaster right to the table so that there is no running back and forth to the kitchen to make toast. At the table, out pops the toast, hot and fresh for eager eaters.

Here is the table on Christmas morning all set up for Crustmas.

Crustmas was a smashing success, and we will do this again next Christmas. However, as Dave and Mel reminded listeners, there is no need to confine Crustmas to Christmas. The glories of toast can be celebrated all through the year, and that’s exactly what we plan to do.

A very happy New Year to all my wonderful blogging friends. I will be posting once a week, on Wednesday, unless something special comes up that deserves my attention.

Until next Wednesday.

Celebrate, Fall

A Gathering of Scarecrows

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This year, the Winthrop Grange has sponsored a Scarecrow Contest for families, organizations nonprofits, businesses, and churches. The response has been wonderful. Scarecrows are lurking on Main Street. They are settled by light poles. One is even lounging by the library, and he is clearly asleep at the job. All have really jazzed up Winthrop’s downtown.

Here are just a few of the entries. They range from cute

to odd but arresting

to cozy

to elegant

to vibrant

to spooky

to just plain fun.

I can imagine all the scarecrows late at night as they slide off their poles and glide around town, gathering by the lake to have a scarecrow dance, careful to return to their posts before dawn so that nobody knows about their nightly escapades. But those with sharp eyes and a notion for the uncanny might notice clumps of straw here and there by the water, evidence that there was some kind of wild, spooky gathering.

 

Celebrate

Clif’s Birthday Treats

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This weekend we celebrated Clif’s 72 birthday. It included beer, both at home

and at Maine Beer Company in Freeport, Maine (also the home of L.L. Bean, which some of you might have heard of).

Our son-in-law Mike had recommended going to Maine Beer Company, and he raised a mug in honor of Clif’s birthday.

In addition, there was delectable pizza.

But Clif’s birthday was not all beer and pizza. Before going to Maine Beer Company, Clif, Mike, Shannon, and Dee hiked in Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, also in Freeport. Because of my creaky knees, I stayed home with the dogs and met everyone in Freeport after the hike.

The hike was about four miles, over hill and roots, and here was the view from the trail.

Clif loves Wolfe’s Neck, and that night, at home, after presents and cake, he pronounced the day, with its warm sunny weather, a perfect way to start his 72 trip around the sun.