Category Archives: News

News

It Is Over

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Last night, at around 7:45, the body of Robert Card, the mass shooting suspect, was found by the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, the town next to Lewiston, where the murders took place. According to the Portland Press Herald,  “Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck… confirmed Card died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

So it is over. But what a long three days it was as we waited. Each day seemed like a week. Winthrop, the town where I live, is close enough to Lewiston for the town police to have recommended a shelter-in-place. Town offices and functions were closed. We found out that a Winthrop High School student and his father had been killed at the bowling alley.

For three days we wondered, where was the suspect? Was he hiding in the woods? Had he left the state? Had he killed himself and was his body yet to be found?

The last question turned out to be the answer, and as soon as I heard the news last night, I felt a strange combination of relief and numbness.

Central Maine is small enough—Lewiston’s population is 37,000—so that most people had some connection to the mass shooting. As I mentioned in my last post, a woman I have known since she was a child narrowly missed being killed at the bowling alley. She was just about to go in when her boyfriend, who was inside, messaged her to stay outside, that there was an active shooter in the bowling alley. Fortunately, the boyfriend was neither killed nor injured.

And while I don’t know the Winthrop student who was killed, my children went to Winthrop High School, and I can only imagine how they would have felt if something like this had happened when they were students. We are grieving for the family.

Now it is time to heal and recover, and it won’t happen overnight. I am emotionally worn out and be will taking a week or so off from blogging to rest and reflect.

Thank you, thank you to the many blogging friends who sent words of comfort and sympathy in response to the last post where I wrote about the mass shooting. I was so touched by all the kind words. It really does make a difference.

 

News

A Mass Shooting in Maine

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It finally happened in Maine in the small city of Lewiston, about 25 miles away from our home. A man with a gun killed people in a bowling alley and in a sports bar, so far 18 in all with 13 others injured.

A heartbreaking and sickening event. A woman I’ve known since she was a little girl narrowly escaped being killed.

The suspect is still at large, and much of southern and central Maine—where I live—is shut down.

I hope that this man is soon captured and put where he can’t hurt anyone else.

I’ll write more later, but I wanted to let everyone know that we are all right.

Fall, News

We’ve Got the Power, but…

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On Thursday, the electricians came, and after spending most of the day here, they replaced the damaged boxes and got the electricity back to the way it was before the lightning strike. Hello, washing machine, dryer, vacuum cleaner, oven. So nice to have you all back. Goodbye, microwave. Thank you for the many long years of service. Your replacement will be arriving soon, and I certainly hope the new one is as sturdy and reliable as you were.

In theory, all should be well. In reality, we discovered our water heater was another causality of the lightning strike and surge. For the past week, it had been heating erratically, and yesterday it stopped working entirely. This means no hot water unless we heat it on the stovetop. The water heater will soon be checked to see whether it can be repaired or needs to be replaced. Yet again, thank goodness for our homeowners insurance.

Despite being a bang of a month, September has brought some pleasures.

Item: Most evenings, the weather has been mild enough for drinks on the patio. This time is soon coming to an end, and we are trying to squeeze as much time on the patio as we can.

Item: Because of the excessive rain, most of the nasturtium seeds I planted didn’t germinate, but the ones that did are oh so pretty.

Item: There were enough tomatoes for a final harvest, which means more tomato sandwiches for lunch this week. Although the tomato yield was way down from previous years, Juliette—the variety I planted—performed valiantly in the face of too much rain and not enough sun. But, Juliette’s time is over, and after harvesting the tomatoes, I pulled the plants.

Item: Our new whole house power surge protector has the Whovian name “Bad Wolf.” Protect us from future power surges, Bad Wolf!

Odds and Ends: We found a new place to play trivia on Monday nights, which is a great way to start the week. On Saturday, we will be meeting friends at Absolem’s, and on Sunday, we’ll be heading to Freeport to a brewery to celebrate Clif’s birthday.

Will we have running hot water by then? Who knows? But we’ll be following Bill & Ted’s excellent advice: Party on, dudes.

Note: This is an old trailer. The movie didn’t play this summer. But the trailer was a short and snappy way to feature  the excellent Bill & Ted.

 

 

 

 

Celebrate, News

After the Hurricane

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As it turned out, Hurricane Lee only glanced the Winthrop area, with gusty winds that weren’t strong enough to knock out power on a large scale. (There were some power outages, of course, and the midcoast area got hit harder, with extensive outages.)

We were all very grateful to keep the limited power we have. The old adage “some is better than none” certainly applies in this case. Yes, we would love to be able to use our oven, our washer, our dryer, and our dishwasher. We would love to turn on our computers with no worries about using too much power, But, we have lights and water and a working refrigerator and freezer. We can use our stove top and toaster.

On Thursday, the electrician will be coming to set things right. We are counting the days.

This week, I am hoping to get back to reading blogs and commenting. I certainly have missed keeping up with all of you.

My birthday was on Friday, the eve of the hurricane. To celebrate, we went to Absolem Cider Company, one of my favorite places that I’ve written about in previous posts.

We had delicious drinks and Thai food. There were cupcakes for dessert. The place was packed, and we had so much fun.

At Absolem, the sky at dusk, before the storm, was glorious.

I am now 66, and I love being an age with repeating numbers. My birthday came on the eve of a hurricane whose winds proved to be mild. A week before, there was a lightning strike.

It seems that 66 has come in with a bang.

Onward, ho!

 

News

A Lightning Strike and a Hurricane

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Update

Lightning Strikes

September has been quite the month, so eventful that I had to postpone my return to blogging. Originally I had planned to return to blogging the second week of September. But Mother Nature intervened last Friday with a lightning strike on our road’s power line. The strike caused a huge surge, which in turn fried part of our breaker box down cellar. We still have electricity but only if we use it sparingly—no  dishwasher, oven, dryer, washing machine, or vacuum cleaner. Period. But, we have lights, computers, water, our stove top, refrigerator, and freezer. To borrow from my Yankee husband, things could be worse.

An electrician came in, assessed the damage, and presented us with a $3,500 estimate, which includes a whole-house surge protector. Gulp! Fortunately, our home owners insurance will cover much of the cost.

So onward ho with that.

And presenting…Hurricane Lee

We had more or less settled down from the lightning incident only to be faced with Hurricane Lee blasting up the East Coast, with the prediction for Maine and the Canadian Maritimes to get the brunt of the storm. Visions of power outages and no water danced before my eyes. Being completely without electricity is no small thing in a household that now includes five adults, two dogs, and one cat. However, the latest forecast indicates that Lee is turning west, and while coastal Maine will get hit with high winds, it shouldn’t be too bad for inland Maine, where we live.

Still, we are prepared with bread, peanut butter, and plenty of water stashed away in buckets in our cellar.

But, it wasn’t all doom and gloom

Last Friday, the evening of the lightning strike, Clif, our daughter Shannon, our son-in-law Mike, and I went to Van der Brews—a local brewery—for trivia night hosted by the fabulous Nick Perry of Androscoggin Trivia Company.

And readers, we won! With only four on our team, we were definitely the underdogs, surprising everyone with our victory, including ourselves.

But even though we are small team, we are mighty, with a good spread of knowledge among the four of us.

Here is a picture of us as we celebrated our victory. In the middle of our table are the winnings—a Van der Brew glass, a car blanket, and a sticker.

Be back soon, I hope

I probably won’t return to blogging until the breaker box is fixed. With Dee and Shannon both working from home, we are being very careful about electricity usage.

So until then…

Addendum: On Thursday, September 14 at around 4:00, “Governor Mills today declared a State of Emergency and requested that President Biden issue a preemptive Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration for Maine.” (Taken from Maine.gov)

We shall see!

 

Animals - especially dogs, Gardening, News, summer

A Woeful Tale of Tomatoes and A Short Break

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In Maine, this has been one weird summer with so much rain that parts of the state have had flooding and road washouts. In Winthrop, the town where I live, we have escaped the worst of the flooding. However, the rain has taken its toll on my cucumbers and tomatoes.

The cucumbers have been a complete bust—stunted and producing only two fat, stumpy cukes that were inedible. The tomatoes have fared a little better, but they are not as lush and productive as they have been in previous years. Instead, they are tall and spindly with not much fruit.

I have had enough for some tomato sandwiches but not enough for making a sauce, the way I usually do in the summer. This has been especially disappointing for Dee, who loves my roasted tomato sauce.

Another casualty: the nasturtiums. I planted a whole row of seeds in the long bed by the patio in the backyard. While I do have a patch or two, most of the seeds rotted in the rains of June.

Still, I am a glass half-full kind of person, and some nasturtiums are better than none, especially when you see them close-up.

And to further cheer myself up, I took a picture of black-eyed Susans against the blue gazing ball.

Despite the rainy summer, Clif, Dee, and I have managed to slide in many lunches and suppers on the patio. Because of the rain, the mosquitoes are still a nuisance—most years they are gone by August—but we have citronella torches to help with the problem.

Right on schedule, the grasshoppers are buzzing, and the crickets are singing their sweet song of late summer. Always such a delight to hear nature’s musicians.

The delights of fall wait just around the corner—a time of apples and fires in the fire pit and warm days followed by crisp nights. But late summer is also a time to be cherished, the winding down of one season before the next season comes.

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Exciting News and a Short Break

Next Monday, our daughter Shannon and her husband Mike will be moving in with us while they look for  an apartment in the Boston area. (They already have one lead.) They have said farewell to their old jobs as managers of a senior citizen complex and are moving on to other jobs. With Shannon and Mike come two dogs and a cat. Our household will be very lively for the next few weeks.

Clif and I have done a lot to get the house ready for them, but there is still much to do. Starting today, I am going to take a break from blogging, and plan to be back sometime the beginning of September.

What a grand way to celebrate the end of summer!

See you in a couple of weeks.

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For the Dog Days of Late Summer

Listening: Who Let the Dogs Out

Party on!

 

 

 

News

Northern New England Blogging Get-Together

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My blogging vacation is over, and I have an exciting announcement to make.

Blogging friend Judy—from New England Garden and Thread—and I are planning a blogging get-together on Thursday, June 15th at beautiful Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire. We hope that blogging friends who live in the area will put that date on the calendar and join us.

We chose Bedrock Gardens because it is within driving distance for many blogging friends in Northern New England. (Bedrock Gardens is about two hours from where I live in central Maine.) Also, I have to admit that after reading about Bedrock Gardens on Judy’s blog, I have been very keen to see this garden.

Admission to the garden is $15, and Judy has arranged for us to have a free tour, which starts at 10:30. There is plenty of parking at Bedrock Gardens as well as restrooms. There is also plenty of room for us to bring chairs and have a bag lunch after the tour is done.

The get-together and tour will happen even if there is a light drizzle. If the weather forecast is for pouring rain, the tour will be canceled, but we will meet at a local restaurant for lunch and a chat.

If you are interested in coming, please let me know in the comments, and I will get back to you.

Hope to see those of you who are within driving distance on Thursday, June 15th at Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire.

News

A Blogging Break

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It’s that busy, busy time of year when the days just gallop by. (I am always grateful for the quiet of winter.) Between selling books—yay!—working on my next book, gatherings with friends, and yard work, my days are pretty full.

Time to take a little blogging break. I plan on returning on May 5.

Happy spring to those of you who live in the northern hemisphere. Happy autumn to those of you who live in the southern hemisphere. And happy Earth Day to all.

See you in May!

Celebrate, News, Snow-Gauge Clif

Peanut Butter & Jelly Day and Snow-Gauge Clif

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This week’s post is a day early in order to take note of a very important day—National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, which is celebrated in the United States every year on April 2.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are one of my favorites, and I eat them regularly, enjoying the contrast between the salty peanut butter and the sweet jelly.

Naturally, not everyone in the United States loves PB&J, as we call it. My eldest daughter doesn’t like them, and I often wonder why the heck she doesn’t. But in the U.S. so many people like PB&J that the powers that be decided this delicious sandwich needed its own special day. It’s nice to know that sometimes justice is served.

One of my blogging friends, Platypus Man of Now I’m 64, has indicated that PB&J is not universally loved in the U.K. and that  he has a horror of them. Well, each to his or her own.

In honor of PB&J Day, I am sharing with readers pictures of my delicious lunch this afternoon. For those who are celebrating this special day, bon appétit!

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Now on to a more serious matter—Snow-Gauge Clif.

In Maine, the last week of March was quite the week of melting snow. To show the contrast, I will post both last week’s Snow-Gauge Clif’s pictures alongside of this week’s.

Here is last week’s picture, taken on Monday, March 27:

Here is this week’s picture.

Here are pictures from the  walkway.

Last week,

and this week.

Now on to the backyard.

Last week.

This week.

Let’s just say that when the snow decides to melt in Maine, it goes.

By gum, it’s almost staring to feel like spring, and I even took the Christmas wreath down.

I think this alone merits a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Don’t you?

Music, News, Winter

After the Nor’easter

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A nasty storm blew across the country, and by the time it hit Maine, the storm had become a nor’easter. Fortunately, central Maine was spared much of the snow and wind damage. Not so for southern and coastal Maine, where the wind blew hard and knocked out power for tens of thousands of folks.

We only got about four inches of snow, and although the lights blacked out once, they came back on, and we didn’t lose our power. Because it is March, the snow was wet and heavy but not hard to clean as there wasn’t that much of it.

Here are some scenes from what we hope will be the last big storm of winter. However, with the way this year has gone, who the heck knows?

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Today I came upon Mama’s Broke on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, and I couldn’t resist sharing this with you. How good Lisa Maria Bates and Amy Lou Keeler are! They combine traditional music with innovative techniques, such as using chopsticks to play the fiddle. Enjoy.