Mercurial January

January 20, 2015 Laurie Graves 2 Comments

At any time of year, the weather in Maine is apt to be temperamental. The morning might start out bright and sunny, but by afternoon the sky is dark and either rain or snow comes, depending on the season. In the summer, this variability can make biking a little tricksy. The sky is blue, and out you go on your bike, but midway through the ride the sky darkens, thunder rumbles in the background, and you pedal like crazy to get home before the storm comes your way. Sometimes you make it, and sometimes you don’t.

However, it seems to me that when it comes to temperamental months, January must be in the running for top honors. Over the weekend, Clif and I went for a walk on Sunday and Monday, and the two days couldn’t have been more different.

On Sunday, the sky was gray, and a storm was brewing—unfortunately it brought rain, which is most unwelcome in Maine in January. Accordingly, the woods were dim, the Lower Narrows was a dull white, and it seemed as though Clif and I were walking in a black and white world. Nevertheless, snowmobiles buzzed across the Narrows, and people were fishing by their shacks.

The gray Narrows — A white Narrows under a gray sky

Not long after we got home from our walk, the rain came, and the roads became slick, so slick that I skidded the car into a snow bank at the end of our driveway after going to get the Sunday paper at Rite Aid. No harm was done, and I maneuvered the car into the driveway, where the car stayed until Tuesday, when Clif went to work.

By Monday, the sky had cleared, and the woods were bright with dappled sunlight. On the Narrows, there was a layer of water on the ice, and the fishing shacks were gone. Hauled away, we hope, when it became clear that there would be a lashing rain all day on Sunday. No snowmobiles raced across the the Narrows, and Clif and I could hear the groaning and cracking of the ice.

No more black and white — No more grey and black and white

Gone was the gray and the black and white palette. Now there was a blue tinge to the snow.

Two days in January, one right after another. The weather and the light make every walk visually unique, which is why I can go on the same path day after day and see something different, something of interest.

Nature, in all its variety, never fails to absorb me.

People

Farmer Kev at Longfellow’s Greenhouses

January 19, 2015 Laurie Graves 4 Comments

On Saturday, Longfellow’s Greenhouses in Manchester hosted an Eat Local Winter Farmer’s Market. Our own Farmer Kev was there, and Clif and I stopped by just a half hour before closing time. Even so, there was quite a crowd.

“How did you do?” I asked Farmer Kev.

“Fantastic,” came the reply. “We sold a lot.”

This time of year, Farmer Kev has mostly root crops, and how delicious they are. (This week, I’ll be making a squash soup with his squash, and I’ll post the recipe when I do.)

Anne Trenholm, another young farmer from Winthrop, was at the farmer’s market with her dairy products, and she was sold out of most everything, include an herbed cheese that is oh so good.

There were also vendors with baked goods, chocolate, lobster rolls, and olive oils, and they all seemed to be doing a brisk business. Food is quite the draw, especially on a cold January day when you get to stroll through the warm greenhouse, and the scent of flowers mingles with the smell of food.

Longfellow’s will be hosting another Farmer’s Market on January 31, and there will be even more vendors. Farmer Kev will be there, and weather permitting, so will we.

Food for Thought, Nature

Making, Selling, and Buying Stuff

January 16, 2015 Laurie Graves

This morning when I got up, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I decided not to wait until the afternoon to take my walk in the woods. Therefore, I ate breakfast, read a few things online, and headed outside midmorning. But by then it was nearly too late. The sky had become cloudy, and the woods were almost too dark for pictures.

An important lesson for this beginning photographer: Go when the light is good. You never know when it will change. Luckily, there were glimmers of sunshine, and I was able to get a couple of nice shots, which I have included in this post.

However, a walk in the woods is never wasted. The cool, quiet of the winter woods always absorbs me while at the same time allowing me to think about things. What I thought about today was a post I read yesterday on Ben Hewett’s blog, where he wrote about the contradictions of not wanting to be part of a consumer society while at the same time wanting to make and sell things.

It’s a conundrum, that’s for sure, and like Ben I struggle with this contradiction. On the one hand, those of us who live in rich countries consume and shop too much. We are depleting natural resources at an alarming rate, and the obvious answer is to stop the excessive shopping.

On the other hand, Ben’s wife makes lovely birch-bark ornaments, and his sons make nifty wooden spoons. Ben writes books and depends upon the sales for his livelihood. In the interest of not shopping too much, should we not buy their ornaments, spoons, and books?

Closer to home…I have two friends that make jewelry, and I have supported them by buying their earrings. One pair I gave to a friend for her birthday; the other I kept for myself, even though I have a chest full of earrings. To support my friends was good, but did I need another pair of earrings? I certainly did not.

Someday, I hope to have my own books published, which will use Earth’s resources. Do I want people to buy them? You bet I do. Clif and I are also planning to make clocks and calendars from photos we take, and, yes, we would like to sell those as well.

Clif and I discussed this last night, but we didn’t come up with any concrete guidelines. We live in a money economy, and we all must find ways to support ourselves. The three chief ways of doing this are growing and selling things; making and selling things; and providing services that people are willing to pay for. The first two involve Earth’s resources, and the last one depends on human resources.

I suppose the most Earth-friendly approach would be to focus on providing services, but to borrow from Jane in Pride and Prejudice, we are not all alike. Many of us like to create things, and our talents don’t necessarily mesh with providing services. Besides, if we all suddenly stampeded in the direction of providing services, then there would be a glut, and no one would prosper.

Can shopping be sustainable? Can we create and buy without depleting resources? There are a lot of us on this planet, and we might have gone beyond the point where we can do this.

Nevertheless, I wish for Ben and his family to prosper through their endeavors. Ditto for my friends who make jewelry. And, of course, for Clif and me and our projects.

And maybe learn to create with as many recycled materials as we can?

Animals - especially dogs, Nature

Liam is Ten

January 15, 2015 Laurie Graves 6 Comments

Today, our dog, Liam, is ten years old. Right now he is snoozing by my desk, but soon we will be going for a nice long walk in the woods. And luck is with us today. The weather has lost its bite—the frost is even mostly gone from the windows—and it won’t be painful to bundle up and go outside.

I remember bringing Liam home ten years ago, when he hid under the table because he was so scared; when his little head moved back and forth as he watched the pendulum on the kitchen clock; when he raced madly around the house after I gave him his first bath. And after he lost his fear, what a Tasmanian devil Liam was. Lord, just thinking about his seemingly boundless energy makes me tired. Somehow, though, I kept up with him.

At ten, Liam is no longer a Tasmanian devil, but he is still an energetic dog who would like to be out from dawn until dusk. Winter is hard on him, and December, January, February, and March are restless months, even though he gets a nice long walk on all but the coldest days.

But spring is coming, and I do believe it’s his favorite time of year. The winter confinement is over, and Liam can do what he loves best—supervise as I do spring chores. He’d love it, I know, if we had forty acres and he could be out all day with someone working the land.

Instead, Liam has to make do with his fenced-in half acre and a person who likes to putter. Still—and I know it’s dangerous to judge—he seems like a happy dog.

Anyway, happy, happy birthday to Liam. May he leap and run and bark for many more years.

Later—We did indeed get out for a nice long walk in the woods. I took my camera with me, as I always do. Both Liam and the woods are so photogenic.

Winter leaves and a noble profile

Little tracks in the woods. I can't resist taking a picture of them. — Little tracks in the snow. I can’t resist taking pictures of them.

Nature

Into the Woods after a Little Storm

January 14, 2015 Laurie Graves 3 Comments

Yesterday was an especially pretty day to walk in the woods. On Monday, we had a small snowstorm—about four inches—just enough for the hard-packed snow to have a fluffy, glittering cover. As I approached the Narrows, I saw a deep blue that I mistakenly thought was open water. Silly me. The past two weeks have been so cold that the Narrows is iced over. Instead, I was seeing blue shadows on the snow. So lovely.

I spied more little tracks left by some woodland creature.

After an hour of looking and walking and taking pictures, I headed home. Sometimes the dog was ahead of me, sometimes he was behind, and periodically he would stop to clean the clumped snow from his paws.

When, I got home, I peeled off layer after layer of clothes, made some Earl Gray tea, and settled at my desk to look at the pictures I had taken.

Somehow, tea tastes especially good after a cold walk.

Food for Thought

Learning about General Tso

January 13, 2015 Laurie Graves 4 Comments

For over ten years, Clif and I have been on a committee that organizes a winter film series held at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, Maine. At first the film series was called MIFF in the Morning, but it is now called Cinema Explorations. And explore cinema we do, choosing foreign films and documentaries that would not normally be showing at a cinema near you. The film series starts in January and runs every other weekend until March. (For specific information about the movies and the times, here is the link to Maine Film Center.)

The first film in the series, the documentary The Search for General Tso, was shown last weekend, and Clif and I went on Saturday, on opening day. How gratifying it was to see the lobby full of people and to hear the happy hubbub of people as they ate bagels, courtesy of Bagel Mainea. It was a good thing The Search for General Tso was shown in the largest cinema because the house was three quarters full, and people who came late had a hard time finding a good seat.

As the title suggests, The Search for General Tso is about one of the most popular Chinese dishes in America. That is, General Tso’s chicken. The filmmakers ask the question, who was General Tso, why do we Americans love his chicken so much, and where did this dish come from? During the course of the film, we find out that General Tso was indeed a real person in nineteenth-century China, and he might have loved to eat chicken. The film also explores the history of Chinese immigrants in American, the extreme prejudice they faced, and how opening restaurants and laundries were two of the limited options available to them to earn their livelihood.

I’m not going to spoil the mystery of The Search for General Tso. I encourage readers to watch this snappy doc for themselves. It is well filmed, the pacing is great, and the animation used to recreate scenes is really nice and not at all cheesy, the way non-animated re-enactments often are. On the General’s website, there is a list of cinemas showing this movie, and it is also available through VOD.

After the film, there was a brief skype discussion with the engaging Jennifer 8 Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Unfortunately, she was getting ready to board a plane when we skyped, and we didn’t hear half as much from her as we would have liked. Still, it was good to hear her comments about the film, however brief those comments might have been.

What to eat after the film? Why, Chinese food, of course. Clif and I, along with our friends Joel and Alice, the unofficial chairs of Cinema Explorations, went to Jin Yuan on Temple Street in Waterville. Clif, Joel, and I ordered General Tso’s chicken. (Alice broke rank and ordered and a curried dish.) The three of us thought the chicken was very tasty. A good end to a good film.

Nature

Snowy Day, Busy Day

January 12, 2015 Laurie Graves 4 Comments

Today has been a snowy, busy day filled with lots of errands, library duties, and various other things to get in the way of writing a post for the blog. Therefore, I thought I’d share a couple of pictures I took in the woods yesterday. One picture is of ice crystals in a stream that was rushing from the woods to the Narrows just one short month ago. What a difference a cold snap can make! The other picture, which looks like brushing in the snow, are tracks of a little woodland creature—a mouse, I’m guessing.

Winter, a cold time but an interesting time. Lots to see in the quiet, white world.

News

Library Update: January 9, 2015

January 9, 2015 Laurie Graves 2 Comments

Yesterday’s post certainly qualified as a bummer post, a gloomy look at potential political decisions and the effects they would have on towns and individuals. Therefore, I thought I would balance today’s post with something more uplifting—a library update. It also seemed like a good way to end the week.

The library expansion is coming along beautifully, and the shell clearly shows just how much the library will be gaining in space. The addition fits right in with the older historic building, and even the siding is a wonderful match. For this we have Phil Locashio to thank, an architect par excellence.

When this is done, the library will truly be a gem in the center of town. Lucky Winthrop!

Food for Thought

Looking Ahead with Dread

January 8, 2015 Laurie Graves

I wish I could say that I am greeting all aspects of the new year with eager anticipation, but I am not. The political situation, both in Maine and nationally, makes it impossible for me to feel anything but dread.

On the home front, Governor LePage has baldly stated that he intends to do what he can to abolish Maine’s income tax. On the face of it, this idea sounds great. Who doesn’t want to pay less in taxes? But if LePage even has moderate success with gutting the tax system, this means that towns will get less in revenue sharing, or “welfare for towns” as our governor bluntly puts it.

Well, Lepage’s concept of welfare for towns is a major source of income for many communities, including the one I live in. The money goes for schools; the library; garbage disposal—a huge expense; road maintenance; and other essential services. The money is not used frivolously. If revenue sharing is severely reduced, then two things can happen—property taxes will go up or services will be cut. In all likelihood, it will be a combination of the two. (According to the Portland Press Herald, “Property taxes represented 4.9 percent of personal income in 2014, compared to 2.6 percent for income taxes.”)

Winthrop is a pretty bare-bones town. There aren’t a lot of extras here. Over the past few years, as revenue sharing has declined, cuts have been made, but to have a functioning, healthy town, there are limits to what can be eliminated. I can’t help but worry what will happen to Winthrop if revenue sharing is drastically cut yet again.

Nationally, the Supreme Court will be deciding whether it is legal for individuals to receive federal health-care subsidies if their states do not have a state-run exchange. As CNN put it in a recent article, “The legal argument involves a provision in the health care law that says people who obtained coverage through state-run exchanges can get federal subsidies such as tax credits. But the law does not specifically say that those signing up on the separate federal exchange also are eligible.” It seems to Clif and me that the language was intended to make it clear that while the subsides are always available from the federal exchange, this federal benefit is still available if a person purchased his or her coverage from a state exchange. But no one can guess what the Supreme Court will decide.

The Supreme Court’s decision will directly affect Clif and me. He is planning on retiring soon, and we will need affordable health care. Clif could wait until he is sixty-five to retire, when he will qualify for Medicare. This is only a year and a half, and it wouldn’t be a big deal for him. However, I am only fifty-seven, and I won’t qualify for Medicare for another eight years. Because I am a homemaker, my insurance coverage comes from Clif’s policy at work.

Does Maine have a state-run exchange? Of course it doesn’t. It smacks of “welfare,” and LePage turned it down. If the Supreme Court rules against the subsidies, this means that health care will no longer be affordable for millions of people who live on a modest budget. People like me and Clif. When Clif was consulting, we bought our own health insurance, and we know first hand how unaffordable health care can be. Ten years ago, we paid almost $600 a month and that included a very high deductible. I can only imagine what it would be now, especially since I’ve had breast cancer.

Clif cannot work until he is seventy-two. Somehow we will scrape by if the Supreme Court rules against the subsidies. We will buy insurance for me. But if this is the case, then there sure won’t be anything golden about Clif’s retirement, and our already basic lives will be even more basic. No movies, no eating out, no anything extra.

The Obamacare scoffers might approve. Why should Clif and I have affordable health care that is subsidized by the government? First, I would like to remind the scoffers that in this country, all health care is subsidized by someone—businesses, private charity, hospitals, insurance companies, and, yes, the government. Good health care is neither free nor cheap, and unless we want to be a country that only provides health care to the affluent, then we have to wise up and accept the fact that the money must come from somewhere. And the larger the pool, the easier the burden.

I also want the scoffers to consider the practical effects of denying affordable health care to millions of people. Think of how this will trickle down to the rest of the economy, to the local businesses who depend on seniors and other folks who have a little extra to spend on nonessential items.

Town budgets slashed. Essential services cut. Affordable health care threatened. What a rosy future! Is it any wonder I feel a sense of dread?

Animals - especially dogs, Nature

January 7, 2015: A Walk in the Woods

January 7, 2015 Laurie Graves

Today, the temperature made it all the way to twenty degrees, and it was time for a walk in the woods. Somehow, I especially enjoy taking pictures of small things, and I came across this lichen,

this pine cone that looks a little like a sea creature,

and deer tracks.

Lately, there have been strong, cold winds, and the woods was littered with twigs, branches, and other things that had fallen from the trees. Somehow, though, tree litter doesn’t look as bad as human litter.

We made our way to the water’s edge, where I had to stop Liam from going down the bank. It’s only been very cold for a short time, and I didn’t want my dog buddy taking an expected dip in the Upper Narrows.

After looking at the water for a while, we went back up the hill that was stamped with snow shoe tracks, dog prints, deer prints, and, of course, my own boot prints. By the time we got home, my face was cold, and I was ready for a cup of tea, but it certainly felt good to be outside in the winter woods.

Notes From the Hinterland