Somehow, September, busy as it was, seems like a distant memory—warm and lovely with lots of time spent biking and on the patio and celebrating birthdays. Then came October, and when we flipped the calendar, it felt like we actually flipped the season, going from summer to fall. Suddenly, the days became cool, and the nights grew downright cold.  Suddenly, it became too dark to go on bike rides when my husband, Clif, came home from work. Could it really only be a week or so ago, in warm September, when we optimistically believed that we might be able to go on evening bike rides until the middle of October? Whatever were we thinking? We’re Mainers, for heaven’s sake. We know what October is like. We should have known better.

Despite the busy hubbub of September, I gave away 4 loaves of bread, bringing my total of the year to 46 1/2  loaves. My year-long goal of giving away at least one loaf of bread a week for a total of 52 loaves is getting ever closer. The way things are going, I should reach my goal in November. However, I still plan on giving away one loaf a week through December, whatever the actual total might be. That was my plan, and I’m sticking to it.

I would like to be able to say that giving away all this bread has made me more generous in all aspects of my life. But, alas, I still struggle with selfish tendencies. Last week when I visited the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, I brought enough money for gelato afterward but not enough to put into the donation box at the museum. I have been brooding about this, off and on, ever since. Why didn’t I bring a little extra money so that I would have enough for both? The truth is, I didn’t think of it, even though I knew about the donation box. My mind was on gelato, and it was on art. It was not on the donation box.

Well, the box will be there the next time Clif and I visit, and we’ll put a couple of dollars into it.

In the meantime, I’ll be making bread and giving it away.

Recently, my husband, Clif, celebrated his 60th birthday, and as we are both very keen on biking, we thought that over the course of the week, we would ride 60 miles in honor of his 60 years. Unfortunately, our schedules and the weather did not allow us to reach our goal. No matter! We went 48 miles and had a great low-carbon time.

Last night, Clif came home from work a bit early so that we could go on a bike ride. Even though we left our home by 6:00 P.M., it was dark on the last leg of our ten-mile trip along Memorial Drive, which goes by Maranacook Lake. We weren’t really that concerned. There are street lights as you get closer to town, and we have reflectors, lights, and flashers on our bikes. This means we can see and be seen, and there is something a little thrilling about riding in the night.

On the way back, we stopped at the public beach to look across the dark water at the lights and the night sky.

Then, it was on to Mia Lina’s, a better than average pizza place, for a Friday-night treat of Lina bread and a salad.

After supper we rode home, across busy Route 202, where there was night construction, and the kind road workers stopped traffic for us; down pretty Highland Avenue, with its street lights and big leafy trees; and finally onto Narrows Pond Road, where there are no street lights at all. Last night, it was so dark—no moon, no stars—that it looked as though we were about to enter a great, black tunnel on Narrows Pond Road. Down we went on our trusty bikes, our little lights beaming a safe course between the road and the ditch until we turned into our own driveway.

A good evening.

Well, Clif’s birthday is over and with it our little “staycation,” where Clif took off several days so we could go on bike rides and spend time on the patio, one of our favorite places. We also drove (in the car) to Brunswick to visit our friend Sybil. The conversation, as always, was great, and we went to see the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Afterward, we had gelato at Gelato Fiasco. What a day!

Clif and I had such a good time on our staycation—the weather cooperated beautifully—that we plan on doing it again next year. We spent very little money, and with all the biking we did, our carbon footprint was pretty small. Best of all, even though we stayed home, we really did vary our routine by putting most of our chores and projects on hold so that we could bike, relax, and visit with a friend. As a result, even though Clif and I are sorry that our staycation is over, we feel refreshed and ready to return to our usual schedule with its many activities. As my Franco-American mother might have said about our staycation: It changes the mind.

During our staycation, we also had a supreme foodie experience: We made ice cream. For his birthday, Clif received an ice cream maker. (Thanks so much, Bob and Kate!) A little booklet, complete with recipes, came with the maker, and a quick look at the chocolate ice cream recipe confirmed that I had most of the ingredients in my kitchen—milk, sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder. I would also need heavy cream, which I didn’t have, but a trip to the grocery took care of that.

While there is quite a bit of preplanning involved in making ice cream—the machine’s barrel must be frozen, and the milk-cream mixture must be chilled for several hours—the hands-on time is minimal. Truly, the results are so exquisite that planning ahead is a small price to pay for what Clif called “The best ice cream I’ve ever had.” And once the mixture is chilled, it only takes about 20 minutes for the ice cream maker to whip it into a frozen delight.

It is my guess that from now on, we will seldom buy premade ice cream. I’m going to experiment with substituting milk for the cream, which will cut down on the calories and the fat. I will be using organic milk and other wholesome ingredients, and my cost will be a fraction of what it would be to buy a similar product at the store.

Below are pictures of the birth of ice cream. Oh, the joy.