Blueberry Season

 

On yesterday's doggy walk I noticed that the blueberries are ripe.  Most of the berries are still a little on the sour side, but I found one bush that holds about a quart of ripe berries.  This is the same bush that always seems to have the first ripe blueberries.  In 2016 I collected ripe berries from the same bush a full month earlier on June 29th (Click here, and here for past 'first blueberry posts), but in general the first blueberry is generally ready around mid July.  So it seems that this year things are a little later than usual! 

 Patrick

Peak Green

 

More Maine vacation posts to come but in the meanwhile ... ... we are back in Kodiak and it is at the 'peak green' point of summer.  Peak green on Kodiak only lasts about a month or so.  In June the hills are still somewhat brown and the everything is not quite emerald green yet.  Then by early August the pushki plants finish flowering and go to seed and turn yellow, and the mountains take on darker green and yellow color.  And of course the fireweed starts to bloom.  But in July everything is super green!

The kids and I have been going on afternoon hikes with the dogs.  Saturday we climbed up the backside of Pyramid, Sunday we went up Old Womens and yesterday we explored the Boyscout Lake area and checked out an old WWII bunker.  Cousin Leo has also been joining us on the hikes.  It the time of the year to be on the mountain top soaking in all the Green!

Patrick

Scary Bunker!

Leo and Bode in a patch of flowering Kamchatka Rhodoendron

Fleabane (an aster)

Travels on the Main'e'land

 

Lobster rolls in Belfast Maine

During our stay at Rockport we did some exploring.  On the first day we drove up route 1 to Belfast.  While en route, I told the kids about how back in the day I used to ride my bike along route 1 to take flying lessons at the Belfast airport.  Our family does have some Belfast connections.  My dad was editor of the Belfast Republican Journal - a weekly newspaper and as a kid I used to help with the photography.

I had not visited Belfast in something like 35 years and it felt strange walking around as a tourist with a camera.  When I last walked the streets I had been a local photographer working for the paper!  The town is far more gentrified than it was in the 1980s - and the waterfront is now a tourist attraction.  The kids and I had a lobster roll on the waterfront.

Our big drive was to Portland to pick up Stuey's friend Marcel at the airport.  The plane did not arrive until evening so we took our time driving down the coast.  We took the detour to Damariscotta, and I saw the old bookstore on Maine street where I remember visiting with my dad when he re stocked his book on the shelves.  At Brunswick we tried to visit the Polar Museum at Bowdoin College, but it was closed.  So we walked around campus and along 'Maine' street to find a place to eat.  Almost all the restaurants were closed down and we ended up eating at a decent Japanese restaurant.

Then it was Portland and the Maine Mall to kill some more time.  We finally picked up Marcel and hit the highway back to Rockport.  Nora and I counted Teslas on the highway while Stuey and Marcel played a video game in the backseat.  Whatever happened to looking for a 'cow, a horse, and a silo' while driving?  I guess the modern equivalent is looking for Teslas.  

Patrick

Downtown Belfast and the old Republican Journal building (where I worked as a photographer)

Apple tree - Belfast Maine

Stuey (briefly) helps Davis clean bucket lids at Scrap Dog recycling center

Picking up Marcel at the Portland International Jetport

Exploring downtown Camden Maine

Bowdoin College - Brunswick Maine

The Bowdoin Arctic Museum (which was closed)

Bowdoin College Quad

Bowdoin Polar Bear

On Ferry to North Haven, Maine with Marcel

The Lake

 

While at granny Cocoa's house in Rockport we spent a lot of time at Lake Megunticook.  My sister Polly has a place on the lake and we would borrow her paddle boards and swim/paddle from her dock.  It's a big lake, but it's not a big body of water.  Rather there are lots of islands and inlets and it is all folded and bent.  So while it is many miles long on the water it is actually only a couple miles long as the crow flies.  A perfect lake for exploring.  Polly and John took  us on a motorboat tour of the lake, and the convoluted shoreline is complicated enough that one could easily get lost!

But most of the time we just messed about on the paddle boards.  Trying to balance on one leg, tip each other over etc.  Lots of splashing and swimming.  And best of all the lake water was warm.

Patrick

Rockport

 

Two weeks ago today we arrived in Maine.  Looking through these pictures makes it feel like 'long ago in a far off land'.  So much happened while on vacation that the beginning now seems steeped in time.  Like a different vacation. 

We spent the first few days of the vacation at my mom's house in Rockport.  Nora loved looking at all the Rockport houses, and our first day we went on a walk out Beauchamp Point pretty much to just look at all the houses.  I was most impressed by all the landscaping and immaculate gardens.  Who does all that mowing, trimming and weeding?  And all the flowers - amazing!

Patrick