One of our friends in town happens to be the president of the University of Maine at Machias. We ran into her on Saturday when she said, “I’ve discovered your blog.” I guess my reference here and there to “Downeast Maine” or even “University of Maine at Machias” puts us on the Google search results.
While […]
I think one can’t help calculate and quickly add up all the items and gift certificates contained in a basket of goodies that one wins at an auction and feel smug about “getting a deal.” This time, it was the auction that followed the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting last Friday. We […]
So there I was this morning, writing my article on the local state legislator. Yesterday, when I spent time with him, he asked, “Do you want to talk to the governor?” “No,” I said. “I’m okay.”
Well, the governor wanted to talk to me. Phone rings.
“Hello, this is Katherine.”
“Hello, Katherine, this is John Baldacci.”
Silence.
I mean, […]
Just something to pacify my handful of readers (I can count them on four fingers) until the weekend. Since returning from the writers’ conference Sunday at 11pm, it has been a full, busy and productive week of work. The conference was worthwhile and has brought on (in me) plenty of professional reflection.
Take yesterday, in fact. […]
Frank earned nearly all rave reviews for his two Saturday afternoons of Civil War presentations. Out of 20 signed up for the class, 16 actually showed the first week, and 14 the second week. The two who didn’t return were one woman who lives an hour away, and another woman who had done Civil War […]
I guess that’s what happens when you’re close to turning 71 — an invitation to the governor’s mansion in Augusta, to meet Maine’s new poet laureate, gets tossed in the trash. At least, that’s what our uncle has done. He doesn’t care that he received a special invitation; he thinks it’s because he’s on the […]
I have a road trip coming up (which to Frank, means that he has to do the papers alone on Saturday) to a conference put on by the Hartford Courant. Hundreds of reporters from throughout New England go, and there are dozens of speakers and topics. Looking forward to this one.
We await our three guests for Easter dinner - it’s 1pm and Unc, Berta and Gladys have called to say they are on the way. We are having glazed spiral-cut ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus and salad. We are using the very old butter dish that we salvaged from the attic — maybe it belonged to […]
Unc doesn’t officially turn 71 until next Sunday, but there was sure a great birthday party for him on Friday evening at the Leightons’ fire-pit in Cherryfield. The Leightons are Berta and Unc’s friends from church, and Billy Leighton is the one who catered our wedding reception. So we see them socially here and there […]
I’m reminded of the start of one of Frank’s favorite Saturday morning NPR radio shows, Michael Feldman’s “Whad’ya Know?” The audience’s first-line response is yelling back, “NOT MUCH!” (And then the band begins to play). The neat thing is, it’s a show they do live in Madison.
Anyway, my point is — today I have “Not […]
Well, Frank knows how to charm a group of 14 old ladies (though I shouldn’t use that phrase, because most are about Mom’s age) with his first Civil War presentation to the Sunrise Senior College. Three of them are his paper-route customers. There were two other men, one Charlie Cameron, a longtime friend (and Unc’s […]
Frank’s in demand. On Friday afternoon he spent an hour in East Machias in Revolutionary War dress (breeches, a waist coat (vest) and high socks), talking to a gathering of about 15 home-schooled very eager students. They can’t wait for Margaretta Days, because Frank is going to lend them his “wall tent” (sleeping about 10) […]
Frank has regained an official elected position within the Washington County Bar Association. One of the lawyers we like most is moving his family to England to help his elderly mother there. So the bar gathered last night for a meeting and a going-away dinner for him. He was elected the president last October, at […]
When it was lighter each morning (before daylight savings time), I especially enjoyed the growing number of bird songs after hearing the silence of winter and darkness. About a month ago we started hearing crows down on Water Street (next to the Machias River). Then came a variety of birds further into the route. But […]
Frank’s pattern for the double-knit mittens is making the rounds. He can’t remember who he shared it with more than a year ago among the Washington County Children’s Program board, but he knows that’s a big group of knitters.
Last week he got a call from one of the women on our newspaper route, whom we […]
Darn that daylight savings time. Just when we were really enjoying the early morning light a bit after 4:30am, we are now dark for most of our route, and even at 5:40am, still murky-dark. We have moderate light for the final 15 minutes, but we look forward to the mornings when we are delivering mostly […]
Berta’s mother, Gladys Hicks, turns 85 today. Or, this week, whatever. It’s today after church when they are celebrating her 85th birthday. We are bringing a salad to the luncheon.
The invitation indicates “no gifts,” but how could we resist? At Christmas we gave her a huge batch of Fat Quarters of old-fashioned prints and patterns […]
I have found a new search engine, www.accoona.com, that I would put side-by-side with Google. Read this.
I was always a Google fan and user from the first time I heard about it — which was from Louise and Brian over a Christmas dinner at Meg and John’s flat in London back in 1998. We were […]
I do get to write about charming, old-fashioned things now and again. The next town over from Machias is Whitneyville, population 254. It’s full of elderly people and their houses on Main Street that need paint. But it’s also got the treasured Whitneyville Library.
We went to the Whitneyville supper last night — us and about […]
Frank and I gave now-7-year-old John Stewart a belated birthday present last week. We weren’t even present when he received it — we left it behind for Bobby to give and explain to John.
It was an 1899 silver dollar — with an O showing it was minted in New Orleans. The idea came from Bobby […]