MaryAlice Musings and More

As I start this blog while sitting on my porch, the rain has just started to fall.  I can hear the rain drops on the metal roof of the garage.  The thunder is rolling and there is a breeze that is bringing some cooler air onto the porch. It has been a day of much activity on the home front,  the Misfits Market box arrived with a whole lot of goodies,  I had my morning Tai Chi class, and then I spaced out my afternoon class.  I did go and get water from the spring.  Stopped by Mt. Chase Lodge and left a little birthday present for Lindsay.  Bought some fiddleheads from our little farm stand on Mt. Chase Road.  Dropped off some of my applesauce for the new teacher's baskets that are being put together.  Whew.... I seemed to have gotten a whole lot of phone calls today.  Lots of activity.  Emails, texts, phone calls.  But I did manage a little nap.  Lots to process,  Larry Kramer's death -- The Normal Heart, Gay ...

May 24th 2017 First Drive to Patten Summer days are here.  Not sure for how long, but last week was so very summer like, we cooled down over the weekend, and we are back in the 80's again.  Makes me very happy.   I stopped in at the Greenhouse to inquire about my kitchen garden boxes and other containers that they are putting together.   They have been so busy, and they said that the delay was just fine because there would be frost on June 5th,  the Strawberry Full Moon.    The weather swings are very real here in Northern Maine.  We had 13" of snow the second week in May, and it is supposed to be over 90 degrees tomorrow. The porch is such a refuge.  I still can't hardly believe that I have this lovely lovely porch.   Such sweet breezes, morning sun and afternoon shade.   The lawn got mowed,  I did a little more cleaning of the gas grill, and tomorrow Heidi comes to rake leaves and get them bagged up....

No parade in Patten today to honor the war dead.  No ceremony at the cemetery,  I did hear some sirens, and maybe there was some kind of motorcade, it did not come down my street and I heard nothing about any way that the town was marking the day.   I stayed near to home today,  did not leave my yard.  An antidote to yesterday when I made a trip to Millinocket that included three stops.  All safe.  All socially distanced.  All had masks.   Today I woke up with a pull and push of feelings.  It was so good to see the eyes, the expressions, feel the connections with a few of my friends.  It was very good to good a chiropractic treatment.  And it is so clear that the new normal is not normal.   I don't want to put anyone at harm,  I don't want to be at harm's way.  Each day, each time I leave my home it is weighing and calculating risk.  Earlier today, I never wanted to leave my porch again, by late aft...

UU Coffee Time started my day today.   I sat myself up on the front porch for the zoom hour.  Big news was that this morning there was a fire in Houlton on the block of our church.  All is well with the church,  no people were injured, but the house was destroyed.  All other houses and buildings on the block were saved.  Such sorrow.   After the UU check in, I got in the car for Millinocket.   Today, finally I was off to see the chiropractor.  Before my appointment I got a little tour of the new Moose Print Gallery on Penobscot Avenue.  Wow,  it is so very beautiful.  The walls are filled with such amazing photography, and all around the gallery are other wonderful pieces of art and craft the show some of the best that Maine offers.   I was transported.  Someday they will open and it will be quite the talk of the town.   For now you can go to their website:  Moose Print Gallery  to check out...

Bog time and Black Flies (Spring 2019)  It was a cooler day today.  Red Flag warnings, as the wind was still gusting.  The sun was bright and the sky was so very clear.   My lupine are coming up, and I am so so very happy!  I love the lupine and hope that they just take over, I don't care!  It will be just fine. Other parts of the flower beds look pretty sad, not sure yet what is going to come up or if things just died over the winter.  Tonight is a frost warning.  Eighty-five yesterday frost warning tonight!   Today was a day without anything scheduled.  It felt great.  I sat at the new drop down desk at the kitchen window, wrote in my journal and drank my tea. I had toast with Houlton Farms butter and french breakfast radishes.  Oh I love them and was so happy when they arrived in my misfits box this week.  I listened to AM Joy, and just kind of putzed around the house.   I wrote some cards, and hea...

 It was  a very full day, started morning with a load of wash.  The wash brought me out to the clothesline where  my clothes were me5 with sun and a fine breeze. Then it was interviews by zoom, on the front porch.  In between interviews I talked with the Apple folks, the upshot is that my computer is on  the way back to me.  I think the computer will arrive on Tuesday!  Oh:joy! After interviews I got in the car to get some things from my favorite Amish stand, they were all closed today, something happened not a stand was open and no adults in site. I did more chores, rested for a bit.  Then made a very Maine in Spring supper - Brook trout, potatoes and fiddleheads.  What a treat, the trout was the last I had in the freezer, I bought it at MicMac Market,and am waiting for the day when I can buy more!    I am now happy, well fed and glad that there are no zoom calls tomorrow.  Tomorrow we take off the plexiglass a...

I am still basking in the sunbeams and warmth that has finally found its way to Northern Maine.  I am continuing my efforts to have all things winter put away and make run for the yet to come summer things. My bedroom floor is filled with bins where I am sorting and packing up my most warmest of winter things.  A few things have gone out to the box that will go to the second hand store in Sherman. I am not quite done yet, but I am getting closer and closer. My laptop made really good time and I got an email this morning saying that Apple has received my computer and will start the work.  They will keep me posted.  One leg of this sorry story is done,  now I wait and hope that they will be able to put my computer back in working order.  I am hopeful.  That is better than being in despair. There is really too much to be in despair about, so I am opting for hope.  Sometimes it is hard to do but I am doing my best. My flower beds are begin...

It is amazing what two days of warmth and sun will do for an old soul living in Northern Maine.  For the second day in a row I had my tea on the porch.  It is warmer on the porch than in the  house.  I love my porch and I am still almost euphoric that I get to be sitting there today.  I had a good check in with Vicki on the phone.  I got my grocery list in and planned to pick up later in the day. I spent the morning doing more to get the porch emptied from the winter debris and putting things away.  I hauled the rain rugs outside and while outside I saw that my east side neighbor was out. Phil had a brand new Trump flag waving the last few weeks but it has not been out for the last few days.  It has been a gnawing thing, the flag, no masks. But today the sun was shining the T flag was not flying and I waved and said hi to Phil!  He waved and asked about my trip.  Then he asked if I would  like some fiddleheads.  I ...

  All windows open.  Sunshine.  Blue skies.  It was the first morning that I drank my tea on the side porch.  Listened to NPR and soaked up this first time.  Imagined summer days and felt renewed for the tasks I had for today.   I packed up winter wear that was still on the porch, I don’t think that it was until this morning that I really felt that it was ok to put them away.   I began cleaning things up putting extra things for the porch in another bin that I will put in the garage.  The sheets are washed for the day bed, the comforter put away.   I had to drive to East Millinocket this morning, to get my loaner laptop.  The pictures are from my drive.  I made a lot of stops along the way.  Oh it felt good.   I am still feeling my way around the pc so am blogging tonight on my iPad, and I don’t have a good command of how to easily move around ( I can’t figure out how to get my font back!) I uncovered ...

This seems like a good reminder for me today!  The good news is that a day that was supposed to be rainy and cool,  had lots of sunshine and some warmth.    More good news,  I finished up the painting project in the kitchen and I did not drop or spill anymore paint.  I don’t think that there are any leftover reminders, and the colors are lovely and once the shelf gets put on the wall it is going to be such a lovely and inviting place to sit in my kitchen.   The apple repair box is on its way, and my out of commission laptop will hopefully be on its ways to apple repair early next week.  I am picking up a laptop to borrow tomorrow, and I think I will maintain a modicum of “control” over my digital world.   I have finally figured out how to find the search bar for mail on my phone and iPad.  That will make it easier to find somethings that are for now inaccessible to me because I cannot access anything on my laptop.   It ...

  Thursday morning is my "note taking" time for the Mobilize Katahdin Coalition weekly meeting.   I often get flashbacks of stenographers and court reporters as I key in the information that is shared. I have developed a template so I get a little help, and I enjoy just focusing on listening and making sure that there is a good record of what gets discussed.   These notes can be found on the Mobilize Katahdin website and are available for anyone to read and comment.  I try to finish up the notes right after the meeting while it is all fresh in my mind.   Then they get sent off for review and to be published and distributed, and I am almost always done with my part by 11:30 a.m. on Thursdays. Then it was out to the yard where I did some raking and I uncovered a blooming pansy, and there are a number of other ones that have taken hold.  What a surprise. The iris's are coming up and I am just going to let them fight their way over the l...

There is a lot of snow on that mountain.  It seemed like there was more snow today than last week.  I took my weekly trip to the spring today. Was so happy that the sun was out, there was NO snow, only the wind continued to blow and blow.  We are still struggling to get the buds to open on the bushes, and there is just the slightest tinge of a spring color to the tree branches.  It makes me so happy to pull up to the spring and see the sweet little sign swinging in the breeze.  Spring on one side - Summer, Fall, Winter on the other side.  Someone with humor made that sign.   I like that it is a sure chuckle and big smile maker for me.  I need some of those sure signs to bring out a smile.   There is the beginning of green peaking out from under the winter blanket.   Today was the first day that I had to wait while someone else filled up their big jugs with water, it brought out another laugh, waiting in line for...

It pains me to even type the word snow again, and if I was reading this blog I might be sick of hearing about more SNOW.  Why does she live in this place anyway?   Yes,  there was more snow, and what was worse was that it was so very cold today.   I had a case of white wine delivered from a small, special vineyard in Northern California and the good news is that the wine is quite happy on the porch.  So there was a silver lining in what by all accounts was a very cold day in mid May.  There seems like there will be a little relief on Thursday from this cold, and maybe just maybe next week will bring warmer weather.    Despite the cold, and the dreary, snowy weather, the inside of my house was warm and things were getting done.   All day I had my big stock pot bubbling on the stove.  The lobsters that I cooked on Mother's Day now provided the base for lobster stock.  I sauteed the shells in butter and then added carrot...

I had earlier said I would post the picture of my Mom, my brother Bob and myself as a memory of my Mother for Mother's Day.     I have absolutely no memory of going to get our pictures taken.  I think this was probably taken in 1956 or '57.  I do remember getting my "Tonnette"  permanent.  It would burn my scalp, I hated it, and my Mother was hellbent that both her and I would have unnaturally curly hair.  I did have a friend point out that the "cut-outs" on my dress are quite fashionable today.    I do remember that dress, it was very very fancy, and it was NOT scratchy.  The look on my brother's face is not one I remember either.  He almost always had a smile on his face or at least a look that was somewhat mischievous.      This picture was taken when my Mom, Bob and I lived with my grandparents, my Mom's Mother and Father.  We were all in one bedroom and my brother and I slept in the...

  This was the view a number of hours ago.  I am not taking any more pictures of the snow.  I have shoveled off the back porch and stairs several times.  The snow is heavy,  it is just keeps coming down and the wind is really whipping out there. Yes, life in Maine in May.   So there really is not much difference between a snow day and a pandemic day.   I am inside. I did do Tai Chi practice.   I worked on another small collage.  I picked up my knitting, made a mistake and ripped out three rows and am starting over again.   I looked through some photo's and found a classic 1980's pic of Sasha and I, we kind of look like the Bobbsie Twins!  I can't even imagine what I was thinking and that Sasha was game is equally amazing.   I am going to post a picture tomorrow of my Mom with my brother and I in what I think is the only professional photograph of the three of us.   Meanwhile, it just...

Five years before I was born, in 1945 on this date  was V-E Day, marking the allied victory in Europe.   75 years ago,  the street all over Europe and the United States were filled with people celebrating, dancing,  filled with an excitement that World War II was over.   It was that sweet moment, a definitive end, and a moment where wondering what was ahead was completely overshadowed by the joy of victory.   Those same streets, especially in Europe are almost totally empty.  We have an "enemy"  that is cunning, powerful, tricky and it seems most certain, that we will not be spilling out into the streets joyfully celebrating a victory.  There will be no unconditional surrender. It feels more like looking further back in history to the Great Depression, 1929 - 1939.  This is a another historical time, and history has not been written.  It is Friday, and I am going to refrain from jumping into what this historical narrative...