MaryAlice Musings and More

  Days have gone by and I have been enveloped in the changing of the season.  The next season has been on my mind as the last bits of summer are put away (the grill and cabana are still at the ready!) and preparations for winter have begun.  The heat pump should be installed next week.  The flower gardens have been dug up and plants moved around, and beautiful rock edgings have been put in place.   The "Genny Shed"  a little building for my generator is going to be built in the next few days.  Flannel sheets are on all the beds.    And I picked up my friend Marcia from the Bangor airport a week ago.  We will have a month together, the longest time that Marcia has stayed for her annual Maine getaway.  The fall colors greeted her all along the ride back to Patten, and we spent a couple of nights at home settling in before making our way to the Mid Coast.   I am fortunate to have good friends who have a cottage in Ocean Point, and they offered saltwater respite time for us both.

  Last night the winds starting blowing, by early this morning the wind was really on a tear, and around 8:00-8:30 a.m., after one brief power out experience, the winds seemed to die down.  We were still in a wind advisory, that is expected to last until 8:00 pm tonight, but it seemed like I could do my planned trip to Millinocket to meet with the Outdoor Sports Institute (OSI) board for a morning session.  There were people that I was looking forward to seeing as well as promised great soup and fancy coffee drinks.  I decided to make my way to Milly.   It was a fun, interesting, mind expanding session and right on schedule I headed for home at noon.  The sun was out as I started toward home, with a pit stop at Peddler's Hill, where I bought fresh tuna from the mid-coast supplier that comes to Millinocket.  How lucky,  meeting new and very interesting people, a really good latte, Polish Cabbage-Sausage soup, and sushi grade tuna.  All good with the world.  While I was checking in

  I have definitely moved into fall preparation mode.  The weather has been cool in the mornings , the evenings cooler yet, and when the sun comes out it is a lovely light and warms both my cheeks and my heart.   I am in the queue for a heat pump and hope to have it installed next week.  A shed is being built for my generator, so that is will be easier to use if necessary.  Elle has dug out two of the three flower/herb beds and she is bringing beauty and design to my wild, weed filled beds.    And I am cleaning out shelves and sorting through papers.  I am canning.  I am making soups.  I am baking Galettes.  The latest inspired by the lovely cherry tomatoes still ripening every day.  So very very good and I shared with friends, who were very appreciative!   Yum yum,  fall harvest, equinox light.  Salve and balm in these days.  The light and dark in balance, the angle of the light so very exquisite in the autumnal equinox.  The light and dark in balance, and I am finding my way to balan

This morning I put myself, the Apple Galette I made and a small container of water in the car and headed to Houlton for the Unitarian Universalist In-gathering Service.   The Sunday after Labor Day is the beginning of a new UU year.  This congregation is uninterrupted in its service and commitment to the community for two hundered and twelve (212) years. Two Hundred and Twelve Years, that's a long time.  I felt the presence of those who sat I sat in the  Midcentury Arts and Crafts Sanctuary with it's huge beams and wonderful light. This is only the third building of this congregation, my congregation, where I got to participate in the Water Communion Ceremony today.   It seemed poignant that now is the time of the water communion,  people bringing water from special places, sharing about their summers, coming together as we begin fall.  A lovely clear cut glass bowl on the altar ready to hold all of our water, mingled and mixed together.   I brought water from my tap, Patten To

  As summer has been winding down it seemed as if the clock had been speeding up! My calendar was very full and too often scrambled and incorrect.  All those "things" on calendar, and the one's I forgot to put in, were all good.  It was also a lot!  Blogging went by the wayside,  not enough just being time which is the time that I need in order to put any words out in the world.   Today,  I took things off the calendar.   I had a "niggle" last night that I was paying attention to, it said: "just do what serves you best tomorrow".  This morning the niggle was still gliding right at the edge of my consciousness - and here I am mid-afternoon feeling quite content and very happy.   I organized, had no idea that would be what felt in service of myself but it seems to be in rhythm with the fall weather we are experiencing now.   My spice list is updated, and extra's are organized and ready to go to the basement pantry.  My food cabinet has been gone thro

  A former colleague and a long distance friend posted a photo and linked to this article on Komorebi . Komorebi is one of many Japanese words that have no translation, the closest we come is "dappled sunlight".   I love that feeling when walking in the woods or out in the open when the trees and the sunlight dance and hold each other in ways that create such a beautiful union.  I found this definition on a page for the company called Global Translations  Business Services - Komorebi is an untranslatable word, which eloquently captures the effect of sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees. The shadow created on the ground, or even in our curtains, describes this everyday beauty. It is the interplay of the aesthetics between the shadows and the leaves, and the shape of nature’s wisest earthly existence –  trees. To equate the powerful beauty projected by this word with “sunbeam” or “sunshine” would be an injustice to nature’s landscape – our magnificent per

  Today was a day with not one "anything" on my calendar.  There were tomatoes calling from the porch and while I listened to Andrea Mitchell on my Alexa speaker and started the satisfying process of canning tomatoes.  I started with the quick dip in boiling water and then plunging into the icy cold to take off the skins.  Then I cut out the cores (there was not one blemish on any of the tomatoes, Ada's tomatoes are the best) and started cooking them up.  Meanwhile jars were washed, lids and rings in the hot water, and my favorite glass funnel ready to fill the jars.  The kosher salt and lemon juice waiting.   I don't remember if I really watched my great grandmothers can food. I do remember watching them open the jars that they were using for a meal.  There were always canned pickles and maybe pickled watermelon rinds at most if not all meals.  I remember the sauerkraut crock at the bottom of the very small steps down to the cellar.   "Putting food up" was

  It is Sunday morning, I have a cup of tea and I am sitting on my front porch.  My front porch has windows, and it is a little cool this morning so I am sipping my very hot cup of "paris blend" and enjoying the morning rays of sun.  I have started several times over these past few days to write and found myself just savoring. What does the savoring mean? transitive verb. 1 : to give flavor to : season. 2a : to have experience of : taste. b : to taste or smell with pleasure : relish. c : to delight in : enjoy savoring the moment.   I have been savoring moments, the definition dos not say "to be carried away" but that is what has been happening,  I have been carried away or maybe I have just been very present.  Maybe what I was enjoying so much was being "carried within".  Whatever I might name the experience I have been enjoying, it has had a lot of noticing and appreciating.      The birds are chirping, singing, making a lot of good noise.  Ground squi

 I was nine years old in 1959 when Ann Bannon the pen name of Ann Weldy published Women in the Shadows, the third book in what would later be known as the Beebo Brinker Chronicles.  Ann Weldy is known as the "queen of lesbian pulp fiction", she wrote in the pre-Stonewall era.  It was sixteen years later when I came out.  There was no lesbian fiction at the library of the largest city near where I lived.  I went there in 1974 trying to find something when I went through the card catalogue for the word lesbian. The only thing I found was the "Well of Loneliness" by Radcliffe Hall.  The book was published in 1928 and was banned in England and beyond.  I was not the only questioning lesbian who only found this one volume at the library.  It may have created scandal and notoriety in the late 20's and early 30's but it was a very dark, somewhat depressing story and portrayal of lesbian life!   In 1983, Naiad Press published the Ann Bannon series,  they were defi

 UU Church - Houlton Garden Entrance   It is Monday and even though the weekend was fun and busy, today was not a day for just laying back and maybe getting a little more rest.  There were some great lovely phone calls, a few meetings, and an attempt to get to a few necessary chores. The day started out cool and got hotter and more humid.  It felt good and at the same time I was aware of how few of these days there might be left as we move into the last days of August.   Now that I have resumed this blog, I also have to wrangle internally with questions like how often do I want to blog, will I have something to say, how do i keep it fun?     I appreciate that there is this time where I get to be present, I get to reflect for a moment and take space about what I want to share with you and with myself. I started the blog by selecting a picture I had taken at UU Services yesterday.  I took a moment to take a picture entering the garden, entering a space where we get to be with ourselve

 

  I spent the morning today checking things off my "to do" list and getting ready for a 36 hr. trip to Millinocket and NEOC (New England Outdoor Center)!   Coming to Millinocket is very fun, it is my original Katahdin Region home and it holds a special place in my heart.    I am sitting at a table at the totally remodeled MML .  In early 2015 on a visit to Millinocket from Minnesota I went to the library, it was dark, it was kind of depressing and it was not very inviting.  I had to pay $25.00 for a non-resident card (didn't matter that I owned a home in town!) and they still used a card catalog and signing your name on a check out card at the back of a book.  By then end of 2016, the library had almost closed permanently only to be saved by a small and mighty group of community members, who volunteered, raised money and hired an amazing guy Matt Delaney to come and revive and re-imagine the library.....that happened....Matt has come and gone and the library is a communit

  This morning when I woke up I thought it was going to be a cool drizzly day. As I sit here on the porch having just had a little hummingbird moment I am deeply grateful for noticing that it is a splendid day! While typing the tomatillo salsa is bubbling away safely in their jars on the stove. The August salad that I made for lunch is still on the counter.  The bowl is filled with  fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and onions from Phil’s garden.  The feta cheese is artisan from a maker outside of Houlton. The parsley is from my herb garden!  While making the salad I had a big dose of memory and a twinge of sadness that my family was not here to share the salad with me. We have a long history of loving salads.  Often when I would go to my daughters house or when the grandchildren came over or everybody piled into my house someone would say can we have grandma’s special salad?  Today’s  salad is one that they would love. Lots of fresh wonderful veg, some very good cheese,  great olive oil (than

  I don't what this flower is....it grows tall and I can see it when I am sitting on my porch.  It blooms, well right now, mid-August and keeps flowering for awhile.  The hummingbirds love it.  I have been seeing the hummingbirds in the morning, but this morning no hummingbirds.  Tonight in the early evening, I saw the hummingbird, just one,  it came by a number of times, I watched it flit from my flowers over to Fred's across the street and back again.  I stood up and walked closer to the screen while it was at Fred's and when he or she (I have no idea a they it is...) came back it came right up to the screen I could hear the wings flapping, I gave a big smile and they flew away.   Not sure what kind it is but I think that it might be a ruby throated ... there are four kinds of hummers found in Maine for those who are interested.   I just love my visits and maybe I might get one more glimpse before the night sky comes.  It was a good day and I can still hear that wonderfu

Neighbor Head Hugs Front Yard Tree Hug   hug [ huhg ] verb (used with object), hugged, hug·ging. to clasp tightly in the arms, especially with affection; embrace. to cling firmly or fondly to; cherish: to hug an opinion. to keep close to, as in sailing, walking, or in moving along or alongside of: to hug the shore; to hug the road. verb (used without object), hugged, hug·ging. to cling together; lie close. noun a tight clasp with the arms; embrace ____________________________________________   It was not long after I met my "caddy-corner" neighbor Terry, that she said, "Oh, you are a hugger!"  This was 2019 when hugging was not something that many of stopped doing.  Yes, I am a hugger, a arms wide open hold on well hugger.  I read somewhere (I tried to find the source this morning, but couldn't) that it would be good to 20 hugs a day.   As a woman who lives alone, that is a high quotient.  This weekend I got way more than 20 hugs in a day, and I am still fe