In the Right Place: Last Chances

This is the best time to see the best flowers at one of the best gardens. We're in beautiful Thuya Garden, overlooking Northeast Harbor on Maine’s Mount Desert Island. The English-style Garden will be officially open daily through October, but the historic Thuya Lodge will close for the season next week. (The garden area is accessible through paths and side gates all year.)

The tourists are now at a minimum and the late summer blossoms are at their maximum – especially the specimen Dahlias.

The granite-ledged hillside trails now offer uncrowded views of the sparkling Harbor through the many White Cedar Trees (Thuya occidentalis) for which the Garden was named.

Butterflies are still everywhere, including Monarchs and Painted Ladies.

The Lodge was constructed over several years for Joseph H. Curtis, a Boston landscape architect; it was completed in 1916. It is a small, simple building with a fine library of esoteric garden and landscape titles on the second-floor. It has no spectacular view, but it does have character.

The Garden, built mostly in an orchard near the Lodge, came much later. It was designed and built by Charles K. Savage, a Northeast Harbor civic leader, during the years 1956-1961. The Garden was influenced by the works of legendary landscape architect Beatrix Farrand and contains many plants bought from her when, in her eighties, she had to sell off her famous garden in nearby Bar Harbor.

(Northeast Harbor, Maine)

For larger versions of the above images, as well as additional images of Thuya Garden in the Fall, click on the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking on the Slideshow [>] icon above the featured image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link for more:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2017-in-Maine/Thuya-Garden/

In the Right Place: Staying Home

We’ve been monitoring this White-Tailed Deer fawn and four others since they appeared on and near our property in the Spring.

The fawns still travel with their mothers, and we’re apparently within their ranges. The summer home ranges of Maine White-Tails are small: usually 500-to-600 acres (0.78-to-0.93 square miles), according to state data.

When we started monitoring the local fawns in the Spring, there were three singles and a set of twins. Four of the five are doing well, which is a high survival rate. One of the singles was taken by a coyote, judging by what we found in June. (Don’t ask.)

These three images were taken September 25, 2017.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: More Seldom-Asked Questions

Can mushrooms cry? Some mushrooms weep as well as professional mourners. One is the Red-Belted Polypore (Fomitopsis pinicola), shown here, which mostly grows on decaying trees.

Why the tears? Experts have a number of theories, but we’ve seen no definitive conclusion. Dr. David Porter, our favorite Maine mushroom maven, theorizes that spore-producing tissues of Red-Belted Polypores harden when a new pore layer is grown; as they harden, moisture is squeezed out of them. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Brilliance

It’s 9:14 p.m. last night and the brilliant moon is dominating the semi-clear sky. She’s relatively close to the sun and 251,015 miles away from us, and  sailing fast to the northwest –  over Eggemoggin Reach, Penobscot Bay, and beyond.

She’s in her Waxing Crescent veils of shadow, exposing 26 percent of herself as part of her First Phase reappearance dance after her New Moon seclusion. Tonight, she’ll expose more; Wednesday night, her First Quarter, she’ll unveil enough to allow 54 percent of her to be illuminated – for those who can get above the clouds. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: More Seldom-Asked Questions

Do Mallards smile? Yes, they can’t help it; they’re born with a smile. Nonetheless, we like to think that this female Mallard is smiling because she’s pleased with her ability to create a perfect bosom wave.

The hearty “QUACK-QUACK” we hear in movies and other portrayals of a duck call are those of the female Mallard. Curiously, the female Mallard’s loud quacking is different from the calls of other ducks, including those of Male Mallards, which call with raspy “Kweks” and “Yeebs.” (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: The Last Zinnia

This was a Zinnia in her prime almost two weeks ago. She’s now struggling and will continue to do so until the first frost takes her; but, as with most of us, she would rather be remembered at her peak. Tuck away the memory of her youthful beauty for winter musings.

By the way, Zinnias are Mexican in origin and were named by Swedish Botanist-Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) in honor of his contemporary, the German Botanist and Anatomist Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727-1759). (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Uniqueness

Marsden Hartley’s Maine is at Colby College’s Museum of Art through November 12, 2017, after a successful run in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Breuer galleries.  It’s worth a trip to Waterville, if you’re interested in unique interpretations of Maine and some unusual brush work. Non-flash photography is allowed. This one is Hartley’s Mount Katahdin, Autumn, No. 2 (1939-40):

The Met’s handsome and informative (but expensive) show catalog book also is worth the price or worth waiting in line for at libraries that have it (including Brooklin’s Friend Memorial Library).

Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, in 1877 and died in Ellsworth in 1944. He promoted himself as “The Painter from Maine” to revive his career, which had peaked in Europe, but had to be discontinued because of World War I.  

His moody and abstracted views of Maine in the show run from childish, to stunning, to homo-erotic. Of particular interest to us were his Cézanne-influenced series on Maine’s Mount Katahdin during the seasons.  (Waterville, Maine)

In the Right Place: Taste

Muskrats, such as this neighbor transporting a water lily breakfast, are powerful swimmers with webbed hind feet and side-swishing flattened tails; they even can swim backwards and hold their breath up to 20 minutes.

They once were hunted widely for their soft fur and purported rabbit-like taste. (Our old edition of Joy of Cooking says that, to serve two people, “Skin and remove all fat from hams of 6 muskrats … sauté until golden … [s]erve with Creamed Celery.” It doesn’t mention how to get the muskrats.) Muskrats get their name from the strong scent that they use to mark their territory and their rat-like looks. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Good Endings

Yesterday was a dreary gray thing that drizzled from time to time, but never had the energy to deliver helpful rain or pleasing sun – until late afternoon.

In the afternoon, the lowering sun successfully won several battles with the overcast and broke through here and there. The wind rose and silver light poured obliquely through the clouds, spreading over the surface of Great Cove like fast-moving rivers of diamonds. Sailors dashed for their boats to be an active part of a good sunset.  (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Mum's the Word

Chrysanthemums, the ancient symbols of joy and happiness, are appearing on porches and elsewhere here.

The flowers originated in China, where their leaves are steamed for vegetable dishes; the plant also is used there for a healthy tea. In Japan, the flower is the symbol of the monarchy and appears on Japanese passports. Here, it is one of the first signs that we’re getting the Fall feeling. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Encounters of the Maine Kind

We’re walking beside, and sometimes in, the water’s edge in fog-bound Great Cove. The air is still and the patches of sea that are visible are silvered mirrors. The quiet seems to have slowed time. Suddenly, there’s a whuff-whuff sound above us and we become frighteningly aware that something big and alive is there and closing fast. We instinctively duck.

A first-year Herring Gull strafes us and flies out low over the Cove, the air from each wing beat ruffling its own reflection there. The youngster keeps going and disappears. We can’t see its face, but like to think that it’s smiling. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Last Dinners

Secret snacking is still going on in the remnants of the garden, but not for long. Here, the gourmet tasting a colorful canapé appears to be a Two-Striped Grasshopper or perhaps a Red-Legged Locust.

“Locusts,” of course, actually are grasshoppers of the short-antennae variety. A curious thing about grasshoppers is that they have their ears in their bellies (abdomens). (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Lasting Beauty

The appearance of Alera in Great Cove this week provoked thoughts about the special qualities that create lasting beauty, whether natural, human-made, or a combination of both.

Some lasting beauty is without physical shape (e.g., Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony). Some is two-dimensional (e.g., da Vinci’s Mona Lisa) and some three-dimensional (e.g., Michelangelo’s David). Some three-dimensional beauty is solidly stationary (e.g., Palladio’s Villa La Rotonda) and some combines complex movements and sounds (e.g., Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet).

And then there is Alera. She’s 113 years old. To see her gracefulness in her natural element – beating into the wind; her canvas and rigging humming; her bow wave hissing – is to see a performance by a thing of lasting beauty that was created by a genius.

She was designed by Nathanael (Nat) Greene Herreshoff, the Michelangelo of sailboat naval architects. Alera, launched in 1904, was the first of his famous New York Yacht Club 30-foot racers, hence the “NY1” proudly displayed on her sail. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Rigt Place: Regaining Magnificence

We “shot” this male Wood Duck yesterday as part of our attempt to monitor and catalog the progress and reversal of these birds’ summer molt (their “eclipse phase”). This male has got a long way to go to regrow his prime plumage.

He and his red-eyed colleagues should be back to magnificent in October, when Wood Ducks usually decide whether to migrate south. But now they're in various stages of recovery from the molt, as can be seen in this mage, also taken yesterday at the same marsh pond:

We haven't seen any females close enough to photograph, even with a big lens; they seem embarrassed to be in such a dreary state compared to their normal beauty. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Ancient Rituals

We had what appears to have been a Mayfly hatching swarm near our pond last week. These primitive insects have been behaving this way since before there were dinosaurs. There are thousands of species of Mayflies, but only a few hatch in May or other Spring months.

When Mayflies do hatch and swarm, the newly-formed adults arise, mate, lay eggs in the water, and die – all within hours. These adults don’t eat anything (they don’t even have functional mouths). Their presence is a good sign: their eggs and resulting larvae live (sometimes years) on algae and only in non-polluted water, where they are part of the food chain. (Brooklin, Maine)

The Annual Windjammer Sail-In

The images below were taken in Great Cove yesterday afternoon and at dawn this morning. We’re covering the 31st annual WoodenBoat Windjammer Sail-In that started yesterday and ended today.

Most of the images were taken from a chase boat used by the students in the WoodenBoat School’s excellent Marine Photography course, taught by Jon Strout and Jane Peterson. Thank you Jon, Jane, Rich Hilsinger, Greg Bauer, and WBS for allowing me to tag along with the talented students.

Historically, the first windjammer into the Cove is the Queen of the Maine Fleet, Victory Chimes, shown to the left. She was launched in 1900.

Here’s Mary Day (1962) and Stephen Taber (1871) making the turn into Great Cove:

Angelique (1980) is known for her red (tanbark) sails and high fantail:

The Lewis R. French (1871) is tied for oldest schooner in the fleet:

American Eagle (1930) was a depression era vessel:

The Heritage (1983), on the other hand, was built relatively recently:

Most of the windjammers don’t hook up to a mooring; they drop very heavy anchors with quite a splash.

Passengers on these boats are encouraged to participate in basic crew work.

After the windjammers are moored, their passengers and crews come ashore for mussels and music, the former being steamed onsite and the latter being performed by the often steamy Flash in the Pans.

Windjammers are beautiful under full sail, but there’s something special about seeing them in their element at sunrise, without sails.

By about 7 a.m. today, the sun was up fairly high and Great Cove had started to awaken.

For larger versions of the above images, as well as many additional images of the Sail-In, click on the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking on the Slideshow [>] icon above the featured image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link for more:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Windjammers-and-Other-Boats/Schooners/n-vGnkzS/31st-Annual-WoodenBoat-Sail-In/

In the Right Place: Being Green

We still have Northern Green Frogs lazing in the sun on lily pads; soon, both will be pleasant memories.

Northern Greens are distinguishable from other small green frogs by their hunched “shoulders,” a characteristic that they share with the much larger Bull Frogs. In fact, Northern Greens, which range from about 2 to 3.5 inches, could be remembered as miniature Bull Frogs, which can grow to about 6 inches. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Good Beginnings

Friday, September 8, at almost 6:30 a.m.:

The harvest moon, still mostly full, sails away to the northwest; the sun, low in the east, finds Great Cove, Babson Island, and Eggemoggin Reach beyond; the North Field waits for the approaching light to chase away the remnants of morning fog.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Quick Change Artist

This Monarch Caterpillar was munching on milkweed Friday (September 8) when sharp-eyed neighbor Sherry Streeter pointed it out to us. It and its larval siblings recently emerged from eggs attached to that plant by a female Monarch Butterfly that probably is now dead.

This Caterpillar soon will pull a hooded chrysalis over itself, do a quick-change trick while hidden in there, and emerge to fly to Mexico as one of the most beautiful butterflies. Here's an adult Monarch gracing a Zinnia a few days ago:

Monarchs produce four generations here during the warm months, three of which die after a short life. The fourth generation butterflies, born in September or October, are the ones that migrate south to start the cycle again. The good news about this threatened species: we’ve seen more Monarchs here this summer than in the past three years. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Where East Meets West

We’re in the famous Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in nearby Seal Harbor. It was created between 1926 and 1930 by Abby and the renowned garden designer Beatrix Farrand. The Garden is now privately owned by the Rockefeller family.

Much of the Garden is surrounded by a Chinese tile-topped wall that contains various gates, which offer tantalizing peeks of the flowers and Rockefeller collection of Chinese and Korean statuary. The most famous portal is The Moongate through which can be seen a 17th Century Buddha Sakyamuni.

Within and outside the wall are meticulously cared-for quiet areas for contemplation by people and hummingbirds.

The central courtyard contains a rectangular stone wall and paths that are profusely planted with flowering specimens in the fashion of an English border garden.

The Garden is at its flowering peak in early August, but still has much to say for itself in September.

For larger versions of the above images, as well as additional images of the Garden, click on the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking on the Slideshow [>] icon above the featured image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link for more:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2017-in-Maine/Abby-Aldrich-Rockefeller-Garden/