In the Right Place: Nory II

Additional Images and Text Added March 9, 2018

MARCH 8, MORNING

It’s been snowing and blowing here since yesterday afternoon. The weather tellers are now predicting that we might get 12 to 16 inches of snow, which isn’t bad for a March lion. We haven’t lost power yet, but did have one annoying power snap, just long enough to intimidate all the digital clocks and get them blinking. The snowflakes are small, but they’re sticking to branches and needles. Fortunately for the weighed-down trees, the wind gusts are mostly less than 10 miles per hour. Here are some morning images:

MARCH 8, AFTERNOON

The snow continues incessantly, sometimes very fine, sometimes fat; still no significant wind and no flooding. The private drives through the woods have been plowed once; the public roads are being plowed and "salted" continually; driving is no problem, except for one part of Back Road, where a tree is down. Here are some afternoon images:

MARCH 9, MORNING

We awoke to a beautiful morning and with thanks to the weather gods for sparing Brooklin from any significant damage during two March Nor'easters. (Our theory is that those gods signed up for summer courses at the WoodenBoat School here and want to make sure that the courses start on time.) It looks like we got about a foot of snow in settled areas of our property. Here's what it looked like at 8 a.m. this morning as we gazed to the Southwest over our North Field to Great Cove and Babson Island and other islands in Eggemoggin Reach; the open Atlantic is just out of frame to the left:

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Forecast

We took the image below yesterday to remind us of what a clear, crisp, hint-of-spring March day looks like. We’re in for several foul days, with icy rain and up to a foot of snow, according to the weather tellers who have issued a Winter Storm Warning for our county.

Of course, such generalizations often are not exactly right for each coastal town in DownEast Maine; many towns have their own mini-climates, depending on the size of harbors and other topography. Often, it’s snowing in nearby Blue Hill and not here and vice versa.

The remembrance image above is of Acadia National Park as seen from Brooklin across Blue Hill Bay. Later today or tomorrow, we may not be able to see across the Bay. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Remembering Jimi

Above-freezing temperatures are opening the ice on ponds here, bringing us to the time when we can play the cloud game with them – imagining what the gaping holes look like. Yesterday, as you see, we found Jimi Hendrix’s guitar.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Tradition

As we speak, this and many other Christmas wreaths are still displayed on homes and barns around here – and they will be until at least Easter. Why? The reasons that we’ve gotten mostly are these: “That’s what my parents and grandparents did” and “I like the way they look.”

Perhaps another partial reason is that, in this land of Balsam Fir, Spruce, and Pine, Mainers have a rich tradition of creating Christmas wreaths for themselves and others. The state is one of the major producers of such wreaths for shipment worldwide and, in recent years, has been donating the wreaths for Arlington National Cemetery. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Damage Report

This is the rolling sea from Eggemoggin Reach into the Atlantic Ocean during yesterday’s surge from Winter Storm Riley, the so-called Nor’easter that attacked the Atlantic coast:

In Brooklin, we had high tides of over 12 feet both days in addition to storm surges that increased those tides to an estimated 15-plus vertical feet of water.  Here are the Town Dock and the WoodenBoat School piers, as well as what remained of Naskeag Point during the surge:

Measured wind gusts here reached at least up to 26 miles per hour. The Town Dock got a bit of a swamping yesterday during the gusts, but we’ve seen no significant damage here.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Small Worlds

Here are a couple of our well-dressed neighbors out for a stroll. These are Bantam Chickens, a small and fancy fowl that originated in Southeast Asia.

They’re named after the seaport city of Bantam in Indonesia, where sailors picked them up and sometimes fought them to the death. They’re popular here as pets and show birds, and their eggs are tasty, albeit half the size of those of our domestic chickens. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: "Nor'easter"

This image of foggy Great Cove was taken here a few minutes ago in soft rain and six-mile-an-hour winds. We’re waiting for what many journalists are calling a “Nor’easter,” a term loathed by some Mainers and linguists who consider it a pretentious sea-faring affectation by writers who sail urban desks.

Part of the problem is that long-time Maine and Massachusetts coastal residents charmingly drop their “Rs” and pronounce their “THs.” They would say something like “Nahtheastah.” But Maine critics have lost that word war, according to sympathetic linguist Mark Liberman.

So, the weather watchers are telling us that a “nor’easter” will hit the Maine coast this afternoon with swirling winds of up to 55 miles per hour coming out of the Atlantic Ocean from the northeast.  As of about 2:30 p.m. today, the wind started to pick up to about 10 MPH gusts, as we can see here, looking northeast from Brooklin to Acadia National Park across Blue Hill Bay:

(Brooklin, Maine)

February Postcards From Maine

February is when the weather gods play hide-and-seek with winter. As part of the game, the spectacular winter sunsets and afterglows become diminished, but there are always a few February dusks that are stunning:

One day in February can be warm and green, the next cold and white, followed by a thaw and then more snow or rain:

And then there’s February fog. Sometimes it storms in like a rogue cloud determined to destroy all sunlight. At other times the fog turns the landscape into a dreamy fantasy.

This year's February was warmer than most, producing sights of complacent wild and domestic life:

The snow and a decent amount of rain raised our water tables so that drought shouldn't be a problem in the summer. The woodland streams looked particularly robust during the month:

There also were other February weather-oriented sights, including a vintage tractor heading east and a bull moose heading north:

We mustn’t forget two special days in February: the Superbowl, in which our Patriots lost after a good game, and Valentine’s Day, which produced some interesting sights around here:

In the end, we’ll remember February mostly for its many transformations.

(Brooklin, Maine)

For larger versions of the above images, as well as many additional images of special moments in this February, 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/2018-in-Maine/February/

In the Right Place: Stabilization

You know a building is old if it has original Dovecotes, a Scottish name that some Americanized into “Pigeonholes.” In days of yore, doves and/or pigeons were kept in these come-and-go nesting areas atop barns and stables. The birds provided eggs, “meat,” and fertilizer to the estate or farm.

The Dovecotes in the above image are in the WoodenBoat School Boat Shop, which was a substantial stable more than 100 years ago. The Shop also still sports the stable’s original slate tile roof:

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: A Small Drama

We awoke yesterday shrouded within dense fog. And then, one of those small winter dramas was restaged by the weather gods. The sun, trying to reclaim its domain, began to probe the fog’s weaknesses. As shown here, bands of light appeared in the clouds, mirrored by glistening streaks on the sea, all on our sliverized stage.

It took the sun all morning to repulse the invader, but, by the early afternoon, a bright blue sky with scattered white clouds met a darker blue sea with a rolling incoming tide, and golden sunlight gilded the fields. Bravo! (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Riven

There’s a lot going on in this barn wall, not the least of which is a crowd of angles claiming to be always right. But, we’re most taken by the color and character of the shingles and the question as to whether they’re real “shakes.”

Historically, shakes were a form of shingle made from split wood, different from other shingles made from sawn logs. Prior to the 19th Century, shakes were riven (hand-split) from straight-grained wood, such as white cedar. A mallet and axe or froe (a tool with a long blade and short haft) would be used by craftsmen to rive out thin wedges. The more durable heartwood from the inner tree was used.

For hundreds of years, shakes and other shingles have been popular here for their look and durability. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: A Gaze

Yesterday was sunny with a high of 47 degrees (F), crispy-clear air, and a mild wind. Stated another way, it was a gotta-get-outside-day. When we did, as you see below, we gazed at Babson Island in Great Cove, while the low tide was starting to ebb.

We also imagined a common summer scene there: a schooner anchored just off the beach; its passengers talking and laughing on the sand; lobsters baking in a portable drum above a crackling fire; gulls banking above. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Simplicity

Clean lines made cleaner: white on white.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Wiggles

Here we see two of the many moods of February. First, the month often awakens sluggishly with a case of morning fogginess – a contemplative and dreamy fogginess.

Second, after one of the month’s nighttime snow fits, February can awaken with a quick, glad-that’s-over smile and brighten the new day with a hope that the immediate future has been changed for the better.

These images were taken at a place that’s familiar to many boat builders and sailors: Great Cove Lane extended, on the WoodenBoat Campus, looking up the hill that wiggles down to the boat ramp and water behind us. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Choices

Three fabulous desserts were offered after Tuesday’s scrumptious annual Pot Luck Dinner given by the Brooklin Garden Club and generously hosted by Sue and Ted Clayton. Here’s what the sweets looked like before the guests attacked them (clockwise from top left): Bread Pudding by Nancy Brown; Chantilly Cake by Sue Clayton, and Pistachio Cake by Jean Eysenbach.

Most of us had difficulty choosing among them, which of course meant “a little of each.” Judging from the talk, it looks like the Club will have a busy agenda this year, including community service, education, and garden touring. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Corking

Barbara and I are getting in the Olympics spirit. We’ve bolted our walkers to snowboards and plan to do switch-frontside-1080-double-corks off our neighbor’s barn roof here. Unfortunately, we keep getting delayed by melting snow.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Pinafore!

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Maine’s annual production this year was the rousing H.M.S. Pinafore, G&S’s first hit and the model for comic operas for many years. The Society, one of the best G&S repertoire companies in the country, gave six performances this month at The Grand in Ellsworth. All performances were dedicated to three of the Society’s talented company members who died recently: Margaret Ames, Phyllis Gibson, and Brooklin’s Jean Porter.

Above, prior to the two-act comic opera, Society players put on a home-grown skit in which lyricist Sir W.S. Gilbert (Aidan Pasha) and music composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (Brooklin’s David Porter) discuss and try out some of their favorite comic opera ideas with members of the company.

Act I of the real play takes place at Noon on the quarterdeck of H.M.S. Pinafore, which is anchored off Portsmouth, England.

The commander of the ship, Captain Corcoran (Roland Dube), is trying to advance his career. He’s arranging the marriage of his reluctant daughter, Josephine (Eileen York), to Sir Joseph, the First Lord of The Admiralty (Maurice Joseph Marshall). The Lord is expected to board the ship soon.

Meanwhile, there are several other mismatches in the making. First, Raif [Ralph] Rackstraw (Peter Miller), an ordinary sailor, adores Josephine and she has eyes for him. But, class differences make Josephine feel that a loving relationship with a commoner would be impossible and she discourages Raif. Second, Little Buttercup (Debra Hangge) is attracted to the Captain and he to her, but, again, their class differences get in the way. She’s a bumboat woman who has boarded the anchored ship to sell ribbons and other wares.

Sir Joseph arrives resplendently by barge accompanied by a covey of dancing and singing “sisters, cousins, and aunts,” much to the joy of the crew.

In the show’s most famous number, When I Was a Lad, the Lord Admiral steps to the fore and gives the Pinafore crew advice, a few expurgated stanzas of which follow:

When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an Attorney's firm.
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,
And I polished up the handle of the big front door.

***

I polished up that handle so carefullee
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!

***

Of legal knowledge I acquired such a grip
That they took me into the partnership.
And that junior partnership, I ween,
Was the only ship that I ever had seen.

***

Now landsmen all, whoever you may be,
If you want to rise to the top of the tree,
If your soul isn't fettered to an office stool,
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule.

***

Stick close to your desks and never go to sea,
And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee!

After jubilant celebration, Sir Joseph and the Captain exit to plan the Lord Admiral’s marriage to Josephine. At this point, Raif and Josephine are alone and he confesses his love for her and seeks her hand. Josephine pretends that she is shocked and insulted. Raif then puts a gun to his temple and announces that he’s going to commit suicide. This gets Josephine’s attention and she agrees to elope with Raif.

After a brief intermission, Act II of the play takes place in the same location, but during the moonlit night. Josephine’s reluctance to marry Sir Joseph has become obvious, Captain Corcoran has been informed by Buttercup that she knows a secret that will change everyone’s lives (but she does not disclose it), and the Captain has persuaded the Lord that Josephine is merely nervous about marrying such an exalted personage as he. Sir Joseph agrees to assure Josephine that “love levels all ranks.”

There's glee when Sir Joseph tells Josephine that love levels all ranks and she responds positively to the notion. She misunderstands (or pretends to misunderstand) and takes away the message that she is free to elope and marry Raif and he thinks she's agreed to marry him.

Dick Deadeye (Irv Hodgkin), a disgruntled crew member, reveals the elopement plot to the Captain, who disrupts it with improper curses. Sir Joseph orders the crew to throw the Captain in the ship’s brig for cursing and to take Raif into custody for his elopment plot.

Then, Buttercup reveals the long-kept secret from her days as a nurse: When they were babies, the Captain and Raif were switched and given to each other’s family; actually, the Captain is low-born and Raif is high-born.

Thus, Sir Joseph couldn’t possibly marry the low-born Josephine; the Captain and Buttercup being of equal rank may do so; and, if Raif wishes, he may condescend to marry Josephine. Being left out, the Lord reluctantly decides to marry Hebe (Demelza Ramirez), one of the well-born and more active cousins in his entourage. Suddenly, the Captain reappears in an ordinary seaman uniform and Raif appears in a Captain's uniform. All celebrate the changes.

All swarm into a patriotic finale, waiving the Union Jack.

.As the curtain goes down on the clever set of Artistic Director Sandra Blanchette, the memorable Arthur Sullivan melodies are reprised by the excellent orchestra, led by Music Director and pianist Scott Cleveland, who also is from Brooklin:

(Ellsworth, Maine)

For larger versions of the above images, as well as many additional images of special moments in this comic opera, 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/2018-in-Maine/HMS-Pinafore/

In the Right Place: Tussled

The Winter winds tussle the Japanese Silver Grass the way quick fingers can tussle a good haircut into something that looks right even when it’s not, but that falls back into place when left alone.  Although not a native, the plant thrives here and is attractive all year.

In the Winter, the plant is virtually gold, as shown above. It gets its silver name from the tassels that appear in Fall, when the  leaves are just starting to turn gold:

In the Summer, when the leaves are lush and green, it forms a good background for more colorful plants in the garden: 

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Surprise!

It’s snowing – the sticky kind – as we speak. A surprise snowstorm crept into the area in the wee hours of the morning, and it refuses to leave. The weather forecast says that it will deposit only and inch, but the meteorologists don’t explain how we’ve already gotten four to six inches accumulated on our decks with no wind.  Here's what it looked like at about 6 a.m. this morning (taken with a flash):

The forecast also states that the snow will end around 11 a.m. We’ll see. In any case, it’s a nice change of pace that came on the day of rest. (For some, that rest will have to wait until after shoveling and plowing.) Another 6 a.m. image (taken without flash):

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Contrast

Our little part of the world is bathed in cheery sun and crispy cold as we speak. It’s a remarkable contrast to the almost spiritual scene below, which we saw a few days ago:

As the tide left Great Cove, its floating ice clothed the sea floor and the fog rolled in while the weak sun tried to reach through to us. (Brooklin, Maine)