JOURNAL
Here, we see the Fishing Vessel “Long Set” basking in the last sunlight to reach Naskeag Harbor on December 18. She’s been refitted with mast and boom for scallop dredging and is not afraid of the cold.
Fresh scallops from the local fleet are a popular part of Christmas dinners here. Come to think of it, they’re popular all year with those of us who buy enough in December or January to vacuum pack and freeze. (Brooklin, Maine)
Beth Eden Chapel received a face lift this year, thanks to generous community efforts. This simple Chapel, tucked into the woods along Naskeag Road, has been loved by many since 1900.
During the early 20th Century, Beth Eden served its rural Naskeag community well as a church and meeting place. It has not been used regularly during this century, but does host occasional romantic weddings, poignant funerals, and artistic forums.
The image of the Chapel’s welcoming doors was taken on December 14; the side view was taken on December 19. (Brooklin, Maine)
Here, shortly after sundown, we’re at Blue Hill’s Conary Cove on Saturday (December 19). The only light is the darkening blue-gray of the in-coming night.
The tide is at a stilled ebb, allowing the iconic red boathouse there to duplicate itself, as it often does in the daytime. Within about 10 minutes, the boathouse has disappeared into the night.
I’ve been unable to find a reliable history of this boathouse. However, I have read a report describing it in the 1950s as being painted white or light gray. Perhaps one of you can give me a citation to a history of the boathouse. (Brooklin, Maine)
Here you see our first Hibiscus of the winter, as it opened fully yesterday. These flowers are perhaps the sexiest flowers in the world. When they decide to offer themselves, they offer all they have.
They slowly unfurl in the shape of a cosmic explosion, with exotic colors that attract hummingbirds, bees, and other pollinators. With a little help from those friends, the flowers propagate themselves. They contain both male (stamen) and female (pistil) organs.
In Tahiti, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands, the tradition is that a woman wearing a red Hibiscus flower behind her right ear is looking for a relationship. On a more mundane level, when dried, the flowers reportedly are delicious. On a very practical level, the flowers are used to make teas that are diuretics. (Brooklin, Maine)
This is yesterday’s sinking sun extending its last light gently across the face of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. We can see with unaided eyes the recent snow that has collected in clearings within the Park.
This image will become part of our continuing record of this landmark. (Brooklin, Maine)
We had a good holiday snowfall yesterday and last night. It looks like we got between three and four inches of snow on our patch of Maine coastland. As we speak, the sun is trying to break through a blanket of cloud. Here, you see our South Field at about 10:45 a.m. today – white, black, gray, and silent, with an occasional wind gust of 20 miles per hour or more to certify that Winter has come:
Yesterday, during the height of the storm, Brooklin Cemetery’s Camperdown Elm tried to protect its assigned graves and the Baptist Church across the road was sometimes hard to see:
Here are before-and- after images of the snow on a spruce gathering and the General Store hunkering down:
Country lanes and the Town pier were untraveled and the stephanandra clumps looked like ready to bite glazed buns:
(Brooklin, Maine)
The snowstorm that has created a bit of a sensation in the lower latitudes didn’t reach us until this morning. A few fine flakes swirled around at about 9 a.m.
A few minutes ago – as you see by the images here – it intensified into a somewhat serious attempt to live up to its reputation.
The NOAA forecast for this area is a possible four to eight inches of snow by late this afternoon. At the moment, the temperature is 17 degrees (F), but wind chill brings it down to three degrees. North-north-east winds are 14 miles per hour with gusts of 21. Wintah! (Brooklin, Maine)
Winter made a stirring appearance here yesterday. She brought single-digit cold air and wind gusts of over 30 miles per hour. She was wearing a beautiful sunny blue sky with white-necklaced seas. Today, she’s the same, except that she has calmed down a bit – gusts only in the teens. The weather tellers are forecasting that she’ll try a snow shower here tonight.
The image above is of Captain Morgan pulling at her mooring line in Naskeag Harbor yesterday morning. Below, you’ll see Great Cove on the other side of our peninsula being tussled a few minutes earlier.
(Brooklin, Maine)
Posted on December 15, 2020
One of the things that I miss at this time of year due to the plague is attending concerts of seasonal music, where social distancing is two inches, not two yards, and you feel like you’re part of a gathering of friends enjoying themselves.
The Bagaduce Chorale and Blue Hill Bach, two of our best local producers of fine music, are giving virtual, in-home holiday performances, and they certainly are recommended. However, they’re not the real thing where you may embrace a friend and smilingly shake the hand of a stranger.
Therefore, here are images of the real thing. These are two moments from last year’s Holiday performance by the Chorale at the Congregational Church in Blue Hill.
(Brooklin, Maine)
On Saturday (December 12), a White-Tailed doe and her yearling slowly came into my vision as they grazed into our South Field. I was downwind from them and mostly hidden. At the first click of my camera, the yearling dashed to the woods’ edge, stopped, turned around, and looked in my direction, apparently without seeing me.
The doe never moved her legs. But, she looked in my direction, turned her ears every which way, and sniffed heavily.
Then, as you see below, she stuck her tongue out as she inhaled deeply, apparently to use an additional set of sensory glands.
At least that’s what some reports say White-Tails do. Perhaps she was just expressing an opinion.(Brooklin, Maine)
Yesterday, as you see here, the sun would crack through the wooly, gray sky every now and then to shine the waters of Great Cove and Eggemoggin Reach.
There was no color and no sound, which perversely seemed to make our sight and imagination more acute. It was a time to look at less to see more. (Brooklin, Maine)
When driving home during these days of early darkness outside and continual bad news on the radio inside, it’s easy to forget that this is supposed to be the time for feeling joy. Maine rural roads between towns have few streetlights and many suicidal deer in the woods along the edges. You have to be alert.
Nonetheless, when coming around the last dark bend, the lights of the Baptist Church and Brooklin General Store appear and, as you approach them, the lighted Library entrance across from the store glows. That’s when the “finally home!” feeling comes and, these days, a bit of joy comes with it. (The images here were taken Thursday, December 10.)
There’s also a feeling of wonder at how a tiny town such as Brooklin could have such an impressive “downtown” (and we haven’t even mentioned the first class Fire Department and commercial operations, including famous boat building yards). The answer, of course, is that caring people provide and strongly support these rural wonders. (Brooklin, Maine)
This image appeared yesterday in our monthly column in the Ellsworth American. To read the column, click here: http://www.5backroad.com/montly-column
(Brooklin, Maine)
Here, we see the Fishing Vessel Dear Abbie: yesterday in Naskeag Harbor during a slack tide. She’s a lobster boat wearing her winter gear for sea scallop fishing.
That gear, behind the pilot house, consists mainly of a mast and boom for a bottom dredge (or “drag”) and a temporary “shedding hut” to protect the crew when shucking shells on cold, windy days at sea.
There’s a charm to the lines of a real working boat such as this. (Lobster boats have been called the pickup trucks of the seas.) The classic Down East Maine lobster boats have high, flared bows (to part big waves) with graceful side sheer lines that sweep aft down to low sterns. They have low freeboards (distance between water line and deck) to allow working over the sides. Their pilot house often is open in back to allow a single person to work the traps. (Brooklin, Maine)
This is Torrey woofing yesterday. She’s poignantly trying to learn the subtleties of her job as the Town Greeter.
The poignancy comes from Torrey’s being the replacement of Digby, a legend and a landmark who went to Dog Heaven about two and a half years ago. Here he is:
In many small towns, there’s a dog that virtually every resident knows or recognizes. Ours was Digby, who had moves that Torrey is still learning. The Town Greeter usually lies on the Larkin family’s open porch about 50 feet from Bay Road, the main northbound road out of “downtown” Brooklin.
As was Digby, Torrey often is the first or last living personality for miles that drivers will see as they wind around turns into or out of the heart of Brooklin. Now, residents look to see if Torrey is “out” as we drive by, but also think of Digby as we do.
The cold or snow usually has been no problem for these dogs; they’re both mixtures of Bernese Mountain and Great Pyrenees dogs that seem to prefer the cold. Torrey is a somewhat uncommon red version of this popular mixture. (Brooklin, Maine)
The sunsets here are much better than the evening news. This is last night’s sunset over Great Cove, Eggemoggin Reach, and Deer Isle.
As usual, winter’s lower sun rays, and clean air allow us to see farther and more of the red in our color spectrum. (Brooklin, Maine)
Yesterday, we got this glimpse of one of one of Santa’s Helpers on Back Road. This year, they’re coming in by boat to avoid state Covid 19 quarantine requirements and restrictions on sled flights.
(Brooklin, Maine)
Here, we see Long Set this morning in Naskeag Harbor after surviving a significant storm last night and this morning. There was torrential rain and wind gusts of 40 miles per hour.
Much of Brooklin was without central power from late yesterday afternoon to about 11 a.m. today. (Many residences here have electricity generators for such times.) Note that Long Set is tricked out as a scalloper now, with mast, boom, and winter shedding hut. (Brooklin, Maine)
Posted December 5, 2020
It’s still warm here and we’ve had steady, almost pleasant, rain all morning. Yet, lately, our Black-Capped Chickadees seem to be starting to store seeds. Some old-timers say that this means that things are going to start to get cold and nasty soon.
These birds get their family name from their complaints, which the one shown here is doing. They sound like a kazoo playing “chick-a-dee-dee-dee.” The more “dees” at the end, the more alarmed or annoyed the bird is. A frantic and repeated five-dee complaint might mean that a hawk is nearby.
Of course. this species of Chickadee, the state bird of Maine and Massachusetts, gets its first name from the black cap that it likes to wear pulled down over the ears.
(Brooklin, Maine; Leighton Archive images used)
This is the mouth of Patten Stream in Surry yesterday, spewing roiling waters into Patten Bay.
Our streams are mostly full now, thanks to several deluges in November. However, we still need more precipitation before the ground freezes deeply.
(Surry, Maine)
