In the Right Place: Clear and Present Danger

It’s raining steadily as I write. Finally. A constant rain fell through the night and is continuing to drum pleasantly on our roof. We haven’t had an effective rain since the summer. We’re so dry that I bet a 40-day and 40-night soaker would not motivate any of our many capable ark builders here. The situation in Maine is serious and even dire in other northeastern states, as you can see from yesterday’s weekly U.S. Drought Monitor maps:

Most of Maine is experiencing moderate drought and the rest of the state remains abnormally dry, creating brush and wildfire dangers in this highly-wooded state where most people rely on wells for drinking water and, often, on ponds for fire truck water:

Our ponds have been drying up:

The situation is worse in some other northeast states, according to the Drought Monitor: “[E]ssentially from north-central Maryland northward and eastward, little or no precipitation fell [during the week]. *** As a result, conditions continued to deteriorate in [many] areas. *** Severe drought (D2) expanded to cover much of the East Coast Megalopolis and the western suburbs. Unusual brush fire activity and wildfire danger has been frequent for the past couple of months, and a few municipalities have mandatory water use restrictions in place ….”

(Photograph taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 21, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Department of Contrasts

November can be fickle with her weather. She seems to like to try on days that are a little gray now, a little sun later, more gray, more sun, very dark, very bright; relatively warm, relatively cold; sprinkles, downpours, and even moderate drought as we have now. But November’s fickleness can provide opportunities to see familiar things differently.

Above. you see Conary Cove under Monday’s wintry gray sky. As she always does, she’s allowing the cold, fast-rising tide to cover her. Below, you’ll see Naskeag Point on the next day under a cloud-scudded, sunny-blue wintry sky. She’s slowly disappearing, as she always does, under the same fast-rising tide that has become a day older.

(Images taken in Blue Hill and Brooklin, Maine, on November 18 and 19, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Misers and Mysteries

As you may know, I visit this deformed little old lady regularly. She lives on the WoodenBoat campus with a number of similar old ladies who originally were part of an apple orchard that apparently was planted more than 100 years ago. They’re a miserly group that holds onto some of their apples until ice, snow, and gravity slowly force them to let go.

What type of apples they hold onto has been a mystery to me. Perhaps you can tell:

Yes, I have John Bunker’s massive “Apples and the Art of Detection” (400+ pp.) on how to identify old Maine apples. But, I must confess that I became more confused after consulting that fascinating tome than I was before I risked a hernia and picked it up. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 18 and 19, 2024.)

In the Right Place: The Big Switch

Today is the first day of our sea scallop fishing season – but only in certain zones for divers’ scallops. These are hand-harvested from the sea bottom by Maine’s relatively few licensed divers who wear wet suits and self-contained underwater breathing apparatuses (SCUBA equipment).

Above, you see “Tarrfish” yesterday; she’s owned and captained by diver David Tarr. His boat already is sporting a blue and white international diving flag (“code alpha/alfa”). The flag signals that the vessel, when circling in open water, has a diver down and other vessels should keep clear and proceed slowly.

In the meantime, many lobster fishermen are bringing in their traps and ending their seasons:

A good number of the fishermen soon will install masts, booms, “drags” (dredges), and weather-protective shelling huts on their “lobster boats” to drag sea bottoms for scallops in the winter.

The scallop-dragging season opens here in the first week of December. Some of the fishermen already are taking orders from drooling neighbors for the delicious, off-the-boat mollusks. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 14 [traps] and 18 [boat], 2024.)

In the Right Place: Two Coves, Two Moods

Above, you see the boathouse in neat and tidy Conary Cove during the golden hour of a bright November afternoon. It’s under a proscenium of oak branches, with a Blue Hill Bay background.

Below, you’ll see a rough and wild “corner” of Great Cove on a gray November morning. As the incoming tide meets spruce tree reflections, it turns a soothing green:

(Images taken in Blue Hill and Brooklin, Maine, on November 9 and 15, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Get Out the Traps, Nellie!

Here’s the November full moon through some clouds very early today. It was slightly (but not noticeably) fuller the two days before, when overcast prevented me from photographing it.

Native Americans and early Colonists apparently called it the beaver moon. That’s because it rises when it’s time to trap beavers before stream and pond ice make it too difficult to do so. On Thanksgiving, the moon will be a very thin, waning (getting thinner/losing illumination) crescent moon. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 17, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Caution vs. Lust

Interesting background: Yesterday morning, I was waiting covertly for a slow-browsing white-tailed doe to come into the clear so I could “shoot” her entire new winter coat. But, she suddenly stopped, alerted, and stared intently – not at me. I looked where she was looking.

At the woods’ edge, this magnificent creature that you see also was staring – at me, then her, then me. I immediately pressed off several “shots” at him and he quickly chose caution over lust and disappeared without a trace.

The doe? She just put her head down and continued to browse calmly again where I couldn’t get a good angle on her.

Yes, it’s the first full week of the major deer hunting season here and I got me my buck, an 8-pointer with excellent markings. One good thing about hunting with a camera: I’m not limited to one antlered deer. I may get another, if I’m lucky. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 15, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Time to Talk Turkey

This image of a wild turkey appears with my monthly column in the current Ellsworth American:

To read the column about how turkey became a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, concerns about those domestic turkeys, and the history of the wild ones that were the ancestors of our supermarket turkeys, click here: https://www.5backroad.com/montly-column

In the Right Place: Killer Instinct

How vicious is Asian bittersweet? As you see from this image taken yesterday, the invasive tree killer even attacks guy wires that stabilize utility poles:

I suppose that it can’t hurt them, but I wonder what will happen if it ever reaches the primary wires and insulators. My guess is that it won’t go that high, although this example reached over 10 feet high. It remains active in taking over large swarths of vegetation:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 13, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Winterization

Great Cove in the winter is transformed from a busy summer recreational boating anchorage to a quiet haven for winter ducks, loons, and our resident seagulls. One of the most noticeable changes occurs when the piers get “winterized.”

The piers are built to be tall and sturdy to withstand our significant tides and winter storms, including occasional sea ice. They have long gangways down to docking floats where small boats can tie-up and larger ones can pick up and discharge passengers.

In the winter, the docking floats are detached and stored ashore and the disengaged gangways to those floats are stored atop the piers. The high piers probe into the Cove like abandoned bridges to nowhere and seagulls take adverse possession of them to sun themselves.

Here you see the WoodenBoat School pier yesterday in its winterized state as the tide is rising and soon will cover most of its stolid granite pilings. Its docking float was hauled up nearby:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 12, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Shooting Fawns

Above, you see a young white-tailed deer buck that was born in the spring and was “shot” by me in Sunday’s first morning light. Technically, he’s still a fawn, as is his twin sister who was nearby in the shadows:

Generally, a deer is considered to be a fawn until it becomes a year old; then, it’s called a yearling until it matures into an adult and is called a doe or buck. 

Speaking of being shot, we’re in firearms hunting season now until November 30. The limit is one antlered deer per year. Although this buck has fur-covered “buttons” on his head, he and his sister are considered to be mostly protected as “antlerless deer” under Maine’s regulations: “Hunting of antlerless deer (a deer that has no antlers or has antlers less than 3 inches in length measured from the skull) is prohibited except by special permit during both the firearms and muzzleloader seasons.”

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 10, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Veterans Day

I salute my fellow veterans with these stirring images taken at Arlington National Cemetery. They show the military funeral ceremony of a close friend and professional colleague, Donald Green, formerly a Lt. Colonel in the Marine Corps.

Don received “Military Funeral Honors with Funeral Escort,” including a caparisoned (riderless) horse with reversed boots in the stirrups to symbolize a leader who always looks back on his troops:

This Military Funeral Honors with Funeral Escort ceremony is one of the three military ceremonies offered veterans at Arlington. It includes a casket team (bearers/pallbearers of body or ashes); flag-draped coffin on a wheeled caisson; firing party; taps bugler; folding and presentation of the U.S. flag to family or other designees; a military band, and a military marching element of troops from the deceased’s service, the size of which varies by rank of the deceased. It is reserved for the highest enlisted military members and officers and service members regardless of rank who receive the Medal of Honor, who were prisoners of war (POWs) or who were killed in action, may receive military funeral honors with funeral escort.

Arlington also offers “Armed Forces Funeral Honors,” which are the same as the above military funeral honors with funeral escort, with the exception that escort platoons from each of the military services participate. These funerals are reserved for the President of the United States (as commander-in-chief), the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and officers granted multiple-service command.

The basic Arlington ceremony is called “Military Funeral Honors” and is for enlisted service members and warrant-officer-level personnel who are interred there. It includes a casket team, firing party, bugler, and the folding of and presentation of the U.S. flag.

“Spouses and Dependent Honors” are available to those of a current or former member of the armed forces who is buried at Arlington. For these, the military service in which the member served will provide a casket team or body bearer and a military chaplain, if requested. No other military funeral honors will be rendered unless the spouse also served in the military.

There are some special exceptions and conditions:

•  Only Army and Marine Corps colonels and general officers may be provided a riderless horse, if available.
•  Army, Navy, and Marine Corps general officers may receive a battery cannon salute (17 guns for a four-star general, 15 for a three-star, 13 for a two-star, 11 for a one-star), if available.
•  Minute guns (guns that fire at one-minute intervals) may be used for general officers/flag officers of the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy, if available.
•  The President of the United States is entitled to a 21-gun salute, while other high state officials receive 19 guns.
•  Currently, support from the Army’s Caisson Platoon has been suspended until further notice due to the need to rest and provide medical attention to the horse herd.

(Leighton Archive images taken at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Va.; Arlington Cemetery fact sheets liberally quoted.)

In the Right Place: Sky and Water

Here you see a November sky and water view of Blue Hill and Jericho Bays from Brooklin’s Amen Ridge. Under those drifting cumulus clouds lie Flye Island in the middle and Mount Desert Island on the horizon.

MDI is Maine’s largest island and contains most of Acadia National Park. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 7, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Soberly Stunning

When I went to the Brooklin Cemetery on Wednesday, I came across this mostly unreadable little marker for a son named “Jacob E.” It was among much larger monuments and near one for “Jacob S. Freethey” in what appeared to be a Freethey family plot area. (That family was among the original settlers here.)

The stone was under a Japanese maple that was creating a scarlet frenzy in this sacred place, wildly flinging her vibrant leaves. Perhaps it was my mood, but I found the sight to be soberly stunning: a very small, gray gravestone – was Jacob a dead child? – in a red rain that covered the burial area with flaming puddles.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 6 and 8, 2024.)

November 10, 2024, postscript: According to a gravesite registry found by Lorna Rockwell Grant, Jacob died young (“d.y.’); he was the son of Captain Ellis Edwin Freethey (1834-1910) and Hattie R. Herrick ((1842-1907. They were married on May 24, 1864 in Boston. Captain Freethey may have served in the Civil War.

In the Right Place: Not Good

Our ponds this November look good from a distance, especially on sunny days such as yesterday when this image was taken on the WoodenBoat campus. However, pond water levels generally are down significantly. The situation is not good.

This year’s early winter dryness has put the entirety of Maine into a state of abnormal dryness and moderate drought, according to yesterday’s U.S. Monitor report:

The ground is dangerously hard in many areas. If we get one of those November cold snaps with accompanying heavy rain, much of the rainfall may simply become heavy runoff. (Photo taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 7, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Acceptance

I went to the Brooklin Cemetery yesterday to figuratively bury my electoral disappointments and find some solace. Being alone among the old stones and trees and those lying there who no longer can be disappointed helped in coming to an acceptance.

Fittingly, some trees in the Cemetery seemed to be uttering their last beautiful hurrah of the year, such as this Japanese maple and its prodigy;

Others had already done so, such as the Camperdown elm:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 6, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Election Day

Here’s what one of our nation’s most historic Election Days looked like yesterday in Brooklin, Maine, a town of less than 1000 full-time residents. As of early afternoon, there had been a “steady stream of voters” voting in the Town’s four voting booths, according to Town Clerk Heather Candage.

In addition to the significant national and state office candidacy options, there were several state-related questions on the ballot. One was a proposal to adopt a new, minimalistic Maine state flag that won a state-sponsored public contest on the subject.

The winning design consists of a stylized depiction of the state tree (an eastern white pine) and a blue North Star on an off-white background. There are 16 green branches on the pine to signify Maine’s 16 counties. Early voting indicates that the flag proposal may be defeated.

(Primary image taken in the Brooklin Town Office, Maine, on November 5, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Less Is More

We’re now getting the more colorful winter sunsets and afterglows like this one on Saturday. They usually start with the undersides of clouds being painted pink and the horizons turning buttery:

Then, as the clouds darken, the horizon band takes on amber hues before disappearing under the descending darkness:

As I understand it, we see more of the sun’s rainbow of colors during winter sunsets primarily for two reasons. First, there’s less water (humidity) and dust in the air to obscure and distort views. Second, the angle of the sun is shallower, which allows the warmer color spectrum to be seen easier. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 2, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Complete

Yesterday was a good first Sunday in November, if you discount certain football games. The day was especially fine late in the afternoon at Naskeag Harbor, when visitors had left and the sun was in the process of doing the same.

It was brisk, but not winter-cold; what little wind there was caused a roll in the water, not a chop. Several loads of lobster traps were waiting to be taken to storage, their bright colors adding to the warm light. Also, seemingly to be alertly waiting to be called to work, were the fishing vessels.

The composition becomes incomplete when they’re not home. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 3, 2024.)

In the Right Place: Developing a Taste

Here you see three of the leaders of an all-female band (or “raft”) of wild turkeys that roam our area at this time of year. These adult hens usually number 11 or more and they do something that may be unusual for turkeys, which are known as woods and field game.

From time to time, these adventuresome birds go down to the coast at low and lowering tide to forage in the mudflats and among the intertidal plants and algae (rockweed, etc.). It’s hard to see what they’re eating; they fast-strut away or even fly off when they see me. But, I’m fairly sure some of their snacks consist of whole (in-shell) mud snails on the flats and feisty green crabs in the seaweed.

It would be seem just if our restored and seemingly overpopulated wild turkeys developed a taste for our overpopulated invasive green crabs. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 1, 2024.)