Mare's Tails and Mackerel Scales

We have been enjoying cool days and even cooler nights of late. It has been rainy, foggy and sunny. We have had fun with weather folklore and are pleased to report the following:

Rain before seven, clear by eleven. This saying seems true. In our experience, if it rains before seven o'clock, it is usually not raining by eleven o'clock. It might not be clear-blue-skies clear, but it is not raining. We have verified this definitely in the evening and believe it is usually true in the morning, too.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. We have experienced that if we have a red sunset, the night is peaceful and the following day usually is nice. We have not been awake enough to see what color the sky is in the morning to make comment on that part of the folklore.



Mare's tail and mackerel scales make tall ships carry short sails. This saying, too, seems true. When we see the high level cirrus clouds (the mare's tails) and the clumpy altocumulous clouds and they seem to foretell that wind is on the way.



Of course, we can also watch the local television weather forecast, tune to the weather channel on the television, listen to the radio, check the weather on our computers or on our phones, but it is more fun for us to look at clouds, skies, and perhaps a weather map and to try to determine for ourselves what the weather will be. Today is is bright and sunny. We have a bit of an onshore breeze which seems to be mitigating the temperature, which is in the mid-60's right now.

Sunday was church at St. John's. The Rev. Jeffery Lewis talked to us on our responsibilities as Christians to keep the boat we share (the earth) whole from a people perspective and from an environmental perspective. He reminded us that captains of boats never step down to a life boat, they only step up to one, after all measures to save the ship have failed. We need to be alert to keep our ship afloat and healthy. And yes, this was all based on the day's scriptures.

The words about this lesson are my interpretation of what was said. The actual words said and ideas presented belong to Rev. Lewis and were delivered in a manner that was more interesting and likely clearer than what I have shared here.

Sunday afternoon I made a chicken stew that was served with bow tie pasta. Sunday evening I went to a concert in Bar Harbor at St. Saviour's. The Mt. Desert Summer Chorale presented a program named “Of Psalms and Kings.” (They had also done the program on Saturday evening.) The evening featured Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs (sung in what I think was Hebrew), Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (sung in what I think was Latin) and music by Parry, Emlen/Stookey and Handel, with soloists Donald Wilkinson, Stephanie Leonardi, Miriam Schildkret,and Clayton W. Smith. The music was wonderfully done and I am so happy that I went with the person from church who invited me. Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary) was there, sitting two rows in front of me. He and Mr. Emlen (who was also present) took a bow. There were also members of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra performing. There was a harpist and her parents sat next to us. The parents hid from her until after the performance (literally crouching behind amidst the pews when there were instrument changes.) After the performance, after the bows, as people began to leave, the harpist was looking around, spotted her parents, and a huge smile spread across her face and she ran to hug them. It was heartwarming to see.

Monday we used to run errands and fix things at the House on the Cove. We found a different board to use to hold the towel racks in place and a tool we can use as a router on it.

Tuesday was what we call a "veg" day: we did not much of anything. I learned to rip music from a CD (yes, should have known how to do it before, now do) and then transferring said music to my phone. I now have many songs to which I can listen while I read. I am also trying to find a good Internet site that will tell me the beats per minute for the songs I have, so that I can make a run playlist from music I like. And I spent time updating my phone apps and gathering some new ones. We did some reading, tried sandwiches from Little Notch for dinner, snuggled with the cat for the thunderstorm, and watched some television. The Red Sox won, which is always a happy event here. My run this morning was great - it was very cool and I kept The Beatles Paperback Writergoing in my head (sans headphones) to maintain my pace. Yes, my pace is slow, but then, I am not a fast runner.

Today's fabulous forest picture is another from my Fun Guy (aka Papa Bear) from our Beech Mountain hike.

Cloud pictures today are from the Wikipedia websites:
Altocumulus mackerel sky
and
File:Cirrus sky panorama.jpg
and used in accordance with the permissions provided on those sites.