It's Friday!

Sunset at House on the Cove, August 2010

It is Friday here at the House on the Cove. It is a lovely day, with an on-shore breeze, in the mid-70's, and a blue sky with scattered puffy white clouds.



Monday through Wednesday was my yearly "Girl Friend's Weekend" with my good friend/claimed sister from New York state. When I lived at the House on the Creek, we would meet in southern Pennsylvania, usually in either Philadelphia or Reading, and shop, go to ball games, hike, swim, talk, visit museums ... whatever we found that seemed fun. This year we changed our destination to Boston and, with the help of Baby Bear, had an amazing time. My new telephone, which has GPS that provides excellent directions, also helped.



We arrived just after mid-day on Monday (within 15 minutes of each other!), discovered the roses in the lobby, and then went shopping at the Wrentham Premium Village Outlets. We talked and shopped and found some of the stores offered outlet prices; others did not. I found a tea kettle!! And some much-needed small bowls!! After shopping, we ate dinner at Jalapenos Grill in Walpole and talked while we ate. It was yummy!! We then went back to the hotel for a evening of talk.



On Tuesday, after our morning walk in the nearby neighborhood (another tradition, and it involves our talking), we took our time deciding what to do and found ourselves that afternoon at Houghton's Pond in the The Blue Hills Reservation. What a lovely place! A play ground, a swimming area, a place for picnics, a concession stand (fried dough!), a beach ... in addition to places to hike. We took advantage of the water, which was shallow but fun. And we talked. After returning to the hotel, we ate at the Norwood Chateau for some Italian food and conversation and then went back to the hotel for an evening of talk.

On Wednesday, we arose early, did our walk and talk, and then navigated to Nails and Company in Norwood for manicures (and talking) followed by some shopping for shorts (and talking). We went back to the hotel, had a quick good-bye hug, and we were on our ways home. I discovered I had left my sweater at the spa and called Baby Bear, who retrieved it and will bring it when she and Boo Boo visit soon.

I stopped in Freeport to visit the mother-ship (I think they may call it their flagship) of LL Bean to find some khaki shorts, and then visited a drug store in Ellsworth on the way to purchase some items I was having problems finding here on the Island.

It was great fun!! After arriving home, we watched the Red Sox game, which Baby Bear was attending. She had planned to have dinner with a girl friend, and the girl friend received two tickets to the game, so they changed their plans. I am confident Boo Boo was sad he did not get to go, but I also know that he has sometimes gone to games when one of his friends received tickets, so I think they have an understanding about these opportunities. A home run was hit to the section in which Baby Bear was sitting, and we saw her!!!! A fleeting five seconds of anonymous and slightly blurry fame!!! And yes, you had to know where she was sitting to see her - had we not been DVR'ing it, and able to go back to look at that part of the game very slowly, we would have missed her.

Thursday I did a medium run, and some gardening while Papa Bear scythed, and we went grocery shopping. We did some reading, too, and watched some of the programs on the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, which are favorites of ours. I met with my House on the Creek book club via Skype Thursday evening - they are so patient when the connection drops!! And last night I learned that my doing things - even muting and unmuting - helps the connect stay active and prevents this ocean roar sound. It was great to see them and I know not how they did it, but they found a way to position the ASUS Videophone so that I could see all of them (some of them only some of the time, but it was great to see them!!)!!! (The videophone they are using has its camera fixed at the top which makes it difficult to position so that I can see them and they can see me.) I am so appreciative for the efforts of our techie Librarian who manages to get the connection going each month!!

Today Papa Bear and I arose early to visit the farmer's market for berries, completed the form for the rebate on the network extender we purchased to make our phones work a bit better at home, and went to Bar Harbor in search of heavy cream that was not ultra-pasteurized. We could not find any, so, despite the warnings in the recipe to avoid ultra-pasteurized heavy cream, it is what we have and so is what we will use!! We also stopped in Bar Harbor for breakfast at Jordan's, and visited some shops for some maps and books on the history of the Island.

We will have peach, banana and pineapple sorbets this week. Looks like blackberry and raspberry seasons are over. Peach season will be soon drawing to a close as will the wild blueberry season. It has been a good year for berries, which makes the locals wonder what is in store for winter this year.

The amazing sunset picture is an HDR effort of the amazing Papa Bear!

A Berry, Berry Nice Time

While the sunset falls earlier, and the evenings are cooler, and the season is winding down, it is still a good time to be here at the House on the Cove. On Friday, I went to the Farmer's Market and purchased sweet corn, red raspberries, peaches, Maine blueberries (from Washington County) and tomatoes.

After the trip to the Farmer's Market, we went to Cadillac Mountain for a photo shoot (Papa Bear is experimenting). I stayed in the car and read. Then we went to the grocery store.

That evening, we had our long-anticipated dinner: fresh corn, burgers, Real Pickles dills, and Peaks Organic Nut Brown Ale. It was yummy, and the fresh raspberry sorbet was fabulous. Papa Bear has a great recipe now!!

I love it that we have black berries ripening in our yard, that the red raspberries are so sweet, and that the peaches are so yummy. We have made sorbet from most of our fruit: watermelon, strawberries, peaches, raspberries, and blackberries (we seeded the blackberries, and they were store-purchased as we only have a few ripe berries now.)

Saturday was a long run for me - 3.5 miles. Papa Bear worked in the yard. We did some errands in the afternoon, and had another nice dinner that evening.

Today was worship at St. John's for me. The Rev. Vesta Kowalski led us, and talked about how Christ in Luke tells us we should be able to see what is going to happen, but that we never seem to: we are always surprised by it, especially when disasters happen, and so we live reactively. And she wondered if it was because we did not want to see it so we do not look, or if it is that we are simply too self-centered to look outside ourselves, or if we are incapable to see what is coming or that we see it but refuse to act. We know how to react and respond, but perhaps we do not know how to prevent. She talked about how churches are communities - we care for each other, and for those outside our walls. She talked about how young people are surprised that churches have this purpose as a part of who they are. She shared that a recent study indicated that young people want churches to be places of mentorship - both for their lives as Christians and their lives outside the Church, they want civility, they want transparency and they want integrity. She shared that so often what we want to do is to recreate what we had at a time in the past when we were comfortable with what was happening, instead of looking forward to where we are called to be. We need to be community. We need to be community within and to spread that community without.

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

Laundry, reading, Red Sox and prep for my trip to Boston tomorrow took up the remainder of the day. Papa Bear took some time to make seedless blackberry sorbet. It was amazing!!