Journey North

We left the House on the Creek mostly packed, somewhat clean, and ventured forth to make our way to the House on the Cove. The Young Couple, who will occupy the House on the Creek for the next 18 months, are starting their move-in. We feel so blessed to have them be our caretakers during our extended adventure at the House on the Cove.

The drive north was largely uneventful. The first day we had downpours of rain, snow showers, and clouds. The second day we again had downpours of rain. At journey's end that day we had delectable sandwiches with Baby Bear and Boo Boo at the Deli After Dark in Dedham, MA: so good, so good! We then stayed near Baby Bear and Boo Boo for a day. Baby Bear became a member of her faith community; we went to worship with her and Boo Boo. It was a lovely service and the faith family seemed warm and welcoming. After worship, Baby Bear and Boo Boo prepared a feast - baked ham, maple and balsamic vinaigrette sweet potatoes, and green beans almondine with pineapple sorbet for dessert. Yum! Yum! The drive to the House on the Cove had some clouds, some rain, some sun, and National Public Radio all the way! The Cat was her amazing super-traveler again and seems content to have returned to her sun porch (despite it being just a tad chilly ...)

The boxes we mailed before we left have arrived, so we have much unpacking to do in the coming days. The file cabinet we purchased last year arrived over the winter and will be delivered later this week. I am hoping to get a microfiber mop for use on the floors. We had a quick trip to the remodeled grocery store in Bar Harbor - it seems quite nice and we will be back there again tomorrow to do a real shopping trip. The Cat has asked that we find her favorite - Barbara's Cheese Puffs - sometime soon, too.

The trees are beginning to bud, flowers should soon be pushing up through the ground, and the rain we are suppose to receive should help bring the May flowers. I am excited that we will get to see all of spring this year!

Ducklings on Duck Cove!

The President and Mrs. Obama had an evening out without the children Saturday, and then the family went home on Sunday morning. It was nice to have them here (they vacation busily!) but the Island seems calmer without them, too, which is also nice.

Sunday Papa Bear watched the Tour de France while Mama Bear went to worship at St. John's. The Rev. George Swanson presided. For the sermon, he invited the congregation to reflect on what are our necessities. The word is from the Collect for the day, and the response from the congregation was largely centered on the Gospel text, the story of Mary and Martha. Many felt we do not celebrate the Martha's enough for what they do. Rev. George shared with me after the service that in the Middle Ages, the Cloud of Witness was struck by the fact that Jesus spoke to Martha: for that to happen was, at the time, a huge honor. One congregant wanted Jesus to say something like, "Martha: I recognize you have been working hard. Take a moment and join us and I will help you clean up later." But Jesus did not, and apparently moved far outside the normal conventions of the time even speaking to Martha. Much to ponder here.

We played at home and Papa Bear watched the Red Sox that afternoon.

On Monday, Mama Bear did her run/walk, we did some cleaning, and Papa Bear made strawberry sorbet. We used a new recipe: I like Boo Boo's recipe better, though both are good. We also did our grocery shopping early this week, and stopped by the vet in Bar Harbor to obtain some cat food. Still have not found the Real Pickles Dills for which we are searching. One of the stores carried them when we first arrived, but no longer does. These pickles are amazing and if we cannot find them soon, we will be ordering them.

We saw ducklings on Duck Cove! They seemed to having a great time!! (See picture at beginning of this blog entry.)


And we found Maine blueberries!!! They are so sweet and so small and so great!!! Mama Bear has had them with local raspberries (also great) and with a lovely peach, too, as well as all by themselves. We have a few blueberries on a bush near the street and what appear to be raspberries growing, too, though ours have yet to ripen so they could be something else.

Tuesday a.m. we took a bike ride under a blue and scattered cloud sky. It was cool and comfortable and so much fun. We await the delivery of desks later today and need to gather what we need for the trip to Chicago soon. The Cat and Mama Bear took a stroll to the cove. Mama Bear sat on a rock and surrounded The Cat with her arms while The Cat looked around. The Cat eventually took some tentative steps from Mama Bear's arms to the rock, and then Mama Bear and The Cat went back to the House on the Cove.

Weather forecast is for a nice day today, a nice day tomorrow, some rain overnight, and then more nice days. Life is, despite the predictions of an apocalypic event on 21 December 2012 on the television program on the Discovery channel, simply grand!

Quests

Papa Bear and Mama Bear have, over the years, undertaken a number of what we call "quests." A quest happens when there is a need for an item or service, research/a search about what the need is and how it can be met has to happen, the results of this phase have to be evaluated, a plan for fulfilling the quest must be crafted and then implemented.

Perhaps our most famous quest was Papa Bear's The Watch Quest. This particular quest is capitalized because it lasted for over twenty years - from the time we were married until we were in the midst of Baby Bear's college quest (that quest being far shorter and much less extensive and so not needing capital letters - after all, Baby Bear did not ask to visit every possible college in the United States, but selected a few and we visited those, all within one year).

During the time of The Watch Quest, passing a place that might contain The Watch for Papa Bear meant that we had to go into the establishment, look at all possibilities, perhaps have a salesperson take two or three candidates from the showcase, examine them, then usually (though not always) walk away when the possibilities were found lacking for one reason or another. By and large, Papa Bear has good aesthetic tastes and he is an engineer, and I am certain that existence of both of these conditions simultaneously contributed to the long duration of The Watch Quest.

With these characteristics influencing the decision criteria, there were requirements for both how The Watch would look as well as how it would function. Mama Bear learned patience, and to look at other items available in the same location during Papa Bear's tireless (and sometimes seemingly endless) seeking/evaluation process. During Baby Bear's visit to schools in Boston, we happened upon a now-defunct business in Cambridge Square and, since it sold watches as a part of its offerings, we had to go inside. And there it was: The Watch. Perfect to gaze upon. Perfect in function. Did we purchase it? No. It was, for us, too expensive and so, having found it, we left The Watch there.

The Watch Quest ended shortly thereafter: Mama Bear, upon our return to the House on the Creek, decided enough was enough and called the Cambridge merchant. She purchased the watch. She does not recall where she found the money nor how she managed to keep the expenditure a secret from Papa Bear, but she did, and he received The Watch as his birthday present that November. It has been wonderful to be able to walk by jewelry stores without stopping. It has been wonderful to watch Papa Bear use and appreciate The Watch. It was well worth every penny spent on The Watch to end The Watch Quest.

Other quests present themselves to us from time-to-time, as has happened here at the House on the Cove. We have the ongoing food quest, the bicycle quest in progress, the quest for furniture to complete the House on the Cove so that we can live here, (instead of visit here) as well as the quest to provide a mechanism for The Cat to have ready access to the basement (where her bathroom accommodations have been located) while providing some protection to others from randomly falling down the steps to the basement through the open door.

The good news is that we have made progress on some of these fronts.

• We are still exploring food options. We had the freshest and tastiest English muffins from Sawyer's Market in Southwest recently, which moved them onto the list of definite shopping places. This quest will likely continue for a while - how far to drive, how to get what we want/need/can afford, how often to shop - all are factors in this quest.
  
  
• We learned a lot about options for bicycles during our stop at the Southwest Cycle - gearing, suspension, types of handle bars, weights of bikes, etc. - all come into play and consideration.
  
  
• We took a day - a sunny day on Friday - to complete at least some of our furniture quest. We need more places to store clothes. Being here for the summer instead of two weeks means I have more clothes. I think Papa Bear has more clothes than he usually brought for vacation, too. We have a closet and two lingeries in which to store these clothes. We need more drawer space and so would like a dresser. To make floor space in the room to allow a dresser to fit, we would like to replace the present bedside tables with smaller, more traditional night stands. Having surveyed possibilities via the Web, and visited local furniture-selling establishments on a rainy day, and learned that we were going to have to order whatever we decided upon and that it would take eight weeks to deliver said items after they were ordered, and wanting to alleviate the non-storage situation as quickly as possible, we took the sunny day to revisit the stores, make a decision, and place an order. That part of the furniture quest is resolved, though we still need to decide if we want desks (thus far we are working off our laps or the coffee table, and it is not a problem.) If we want desks, then we have another quest to undertake.
  
  
• Papa Bear found (on the Internet) a gate that can be mounted inside the door frame 0f the doorway that leads to the basement. The gate has an opening in the bottom through with The Cat can pass unobstructed, and an actual gate that can be opened when a human wants to descend the stairs. We think it will meet our needs well. Our thanks to the Moderan Lady of Leisure who suggested this type of device might exist and to look for it.

All was not lost during the sunny Friday bedroom furniture quest completion: we still saw some beautiful scenery, as evidenced by this picture of a point on Thompson Island (the Island you cross when leaving the Mainland and heading towards Mount Desert).



Yesterday and today have been foggy, cloudy, and rainy. Perfect days for staying in, doing paperwork, reading ... Still trying to determine how to take a picture of the herring gull that seems to like to sit on the rocks that emerge at low tide. If I try to get close, it flies away; if I am not close, I cannot get the picture I want. Oh no!!! Is this another quest???

Rainy days and foggy days

We seem to be having a foggy/rainy day followed by a sunny/mostly sunny day this week. It is also delightfully cool (sorry people at the House on the Creek and its environs, where we understand it is hot, hot, hot.)

We have been window-shopping for things of late - looking for bicycles (I saw a really nice carbon fiber model that is out of our price range but, as I said, was very nice), some furniture and kitchen equipment for the cottage to make it easier to live here instead of visit here, and just to explore the area a little. The Cat does not mind our being out as long as we come back before her dinner time. Papa Bear now understands my plan for the proposed bedroom furniture arrangement. We are square with the post office and receiving mail at our box there. I also saw a really cool pink Vespa scooter ...

We are still trying different grocery stores to find what we want. Tried a local organic store today - they will give me a 10% discount when I bring them $100.00 worth of receipts from there (and gave me an envelope in which to save the receipts!) Hormone-free beef is still proving a challenge to find (and expensive when we find it.) Perhaps I will suggest it at the general-purpose grocery store we have visited and see what they can do, but I suspect that as Maine is not a beef-growing state, it may be more difficult to find here than at the House on the Creek. Chicken and fish are abundant, but I love the occasional burger.

We saw a deer swim the cove today - the first time I have seen that happen (and the first time I have seen a deer on the Island.)

The house at the end of the road has chickens and ducks (and ducklings). We have learned to enter the road VERY slowly to accommodate whomever might be in the midst of crossing the road.

We love the flowers - the rhododendron are blooming profusely, as are the lilacs and lupine.

We are avoiding the traffic backups in town that are due to construction by taking back roads when we can. It is interesting to note that construction work continues on rainy days: they do what they can in the season they are given to work.

There is a primary election here next Tuesdsay. The commercials thus far are very civil and each candidate seems to talk about what they will do instead of how bad someone else is. I like this positive approach to campaigning.

Am including some more pictures. The fog picture shows our visibility across the cove late today. The lobster buoys were found on the beach after a storm last year. One of our guests found them and hung them beneath the porch. The fact that they were found here attests to lost income for someone - the traps to which the buoys were attached are at the bottom of the ocean someplace off shore. The garden shed is used to keep the tools for the garden a neighbor has each summer. It was more simple when we first began coming here but received this major renovation (it is so cute!) within the last few years. The remaining pictures are more flower pictures. I think we need to get a picture of a rhododendron, too! Maybe tomorrow ...

Fog view across cove	Lobster buoys
Garden Shed	Lilacs
Lupines	Seaweed

We Have Arrived!

Sunset
House on the Cove
28 May 2010

Thursday we arose early and departed the hotel to visit a Cousin. After an uneventful journey (Papa Bear makes it really simple to follow him - changing lanes when there is room for both cars to make the move - no small feat in Boston rush hour traffic!), the Cousin welcomed us with open arms. She even invited The Cat into her home. The Cat readily exited the carrier, looked around, and spotted one of the Three Cats who reside with the Cousin. Backs arched, hissing ensued. (The Cat appears to like being an only cat, much as Baby Bear liked, at times, being an only child. I guess we now have in our family OCS (Only Cat Syndrome) in addition to OCS (Only Child Syndrome). I am not certain how we differentiate between the two OCS's, except to observe the Being experiencing the Syndrome.) The Cat readily re-entered her carrier for the remainder of the visit, and the Three Cats ignored the carrier. Peace was present.

It was the first time Mama Bear had met the Cousin and it had been a long, long time since Papa Bear had visited with her. She had pictures to share with us, and Grampie Bear's Bible (Grampie Bear died last December, so this was a fabulous gift). We had pictures for her, too, along with contact information. She then gave us excellent directions which allowed us to navigate easily to continue our journey (did I mention we had Grampie Bear's GPS device, too?).

The day was bright and sunny with little traffic. The Cat quickly settled into her sleep-in-the-carrier routine. Mama Bear listened to talk radio. There is a Psychic in Salem, MA, who had a business license (which, according to the Talk Show Host, made her licensed as a Psychic by the city of Salem, MA) who has been arrested for theft. It seems she told her clients that there were evil spirits around their money and advised her clients that they needed to give the money to her to avoid having terrible things happen to them and their loved ones. Some people gave her all their money - their IRAs, their savings, their stocks and other investments. It amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars for some. The Talk Show Host was ranting that he did not understand how the Psychic could be charged with theft if these people willingly gave their money to her. To him, a gift is a gift. Hmmmm ... Scanning yielded the Maine NPR station which had less ranting and was generally more pleasing. When The Cat seemed to stir, Mama Bear played another PPM disc and we continued our journey. We saw many officers awaiting by the side of the road to offer assistance if that were needed, and encountered some longish (15 minutes and more) construction delays between Bangor and Ellsworth.

Mama Bear caught sight of the mountains on the Island in Trenton and we soon crossed the causeway to the Island and journeyed to the House on the Cove. Lilacs are blooming so there are huge profusions of lilacs hanging like heavy pendants on bushes along the road. It was late in the day and the tide was out. We located The Cat in a small bathroom so that she could explore it, but left the door ajar so that she could exit when she chose. She was out of the room in a few minutes and spent a great amount of time investigating and watching. We carried our boxes and suitcases from the car, cleared the furniture of its protective covers, and watched the tide come in. We took The Cat (in our arms) to the steps to the shore so that she could view the Cove. We decided on dinner out (DiMuro's Top of the Hill, a tradition with us for our first-night-in-residence) and after dinner stopped at a grocery store to pickup necessities (coffee, etc.) Mama Bear saw gardens being prepared for the upcoming short growing season. The sun was setting on the far side of the cove as we arrived home.

Baby Bear and Boo Boo arrived near midnight for a few days respite and relaxation (and to deliver the supplies they purchased for us at the discount store where they are members). They are both looking so very fit. It makes me want to begin my exercise program again soon.

There is an Audubon clock here that gives a bird call on the hour. The Cat hears it, but the sound does not last long enough for her to locate its source. The sound begins, she freezes, and her head and ears swivel towards the sound. I must confess that we, too, also had difficulties locating the source of the sound the first time we stayed here but eventually we were able to determine the location. This morning, I showed The Cat where the sound was originating: as it neared 8 a.m. (when the Maine state bird - the Black Capped Chickadee - sings), I stood near the clock with her in my arms. She was looking around, not quite certain what we were doing nor why we were doing it, but was content. The chirp began. She quickly zeroed-in on it. She does not understand how the bird is hiding in that small space between the clock and the wall, but now understands what is happening.

Blue skies adorn the heavens this morning, which makes the cove reflecting the firmament oh-so-lovely. I can see yellow and red canoes/kayaks on the cove's far shore basking in the sun. The deciduous trees have their new-spring green in place, and the evergreens are sprouting their tender new growth, too. The shoreline is a mud brown with the varigated greys of the rocks that abound.

Today we must visit the post office to identify ourselves and also take time to purchase real groceries. Baby Bear and Boo Boo have given us an ice cream/sorbet maker to celebrate our retirement and I think we may need to try-it-out soon. Need to unpack, unwind, maybe take a hike, too.

So much to do, and yet we are happy and at peace. Last evening Papa Bear said that being here really made him feel retired. I love simply being here without a departure looming in the near future. I know that fall will arrive all too quickly, but I am so content to be here at the House on the Cove for an extended stay.