How much island would I land on if I could land on Wood Island?

Last weekend on September 17th we celebrated Maine Open Lighthouse day once again. This time we opted to go to one of the island lighthouses, which meant travel by boat.


Wood Island is not very far from shore, so we were quickly there. That's our boat making a quick getaway to gather up more tourists. The only problem was that the boat dropped us off at the point closest to shore rather than closest to the lighthouse.

We had a boardwalk to travel on, so it wasn't a difficult hike, just a long one. But it was pretty much the only option as the shore nearest the lighthouse was not very boat friendly...


...as you can see here.


The lighthouse was pleasant enough looking and it was a fine day to be out and about.


The stairs were quite narrow and steep. Railings had only just been put in. You can see they haven't even been unwrapped yet.


It didn't have the most spectacular fresnel lens we'd ever seen, but they are always interesting to look at. And, it was the first green lighted one we've seen.


We did get to see the lighthouse from sea as the boat did a circuit of the island on our way back in.


To enlarge any photo, find the lighthouse in it and click on its beacon.

San Andreasphault

As happy homeowners (well, us and the mortgage company) we decided each year we'd do one major home-improvement project. Last year we had the wood burning stove reconnected. After a winter of our snowblower picking up rocks from our increasingly rutted gravel driveway it was pretty clear our next priority was to have it paved. We collected quotes, I got the professional opinion of a man reparing a parking lot, and Cooper Paving was hired.

Monday, September 12th at 7:00 AM an energetic team of half-a-dozen or so gentlemen arrived. They stripped down the old gravel, sand and abundant weeds then laid down a bed of pulverized stone. Then they put down the asphault, taking special care to slope it to access our garage, front porch and entry to the road.



"It followed me home. Can I keep it?"

It's kind of strange, looking so clean and new.

We like special touches so we were delighted when the installers agreed to sprinkle in some loose turquoise nuggets we had. Posh, neh?

A September to Remember

Summer's not over, yet we're seeing a few leaves starting to get their autumn colors. So where did the summer go? We have been busy, but not posting a lot. Partly because we've been busy, partly because I've concentrated on mailing out my PostKards since I don't have a camera. What I've posted here are photos off Carrie's camera, Kemmer's phone, and my scanner.


We went to Old Hallowell Days out in Hallowell. We were disappointed in the "big" church sale, but had some luck in the Library book sale. And the parade had a giant puppet as seen on the right. That night we stopped by Sheila and Fred's place on the river for a close up view of the fireworks shot over the river.


As you may have guessed we added a new cat to our household, Persephone. Named for this goddess of the underworld mostly because she likes to be down (in the sunken living room, down the cellar stairs) or under (under the bed, under the couch). Not that she's shy, she just likes to attack from under cover, or have a more three dimensional playing area. She is young. Officially she was listed as a year old, but we think she was a few months short of that. She has grown since we got her and is fitting in well with our household. She and Qwill play once in a while, when Qwill is willing, but otherwise she is almost always begging us to play with her. She isn't a cat who likes to be held, but we'll see if she stays that way come winter.


Kemmer came out to visit us twice! The first visit we showed her the Sabattus Pond public beach area. Not very big, but not very crowded. She's thinking that maybe she'd like to live there when she retires. Not an ocean beach, which she prefers, but near us, which we like. Second time we went on a trail that follwed the Androscoggin river. Interesting tree trucks were seen on the shore. Almost spider like with the long roots as seen to the right here.

We survived Hurricane Irene. Power was out for almost two days, but since Carrie had the foresight to freeze numerous containers of water the only food we lost was some cornmeal that got wet from melting ice. Our yard is full of sticks and leaves and I anticipate a few more rounds of pick-up-sticks before I can safely mow.

How's your summer been?