Tourism

Hannah has been here for a while and brought with her the summer. She has had lobster up the waz and has not complained about it. On Saturday we did a circumnavigation of Arrowsic with Hannah, Em, and Julie Rust. Then yesterday Hannah and Molly and I went to Boothbay. So poor old Autumn languishes no more.
On the other hand, yesterday the Whaler motor did not want to start and discharged some oily gunk. It did run, but perhaps its time is coming round at last. Hope not.
Horrible wicked hot humid weather is on the way, while Marnie is in CT with Nancy. But yesterday I installed a portable air conditioner in our bedroom. We'll see what magic it can provide.

Berry pickers

The blueberries are in, an exceptional crop. Now that much of the sweetfern has been laid low, the bushes are happy. Sun and rain have helped them produce.
This past weekend we had a good crop of people, too, as the folks from Carlisle decided to come north for Saturday and treat us to a lkobster at Five Islands.
Then on Sunday we celebrated Molly's birthday with dark 'n stormies and steak.
All in all a great weekend, followed by some rest. Whew.

Why, Google, why?

Apparently this company employs thousands of engineers. I wouldn't have thought it would take so many to make Gmail worse with every iteration. Hell, I could probably do that myself.
And "Hangouts"? An abomination replacing a very helpful and elegant web tool. Perhaps what we have here is a corporate a-whole.

God Bless America

Let's be thankful for our country and its ability ever to renew itself. Other powerful nations through history have trashed themselves, or been overthrown, by becoming ever more conservative and self-indulgent. Perhaps this is a natural trend as the stock ages and becomes self-satisfied. And of course we have a powerful drive in this direction in the US today, in the shape of a large elephant that harrumphs and farts every twenty seconds. But the freshness that is indeed "the real America" is constantly renewed, through the agency of freedom, by the young and the foreign-born in a way unduplicated elsewhere in the world. That is why, in difficult times and unpleasant hiatuses, there is always hope, and why, even in our disappointments, there is optimism about the future.

Starting to grow

We've had a lot of rain, and today some sun, and things are growing and happy. Here you see some of the flowers that Hannah planted behind the bunkhouse. We've had day lilies and now tiger lilies and other stuff, too.
The volunteers are saluting: lettuce in grandma's garden, tomatoes in mine, and even some volunteer beets in the cucumber patch.
And then, of course, there's the grass.

Hot hot hot

Heat and Humdiddity came to Maine today. A boat trip up the Cathance for an elegant luncheon at the Town Landing Place was a journey through a furnace. Later, a trip to Five Islands cooled us down a bit, but there was little air moving. We're not used to this!
Koof was here as participant and witness. He also witnessed the all-time biggest load of seaweed on the outhaul. Nice to have events for a visitor.
Koof and the photographer (guess who) had lobsters, while some of the rest of us ate fried food and the youth cavorted, as the youth will do.

Grandson of a Beach

Jonas spent about two hours mashing about in the receding tide, all by himself at Reid State Park. Eventually he brought a slimy, sandy trophy to share.