From snow to mud...

Since last post here we have turned some kind of corner.  It's March.  The 10 and 12 foot piles of snow along both sides of the driveway have turned to ice and, like the Wicked Witch of the West, are melting away, inch by inch, day by day.  Our little back porch is clear, other than a two foot long icy mud-specked smear.  The entire top of the compost bin is visible.  The Adirondack chairs again are poking wooden backs and arms through the gritty slush.  More interesting, birds are singing everywhere.  They know - spring will come.  And, of course,  mud is the early spring harbinger.  With the amount of snow we had this winter, I envision mammoth amounts of mud to come.  It's 32 degrees but tonight we're supposed to get a mix of snow and rain.  That is March in Midcoast Maine.

The Intermediate ukulele class that David and I were attending has ended.  The Bay Chamber Ukulele Ensemble class I am in has 4 more classes to go.  We're discussing where we will perform the pieces we have been learning when class ends.   David is half way through a 6 week course in wood carving, making a Green Backed Heron.  Already he has managed to bring its lovely curves out of a hunk of wood.  The Rockland Public Library's annual poetry contest deadline for submitting poems is April 7th.  I'm thinking about it.  It seems unlikely that I could repeat the surprising luck I had the first year we moved here (when I was given 2nd place) but it keeps me thinking poetry.  I am half way through reading a book of the collected poems of Wendell Berry, alternating with other books, including right now "Dreaming Me - From Baptist to Buddhist, One Woman's Spiritual Journey" by Jan Willis, who is just 2 years older than I, grew up in segregated Alabama, went to Cornell and is a scholar and professor of religion at Wesleyan.

As I approach my 65th birthday this summer, I have begun to receive Medicare related mailings from what seem like hundreds of companies suddenly interested in my health, physical and financial.  In fact, assuming no untoward events, I AM counting down days to "retirement," although I have not made this known at work.  For the first time in my life since age 18, I intend to spend at least weeks and months, if not years, without the obligation to get up 5 days a week and and work for a pay check.  It is both thrilling and scary as hell.   After decades of working 9-5 (and often 8-8) to take care of my children and myself, pull out of debt, and eventually actually save money - to buy a house and put something toward "retirement" - now I am face to face with an entirely new stage of life in which I will be spending the money I worked so hard and so long to save instead of saving it...  and that is bone-chillingly frightening.

But meanwhile, here in Midcoast Maine, as we head into spring and toward our beautiful if brief fling with summer, and here's what's happening.  I am posting more items than usual this time, because ... well, because they seem to so represent to me what it's like to live here.  (Does it seem we have a population fairly equally divided among the elderly, hippy-back-to-nature types and working farmer-fisher persons?  I think that's about right!)

• Talk on Wild Bird Rehab, noon, Tuesday Talks at Merryspring Nature Center. By Laura Suomi-Lecker of Avian Haven in Freedom. $5/members free.

• "Diet and Dementia: What Works and What Doesn't," noon-1:30 p.m., Lunch and Learn Series at The Lincoln House, 22 River Rd., Newcastle. Registered dietitian Louise Spate speaks. Free lunch provided. RSVP: 563-3038 or Kacie@one2one.org.

• "Permaculture: A Vision for Regenerative Food Systems," Belfast Library. Belfast Garden Club biz meeting 1 p.m. Talk by certified permaculture designer Jesse Watson 2 p.m. Free. Open to all.

• Free Laundry 101 Workshop, 5 p.m., Clean Bee Laundry, Camden. Learn laundry basics and stain removal. If you have questions or topics you want covered, mention them when you register: 236-2530 or info@CleanBeeLaundry.com.

• "Invasive Forest Insect Outreach," 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Knox-Lincoln Cooperative Extension, 377 Manktown Rd., Waldoboro. Learn how to ID, report on and spread info about invasive insects. Free. Registration: 596-2040 or hildy@knox-lincoln.org.

• "Using Herbs to Find Comfort in Aging," 1 p.m., Camden Library. Jillian Kelsey-Rose presents the free program in the Quarry Hill's Adventures in Living Well Series. You must register: 921-6116.

• 11th Annual Maine Grass Farmers Network Grazing Conference, Sat., March 21, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Kennebec Valley Community College, Fairfield. FMI: 568-4142 or umaine.edu/livestock/mgfn/conference.

• "Poisonous Mushrooms in Maine and How to Avoid Them," Sat., March 21, 2 p.m., Camden Library. Talk by Greg Marley, hosted by Maine Mycological Association.

• Beginning Blacksmithing Course, six weeks on Tues. & Thurs. starting Tues., March 24, 6-9 p.m., Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum, 372 Fields Pond Rd., Orrington. Limited to six. $385. Registration: 745-4426 or irv@BangorLettershop.com.

• Free Varicose Vein Screening, Weds., March 25, 5-7 p.m., Picker Family Resource Center on Pen Bay Med Center campus. Registration: 921-5744.

• Finnish for Beginners, Sat., Apr. 11 & 25 and May 9 & 23, 1-4 p.m., Jura Hall (beneath the Finnish Church), Rte. 131, South Thomaston. Ages 10 and up welcome. Marja-Leena Bailey teaches. $120; $100 for additional family members. FMI: gifford7tree@gmail.com or 989-1971.

• Camden Shakespeare Festival Seeks Volunteers, to help with performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth in Camden Amphitheatre, July 30-Aug. 16. FMI: info@CamdenShakespeare.org.

Every morning I awake and say "modah ahi... thank you ... " To whom do I say this?  I suppose to the God of Abraham who is the God I choose not to believe in mostly (except for moments I find I do or at least may believe).  I say thank you for the grace that is my life.  For my children, my partner, my family, friends, community, for health,  for birdsong, for sunrise, like this one from this past week:

And I ask for peace.  Peace. Peace.  Far and near.  May the memory of Tony Robinson be a blessing for his family and his community.  Peace be upon Tony Robinson, his family and all of us.