Turning the corner

I think we here in mid coast Maine may have turned the corner toward fall.  Oh, it's still warm, even hot, and humid (today is cooler - mid 70s - but rainy), but I see brown edges on the Horse Chestnut's leaves.  The Horse Chestnut is the first, or among the first, trees here to sprout leaves in the spring and among the first to lose them in the fall.  The gardens that Ella and I pass on our morning walks are beginning to look ... disheveled.  Labor Day lurks around the corner and the days are distinctly shorter as twilight comes earlier and earlier.  The Big Three tourist events in Rockland - the Blues Festival, the Lobster Festival and the Boat, Home and Harbor Show - are finished.  We did not attend any of them this year, although we did put our chairs out on Main Street early to get seats to watch the Lobster Festival Parade again.  Nothing new or outstanding; in fact, this year there were no Clydesdales - which was a highlight of last year's parade.

David and I have been kayaking quite a bit.  I'm really enjoying my new kayak.  Here are a few photos from several different days' paddles:

Marsh tucked in a corner of Megunticook Lake

David entering the marsh

Cliffs on the edge of Megunticook Lake

Another day -

Paddling away from Birch Point beach

And most recently -

Pretty sailboat being readied to sail near Friendship

Loon off of Friendship

So my new ukulele arrived.  It is beautiful.  I have to admit that I think I secretly  believed that when I held it, I would suddenly (and magically) play better than I do.  Not true.  But the instrument is wonderful.  It is a sweet sound, a true sound.  This is a photo David took moments after I opened the box and then the hard case and held the ukulele for the first time (please don't look at my bed head):

I think I mentioned that my son, Sam, took his family on a cross-country road trip - from Atlanta to California and back.  It seems they had a wonderful adventure, camping in national parks, visiting the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, the Pacific coast.  A lot of driving, but the kids are used to that.  I'm closing with 2 photos from that trip that Sam shared with me - both were taken IN the car, not at some of the scenic places they visited - but I think they capture the spirit of the trip.

That's all, folks - except:  Peace.