Feeling like March...

It was a beautiful sunny day.  I think it may have reached 50 degrees or close to it, but with a stiff breeze bringing a hint of  chill to the air as if an early spring day. Here's a photo from Ella and my walk this morning a little before 7:00 a.m.  I caught the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse lamp as a ferry headed out to Vinalhaven:

There was something special about the light over the sea this morning.  All the ice is gone from the harbor.  

Yesterday's rain seems to have cleared more than the ice from the sidewalks.  But the latter melting was very welcome.  This morning was the first day I dispensed with wearing my clamp-on "Stabilicers".  Just regular boots on almost clear sidewalks.  A relief.

This afternoon Ella and I walked the long walk up Main to Cedar, over to Lawn and around behind the high school.  The little creek there was running again.  Definitely felt like early spring.  I have to remember that it's not yet mid-January.  There's a lot more winter to come.

I cancelled the pot luck Erev Shabbat dinner that David and I were to sponsor later this month.  Now I feel a little foolish, but at the time, we had had snowfall after snowfall, it was all piled up, our driveway was down to one-car width with room only for 1 or 2 cars max.  I was worried that anyone who chose to attend would have to navigate icy sidewalks and a pretty long walk to reach us. So I suggested re-scheduling for a date when the weather improves. 

Ella had her annual check-up at the vet.  Dr. L pronounced her "perfect"!  

David and I attended the "Seed Saving" lecture at the Camden Library on Thursday.  Very interesting - and somewhat complicated.  I guess my basic take-away was that we're not going to be real seed-savers here on Birch Street - our yard - and consequently our garden - is just too small.  But I look forward to starting our garden earlier this year - with more seeds and fewer seedlings.  

Well, another week ahead.  It's supposed to stay warm - over 32 degrees through Wednesday, with an inch of snow or so on Thursday.  Sounds good to me.

I'm just enjoying the day.  And very grateful to be able to do so.

Peace.

Brrrr ... this post is out of order - this is a post from Friday January 3rd - forgot to post it until today

6:53 a.m., Friday, January 3.  David was up before 5:00 a.m. digging out the driveway as he had to be at work by 7:00 a.m., apparently to put together snow blowers for people who weren't convinced by the 17 inches of snow or the 12 inches of snow that fell in 2 prior storms this season.  I got up and helped shovel a little at the end, and he drove my truck so we can finish digging out his car later.

Here's the current temperature - check out the "feels like" temperature of -28 degrees F.

Rockland Weather at a Glance

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Upper Park Street, Rockland

Elevation

79 ft

Station Select

Now

Overcast

Temperature

-7.0 °F

Feels Like -28 °F

Wind(mph)

10.0

Sunrise / Set

7:11 AM

4:10 PM

Moon

Waxing Crescent

More Astronomy

What's really disturbing is that the forecast says it will be 44 degrees on Monday and we'll get 1/2 inch of RAIN!  Then Monday night it will be 8 degrees, so all that rain, and all the snow the warm temperatures melt, will freeze and we'll be skating on a sheet of ice again!  I hate that!  I know it's because of my fear of falling.  And I know my fear of falling stems from the fall in front of my Connecticut apartment a few years ago in which I shattered my wrist, had to have surgery and a titanium plate with more than a dozen screws inserted to hold it together.  Sometimes in particularly cold weather, that wrist aches!  

I'm waiting for the sun to come up a little more before "walking" Ella this morning.  Given the snow and the cold, I think we won't go far.  She loves the snow, but I think the cold is too much even for her.

And I'll have to go check the bird feeders again, get rid of any snow or ice so the seed is available to what I know will be a hoard of hungry birds.

Stay warm.  Stay inside if possible.  Be peace.

Peace.

Bi-polar?

Today's Rockland weather:

Rockland Weather at a Glance

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Upper Park Street, Rockland

Elevation

79 ft

Station Select

Now

Overcast

Temperature

50.7 °F

Feels Like 50.7 °F

Wind(mph)

13.1

Sunrise / Set

7:11 AM

4:13 PM

Moon

Waxing Crescent

More Astronomy

Here are a few photos of what the snow looked like yesterday.  A couple shots walking down Cedar Street during our morning walk (Cedar is one of the streets Ella and I walk every morning to or from the shore).

These give some idea of how much snow is on the ground - that's going to melt, have no where to go and turn into a thick sheet of ice.  Here's a couple photos from our yard.  The first shows how much snow has been piled up in front and along the driveway side of the house as a result of (1) snow fall and (2) piling the snow up after shoveling, snow blowing and the city clearing the sidewalk.    The second is our backyard, looking pretty much as it does just from the snow fall.

And now it's 50 degrees.  I can almost hear the snow outside screaming..... like the Wicked Witch of the West... "Help me, I'm melting...."  If only it could all melt away in the next 8 hours because tonight it is supposed to go down to 10 degrees.  That means, of course, everything that melts will turn to ice.  I want to make another run to the grocery store today to stock up.  I'd like to be prepared to NOT leave the house for a few days at least.  

Actually, David and I have plans for this coming Thursday evening.  Here's a glimpse of what's happening in Midcoast Maine on Thursday evening.  Can you guess which event we're attending?  (Hint - think outside ... the box.)

• Midcoast Magnet "Mini-Juice" Conference, UMaine Orono opens its new Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center. The conference featuring speakers, seminars and tours runs noon-4:30 p.m. Opening reception with UMaine's president 5-7 p.m. Registration: RegOnline.com/IMRCMaine. Snow date: Jan. 31.

• "Land, Food and Justice in the Hebrew Bible," 6:30-8 p.m., Adas Yoshuron Synagogue, 50 Willow St., Rockland. Rabbi Natan Margalit gives the talk in anticipation of the Feb. 21-23 Camden Conference, which has a theme of "The Global Politics of Food and Water." Free.

• "Caving in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico," 7 p.m., Vose Library, 392 Common Road, Union. Cave explorer and award-winning photographer Peter Jones gives the illustrated talk. Free. FMI: 785-4733.

• "The Heirloom Seed Project," 7 p.m., Camden Library, 55 Main St. Neil Lash of Medomak Valley High School, which has the oldest high school seed-saving program in the U.S., gives tips on how to begin a seed-saving collection.

With due respect and consideration to Rabbi Margolit, we don't plan to attend the "Land, Food and Justice in the Hebrew Bible" event, although the Camden Conference's theme this year of "Global Politics of Food and Water" sounds interesting.  We are planning to attend the "Heirloom Seed Project" event.  We want to start more of our garden from seeds this year, and that means getting an earlier start.  And we want to learn about saving seeds. It's a good project when there are sub-zero temperatures and the ground is ice encased.

Peace, peace, far and near.

Hello 2014

Happy New Year to anyone still checking in on this blog!

At 7:05 a.m. on January 1st this was the weather in Rockland when I took Ella out for our morning walk:

Rockland Weather at a Glance

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Thomaston, Thomaston

Elevation

157 ft

Station Select

Now

Clear

Temperature

-2.4 °F

Feels Like -2 °F

Wind(mph)

0.0

Sunrise / Set

7:11 AM

4:08 PM

Moon

Waxing Crescent

More Astronomy

Today

21 °F

Clear

Tonight

-4 °F

Mostly Cloudy

Tomorrow

3 | -6 °F

Snow

70% chance of precipitation

Friday

6 | -8 °F

Snow

70% chance of precipitation

Saturday

18 | 16 °F

Partly Cloudy

Sunday

34 | 31 °F

Overcast

Last night David and I went to Belfast, about 25 miles north of Rockland, to attend 2 poetry-related events.  First, an hour long program combining poetry reading, music and ... other stuff I'm not sure how I'd describe.  Interpretive movement?  That program organized by the Poet Laureate of Belfast (yes, Belfast has a Poet Laureate.  Actually, Rockland has one, too, as does Maine, and probably a bunch of other towns and cities in the state.)  That program was followed by a Poetry Slam.  Unfortunately for whatever reasons - competing events and COLD weather perhaps - not very many people showed up and initially only 1 person signed up to read (not me; I decided to volunteer as a "judge" for the evening).  Eventually 4 people read - 3 young girls ranging in age from 12 or 13 to 19 or 20, and an older man.  Despite the low turn out it was kind of fun.

This morning I restocked the bird feeders. With the cold, and the fact that we are supposed to get between 4 and 12 inches of snow starting tomorrow through Friday, I wanted to make sure the birds are well fed.  We have 3 feeders - a double outside the kitchen window where there's a feeder with seed and a suet basket, and 2 hanging from the garage.  I recently stocked the feeder outside the kitchen with seed that is supposed to attract woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches - and it has done that.  Here's a couple of photos from today.

In the meantime, hunkering down, glad for the warm house - the fuel oil company delivered 180 gallons today - $685 worth - but they had not delivered since September so that's 3 months of fuel and it's been a cold winter - waiting for the snow and world peace, believing both will come, sooner or later.

Peace.

Lighting up the night

This morning when I walked Ella down to the shore, it was a dark dawn sky, so heavily clouded with the snow that would fall later that no sun broke through.  Then I remembered that the winter solstice is less than 2 weeks away, and after that, the days grow longer.  Okay, imperceptibly at first, but longer, not shorter, leading inexorably to spring and then summer. (Pretty demoralizing to be thinking ahead to summer when winter is just getting started!)

Meanwhile, one of the schooners at the docks at Ulmer's Point has strung holiday lights on its standing rigging and hoisted a lighted Christmas tree to the top of its main mast.  Here's the lights and at the top of the photo is the tree:

I tried to zoom in on the tree, which made it appear to be floating in space:

Meanwhile, an inch of snow, which is going to be melted away tonight or tomorrow as the weather warms and dumps rain in place of snow.

Okay with me.

Peace.

Nelson Mandela

I woke up today to learn that Nelson Mandela had passed away last evening at the age of 95.  Periodically through the day, I was able to hear some of the NPR stories reviewing his life and accomplishments.  27 years in prison!  From prison to president of a country.  Always speaking out against discrimination and hate everywhere, promoting reconciliation, embodying kindness and compassion.

May Nelson Mandela's memory be a blessing for people all over the world who still languish in prison, suffer hunger, poverty, disease, discrimination, injustice.  Long live Nelson Mandela!

Peace!  Justice!

Thanksgiving + Hanukkah

Long time, no writing here.  I apologize to anyone still checking in from time to time.  After my trip to Connecticut, I was busy with work and getting ready to go to Atlanta for a visit.  Then came the Atlanta trip, and I came back bringing a bad cold.  Ten days of recovering from the cold - working while doing so - and I had no energy for much of anything not connected to eating, sleeping or working.

The visit to Atlanta - apart from catching the cold (for which I blame the flights on the virus-incubating flying metal cylinders) - was very lovely.  My daughter, Corinne, my grandson, Cachao, my brother, John, and I all went with my son, Sam, to the showing of the film Sam edited (Knock Around Kids) at the Atlanta-based BronzeLens Film Festival.  A very appreciative if not huge crowd enjoyed the film, and Sam answered questions from the audience at the end.

I also got to go with my daughter-in-law, Cachao and his little brother, Cello, to see Cachao play his last soccer game of the season.  His team "lost" - although no one seemed particularly stressed by that fact.  Each kid on both teams received a trophy with his/her name on it.

I had a lovely breakfast with both my kids and both my grand kids, and then we sat in my sister-in-law's front yard (my daughter is living in one of the 2 duplex's apartments), watched the kids play, listened to Corinne's chickens clucking, and did that old southern thing, "visited."  It was lovely.  I also got to enjoy a lot of reading with Cachao - me reading to him, him reading to me, books by others, books that Cach has written (he's written several entire series!).

A few photos from the trip:

           













Now it is erev (the eve of) of the conjoined falling of the first day of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, a highly unusual event that has caused more national media attention to Hanukkah than I recall in my lifetime, even in "Jewish" New York.  I'll light candles tonight, and tomorrow David and I are making Thanksgiving dinner here for David's niece, Sara, and her husband, Ed, and son, Christopher.  We have a very large 16 pound turkey to cook (smallest kosher turkey they had locally).  Sunday we volunteer at the local soup kitchen and it will be December.

We already had a dusting of snow yesterday morning, already melted away in today's rain.

Ready to cook turkey, ready to give thanks for family, friends, food and life generally.

Peace.