a wet day in Acadia National Park

It was wet - very wet. Before it got to extremely wet, we went for a walk along the southern shoreline of the Acadia National Park, with me wondering at every turn who painted what where - this looks very much like a Frederic Church sunrise location, but obviously there wasn't much sun today.  Indeed, none.

This was dramatically barren (and wet).

There are some terrific little paths between thick granite walls - this went up to Otter Point (no otters in sight, alas).

The wet woods around the Wild Gardens of Acadia were stunning -

and here are two of my book chapters collapsed into one shot - a slug, and some very striking lichen.

Out of the park, we drove to Mother's Kitchen, which had been recommended to us (and yes, I'd recommend the curried chickpea sandwich), and this seasonal decoration was round the back - pumpkins in buoy nets.

Since it then became even wetter, we were very glad indeed to be in a comfortable, dry hotel ...

 

Acadia peninsula and Blue Hill

Extraordinarily beautiful views from our balcony this morning - silver and blue light.

A short drive to Seal Beach, with plenty of kayakers in very fancy kayaks, and lots of seaweed-

and a guy shoveling seaweed (straight out of my seaweed chapter!) but also rather juxtaposing the difference between the moneyed and unmoneyed in northern Maine.  This seaweed will be used as fertilizer - apparently it's especially good for tomato plants.

Driving anywhere today was sheer autumnal beauty.

Then up to Blue Hill, where Lisa Durkee, an old and dear friend is pastor of the First Congregationalist Church - a stunningly beautiful church, inside and out, with what I think of as old church, pre Gothic revival proportions - the building dates from 1843. She is doing wonderful work there, not least with social and food programs benefiting those in need over a fairly wide area.  And it was just terrific to see her again: I've known her since 1994, when she took a Bread Loaf class with me on the Brontës and George Eliot - my first summer ever in Santa Fe - and then over some subsequent years there - years without which I'd never have got to know New Mexico, and probably would never have moved to the US ...

One of the very striking windows in the church - Angel with the Anchor - by Mary Tillinghast, from the late 1900s: she was a pupil of Carolus Duran, in Paris; had a disastrous business relationship with John LaFarge, and was overall a completely fascinating woman and designer.

And here's Lisa, with another old Bread Loaf face, Larry Abbott, who'd driven up to say hello - great to see him, too! - as we had a picnic lunch down by the port.

Walking through the woods to and from the Blue Hill Co-op - which reinforced the image of the community as an envisbly socially responsible one.  A terrific day.

 

more bits of Maine

Another impressive sunrise in Lincolnville, and then a very fine heron on the shore.

The view from the top of Mount Battie, just outside Camden/Lincolnville - seeing the lines of cars yesterday to go up this (very small) mountain, we thought we'd better wait until early this morning, which was definitely the right decision.

Off down the Blue Hill peninsular, with a stop on Caterpillar Hill - 

full of bilberries, autumnal wild flowers, and a view down to Walker Pond, where there was a particularly nasty British massacre of the Wabanaki in the late 1600s or early 1700s.

Onwards to Stonington, and these flowers in a coffee shop,

and much evidence of lobstering.

The view from our exceedingly comfortable hotel, just outside Bar Harbor - grey weather, still 

and this, in a bookstore in downtown Bar Harbor, a very effective display of banned/censored books.  It's been fascinating driving round Maine, from a political point of view - many Susan Collins - Our Senator signs, but also many others not just supporting Troy Jackson, but drawing spot-on parallels between T---- and inflation, war, and so on.

 

a quiet day in and around Camden ME

Beautiful sunshine all day (it's not going to last ... there's the remnants of a hurricane on its way ...), and a pretty quiet day after a week's rushing around.  View from the hotel at breakfast ... then down to its shoreline, with plenty of bladderwrack,

and fringed with autumnal trees.

The steep stairs up ...

Then into Camden - about five miles away - which was beyond full of traffic and tourists, but which also starred a bookstore-and-cafe that excelled in both departments.

Here's the beautiful harbor.

I spent the afternoon drawing the view at the hotel ... and then this was the view at Megunticook Lake (from a Wabanaki word meaning "Great Swells of the Sea" or "Big Mountain Harbor") on our way to dinner ... it was hard not to go full picture-postcard photo style today...

 

mostly Coastal Maine Botanical Garden

A startling sunrise from our hotel room in Portland, and then on up the coast to Camden, via the magnificent Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, where we were greeted by cabbages.

I'm not a huge dahlia fan, but this monarch butterfly would disagree.

The gardens were completely beautiful, and full of fall colors, and carefully arranged pumpkins.

 

Kennebunkport to Portland

the day started in Kennebunkport: this is St Anne's Episcopalian church, very near the water's edge and the start of a walk along the shore; and this the Bush compound - with many, many people pulling over to take photographs.  Alice suggested that maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to ask people about their politics - something that I promptly disobeyed (there are times when an English accent is a terrific accent) and asked the nearest couple what they thought about GHWB.  Interestingly ... they were from Virginia - had voted for, and supported him; then switched to Obama, and think the present incumbent is ... well, we were in agreement.  But they said how very many of their neighbors know nothing, are utterly under-informed, and still believe he's wonderful.  So ... it was actually worth asking ...

Up the coast to Portland, to visit a friend and her cat (who of course is a Maine Coon).

Is this the only cat in a Winslow Homer painting or drawing?  It was in the excellent Winslow Homer as etcher show in the Portland Art Gallery;

as were numerous examples of his drawings turned into magazine illustrations

(more or less us, yesterday);

plus my favorite Homer fish;

and the Life Line, which I include in my book, arguing that the women's tattered dresses look like seaweed.  We then found a WHOLE SEAWEED SHOP, where I spent far too much money on seaweed tea and seaweed soap and seaweed chile crisp (yes, really), and tried to persuade them that they'll really want to stock Habitatscapes, with its seaweed chapter ...

and then we took our friend out to dinner at Fore Street, winner of this year's James Beard award, and worth every single last delicious bite (and sip).