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.
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