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Archive for the ‘Roseledge Photos’ Category
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Friday, June 4th, 2010CATCHING UP #2
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008Most important: ROSELEDGE BOOKS IS OPEN, 2-6pm daily.
The “open” signs are hanging from the porch, (but not in the picture), the flowers are growing, some brand-new and lots of other years’ new books are on the shelves, two book orders (bestsellers and selected titles) are on their way to TH, and the lawn chairs are ready for those with you who mind the dog as you browse.
Fig. #26. Reading, watching the harbor, and waiting for you to come by on a two-shirt, short skirt, sockless day in early June.
Reply to Commenter (and sis), Charyl: Okay, I get the message (see post “Catching Up #1) and I agree. The Icelandic detective is wanting. He is too much enveloped by dreary: his daughter, apartment, childhood, reading tastes, and prospects — all dreary. But the killer point for me is that in these Icelandic novels, there is no mention of the sea or seafaring, so there is no reason to think my sailor customers will want to read them. If I were in my native North Dakota with its Icelandic community, I might decide differently.
Thanks to Commenter Sis, I have read in a row and liked two more Harry Bosch mysteries (Michael Connelly’s City of Bones
Is Julia Spencer-Fleming, who lives and studied in Maine, a Maine author? Friend Kathy asked and after reading her All Mortal Flesh
Fig. #27. The tide moves out(here) and in as the mudflats grow and shrink, the returning lobster boats off-load their catches into lobster cars, and the water changes color with the sky. The harbor dance will be the same when you come by, probably with more boats.
Now I’m reading Michael Gruber’s The Book of Air and Shadows
A final note to one “exposed” to Edith Wharton — which I trust is different from “immersed:” Roseledge Books has — and has had since 1987 — 3 copies of Louis Auchincloss’s Skinny Island: More Tales of Manhatten. The pages might be a tad yellow, but they aren’t yet brittle and it only costs $3.95. Louis Auchincloss introduced me to New York City as I was growing up in Wahpeton, ND and allowed to check out from the Leach Public Library anything I wanted. A biography of Hetty Green, my first miser, helped, too.
The webcam was off, but now it is on.
A LOBSTER TALE
Thursday, June 5th, 2008Before “Before”
Before lobster-in-the-crisper possibilities could exist, the lobster had to be living, near Tenants Harbor, and trapped by a lobsterman who brought it to Witham’s Wharf where catches are gathered and sometimes sold. A sign in a nearby window declared that pigs are for sale, too.
Two good books that explain more and better are Colin Woodward’s The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier
Hunger and lobster attitude (”I only eat Maine lobster, preferably bought from the lobsterman”) sent the guilty down the road. Art’s Lobsters (the name may have changed) does not sell retail. Witham’s does. The rest of the tale is best told in pictures.
Fig. #22. Before (in the crisper). Great colors. Not a cuddly look.
Fig. #23. During (in Julie’s hands.) Inaugural lobster use of pot by excellent first-time lobster cooker.
A little wary? Marjorie Standish’s Seafood: Down East Recipes
Fig. #24. Almost Ready (in the flawed lobster bowl). Great color. Definitely an appetizing look. Hark! Are they cuddling?
Fig. #25. After. Turn around on Sea Street, away from Roseledge Books (near the top of the hill), to reachTenants Harbor’s award-winning Transfer Station (still, to me, affectionately called the dump).
After “After”
Lobster detritus needs quickly to become one with bagged Transfer Station compost if its regeneration (reincarnation?) as next Spring’s effusiveness of rhubarb is to become, with a dollop of ready-whip, the topping on the last of twelve boxes of Dr. Oetker’s organic white cake mix I had to buy to get one from the Coop.
The webcam is ON.
ROSELEDGE BOOKS HAS ONLY PAPERBACKS
Saturday, March 1st, 2008Roseledge cottage has no insulation. This allows instant air conditioning with temperature shifts and big time humidity, especially when the fog rolls in. Mostly this is good or at least okay. But without insulation, hardcover books would wilt, just as did the cardboard innards of the old Selectric typewriter. So I have only paperbacks. I’ll have to wait, but the following hardcover suggestions are possible.
Hertzberg, Jeff and Zoe Francois. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
Foggy day activity book? Maybe, especially as Tenants Harbor General Store, formerly Hall’s Market, carries small bags of flour, but no longer carries Borealis or Atlantic Baking bread — at least not during summer ’07. A friend’s friend made and shared the bread in this book, and my friend declared it delicious. I hope the book comes out in paperback. I also hope the boats have ovens. If not, I’ll stick to having books of soups, stews, and chowders.
Manning, Phillip Lars. Dinomummy
Any day activity book? Dinosaurs are always a plus, but add rocks and the book zings. The rocks of Marshall Point, a five mile car or bike ride from Roseledge, may not be hiding a dinosaur, but they are good rocks to check out and see what you find. Think tidal pools, contemporary shell heaps (read: clambake residue), old boat nails, shark teeth, or really round stones. Mostly Dinomummy is a possible Roseledge Books addition because it demonstrates once again that North Dakota, my childhood home, glows and because my very great-nephew, Alex, who is 1, pointed to the dinosaurs in the book and exclaimed, “Gah!” (according to his mother). Now THAT’S a rave review. I hope a paperback version is in its future.
#4. Marshall Point Light House Rocks. A view with perspective. A place to think about things that matter. Do you have to see islands for it to be a Maine view?
An e-mailer suggested:
Braestrup, Kate. Here If You Need Me: A True Story
Kate Braestrup has a great voice and worthy perspective. (I’ve only heard her interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio.) And she’s a Mainer. Friend Dana recommended the book as being both inspirational and easy to listen to on the treadmill. She downloaded the ebook from the library. You might think buying it for Roseledge Books is a no-brainer.
But Here If You Need Me is not yet available in paperback, and that’s a problem. Uninsulated Roseledge with FOG [emphasis added] and temperature shifts treats flexible paperback books most kindly, even if the paper curls and turns yellow. The other problem has to do with books about tragedy, and this book assumes tragedy.
When Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm was first available in paperback (2007?), I bought six copies — a lot for Roseledge Books. The book was well received, the author lived nearby, the book was about sea and weather and tragedy that “my” sailors would recognize, and Linda Greenlaw, by then an author in her own right, was in the book. But soon thereafter, I suggested The Perfect Storm to a sailor. He looked at me, aghast, and said, “I’m not reading that while I’m sailing.” Of course not. I had glossed over a pertinent tragedy alert. These several years later, I still have most of the copies.
Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
Choosing books is tricky business. Kate Braestrup’s book is about life after tragedy, an important difference from Sebastian Junger’s book. A must for Roseledge Books come July. Good suggestion.
ROSELEDGE BOOKS
Saturday, February 16th, 2008Roseledge Books is a very small, very fine, bookstore, open from Memorial Day through Labor Day on Sea Street in Tenants Harbor. The (roughly) 750 paperback books are on shelves and a table on the front porch of Roseledge cottage.
#1 Roseledge from across the road, before the new deck, without the ROSELEDGE sign over the door, and before the flowers blossomed. (Or is white snow on the mountain with gray green leaves next to the road?)*
For twenty years, I’ve offered lawn chairs in the front yard as a fringe benefit for book buyers, et al., but last summer I added a discreet front deck. This is exciting because now, while the reader partner browses, the non-reader partner of a bookstore visiting duo can monitor the harbor from an upper, even better vantage point than the erratically hedged, down-sloping front yard. As one deck-sitter told his partner, “Take your time; I’ve got the best seat in the harbor.” Music to this bookseller’s ears.
#2 Tenants Harbor at high tide with mostly lobster boats in the harbor. This must be in June before the sailboats occupy half of the harbor visible from Roseledge. The closed end of the harbor to the “front line” of boats becomes glorious mudflats as the tide goes out. The garage that used to be across the road, right in front of the cottage was hauled away and put elsewhere by the best neighbors in the world.*
Some first-timers have thought Roseledge Books was hard to find. If you know where to look, you can see the red cottage from the harbor.
#3 Roseledge is the red cottage up the hill as seen from the harbor. Picture was taken by Charlie in a kayak. Sailors have suggested I get a flashing neon rose, raise a rose flag that says BOOKS, or insert not-green insert roof tiles that spell BOOKS so that readers can see a perfect place from the harbor. I love this shot.*
I have a wooden sign attached to a tree at the foot of Sea Street, three houses away down the hill. The trick is finding the tree once you’ve left your dinghy at the public landing. The sign has an aging, red wood tulip and says ROSELEDGE BOOKS, 2-6 pm, with an arrow. I changed the vinyl letters from black to white when an astute observer noted that the old wood of the sign turned as black as the letters when it was wet and were, therefore, unreadable in the rain when readers most often needed more to read. And I asked the chestnut tree owner if I could trim the branches when, one fertile summer, the new growth severely brushed the letters on the sign. Still, one person commented,
“You need to advertise more.”
I have the sign on the tree.”
“You make it hard for people to find what you want to sell.”
It’s the Maine way, I said.
I used to post a suitable post card on the side of the cooler at Hall’s Market. I even got a coveted eye-height site. But Hall’s Market was sold and procedures, floor plan, and now the name changed. I used to post a different, but equally suitable postcard at the post office, but I was declared a for-profit business and therefore no longer eligible to post my postcard at the post office. I pointed out the difference between being for-profit and making a profit, but to no avail. Okay, I need to post postcards in new places. And I may do so. But mostly Roseledge Books draws return customers and is otherwise a word-of-mouth experience.
*The pictures are from son Charlie, who might or might not pay attention to my useful suggestions but who always takes great pictures.
