NEWS

It’s a wonderful day in Tenants Harbor: soft sun, quiet breeze, cooing mourning dove (I think) and a harbor full of dinghies to welcome back lobstermen later in the day.

Fig. #33. (Picture from Fig. #26 repeated by accident, but I love it.) Nothing equals being here, but a picture is better than no picture, even if the lobster boats are back by the time of the picture.

The exciting news is that the first people to know about Roseledge Books through the blog came to the bookstore to look at books, sure, but really, I suspect, to find out if the webcam could be moved to the left so the dad could see his boat when he wasn’t here. The answer is “no, it can’t” because a dense curtain of trees is lovely to the left. We discussed David McCullough’s 1776 because, through main character Henry Knox, the book has big ties to Thomaston which is practically next door– or next town — to Tenants Harbor. He liked it better than others who have commented, but maybe that’s because he and his family summer here. Good grief! At this very minute, David McCullough is on public radio talking about 1776! I’ll listen for talk of Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller who married Lucy Flucker (pronounced Flooker, insists Scott, but I‘m not so sure), only child of Mr. and Mrs. Flucker, granddaughter (I think) of Mr. Waldo who, through the Waldo Patent, was granted, from the King of England, most of the land on the St. George River side of the peninsula, including Thomaston and beyond. But I digress.

Fig. #34. Old Tenants Harbor, but only to 1861, on Sea Street.

This week’s early strawberries may be the best they’re going to be and the tasty little carrots are the perfect hors d’oeuvres (sp?) size for the company coming or dropping by this holiday weekend. Must be a coming yacht club gathering or the annual hoo-ha of a local party-giver because the big tent is going up on the East Wind Inn lawn. Not many yachts have moored in the harbor yet; but then we’ve had nearly two weeks of fog. Finally, yesterday I could hang out my wash. There is nothing better than to lay one’s head on Maine-air-dried pillow cases.

My latest favorite mystery writer is Julia Spencer-Fleming who, through her characters Russ Van Alstyne, the police chief, and Clare Fergusson, the Episcoplian priest of Millers Kill, NY, solve murders within the larger investigations of human nature, small town life, and love. (See, for example, Julia Spencer-Fleming’s In the Bleak Midwinter; and Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Out of the Deep I Cry)

I read Dana Vachon’s Mergers & Acquisitions to continue learning about finance through fiction, but the author wrote more about the greed and egos of the investment bankers involved. This I can get from the NYTimes business section, but I’ll bet anyone who works on Wall Street or in the investment banking industry can put a name to every character in the book. I continue to miss Paul Erdman. Time to return to the Middle East with David Ignatius’ Body of Lies.

The webcam is erratic, but it’s on now. Don’t forget to “refresh.”