So many good things are happening, it’s hard to know where to start.
The little wild blueberries are here in such profusion that bowls of half blueberries/half cheerios are daily delights.
Typing urges surge as elbow malaise quiets.
Roseledge Books is stimulating the economy with $250.00 worth of women’s t-shirts because my women friends complain that the unisex Roseledge Books t-shirts, wonderful though they are, are just too big. “And isn’t that a good thing,” inserts an eavesdropping male browser, multipurposefully.
And the screen-fuzzed webcam picture just gets more and more useful.
Fig. #60. As Carolyn Chute said (I think), "Mainers don't waste their front yards." Or is it art? Either way, an unexpected pleasure. (Not on the webcam.)
You may recall from last summer that the first webcam user to say anything asked me to turn it to the left so he could check on his boat moored in the harbor when he wasn’t here. I pointed out the big trees in the way and suggested he get a different mooring. This we both knew was easier said than done.
Then, about a week ago, Roseledge Book Regulars from away sent me an email noting that the webcam pictured rain, rain, fog, rain, etc. Was it cold, too? It was to answer their question that the picture caption from the last post read as it did. Then son, Charlie, hopped right to it and enhanced the webcam to include temperature and weather conditions.
Maybe leaving best ’til last, yesterday a local artist wanted to know if the late sun on the boats was noteworthy, and, as it is one of visiting friend Millie’s favorite five minutes of the day, she said, oh, yes (with enthusiasm), but maybe best for boat shadows when the tide was coming in. Then the clincher: she suggested that the artist could check the webcam, and if all looked promising, head over. Are we talking a harbor service or what!
Fig. #61. The perfect spot to sit and read and think about things is where you find it. Marshall Point has the perfect spots; Roseledge Books has the perfect book.
I finished reading Cara Black’s Murder in the Sentier and liked it a lot because it was about a part of Paris in the detail I need to get a sense of a place I’ve never been and because the story hinged on protagonist, investigatorAimee Leduc’s American mother, a 1970’s radical revolutionary. I love learning the details of new places, e.g. Randy Wayne White’s Black Widow, John Burdett’s Bangkok Tattoo, Martin Cruz Smith’s Havana Bay, and still think a traveler’s bookstore of books, but no travel guides, arranged geographically would be fun to try. Friend Jerry and I did workshops giving prizes to those who could peg the most murder mysteries to the most places. Good times.
I’m starting Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kittredge tonight. The book takes place in Maine, and I want to know if the author captured a “Maine voice.” This is tricky to do anytime, but it is especially tricky if you do not have some kind of continuing relationship with the people of a place, and the blurb suggests author Strout does not. I’ll keep you posted.
Now it is time to head to the porch and pursue our search for a favorite summer wine because La Puerta, the favorite of the last two summers, is no longer readily available and, without a car, a readily available choice is the only way to keep Rockland errand-runners as friends. The current front-runner is La Poule Blanc. Yes, The White Chicken.
If the webcam doesn’t show bug-stopping fog, it lies.