#215 The View

I keep thinking I'm going to switch gears and move in to other subject matter. My intention was to do that this week, but then I encountered this view. You stop your car, and sit there saying to yourself, how can anyone make something like this up?
 
It was an overcast day driving back from the movies and an adrenalin pumping session with Jurassic World. We took an alternative route back to Kingfield over some back roads and up along a lazy ridge. I looked out and saw this, and exhaled a directive to stop the car. Being a Taurus, I could have sat there all day.

The View • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12"• $200

#214 A Thwack of Lupine

We've been sailing the Claudia on the lakes up in the western mountains while the Claudia II is being repaired on the coast. It's been fun. We trailered to Flagstaff last Sunday, and Rangeley this past.

On the way back to Kingfield from Rangeley, we noticed a plethora of lupines alongside Route 16. There's one famous field just outside of town overlooking Haley Pond with Saddleback Mountain in the background. I've done a quick sketch of it - figured we all needed a splash of color on this foggy Maine morning.

It appears as if someone has spent their lifetime spreading lupine seeds hither and yon, and it's finally all come together like one big thwack on the landscape. I don't remember seeing so many lupine, there's just no way to describe how beautiful they are right now. And I certainly have not done it justice here. You really need to get up there and check it out for yourselves.

A Thwack of Lupine • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $200

SOLD - Cows Are Good Listeners

On my way to Kingfield last week, I took a different route and passed a farm I've been driving by since I moved to Maine over 40 years ago. It's the Williams family farm in North Anson. It really hasn't changed much over the years - the family and their herd seem to be making it just fine.

I stopped, turned around and parked by the side of the road just to look. It was a pretty, partly cloudy day. The reds, greens, blues, blacks and whites were striking. And then I noticed some of the cows perked right up and began to move toward me. I would have gone up to the fence to pet them, but figured it was electric. So I just started talking to them from the road.

They stood right there and listened. I kept talking. I talked about anything that popped in to my mind, like what was happening down in Portland, and that I was on my way up to Kingfield to weed my garden, two places they would have no way of knowing about had I not stopped by. They really paid attention as they chewed away. Their ears remained alert.

I learned that cows are good listeners. You could say we all learned something new about one another that day. That's a very good thing.

Cows Are Good Listeners • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $200

#212 One Rainy Day in Maine

One rainy day a few years ago, we limped into Christmas Cove through a pea soup fog looking to have some lunch and stretch our legs. The Claudia - our first little sailboat, and a real Tom Sawyer Huck Finn boat, was not a great vessel for bad weather.

Twenty one feet long and open (no cabin), she was fun to sail because we could maneuver through shallow water. We sailed her for ten years all around Penobscott Bay. We built a platform for sleeping on after a couple of years of sleeping on the hull, and a tent out of nylon, mosquito netting and 1/2" plumbers pipe that I had made, which was great unless we had a downpour. It was like sleeping on a raft - we were only about eight inches above the water.

After lunch aboard under our little dodger, we tied the Claudia to the public dock and meandered down this road and that looking at real estate. Most of the places are old and traditional out there with a few huge exceptions. It's the kind of area magazine and TV ads tell you to expect to see on the Maine coast.

I liked this place because it was still pretty Maine-looking. It was the kind of place I would have liked to have curled up in next to a wood stove with my blankie, and a good old fashioned murder mystery. Kind of like today.

One Rainy Day in Maine • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12"• $200