thursday, Aug 6

Back in Maine (arrived 9 PM Wednesday night essentially driving from 1:00 PM after visiting my mother, cleaning her house to her specifications, and buying two delicious subs from Cardonas for food on the road). We woke up at 5:30 (Bob) and 7:30AM (me) as opposed to our Albany wake-up time of 9 or 10 AM. We had coffee and corn toasties (wish we had these in Arizona) and then spent a lot of time reorganizing and cleaning since we had left in such a haste when we heard my mother needed us.

We drove into town to see if the Bohemian bakery was open--and it wasn't--then we decided we would do all the local things that we never did the first 10 days we were here.

We went to a place to buy lobster (just for me since Bob doesn't eat lobster)--we bought two (1.5 pounders). After eating tonight, I wonder if that was one too many. More about that later. I showed my ignorance to these two older women selling the lobster when, first, I couldn't answer their first question: hard shell or soft shell? I thought I had heard once that soft shell lobsters are filled with water (but they are also $2 less per pound). The next stupid question I asked was "How do I keep these until dinner?" Answer: put them in the refrigerator (duh! I thought I had to keep them in water). From there, we decided to go to the local winery--Bartlett Winery--they make wines from peaches, apples, and especially blueberries (yes, Maine blueberries abound--I actually picked some--story later). Now one might think these would be sweet wines, but au contraire--they were dry wines with the exception of one, peach, and then there was a tawny port called Trio (blueberries and rasberries--delicious actually, especially with chocolate--18% alcohol). One was a blend of blueberries and sangiovese grapes. We tasted 9 wines and walked out with 6 bottles (but we will return) and chocolate truffles for the port. If Antoinette and Scott come up, we will have a wine-tasting dinner--that will be a lot of fun.

Then we went to an organic farm--Darthia Farms--very nice--we would definitely join their CSA if we lived here. We bought some beautiful spring greens, organic ground beef (for burgers), flowers (very cheap) for our table--a mix of wildflowers, sunflowers, --yellows and oranges ($5). We also bought Maine blueberries of course. The wild blueberries are smaller than the farm-cultivated blueberries--but delicious still. What a bounty!

With all these goodies in the van and the fact that it was a fairly warm day (81), we had to go back to the cabin and put away our treasures, so Bob decided to make lunch. Paninis---ciabbata rolls, smoked turkey, smoked mozzarella cheese--grilled--(Rachel Ray would have exclaimed, "Yummo!" and I think I actually did--more than once).

After lunch we went to the Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge, down Pigeon Hill Road--I was on the lookout for a Bullwinkle (er, moose) or something as exciting. I think I thought I was going to the San Diego Wildlife Park or something. Although Bob can drive, see wildlife before anyone else (and identify it before it takes off), I was the one to spy the white-tailed buck in velvet (antlers growing). He got a couple really good pics. There were two trailheads but it was getting late so we will have to save that for another day. We were a bit disappointed as part of the refuge is private land. Oh well. Here is where I picked a few blueberries--I wanted to see what they tasted like when they were not ripe (sour)--they are so easy to harvest when they are ripe as they practically fall off in your hand with just a little tug.

Then we returned to the cabin for a respite (Bob took a nap and I read). I need to hang my mosquito-netted hammock before we leave and use it while Bob is napping--in the forest behind the cottage near the water.

Dot da da dah! I boiled the lobsters (took almost as much time to fill the pot as it did to cook the lobsters--remember the water pressure problem?). I couldn't steam them (my favorite way to cook lobster) because I had no steam basket or colander for raising the lobster out of the water. The water was salted with sea salt. The water boiled over three times (messy stove) and the lobsters were set out on a platter. For some reason (and remember I LOVE lobster) I was a bit grossed out by all the lobster. I really did not have the right utensils (no picks) and the spines were very sharp, the shell very hard. I used to be an expert at pulling out the lobster meat with little trouble, but tonight, my fingers have little cuts all over them, the cabin stinks like fish (and Bob is a bit nauseaous). I finished everything except the tail of the second lobster (which I refrigerated for a lobster salad tomorrow since we have all the fixings thanks to our trip to the organic farm). However, no longer can I eat a lobster a night as I did long ago when we were the guests of the Buffingtons at their cottage in Maine (many years ago) and we had lobster every night while Bob ate tube steaks (hot dogs) and identified each of the lobster parts as we ate them (haven't had the tomaly since that night). That was a little disappointing, but I sure could have some blueberry pie tonight--too bad we don't have any (nor the fixins for me to cook them up).

So, now, we're drinking some Merlot, listening to music and just relaxing--two weeks left still and just heard that my mother is doing so well she might not have to go to rehab. Don't know whether that's good or bad, though. Still waiting for the fistula to close.

Well, we have pictures of all those things and places described above but our Internet reception here (through Bob's Blackberry) is not that fast (and loading pictures on this site is slow under normal circumstances). Bob is a great photographer (especially when he takes pictures of flowers with some kind of insect upon it).

Bob, by the way, is making fajitas for himself. LOL!
Goodnight.