Thank You, Paul McCartney!!!

Did you catch Paul McCartney doing Carpool Karaoke in Liverpool on the Late, Late Show with James Corden??? I didn't originally because the Late, Late Show is a bit too late for me, but the whole segment may be viewed on youtube.com. It is truly the most fun twenty-four minutes that I have viewed in a long time. The two sing and visited spots which were important in Paul's life and there are plenty of surprises. Do yourself a favor and be sure to watch it. Just google "Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke." It will brighten your day and put a smile on your face.

No Pretty Pictures

There are no pretty pictures today. The last few weeks have brought many of us to the brink of despair about the direction our country is headed. While I absolutely respect the rights of others to hold different opinions, I for one, am sickened, distraught, and angered by the actions taken by our government officials in the past few weeks . . . actions which have separated over 2,000 innocent babies and children from their parents. Many of these children have been shipped to far off locations in the dead of night. This is pure evil. What has happened to us? Is this what America has become?

I remember when I first read about the Japanese interment camps which were established during the Second World War. I couldn't believe that something so heinous had occurred in our country. It is the same disbelief I feel today when I read of proposals to built tent camps on military bases to house and contain the immigrants, many of whom are seeking safety and a better life for their children. The solution to the immigration problems are not easy, but surely, good men and women with integrity in our United States Congress could come together to try and solve this problem. Enough with the rhetoric, the finger pointing and the blame, the hate speech, the fearmongering, the bombast,  do something.  We should have "zero tolerance policy" for all those who fail to act.


*** Readers come to this blog to be uplifted and honestly, I am by nature a pretty positive person, but since this blog is in a way, my journal, today I just had to express these thoughts.

Mount Desert Island - Day 3

On our last day in the Bar Harbor area, we forgo the complimentary breakfast at our motel and instead stopped at Jordan's for some blueberry pancakes. It's a cute, funky, friendly place enjoyed by both regulars and tourists alike.

Our first stop was to photograph this iconic bridge along rt. 102 in Somesville. The rain was pretty steady, so I didn't expect much but then something serendipitous happened. A group of children on a fieldtrip of some kind crossed the street and proceeded across the bridge.

You can't plan for anything like that, but I scrambled to get a couple of quick images. :-) (As always, you may click on this on any other image for a larger view.)

The shower eventually subsided, and we headed on to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Along the way we visited Quilt N Fabric in Southwest Harbor. It was a lovely little shop with an equally lovely owner and, of course, I did my part to help the local economy.

There is a path at the end of the parking lot which leads to a wooden flight of stairs. This is the image from the base of the stairs. More agile photographers than I were venturing out onto the rocks for a better vantage point, but my inner voice said "Don't even think about it ... ," and so I was content with this one.

After driving around for a while it was time for lunch at Thurston's Lobster Pound in Bernard, and yes, that it is a really, really long lobster roll that I am holding. :-)

This was the relaxing view from the deck as we watched lobster men and women unloading their traps.

Here are a few more quintessential Maine photos from the day.

Sunset Bar Harbor. . .

I hope you have enjoyed my photos from my Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park getaway. I apologize if some of the photos took a bit longer than usual to load, but they were not clear when I tried a lower resolution as I normally do.

A comments about commenting: I apologize to those of you who left comments and did not receive a response from me. Evidently, a glitch has developed with Blogspot which they are aware of and are trying to fix. In the past, I always received an email notification when a comment was sent but that appears to have stopped a couple of weeks ago. I would not have even realized that there was a problem until I read about it on a number of other blogs that use Blogspot. In any event, I was able to go back and read and post your comments and please know that I always enjoy reading them.

Just one other thing . . . There are two other quilt shops in the area worth checking out.  Fabricate right in Bar Harbor has fabric and scrap booking supplies and much more. Check out the link to see what they offer. We also stopped at Sewing by  the Sea in Trenton on our way home.  Strangely enough, I managed to find a few things to add to my stash at each shop. :-)

Have a wonderful week.

Warning: I Brake for Lupines

Miss Rumphius and I have something in common . . . we love lupines. The beloved fictional character beautified her world by scattering lupine seeds everywhere.  I headed with my friend to Bar Harbor the first week of June hoping that the lupine would be in bloom. As you can see, I was in lupine heaven.

 

A few of the top photos were taken in Acadia National Park while others were taken along different roadways and in fields. We saw lupine along the highway coming home, but don't worry, I woudn't brake for lupine there. :-)

Acadia National Park 2018

June is the perfect time to visit Acadia National Park: the lupine are in bloom and the summer crowds have not yet arrived. (Bar Harbor has over one million visitors during the months of July and August. I can't begin to imagine what the traffic situation would be during that time.) 

We started our day with a stop at the visitor center to see a short introductory movie about the establishment of this magnificent national treasure. We then took our time following the twenty-seven mile loop drive. 

These top two photos were taken shortly after Sandy Beach which you are able to see in the distance. 

Tip: Stop at each pull-in area and if there are any short trails, by all means check them out. These images were taken from the bottom of a very short trail which provided an awesome view. (With my foot issue, I was not able to do any hiking, but it didn't stop me from checking out the short trails. )

We were there early and with the tide being out, a stop at Thunder Hole was disappointing. Not only was it not thundering, it wasn't even whimpering.  We consoled ourselves by stopping at the Jordan Pond Restaurant and having chowder and one of their famous popovers. Since it had begun to rain, we forgo following the trail down and around the pond.

This stone building was the original Jordan Pond Gate Lodge, but it is now used to provide  sleeping accommodations for park workers. Also imposing were the many stone bridges on the carriage roads throughout the park.

Then it was up, up, up along the curvy road to the top of Cadillac  Mountain.

 

Tip:  When you visit Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, bring all types of outerwear.  I brought a light jacket, a heavier jacket, a sweatshirt, and a rain jacket, and I was glad that I had all of them with me. The weather can be very changeable. We were only at the summit of Cadillac mountain for about twenty minutes, and let me tell you it was very cold and very windy. Look how quickly the scene changed.

 

One final funny note regarding jackets . . . our first night in Bar Harbor we were wearing fairly light jackets as the temperature was around 45 -50. You should have seen some people bundled up in heavy jackets,  knit hats, knit scarves and mittens! They must have come from far warmer states. :-)

As always, you may click on any image for a larger view, and I encourage you to do so.

Next post: Lupines!!!

Bar Harbor 2018

Last Wednesday, my friend Marilyn and I headed to Bar Harbor, Maine, for a getaway. Since I live just south of Boston that meant a five and a half hour drive which didn't include any break stops and slow moving Boston traffic. We had left about 9:30 in hopes of missing the worst of the rush hour, but when it comes to driving through Boston, there is never a good time.  After about two hours, I stopped for some 'jet fuel.' That's my name for a Starbucks Iced Mocca Latte; I shouldn't have sugary drinks, but I wanted to be sure to be alert, wide eyed, and bushy tailed as I drove,  and so, fueled by my latte, we made it to the Bar Harbor Motel by late afternoon.

I would highly recommend this motel. It was very clean, the staff was friendly, and a lovely continental breakfast was included.

Marilyn grew up three houses down from me, so we have known each other since childhood. We travel well together; she lets me stop and take as many photos as I would like and visit any quilt shops in the area, I let her visit gift shops and let me just say, there were many, many gift shops in Bar Harbor.

We had an early dinner at Testa's Restaurant, and I was thrilled that the vegetable of the day was fiddleheads as I had never tasted them. (If you have never heard of them, let me explain. They grow wild and are only available for a few short weeks. These were sauteed with little bits of ham and boy were they delicious.) [ Guess what I just learned??? It's sauted when there is an object . . . 'He sauted the onions, but if there is no object, it is spelled sauteed. . . ] {If I was cook, I probably would have known this ;-) Both words should have an accent mark. Don't you just love dictionaries!!!

We turned in early as we knew we would be touring Acadia National Park the following day and that will be the focus of my next post.

I almost forgot. . . Emma wanted me to be sure to wish all of our blog readers a very happy Flag Day. This is how she looked after a trip to the groomer on Tuesday, and yes, once again she has red, glued on, jewels on her ear tips. :-)

Emma also had a fun time at her home away from home visiting her canine cousins Harvey and Bailey while I was away.

Tis a Puzzlement

When I arrived home Saturday evening after a wonderful few days in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, I found a very large carton in my living room. (My friend Cathy had taken in my mail, packages, and fed my fish while I was away.) Inside the package was a "Puzzle Magic Tabletop Puzzleboard" from Herrschners .  I am not a jigsaw puzzle fanatic, but during the warm months I  usually have a puzzle on the table on my sunporch. The large piece of felt and cardboard tube used to roll up puzzles in progress never worked well, so I was searching for something better. This is it!!! As you can see, you may change the working angle and if company comes and you need to move it, there is a board which fits over the puzzle and the board may then be closed, locked, and slid under the sofa. What a great idea!!!
 

It's awesome. I love being able to tilt the top to avoid the glare from the many porch windows and look . . . I have only about 850 pieces to go on my current puzzle! Below are my two most recent finishes. "And the Blue Ribbon Goes to" had only 300 pieces, but I couldn't resist the expressions on the contestants' faces. It made me smile the whole time that I was working on it. :-)

The peonies bloomed while I was away and the knockout roses are spectacular.

Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey is a light but enjoyable read. In 2010, the apartment of Martha de Florian, an actress and courtesan, was discovered after having being abandoned for seventy years. The owner had fled Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion and never returned. You may see actual photos of the contents of the apartment here. Amazing but true, the apartment remained locked and untouched all of those years. That part was all true, and Ella Carey who had read about this apartment used it as the basis of her fictional account.

Finally, I posted a photo of this quilt when I was working on it a while back. In the post, I had mentioned that it was for the group that provides quilts and pillowcases to the children of service men and women in the National Guard who are being deployed. At the last meeting of the Herring Run Quilt Guild, Anne one of the organizers of the group asked about the quilt. She had seen my earlier post. Oops! The quilt was in a pile of items which were not quite finished. After the meeting, I went home and added the final rows, layered, and quilted it. I presented it to Anne this morning at the Crosstown Quilters Guild meeting. Gee, evidently all that I had needed was a little gentle prodding. :-) Isn't the fabric adorable!

My trip to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park with photos and tips will be in my upcoming posts..

Blooming in My Garden This Week

My very stylish, big, black boot is tucked safely back in the closet which means I have finally been able to spend time working in my gardens. Here's a peak at a few things currently in bloom.

Fluttering by . . .  It was very windy this morning so it is amazing that these two photos came out as clear as they did. The butterfly didn't seem to mind swaying back and forth in the cool breeze.

Have a lovely, colorful week.