Nature is having it's way

Denial is a shovel still stored way out in the shed.

A day after Thanksgiving

Road trip!

Tom and I headed for an overnight stay in Portland the day after Lobster Day.

Save a turkey...eat lobster?

Not a problem!

We gave thanks home alone, with a pot of boiling water and some butter :)



LL Bean outlet shopping and a little Letterboxing.

Next time we eat lunch first.
We spent way too long circling the first park.
Determined to find missing boxes in Baxter Woods.

While I searched in vain, Tom fished the missing stamp out of a pond next to the tree it should have been hiding near.
Floating in a baggie.
Green with pond scum.
Like the bum who threw it there!

By the time we searched for 5 across the street in Evergreen Cemetery I was starving.
(Plus only found one.)

Almost 1:30 by the time we gave it up.

Next time we eat first!
So Life is NOT crap.

And what's with the Crooked Little One-room Schoolhouse posing as Santa's Workshop?

Imagine

Remember.

Tom and I had moved in together 4 days before. He says we were watching Monday Night Football when we got the news.

Imagine. What might have been.

Stuck in a folder no more

6x6 Meme

The rules:
--Go to your sixth picture folder and pick the sixth picture.

*if you've recently renamed folders - is the order skewed unfairly?

--Tag - you're it!

And I'm adding a twist: [(6x6)+5]
--find 5 more pictures you really meant to blog.

From what I remember my 6x6 picture is low tide in Belfast. Tom and I wandered the farmer's market and later looked for several Letterboxes.
And ate lobster/crab rolls sampler lunch. Yum!


Next 2 are at Schoodic Point.

A front yard rainbow.
Rainbows always appear here, often double.
I think it's because of Pushaw Lake's proximity and the magnifying glass it becomes.

(But my science expertise is equal to my math skills and my ability to tell left from right at a moments notice... what do I know!)

Last pictures are right side of our yard at the road's edge.
A storm this way comes!

Left side rock wall where tree line meets sunrise.

Applauding Sunsets. Required.

An Adventure in Hiding Things

The girls arrived home from their respective campus job-related activities the day before Thanksgiving with 2 hours of daylight left!

This miracle does not happen often. Especially less frequently as the number of available daylight hours tick ever downward.

Jazz & I greeted them at the door in time to pick up on a half baked plan to drive up to Hirundo Wildlife Refuge and walk the trails before dark.
The 4 p.m. hour of falling blackness was pointed out.
It was agreed we must make haste.
Even as someone piddled away valuable minutes of lightness upon learning dogs were not welcome in an animal refuge.
And there were no Letterboxes to be discovered.
(I want to hide 2!)

"Fine. I'm Not Going."
Familiar somehow.

But this time successfully coaxed out of a funk and into the car.
And we were away.
For a 15 minute drive to one of those places right in our own backyard.
Too often forgotten about.
Overlooked as a possibility.
...when there's Nothing To Do.

I haven't been there since Tom and I hiked some of the trails when we first began looking for outdoor things to do together. In 1980.

I stuffed my coat pockets with camera, trail map and pen.
Plus the 2 Letterboxes all set to be hidden in the perfect place.
I hadn't decided where yet.
Several locations have been considered and discarded in recent weeks.
But I was certain I would know it when I saw it!

Our hiking adventure included wet feet and much puddle jumping thanks to the recent heavy rains.
A few girlie poses for the camera along the way.
And the perfect hiding spots were found for our newest Letterboxes released into the wild!

Along with a standing ovation of the setting sun.

This is a Stephani sanctioned procedure.
Participation mandatory. But why wouldn't you want to?
Everyone must applaud the setting sun.
With feeling. Like you mean it.
You will get The Look (while she applauds) if you have not responded in kind and in a timely fashion.
Why wouldn't you want to, indeed.

It was a great adventure!
I give thanks for the awesome memory of our afternoon together that lingers still.

Why aren't you out there Letterboxing?
I know where a couple of really cool ones are hiding!

View from across the river.

Indian Trail Park

New Letterboxes are hidden in Brewer;
2 of 3 found due to very slippery slope covered with rain soaked oak leaves.

Oh, YES WE DID!

We are ONE NATION. Again.

Did you forget to breathe today?

I kept the TV off for most of the day.

As the sun started to set I went for a walk, trying to capture the image. Without a house or a passing car.

Seen through the trunks of beech trees; dried leaves holding on for a new season...

Let the healing begin.

And then I hit send.

Finishing things

Or bold fonted blog promises work!

Quilt nearly finished. It was in 3 sections with 16 circles not yet sewn together at all. Down to one seem and 2 rows of circle flaps to stitch down. Sadly I seem to be short of the fabric it would take to make the matching bag like the others had. Will think of something else.

Yes. My fridge still has hope!

The Obama thank you/form letter hangs where it was put. Since November.
Afraid of being a jinx.
It's not coming down.
Maybe ever.

*Socks from hell worked on twice this week.
I started these socks back in March and the 1st one was done in just a few days. 2nd one was cast on and cuff finished about May.
* sweet jeezus, will they ever be done?
I lost my knitting mojo. Hope it comes back. Someday.

I may have mentioned my hobby attention span is easily diverted to other new & shiny things over there. I tend to go all out with an interest for a while and then attention is diverted to some other compulsive obsession.

Over there!

These things all actually still randomly weave themselves back in & out of my focus. It's what's making the top of the list that changes. In waves.

tabletop weaving
knitting socks
fabric Postcards
needle tatting
fabric ATC's
recycled denim
-denim quilts
book binding
Letterboxing!
african violets (oh, the guilt!) most of them died
* Mrs. John I owe you a postcard!

letter people - NO MORE! After 4 years if I had to make one more googly eyed piece of plastic canvas into the shape of an alphabet letter I would gouge my eyes out. Not even for the distraction this political season needs could I do this project again. Plus rumor had it 14th Street School was back up to 2 Kindergarten classes for the year. 50 x 26 = suicide watch

About hitting send:
As I made the bed the other day my thoughts randomly turned to wondering how long it had been since I had written an editorial. Nothing had jumped out at me with burning inspiration or need to fire off a pithy, if slightly sarcastic editorial in a long while. And I thought of Bob Campbell, who has since passed away, but used to tease a competition for getting the next letter published.

And then I took mom for her mammogram yesterday.

I'm knitting away on the *sock from hell and I keep hearing the registrars at the front desk reading off changes for a new waiver form everyone must fill out. They mention something about information being shared for fundraising purposes and then neatly move on to where you sign the deal.
My ears perked up about the 5th time I heard them tell a patient they would be sharing their info with charities. So once I picked up the dropped stitch* that had raveled 3 or 4 rows down somehow I got out the papers mom handed me and started reading.

(The old knitter me would have totally ripped out all the needles and gone back 3 or 4 rows to do it over. I fudged it. With the mental excuse whispering "you can tear it out when there is a bright window if it looks like crap."
Not going to happen. Likely. But it sort of looks like crap.)

Anyway. I fired off an editorial last night and this morning got an email saying it had too many words...please resubmit. Sucks. I totally like the 1st version. Took me all morning to redo it but I've hit send once more.
We'll see.

How's it looking, Bob?

(more) Recycled Denim

Watch Pocket Journal

Sara has been after me to make a new Letterboxing logbook for one of her boxing buddies, about to go back to it's owner. The logbook it came with is a page away from being full and she wanted me to make them a "cute" dog fabric covered logbook.

Nothing even remotely close seemed to be hiding in my stash. I did come across the 3rd Picnic Quilt while stash diving that I started earlier this summer and was fast on its way to becoming another guilt riddled UnFinished Object.

It's almost done and I pledge to work on it this week.
(putting it in bold font means I'm more likely to keep this promise?)

I had saved all of the leftover denim scraps - especially the pockets - hoping for an idea to use them later. Sunday morning inspiration struck and I've now made 2 logbooks using watch pockets as the covers.

The idea was to be able to stick the hand carved rubber stamp right inside the pocket - logbook & stamp all in one place. (Genius!)

The first one had a natural seam that made the stamp a tight fit and I was afraid it would get damaged if users were not extra careful. I thought I was all out of quality paper for making logbooks that could be used with ink, but came up with half a ream that had been put "some place safe where I'll find it" long ago.

I finally found it again!

Also pictured is the checkbook cover I made for myself months ago.
And my Fall Collection of Fabric Postcards & Artist Trading Cards.
Since the camera was out :)

Stand on the steps of the state capitol.

Head east to the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial? In Augusta.

Who knew? Not me! I still haven't found it.

My sweep around the State House and down into a nice little park across the street failed to turn up a Lincoln Memorial.

I played tourist with a camera around the surprisingly empty State House grounds and turned up a good number or other memorials & monuments I had never taken the time to see.

It could be a play on words I suppose.
Anyone know where Lincoln is? Anyone?

I had to drive to Augusta to attend a Board meeting on Saturday.

190+ miles round trip. YIKES!

It's not a solo journey I enjoy all that much. As editor of a quilting newsletter I had a couple of issues to face down. I suspect my ears would have been burning had I not been there to defend myself. Suffice it say I've ticked off one of the contributors to the newsletter enough that I suspect my name has been used in vain. Often!

Enough to convince me I needed to speak up. And see if I couldn't wrestle that editor voodoo doll away from her before she shoves another pin...some place uncomfortable. Judging by the X she made in her report because I got to go alphabetically ahead her with mine and diffused a half page of her talking points, it was a good thing I made the trip.

Except I totally wanted to show off a solo letterbox find and came up empty!
There's 4 new boxes in our area, hidden this week. We still haven't gotten out to look for them. How hard is it supposed to rain this afternoon?

Mother Nature looks to be messing with plans for the 2nd weekend in a row.
Or maybe someone's still jabbing pins in my likeness.

Did I mention it was a very blustery day?
Well it was!

At bottom is a statue of Samantha Smith.
I thought it was longer ago, but I must have been pregnant with Sara at the time her child's view of diplomatic HOPE took place.
By the time Stephani was born her mom was dealing with tragedy beyond belief.

In December 1982 Samantha Smith, a 10-year-old girl from Manchester, Me., wrote to Soviet President Yuri Andropov to ask if he was going to wage a nuclear war against the U.S. She toured the USSR at his invitation the following July and as a result, became first a media celebrity and then a television actress. Samantha died on a rainy August night in 1985 when the commercial plane she as in crashed killing all aboard.

Samantha Reed Smith

(June 29, 1972-August 25, 1985)

Field of Pumpkins

Things fall.

Like it or not.

Speak it again!

Memorized...
(found here)



Remember?
Come on, People!
Yes.We.Can.

Maiden Cliff trail

Letterboxing in Camden Hills State Park

I've never driven to the top of Mt. Battie in Camden.
I had never hiked any of it's trails.
Whenever we drive past the Mt. Battie autoroad we are either on another mission or the fee at the entrance gate overrules my wish to drive up.

I still want to drive up the autoroad (just once!) but Sara and I decided to spend Saturday hiking the Maiden Cliff trail on the back side of the park.

To look for Letterboxes, of course.

What a beautiful day! Fall colors have only just started changing here. We got kind of a late start and ended up in Camden after 12:30. Due to my navigational skills (or lack there of) we went past Rt 52 and down into the traffic congested center of Camden. I had it in my head the turn off for the trail was on the other side of town and Rt 52 must join Rt 1 for a bit. NOT!

We decided to eat at Subway before starting our trek so it worked out well in the end. We can declare "we meant to do that!" with sincerity. We were hungry and it was probably the safest/easiest bet for food in Camden at rush hour anyway. Still took forever to be waited on, but at least there was a real bathroom for one last stop before hiking.

Once we back-tracked through traffic and found Rt 52 again, it turns out there are 2 hiking trail parking lots very close together. As navigator, I had just suggested if we come to a fork in the road we should stay right as we kept an eye open for a brown trail hiker sign. Needless to say we parked at the first hiker sign, without ever coming to a fork in the road.

We set off up the trail to the first marker before realizing something wasn't adding up. This trail would not lead us to the Maiden Cliff cross or the 3 Letterboxes hidden somewhere along the way. Recent logged "finders" promised reasonable success.

For those actually hiking on the correct trail.

Back to the car for a drive further down the highway until we found the 2nd parking lot. It looked full and cars were parked along the road as well, but Sara drove in with innocent confidence there would be a space. A car started backing out to leave at that exact moment and she could not believe her luck.

Neither could the SUV who had driven past the space, who looked as it he felt the space was his. As he backed past us to leave, for the roadside parking no doubt, if looks could deflate - Sara would have had 4 flat tires!

We got out as if we owned the space - possession being 9/10ths law - is that the saying? - and never made eye contact again, for my part.

Our compass skills not being much better than my navigational skills, the first clue began: "Just before stepping onto the first of two wooden bridges to cross the stream bed, take a reading of 160 degrees. Follow your gaze to a twin-trunked hemlock seemingly growing out of rock." We probably could have worked it out just from the description but it was like grand central station. The place was crazy with hikers coming from every direction. We decided to catch this one on the way down.

Box 2 was among a pile of rocks following the clue - easily spotted because the plastic was showing. The trail was very wet due to all the recent rain and the hiding place may actually be getting stepped on as people try to avoid the mud. I put more rocks around the box to try keeping it hidden better but there's a pretty good chance hikers will come close enough to knock it out again.

Box 3 was down over the ledge holding a giant cross commemorating a young girl who fell to her death many years ago. I had seen the cross from the road years before, but how cool to stand from behind and read the dedication.

As for the box: Sara the Brave went down into the ravine and onto the ledge to look for it. I would probably have walked away although it turned out to be much wider than it looked at first glance. This box clue also had a compass reading so once she found the box Sara cross checked the reading.

LIGHT BULB GOES OFF!

We now understand how to hold & read the compass and once we were back at box 1 - with much less traffic - the direction was easily found without wandering around in a full circle looking for a tree growing out of a rock. YAY! I've been wandering around the house taking compass readings of everything in sight.

Following a beginners compass tutorial - which makes much more sense now - from the spot I'm sitting at using their example...there should be a letterbox in our old BBQ pit.

hmmm...

Your heart is not a stone

Here If You Need Me
a true story by Kate Braestrup

I picked up mom and headed off to town for Friday morning errands. Among other things on my to-do list, I wanted to pick up the book that I had been notified was waiting for me. Thanks to the library loan program less than a week would go by since first reading it's introduction and the time it would take to arrive at the Bangor Public library from the University of Maine Augusta library. From The Manharts blog:

Here if You Need Me: My favorite of the non-fiction. A story of a woman who went to seminary after her husband was tragically killed and then became the chaplain for the Maine Warden Service. For a spiritually searching girl like me, it was perfect. I am consciously stopping myself here from going on and on and on and on. Her voice is one the bravest, clearest, and (sometimes) funniest I've read in a while. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Shared by a friend Stephani now calls Emilie, but stubbornly remains Mrs in my mind. The wonderfully giving Creative writing/English teacher that helped my then 16 year old daughter through some very rough early high school daze.

I'm not sure why this book from a summer reading list jumped out at me as the one I would most like to read. For the last 7 years I have tended towards the "scary and alarming" government tell-all books our current administration has spawned with all too frequent necessity. Change can't come soon enough and I pray for our country's soul. Literally prayed on several occasions now. Even though I consider myself Spiritual rather than Religious.

On the way home from mornings errands, and having read a few pages in waiting, I questioned once again if praying for a presidential choice was proper use of spiritual aids. This time out loud and in front of mom as I was about to drop her off at home with her groceries & medications.

We discussed the Palin Effect and wondered if our gender would be so foolish as to vote this option simply because she would be woman. Not a woman who stands for nearly anything in this world I want for my daughters. Their future choices are their own.

Mom allowed that in these times, perhaps more than ever, a little prayer couldn't hurt. May in fact be needed.
I began reading after lunch with dedicated determination. On the deck in the warmth of a sunny afternoon. My eyes teared up almost from the beginning and at one point I put it down, wondering. Will this be too sad?

Another time it was put down to call the fire department. Is that smoke I smell again! A really bad fire was burning in Hermon and thankfully not a repeat of earlier this summer. Our local fire department volunteer drove around the block to check. Just to be sure.

The last page was turned at about 4 am.
I read About the Author. Again.
And closed the book.
And then lay my head in my arms on the kitchen table and sobbed a few of the tears that had been building within me through out the reading.

It is an amazing book. Come to me at perhaps the perfect time.
Searching for answers. Not always sure of the question.
In the 25 years without my sister I can usually tell when I'm in for a good cry. It builds up as if the tears are in my head and my heart and they will surely soon burst out for the cleansing of my spirit I've come to accept as good for me. I thought I might make it to the cemetery before the flood. But it was not to be.

Go ahead. Arrange and rearrange the stones on your beloved's grave. Keep arranging those stones for as long as it hurts to do it, then stop, just before you really want to.
Put the last stone on and walk away.
Then light your candles for the living. Say your prayers for the living. Give your flowers to the living. Leave the stones where they are, but take your heart with you. Your heart is not a stone.

Thank you, Emilie.

Letterboxing book 2

2nd book complete

Warning!

Yes.

There will be spoiler pictures of my library Letterbox creation.

Once I set it free, I may never see it again.
And it's my blog.
I can do what I want!

Purchased at Goodwill, Ponder This is my newest letterbox.

It originally contained some sort of poetry. Two like-themed verses per page, written from two different angles.
(I had started thinking of it Jekyll & Hyde poetry.)
One seller lists in his description: "simple short verses that note the positive side of adversities, or as author calls it, life's verities". Sort of a question & answer verse on the same subject.

I asked Steph if it was too good to glue together.
As our poetry expert in the house, perhaps I was misguided picking this book to alter. Err....no.

It was decided some books need to be glued shut and this was perhaps a perfect example. Sorry, Leonard.

Practice for carving my own stamps continues.
Most all of the images I've used so far start out from free clip art sites. We've used up quite a few 4X6" slabs of Speedball Speedy Carve. I'm also experimenting with an exacto knife along with gouges for the last few carves I've tried.

The "pink stuff" is not recommended for exacto carving?

Now you tell me.
You can't see where you've cut using the pink stuff.

The stamp for the book was originally going to be the bookworm stamped on the title page. I was going to put it in the Children's Room of the same library my other book was placed in.

After reworking clip art of the birds on a wire - I gave them tufts of hair and put both feet back on the wire for the upside down bird, I decided to change stamps that would go with this book.

If you Ponder This stamp - print it upside down and the image takes on a comical new meaning!