WINTER ROLER COASTER

We are enjoying our annual roller coaster ride up and down the weather map.  The temperatures go from the low twenties one day to a high of fifty-nine the next.   But hang onto your hats because the prediction is low teens to sub-zero in the next few days.   This means we have to make good use of the good days and enjoy our indoor warmth on the cold ones.     

We have had a couple of significant snow events.  The "Ground Crew" did a lousy job, leaving a couple of inches of packed snow on the driveways for an early storm and didn't come back to clean up.   Then we had a nice thaw so the bare driveways emerged.  Then we had another storm, and the plows came and did little better.   They threw sand in clumps in front of the door, which they say they have to do for insurance compliance, but they also threw it on the door step, which they are not obliged to do.  I have put a sign in the door now asking them not to sand in front of the door.   This is not "sand" as beach sand or even sand pit sand; this is gravel as in what the trucks throw at you when you follow them on the highway.  A person could turn an ankle on some of it.

A limb has fallen behind my condo.  I am grateful it was not the whole tree.  Mr. Cardinal sits in the top of that tree in the summer, telling all the others this is his territory.   There have been a lot of leafless limbs at the top for as long as I have lived here.  I hope he can find another as I enjoy his cheerful song.

The Ladies of the Creek met for lunch.  It was the same day as my music friends meet here, so I was among the missing.  The next one in February will be no problem as it is an afternoon event - coffee and cookies in someone's home.   Getting together is new for this community and seems to have struck a positive note.   Nice in the winter to keep everyone's spirits up. And the gossip flowing.

My daughter-in-law says her horses are snug in their blankets with lot of hay.   They have access to the covered run-in and several sheltered areas, but often prefer to stay outside.   Big round-about devices hold bales of hay for them to feed on.  It's a good life for them.

The animal shelters are full of needful animals, big and small.   A fire at one recently left them short of blanket, toys and supplies.  Maine is responsive to pleas for animals so they are getting replenished.  I made a contribution of toys and supplies including some shampoo, toys and harnesses.   My friend was taking over some blankets, towels and other items.   

From Maine

janice.major@iCloud.com

Snow Caps

Maine has enough snow now to make the 'boards, 'bilers* and skiers happy so in my world, enough is enough!  I would be happy in my old age to have enough cold days to preserve what they need, and enough warmth to melt my driveway and lower my heating needs.  There are snowcaps on the fencepost tops, on the cones that cover the rose bushes and on St. Francis head. The mounds from shoveling and plowing have been freshly covered with new snow.  And the Presidential Range of mountains, visible from the high points in the area, as glistening with a snowcap which will last until summer.  A trip to the Western Promenade is well worth the gas and time when the weather is clear.

When I woke this morning there were scattered flakes drifting down, but within an hour they had become sparse and the sun was taking care of the few that had landed on the patio.  I waited a bit to put Nick out.  He was lethargic and apparently didn't have an urgent need so the two of us just took it easy for a couple of hours.   Nick has not been feeling well.  Too much holiday activity, I think,  He was petted and played with and all that wiggling apparently set off the arthritis in his back and neck so that even bending down to eat was painful.   He is stubbornly difficult to medicate, so I have been concocting hamburg, olive oil, spices and a little honey in a skillet, pounding his pill to a fine powder, and mixing it in. Poured over a portion of his dry food has him fooled for the time being.  If he catches on to that ploy I have no more tricks in my apron pocket.   He found the pill in the peanut butter on bread tidbits and now he won't touch peanut butter anything.   He found it in a hamburg patty and spit it on the floor, much to the amusement of a visitor who has as dog that is very compliant about medication.

Anyway, all the places along the roads where I enjoy seeing the water running out of little crevices now have icicles.   They are pretty.  I dare not pull to the side of the road to take a picture.  They are always in narrow or busy areas like turnpike ramps where the state cut through the glacial rocks to make way for men too busy to bother to go around natural obstacles like rock ledges.   The watershed by the Scarborough exit - which had a beaver house a couple of years ago -  is frozen over.   The beaver houses were removed after some do-gooder busy-bodies reported them to the state wild life people.
They said it was a safety issue.   I'm not sure if they were protecting the beavers or the people.

The turkeys, all 21 of them, were crossing the street by the entrance sign.  Several were on the right, more on the left, but in the middle of the road were three having an argument about which way to go.
I stopped (I don't mind and I don't blow my horn because it confuses them even more) and another car stopped behind me.  We spent about three minutes when car #2 blew it's horn and just as I expected, some went one way, some the other and some that had already crossed changed their minds to recross.
If you look at a turkey from the neck down, they are really beautiful with a lot of irridescent colors in their plumage.  But if you look at them from the neck up, well, not exactly ugly, but certainly not pretty.  Like ladies with beautiful clothes and plain to homely faces. But  those Tom's, they look at the beautiful feathers and not the faces.  Which is nature's way of ensuring the population.

Our deer also cross the road with abandon.  I am really afraid for them, and the unlucky driver who at dusk can't quite discern their dun colored coats until it's too late.   There seem to be three does in the herd unless I am seeing different groups.   Maybe we'll get a look a handsome stag one of these evenings.   Incidentally, Nick challenges the turkeys, but he has little to say when the deer go through. He just stretches his body out to get a better look, no threatening  bark, not even a little  woof.  They are  after all, much bigger than he is.

January is already a week old and I am no longer thinking about any resolutions that might have passed through my conscience.  That's a little ahead of schedule actually, as I usually make it to MLK day at least.  I did begin a "feel good" routine I heard about on one of TV's PBS programs: you can change your negative feelings by taking 45 seconds each morning to "appreciate" some thing - not the usual things but something that you might overlook in your ordinary thankfulness.  So today I am thankful that my computer is behaving and my shower has clean warm water of which I am about to take advantage.  

janice.major@iCloud.com

Old fashioned snow

Christmas came and went with very little evidence that Maine was four days into winter.  But the 27th blew in with snow and wind and falling temperatures. No one should have been caught off guard, it is after all, winter in Maine.   But the plows were late getting around and the careless car owners forgot about parking bans.   It's an expensive experience - leaving your car on the street costs around $270 to retrieve your car from the "storage lot".  Parking ticket, towing, and storage fee add up fast. Anyway, just about when the supermarket parking lot got cleared another storm is passing through, expecting to give us another four to eight inches, depending where in the state you are.    I am near the coast so may get extra, or not as much depending on the direction the storm comes from.

Nick isn't so crazy about the snow anymore.   Nor am I.   I went to the recycling "bullet" to leave old catalogs, news papers and lots of Christmas envelopes, wrapping and boxes.  The containers were overflowing, they had not been cleared of snow, and thoughtless creeps had piled trash bags, boxes, old clothes and toys up outside.  Since the trash collectors also took a holiday, and then could not operate in the storm, it was a disgusting mess.   But it brought to mind that the victims of Sandy were facing that multiplied a hundred fold.  

I put a live tree (well, truthfully a dead tree since it had been cut down) in my patio room, with the help of my son Tom.  I put a few ornaments and a string of white mini-lights on it.  My family came on Sunday before Christmas.  Some extended family joined us and I think everyone just likes being together.  I cannot do sit-down dinners and the roast beef was first not done, and then done too much.
I finally made a pot roast from the remainder.  We had the traditional lobster and shrimp.   Salad and deserts. Lord, give me one more chance to do it right.  NO more uncooked/overcooked roasts. No more  have done roast vegetables.  Next year lobster, shrimp, cold cuts and a veggie platter (home cut, of course),  

Tom came again to take the tree out.  Now the room is a little empty, but I'm sure I'll find a way to fill it.  It's in my nature:  an flat surface, and empty space - I'll find something to put on/in it.

Have a great New Year's weekend.  Have a great 2013.  
janice.major@iCloud.com

Maine is green!   We have had only two significant snowfalls in this early winter season, which doesn't officially begin until tomorrow anyway, so they don't really count.

Several weeks ago we had just enough to bring the plows into the Creek, and then last Sunday, there was a 3+ inch covering  which brought them in again.    Monday it rained and most snow washed down the drains.
The only remaining visible evidence was where the plows heaped it up beside the roads and driveways.   The plows are too big for the job, and all they accomplish besides heaps on the lawns, is leaving behind a hard packed skim which can be very slippery if not scraped off by hand.  Monday's rain washed the skim away, so my son needn't have worried that it would be come hazardous.   The ever zealous shovelers threw coarse sand (read small rocks) be the doorways in spite of signs asking them not to.   Insurance issues, they tell us.   Personally, I think walking on small rolling stones is more likely to cause twisted ankles.  Yes, the rocks are that big.

The pond was again frozen over for a couple of day, but the mild temperatures have melted it once more, and although the ducks have left, the seagulls, ever opportunists, have been seen floating around, and I heard the deer are going down to it and getting drinks.   Awfully steep banking, meant to discourage people from getting into the water, would seem to be hazardous for the deer.  I have no idea how deep the pond is.    It would seem to me it would make a lovely skating rink, but there are signs that say no to going there.  One of my neighbors told me when she first moved in her son was delighted and was skating on it, when along came the local lawmen and shoeed him off.    

My dog has gotten very reluctant to venture off the patio for his business.  I have told him repeatedly going on the patio is bad, but if I don't stay out there with him, he takes advantage.  Last night I stood and goaded him into going into the wet grass and he was like a timid ballet dancer mincing his steps and looking over his shoulder at me asking if I was serious.   Hind quarters still on the patio, he squatted like a girl dog and watered into the grass.   Sissy.   Today it is nice and mild.  I put him out and left him while my friends were here for music.   

If you're interested in know about the music group, go to Musiclife-janice.blogspot.com (you might be able to get it that way, I'm never sure if it works or not).

So, tomorrow is he first day of Winter and the days will begin to lengthen which is always welcome.  We are the first to see the sun rise, and the first to see it go down.   There are still only 24 hours in each day, it just matters how they are divided into day and night.   

Merry Christmas to everyone.   Hanakkuh is over; I hope it was pleasant for all of our Jewish friends.   I don't quite understand Kwanza, although I did a little research on it.  It seems it was created recently and is a symbol of freedom.  Happy Kwanza to all, Freedom is precious.    

jmajor2@maine.rr.com

Thanksgiving

If the there are crops left in the field, they will be turned to compost by next spring.   We have had several frosts, one plowable snow, and lots of cold mornings.  But today, it is sunny and God willing, I will finish what little I do in the back yard - covering the roses and unhooking the hose. I have already shut the water off inside, but probably should open the tap outside.

Yesterday I picked up a sandwich at a local deli, drove Kettle Cove and walked the dog a little.  I didn't go on the beach as it was littered with seaweed in huge heaps, the residual of the big storm a couple of weeks ago.   I saw a very brave and hardy young woman coming up out of the water. I used to do that - swim in late fall if the weather was nice.   It gave me shivers to just watch her.  She tossed a couple of towels around her shoulders, pulled on a pair of pants that had been in the sun, and left in a neat black SUV.  For a few minutes I was envious, and sad for my "lost youth." But for just a few minutes.   Memories should not diminish the moment, and the moment was sweet.
Two middle aged men were sitting on a bench.  One had ridden his bicycle there, clad in flashy blue biker suit, helmet and all; the other had arrived in a somber gray sedan.  If I had a camera with me I would have asked to take their picture just because it was quite classic.  

Going back toward home, I drove around the "other waterfront" where you cannot park unless you get there very early because it is the best location in the area for surfing.   There I took advantage of the five minute "drop off" area and watched a man with graying hair, skinny as a stick-drawing, don a full body wet suit, get a surf board which, as he carried it  completely hid him, and head for the waves.   I did not waste even a minute of time envying him!  Getting dumped and washed over by angry ocean waves would not ever have been my favorite pasttime.  

The trees are bare, except for those oaks which hang onto their brown leaves until heavy snow brings them down.   The crop fields are brown with stubble if they were planted with corn.  Other gardens are bare rows of earth waiting for planting next spring.   As I drove along through Cape Elizabeth I saw two does running across the low land.   I have seen three deer in our condo area this year, two gray foxes and the neat little red one that likes to take his nap in the sun on the berm in the back of the property.   We have some "city folks" who have moved in here who would like the foxes trapped and disposed of - humanely of course - but they are welcomed to live here as far as I'm concerned.   The pair of grays were standing in the road as I drove in and I stopped to watch them. They stood and looked at me and then with what seemed like a shrug of their shoulders they wandered off into the woods.   I saw a gray cat walking in the neighboring development.  I hope he and the foxes don't meet up on a day when the foxes have not found a turkey or a squirrel.

The farm stand at Higgins Beach is boarded up.   The little farm stand at the corner of Black Point Road is also closed.   The sign, which will sit by the road all winter,  still reads "IN GOD WE TRUST" .   I hope the lady who runs it for her son is there again next year.  She is somewhere around 90 years old.    

I will be with family this year as usual.  Not always the same family, but I am grateful that some one always "takes me in"  their circle.   Happy Thanksgiving.   (Which should be the last Thursday in November).

jan major

Here we are approaching the end of October, and the end of the hurricane season, and I heard today there is threatening weather in the Atlantic which may impact us early next week.   I guess the weather gods did not get the message about November 1 closing the window on hurricanes.

The leaves are mostly down, the sky is brillian blue today.  As I drove along Commerce Drive on my way home today, I noticed the oaks still have those dry brown hangers-on.   They will be the last to fall, and will plague us maybe even after the first snowfall.  And maybe will still be there, soggy, slippery and ugly come spring when the snow melts.  But I think before the days when we raked so conscientiously (incidentally, I don't have to rake, the Ground Crew does it for me and my fellow Creekers) the dry leaves nurtured the ground they lay on.

As I drove out of Stoney Creek, onto Commerce Drive, earlier this week three lovely young does crossed in front of me from the pond side into the rather sparse woods between us and the Maine Veterans' Home.   And on coming car missed what I meant for a signal to slow down, and very nearly had venison for supper.   And a badly damaged car.    That's the second threesom of deer I have seen in the last few weeks.  BUT - today as I turned into my driveway I saw two full grown gray foxes crossing Stoney Creek Road.  I have heard they are around.   They are fully furred, very pretty (although not as colorful as the red fox which rests in the sun behind #1), and very healthy looking.   I am not afraid of them having rabies, the raccoons worry me more and we have plenty of them also. 

 NOw why would they be so close to a "colony of 30 condos" ?  The burgeoning building in Scarborough is taking out the woods and the town deems it necessary to make every open field into a ball park.  More clearing and more building is taking place as I write.  And much more is to come.    Scarborough needs to start thinking "up" now low and sprawling.

I am going on a three day hiatus to connect to more music enthusiasts, but before I go I need to do a number of things.  Shorten a pair of pants, decorate a pair of old shoes with frilly pink yarn (to wear instead of slippers for "pajama party" night, and maybe dash of a bit of a music blog about Steve Lawrence.   I'm feeling pretty positive about gettingit all done, and if I remember to pack my shoe horn and music glasses, I'll be all set.

Meanwhile, I'll take a few minutes to look up from my patio at the moon because tonight is clear and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.  And if I am out this afternoon again, I'll look up to see if the red tailed hawk that circles over head nearly every day is still up there enjoying the up-drafts.   It's a good day to be me in Maine.

jmajor2@maine.rr.com

A Rare Event

There is a song which as words something like ".....is it an earthquake or is it at last love?...."  Well, it was an earthquake.   And I remember a few of them in Maine where they are relatively rare, but I never experienced one like last night's.

My dog had come in from his nightly business mission and should have been settling down.  He began pacing and looking at me expectantly and my response was, "Go lie down, you just came in."   Yes, I do talk to my dog. And I did say to him as he was looking at me, "I wish I knew what you are thinking."   Shortly the house began to shake as though a train had derailed (the tracks are only about a mile south as the crow flies), or a plane crash (the air port is about three miles to the north) -  and then the room  became a Disney attraction, shaking  in all directions.  AND THEN BOOM!  and explosion of epic proportions followed by a diminishing of the trembling.
The dog looked at me one more time and I am sure he was saying "I told you so!".

Every week there is an "Emergency Management Alert"  test on televison which interrupts programming.  Each time there is a severe storm in New Hampshire to our west, or in the northern part of Maine which is miles away, the raucous claxon pierces our ears and the red banner streaks across the screen with the printed warning while a robot issues a statement.  SO, WHERE WAS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT LAST NIGHT?   Couldn't they have come on to let people know this was an earthquake which registered on the Richter Scale at 4.0, and had a scope of several hundred square miles?   What good are they if they are not on top of what's happening in real time? 

Well, it's a lovely day today.  If there have been after shocks, I haven't been aware of them.  After a lot of rain and a couple of heavy frosts the plants are ready to be prepared for winter.  I will find my clippers and gloves and do the job over the next few days which are predicted to be good.

I had hoped to make a trip into the middle of the state this fall but the rainy weather dampened my enthusiasm.   Maybe next year.

"October gave a party,
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks and Maples,
And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band."

"October's Party" - George Cooper