Month: September 2022

Sunday, Aug 21^st -Another beautiful day! Air is clean with a touch of crispness until the sun has been up for a bit to warm up. My morning routine has shifted to an early jaunt down the main trail to the Cove.  This is from 7:12. Little bit of fog off in the distance, but weather is calm and only one boat.

Coming back up the trail, check out the sky in this photo of the house / tower!  That should be in the Crayola box as sky blue!!! Time to start pulling some nosh together for breakfast.  Here’s the kitchen table with this morning’s ingredients.

This morning we are having our left-over tuna on some yummy toasted homemade rosemary bread with pesto or guacamole and all the extras!  I love this breakfast.

Here is Colin enjoying the sunshine and someone else preparing the morning meal! No one really in the Cove just yet so we have some time to relax.  Shortly after breakfast I wanted to head down to the Cove again to check the Clivus as well as take a picture of me performing my maintenance!  We need it for the SummerFest (the annual fundraiser for Seguin) presentation we’re making this Saturday.  Colin and I headed down to the Cove to see if we have any new boats. Yep – there are a few!

Once we finished there, back up top to get ready for some tours.  First group up a threesome from Cozy Harbor, Kelly + M? + Margaret and their dog Coral.  Coral was very well behaved during the tour I might add!  During their tour I took a pic of some more rainbows from the prisms.  Always an interesting perspective.

Next up the trail was Cal & Katrina with a couple of friends and Katrina’s fiancée Evan!  Yay! Everyone enjoyed the tour, the weather and was having an awesome time.

Next, we had two different groups, but it was not too large so I gave them a tour together. First on the left is Eugene and Sharon on S/V Spring and they are from Sydney Australia! On the right side is Henry, wife Clay, daughter Ginger and boyfriend Evan all from Small Point.  They were definitely a fun group and we all spent a chunk of time talking after the tour too!

By mid- afternoon, the sky above was still “sky blue” but looking straight out all you could see was fog.  It was pretty unique looking! And just as it rolled in, it rolled on out. 

No more tours so Colin and I decided to head off and hike the South Trail.  I’ve been wanting to climb down some of the rocks to get closer to the water, Colin was game for that so off we went. This first picture is a small pine tree that has a lot of pine cones!  Most of the pine trees are on the NE wall of the Cove where the rocks become shaded in mid-afternoon.  But here we are on the south trail where most everything growing is pretty low to the ground. As we came to the end of the trail, we started making our way down to the ocean.  Again, as with the geology of the Cobblestone Beach area, the rocks here are wild, so many different shapes, sizes, textures, etc.  Here is a picture where a hole has been worn away but there is still a small bridge of the main rock crossing over!

As we got closer to the waterline, the barnacle population increased dramatically.  It was like a line across the rocks.  Here is a close up of a small pond of ocean water.  It is so clear and the colors of the life in the pond are very bright!

Next as we were walking along the barnacle line, I noticed lots of small mussels.  Colin and I began looking for some that might be large enough for Steve to actually use as bait!  I had a blue rubber glove in my pocket so we used that as our “container” to carry them back.  They were in areas that were deeper than the barnacles and mostly where it was shady. Then I just took a scenery shot of Colin.  I’m looking in a southerly direction on the western side of the island.

The picture on the right is of some cool rock formations.  Sometimes you’ll see these areas where it looks like the rock was flowing or moving at some point during its life.   They just look so unique; I hope you can see some of it in these pictures.  This next picture is a wide-angle view of another amazing rock which looked like it was about ready to fall on us and part of it was resting on another rock yet a portion was suspended over our heads.  I left this picture large so you get a sense of what I’m sharing.

Then we looked more towards the North and decided how far we wanted to follow the coast.  We picked an area and said lets go there and see what we see, then we’ll start to head back to where we descended from the trail and go back to the house.  During this part of the hike, we saw a seagull nest and noticed one egg off to the right that was unhatched (see the green arrow).  I’m guessing that one didn’t make it. At this point I took a picture of Colin facing Northeast, it just seemed appropriate for me to take a picture of him! 

From here we walked a little further north and noticed the change in the steepness of the island.  Here we figured was a good place to stop.  However, we noticed an area where the tide was raging in, it would fill up an inlet and then the water would race out as the wave receded.  I did take some videos, but the pictures didn’t do it justice as you need to hear the sound of the rushing water.  Maybe close your eyes and mentally picture the wave going back out to mix with the ocean!!!!  Then we thought we should take a picture of the two of us.  So, we put the phone against the water bottle, hit the timer button and Colin ran over to where I was standing.  That’s the picture on the right!

We reversed direction and headed back the way we came and then back up to the trail.  What a great hike.  I love those as you’ll never know what you see or find!

Back at the house we decided it was time to have some crab claws / legs out on the picnic table.  It was about 5:30 and Steve hadn’t had any visitors.  Here we are eating our crabs and check out the view behind them, you can’t see a thing!  By 6:00 the shore was hidden by the fog.

As I turned more towards the west, these clouds were our view! The weather out here is just amazing!

Closer to sunset, Steve took his artistic shot of the day.  From outside, facing towards the westerly dining room window, showing the reflection of the sunset behind him.  How about that!

Well time to go in start working on dinner.  On the menu tonight was lamb burgers with sautéed bak choy, carrots and onions topped with sesame seeds and pickled cucumbers. Then Steve came out of the kitchen with a bowl.  I couldn’t quite figure out what he would be bringing out before the meal.  He said “Oh I cooked the mussels you brought back as an appetizer!”  Oh no – he misunderstood. We brought them back to be used as bait – he thought they were to eat. We all laughed!  We ate them, they were just like mussels!  The picture is of my plate as mine was minus the bun! 

Monday, Aug 22nd – ☹ I’m sad.  As today Colin heads back to Richmond.  We got up early to have some nosh as Cal & Katrina were picking him up about 8:30 to start his journey home. Here’s my pic of the Cove.  Yikes – is it foggy!!!!! I had talked to Diane earlier this morning and she asked if we had taken any pictures yet of the three of us!  Gosh darn, I did forget to do that!  We lined up the camera on the railing and were able to take this photo.  Just like we don’t often have pics of the two of us, we often forget to capture the three of us!

Here are the pictures down in the Cove, very calm, but very foggy today. Steve taking him out….

A hug for Dad and a wave to me!

Then off they go into the fog- going, going and gone!

Well, we had a great time with him and great weather.  He got a real sense of what our summers been like!

My comfort is that by the time we return home to VA, Colin will have moved back in with us.  So, we get to look forward to having him around for a few months, which we both enjoy.  He and his roommate opted to end their lease as they are heading in different directions. His next clinical is very close to our house and the one after that will be in CA near Steve’s mom.  Ok back up to the house.

Around noontime, we had some visitors, Krista, Aali, Dan and the dogs Olive and Bonnie. The girls decided to take the tour while Dan sat with the dogs.  The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet and we couldn’t really see if there were any potential boats due to the fog. 

Around 4 o’clock, our next group came up.  It was Jeff from Sailing Ships Maine with another group and now we have his website (https://sailingshipsmaine.org/ )!  It was not a great day for sailing!  It was foggy and windy and the temperature was on the chilly side but they came up for a tour so a tour they’ll get!  At the beginning, you can read the crowd to see who is interested and who isn’t.  I take that on as a challenge to see if I can pull the group into what I’m sharing.  And I did that for this group!  By the time we were out on the catwalk, they were asking questions about the Tower, Steve and I, our adventure etc.  It was a great group and I really enjoyed giving them an top notch tour.

After that group, I went down to the Cove and met up with Steve and the roofers who were packing up their stuff and taking it out to AJ’s boat.  It was rainy, cold and raw.  Fortunately, a small power boat offered to help and bring some of their gear out to AJ’s boat instead of piling it all into the dinghy!  They made three trips and said they needed to head on their way back to the mainland as the weather was continuing to deteriorate. Took them about an hour.

We went back up top, got warm and made dinner.  No other pictures though!

Tuesday, Aug 23^rd – Slept in a little. Still pretty cloudy looking to the east and temperature just a little chilly as sun wasn’t out. However, by 9:00 the clouds were clearing out and the temperature was warming up.  I went down to the Cove to see how the schooner crew made out.  The wind last night was in the “bad” direction if you were staying in the Cove, which they did.  It was pretty wavy.  I noticed a few sailors on the boat deck looking like they were eating breakfast.  I waved! One young woman saw me and yelled “Good Morning, Carol.”  That made my day – anyone who remembers my name means they were at least listening!!!!

Here is a picture of the Cove.  The wind last night brought in a lot of seaweed!!! Yikes!

So each day, I try to take pictures along the way, the groups of people, interesting notes about visitors, some of their names, weather, meals, etc.  For today.  That is all the pictures I had!!!  I didn’t have any notes and only had “8/23?” on my visitor list!  Oh well, guess that’s it for today. 😊 Although, we are headed to shore tomorrow, we did some menu planning and working diligently on our PowerPoint presentation for the fundraiser “SummerFest 9” on Saturday.

Wednesday, Aug 24^th – Yep, today is our shore day.  Not many of these days left.  It’s a very Maine-like morning here in the Cove! We have lots to bring in as last week, we were not able to go to the Transfer Station since they are closed on Thursdays.

The focus for today is to get most of the food for the next week which includes a four-day visit from our oldest son Gary and his girlfriend Therese.  They are flying into Portland Sunday from Colorado Springs.  We’ll be going back in on Saturday too for the fund-raiser, so we’ll pick up a few refrigerated items then, but we’ll get the bulk of what we need today. 

This was the first time we have gone ashore where you literally couldn’t see 20 feet.  The water was calm and there wasn’t any wind but wow it was foggy.  We pulled into Popham and it was still very foggy.  Most of the time it would be foggy at the island, but clear on the mainland but not today.

We did the usual – laundry, food shopping, deciding where to eat lunch – oh and we’re supposed to meet Leeli for lunch today.  She offered to have lunch at her place in Georgetown.  We met her at the Natural Market in downtown Bath, picked up some yummy food – I picked out a kale, chickpea, tofu salad with ginger dressing that was over noodles, a Maine ginger beer soda and a bag of sweet potato chips!  We followed her to her place.  A beautiful home on the water near Five Islands Marina.  Jim was waiting for the three of us and we had a delightful lunch on their porch.  We hugged in case we don’t see each other for a while hopefully they will be able to make it to SummerFest and said our “goodbye’s for now.”

Here we are back at the floating dock for our 3:00 pick-up.  We could see Ethan out in the cove area cleaning off the boat.  He is kind enough to do that before we bring all our bags onto the boat.  Wow what a difference in the weather compared to this morning!

Well things are pretty quiet here on the island and the Cove, but here comes that pesky fog again….We made a couple of trips up the trail with our stuff, then put everything away and started thinking about dinner.  We continued to work on our presentation.  Each time one of us sits at the computer, we think of another picture we want to include.  Then the challenge is finding the picture!!!!  I can’t even think of how many pictures we have taken since we’ve been here. I’m sure it’s in the hundreds. 

Our last picture today – a sunset – what a surprise!  But this one didn’t let us down as it is different than all the previous ones.  The sky, the clouds, the fog.  Since we can’t see land when it’s like this, it reinforces the fact that we’re on an island.  But we’re ok with that!  That’s a wrap for today!

Thursday, August 25^th – No Cove picture today, but took this one around 9:00.  I was in sweeping the tower.  You need to start at the top and sweep in circles.  The dirt, dead grass and paint chips all fall down to the next level! I swept the top deck, then down the 10 steps to the “28th step” platform, then each of the 28 steps and finally the floor as you come in the doors.  It’s amazing how much you get…. Anyway, when I had gone up to the top, I opened the outer door to the catwalk to let some fresh air in, and I noticed the shadow of the tower – oh and there’s Steve! Kind of a fun picture, can’t believe I haven’t noticed the shadow before today!

We had some early visitors, Mark and Cecilia from S/V Seaglass.  They said there wasn’t anyone else in the Cove, so they got the deluxe tour.  And as luck would have it, he used to work for Corning!  We chatted a lot about the lens and it’s maintenance.  I had a few history and cleaning related questions and he said he would reach out to their Museum of Glass Restoration department and put me in touch with the right peeps!   Yee ha!! (Just the other day I received the contacts email and we have been communicating – super interesting).  Unfortunately, I took a picture of them with their camera! So I texted him and asked him to send to me, Viola!

Next up the trail was a family of four.  Dave and Morgan with their two children Garrett and Joslyn.  During our tour, we took some more rainbow pictures with the prisms as well as a picture with the rainbows going across Garrett and Joslyn and then, the Christmas card family picture in front of the Tower.  They enjoyed the tour – even the kids!

Next group up the trail was Kip (you may recognize his name as he has been here before with his family – he makes the Seguin Island swag!)  Anyway, here is a picture of his family and his Mom (he sat out the tour) on the catwalk

Next was a group of five. Sundeep, August, Bea, Mike and Tom.  Sundeep was here earlier in the season with MITA (Maine Island Trail Association) to help with trail maintenance, general clearing and moving the old shingles into the helicopter bags.  This time he wanted to come to the island just to hang out!!

Last group of the day, was extra exciting!  Think back to the second blog when we talked about our arrival in Maine and waiting to come out to the island.  One of those days we were walking and started a random conversation with a couple of guys working on a porch and we asked them a few questions.  Sound familiar?  It was Bruno our sailing instructor from St. Thomas (our previous caretaking gig). Anyway, he had told us that he was getting a new-to-him boat in the middle of August and he would then sail up to see us on the island and today they showed up!!!!  Yay!  In the picture is Diana, David, Bruno and Steve as he was tending his burn pile when they arrived in the Cove!  Remember we can only do the burn pile when the tide is just around low tide so that as it comes in, it’s sure to extinguish any embers.  It is truly amazing how fast all the cardboard burns!

They headed up the trail with us to see the Tower, the museum, and of course have a tour!  Later in the afternoon, he brought us out to their boat for some snacks and beverages and to see the boat!  By the time we were done, it was getting to be dusk, so he brought us back to shore.  We headed back up the trail to have some dinner and check out the sunset!

As we came around the corner, I was able to get a plane trail and a reflection of the sun setting in the lens!   Within about 20 mins I caught some pretty pictures.  So sunset pictures today, no dinner food pictures.  We’re repeating most of our meals anyway!

Friday, August 26^th – This morning’s weather, not the best.  Here is the Cove around 10:00 am.  Pretty quiet.  The weather today is supposed to deteriorate by late this afternoon so I’m guessing we won’t have any visitors unless they are going by and need to take cover in the Cove. 

We do however, have a camper, Jason B., coming over today for one night via Five Islands Boat Charters (aka Cal & Katrina)!  He’s only staying one night.  He’s from Indianapolis and was in VT for 6 weeks with the Conservation Corp doing work on trails, etc.  Then he worked his way over to Maine, camping along the way.  Not exactly sure how he heard about Seguin, but we’re glad he came.  We gave him some information about the trails, gave him a tarp to hang off the picnic table as it is supposed to rain tonight and he had forgot his tent! Oh well, all part of the adventure!

Well as the day wore on, the weather did indeed deteriorate.  I had gone down to the whistle house to send some emails and work on the blog.  I heard what sounded like rain outside and Steve walked down and suggested I come back up to the house as a wild storm was coming up the coast and lots of thunder and lightning.  I wrapped up what I was doing and walked back up to the house.  It was crazy windy, starting to rain and the thunder / lighting was all around us!  When I got back into the house, Steve said he had texted Jason to tell him to just grab his sleeping bag and come on up because the storm was going to get worse.    

We started to get a little nervous as he hadn’t replied to the text.  Just when the storm was overhead, we got a text saying he was on his way up.  He was drenched when he arrived at the house.  We took him in and offered him a beverage and some snacks.  Spent some time chatting with him and hearing about his adventures this summer.  Very interesting young man.   He slept in the house in his sleeping bag, but at least he was dry!

Saturday, August 27^th – Well later today we head to shore for a couple of days! We’ll go in late this afternoon, head to SummerFest in Georgetown and when that is over head to a B&B in Topsham for an overnight not on the island!  First time in three months!  So, we have things to pack and take with us.  But first we have a day where the clouds are breaking up after the storm – so we’ll see if we have any visitors, it is Saturday after all.

Around 11:00 we had another group from Different Drum Sailing group come up the trail.  Although Liz was not leading the group as she had to head back to school (she is a teacher).  Her husband Jeff was still in charge on the boat, but the woman in the blue t-shirt was their lead.  Sorry – didn’t catch her name.  Anyway, good group had fun regardless of the less than perfect weather.  Remember it’s Maine – just wait an hour and the weather will change!  Which it did.

We spent the morning packing and prepping for our soiree on shore, collecting our last few items and heading down to the Cove to meet Ethan around noon! Instead of taking us right in, he offered to take us around Seguin from the water side.  We have never seen all the island from this perspective and hence, have a bunch of pics of the island as well as a few of us (again, we don’t often have pictures of the two of us together).

I’ve written a little description underneath the pictures!

We are coming around the eastern side of the island. Oooo – a picture of the two of us!

This is the only picture we have of Ethan where you can see his face! Southern most point looking North.

I love the reflection in Steve’s sunglasses! After we landed on shore, we stopped at Grab N’ Go to grab (no pun intended) a quick bite (chicken curry sandwich) that was fantastic! We needed a little nourishment before tonight.

Here are some pictures of SummerFest, outside listening to the band, my sister Diane and Dave you’ve heard about them several times, Sara from The Osprey in Georgetown (they were providing the pizza, salads, dessert and beverages).  All was super delicious!

The silent auction was held in the main hall of the Georgetown Community Center, the live auction was upstairs, and here’s Jodie (creator of our purchase) with our purchase of the seaglass window made with some glass from Seguin as well as other locations.  I can’t wait to find a place of honor to hang it when we arrive home!

The food (pizza) was delicious and there was lots left over (so they gave us a few to take with us).  We gave our presentation which was divided into several areas: Work, Weather, Observations, Food, People and Closing remarks.  We shared many pictures that described those categories and shared what we found to be the amazing highlights of our adventure.

During our closing remarks, Steve shared the painting of Seguin his Aunt Marie (Misery) created for us.  I shared some of this story in an earlier blog.  She was a joy to so many folks but we missed seeing her on our journey North as Steve had come down with Covid a few days before we left and weren’t able to see her.  We just figured we’d see her on the way home.  Unfortunately, she passed away in the meantime.  We dedicated our presentation to her. Then I shared a brief stream of consciousness I had one day on the island, which I have included at the end of today’s blog.

After the auction we helped clean up, pack up etc. and then headed to our B&B for the night.

The Black Lantern B&B was in Topsham and you’ll see some pictures in the next blog.  Steve and I arrived about 9:00 pm and were greeted by Tom, one of the innkeepers.  Very welcoming, beautifully appointed room which had everything we could need.  We then went down and sat in one of the sitting rooms to just recap the day and enjoy a little night cap!

The Black Lantern B&B (https://blacklaternbandb.com/ ) is located on 57 Elm Street, Topsham, ME 04086.  Judy and Tom Connelie have owned the Black Lantern B&B since 1997.  Initially at another location in Topsham they moved to their present waterfront location in 2005 and have tastefully renovated the circa 1860 home, adding bathrooms and restoring the original charm to the bedrooms and public spaces.  We are very excited to have someone cook us breakfast! Well, that’s all we have for this week.  Can’t believe we are winding down.

Carol’s closing remarks from the Keepers presentation:

My Observations

The keepers before us leave their spirit behind, yet we need to discover our own;

A single grass bends to the wind, the clouds bring reflection of the sun as it sets and the night is upon us;

The sky is somehow so vast, we feel alone yet it reminds us we are one.

Every day we get to feel and see the splendor of Seguin.

We see the sea, the sun, the clouds, it’s life and it touches us in a place we did not know existed.

Every day is different, every day we seek to behold its beauty

Whether it’s cold or warm, or still or breezy – its life is ever changing.

We know not what brings this beauty, yet it is captured uniquely by the eye of the beholder

Who stops for a few minutes to listen, observe and slowly exhale as we absorb it all.

The morning comes each day, with a promise to be different yet somehow still the same.

The rocks, the sea, the wildlife, the sounds will forever be etched in our minds and soul, labelled Seguin.

Next week is our last week on the island and it’s a doozy! I plan to write a brief blog about our journey home so I will have two more blogs – thanks for hanging in there!

Sunday, August 14th– Pretty day today, not much wind and roofers are still here working.  Our first guests up today are the group from the S/V Aurora 2 (the catamaran that came in late yesterday afternoon). They wanted a tour and I was ready to share what I know about the island and the Tower. It was great during the tour as I asked them to help me with my pronunciation of the lighthouse in southern France where they installed the first Fresnel (remember it’s French so it’s pronounced Fruh-nel) lens and the name of the company that made Seguin’s lens – Henry-LaPaute.  It was very helpful!  Then they stopped into the museum and gift shop and all the ladies bought some swag.  This is one of the most fun parts of the job, meeting people from all over and learning what brought them to Seguin. As I’ve mentioned before, we can’t always see boats as they are coming into the Cove, but if they head east up the coast, we can.  The picture on the right is them sailing away.

Today was an exceptional day in the Tower for rainbows created by the prisms.  Here’s a few shots of them including Larson, Ethan’s oldest son. He looks like his face has been painted!  They came to the island today with some friends for a day of fun and some lobsters down by the boat house.

Here’s two more shots.  My favorite one is the one on the right.  The reflection is as the light shone through the last step up to the upper inside catwalk. What has been interesting is to see how the prisms have changed over the season as the timing and location of the sun has moved.

This was probably one of our busiest days as we had 60+ guests today. Scott & Mary from yesterday came back up to walk some trails, a couple of peeps from Brunswick, 3 gentleman from Bath heading to Boothbay, a kayak group of 8, and FOSILS member Chris, wife Sarah and 2 friends! Just to name a few!  Here’s a pic of Steve up on the outside catwalk with some tour goers. Oh and hey check out the new roof!  Looking pretty good!

Well, it’s about 1:00 and we decided to walk down to the Cove to see what the situation looks like.  Here’s some pics of the Cove, Ethan and group enjoying the deck and the kids swimming!

Next, we had a group of 5 waiting for a tour, then a family on the catwalk and the youngest in his rainbow swim trunks with a prism rainbow!

When the last group came back down to the Cove, their boat came in to pick them up as they didn’t have a dinghy!

Still more guests!  We had a group of 4 young women and one of them was our 1000^th guest. Steve said she won a fly swatter! However, she wasn’t allowed to keep it! We did have a couple more groups of two come up to check out the lighthouse, gift shop and the museum.

The roofers have decided to head back as the weather is not looking the best for tomorrow and a few of them have other commitments. Mahala, was teaching herself to learn guitar and Steve just had to check out her guitar since he didn’t bring his to the island.

Back to the house for dinner prep and to see what the sunset was going to look like.  It was beautiful, Mt Washington and the right mix of light and clouds.  Here are a couple of pictures over the span of 20 mins.  You always take more than you need but you never know how the sky will change and you have to grab them all! Then a couple come up the trail, he was Richard but I missed her name. She was an amateur photographer was coming up to photograph the sunsets.

Monday, August 15^th – Beautiful morning, can already feel there is a touch of fall in the air.  It’s a tiny bit cooler and crisp. Wind coming out of the NE.  Time to walk to the Cove and see who stayed over and how many moorings are open.

Spent part of the day getting ready for our friends coming Thursday and Colin (our youngest son) is coming Friday.  We needed to go through our menu plan, check towels and sheets to make sure we’re all ready to roll.  Then I made a few calls and texts to catch up with a few peeps. Steve went down to weed whack around the tram trestle area down by the Cove.  That area gets shade so the grass continues to slowly grow in that area and then around the garden area near the house.

The afternoon picked up a little.  Although I didn’t take many pics.  We had a mom plus 4 young adults (aka not kids) and a group of 10 which included Andrew from MITA plus friends and family.

Around 5:30, we did have a group of four come up – Ryan and Jess from Arrowsic, ME and Kate and TJ from Oregon. After their tour it was on to dinner and sunsets.  Tonight, we had swordfish, asparagus and doctored up leftover rice with sesame seeds!  It was very good!  And here’s a sunset through sunset bench.  Just another beautiful evening.

Tuesday, August 16^th – Well another shore day!  Sometimes they come up quickly and other times it seems like it’s been a long time.  Of course, we can usually tell because we can see the back of the fridge! Down to the Cove by 6:45 to uncover the dinghy, bring the oars down from the boathouse along with all our bags, computer stuff, laundry and water jugs.  Oars you say?  Yep, the saying in Maine goes “No one can steal your dinghy if you don’t have oars on it.”  Got to love that Maine humor!  While getting ready, I realized I had left my water shoes at the laundromat!!!  Guess I was a little distracted last week.  I take them and my water socks off to let them dry outside the laundromat while I’m doing my laundry.  Oh well, I’m sure Amy has them!

Our boat ride in was very smooth as there wasn’t much wind or swell.  It was approaching low tide but luckily, we still had enough water for Ethan to drop us off on the floating dock. We stopped again at Café Crema for my chai latte tea.  It’s yummy for sure, but a little too much caffeine for me. I keep a running “things to do on the computer” list so that when I get to the laundromat, I can be efficient with my computer work.  Well not this time!  After I left the laundromat, I realized that I was supposed to copy the blog text over to the website then I would just have the pictures left to load….. Oh well.  While I was there, Steve ran to Walmart to return an item and I gave him a few things to pick up there that would likely be cheaper than Shaw’s.  He also stopped at Plants Seafood (the fish store) and picked up some tuna and salmon – oooooweeee eatin’ good on the island this week!  After the laundromat, we headed to do our grocery shopping as we were meeting Cyndy for lunch in town.  Since we came in on Tuesday, I brought in items for her and she had some more things for the gift shop. But on the way, we decided to take a couple of pictures of this very cool old tree we go by every week on Lincoln St.  We looked it up on my phone and it was a Copper Beech.  Steve thinks it was at least 4 feet in diameter.  It is huge!!! Oh, and yes Amy had grabbed my shoes and socks last week, phew!

Arrived at Shaw’s and we needed to be crisp so we could leave plenty of time for lunch.  In the grocery store we noticed a few women in similar shirts with three VERY full grocery carts.  Turns out they were from a yacht and making the food run for a charter starting the next day. We met Cyndy for lunch at Bruno’s Wood Fire Pizza.  We all got some pizza.   We got the same pizza we did last time, but boy they are yummy!  It was fun to meet someone for lunch!  We also needed to swing by Garden Jacquelyn’s to pick up some veggies she had ready for us. Before we headed to her house though, I ran into the bookstore on the corner and picked up a little book for Ruth about “Living on an Island.”  It was very cute story and some of the parts were similar to living on Seguin.  Ruth was napping when we got there, but Jacquelyn said she would give it to her first thing…

On our way back to Popham, we had a little extra time, so we took Parker Head Rd.  It’s even more rural than our normal route 209.  It weaved in and around these little coves and houses.  Very pretty.  Tried to take a few pics as there were lots of cute little houses right on the water but most didn’t come out too good. Here’s a picture of one that looks like it was just refurbished. You can see the water directly behind the house.

When we came to the last turn, we decided to go straight on to Fort Baldwin Rd, which takes us by two homes and brings us to a little park that has some information about the original Fort we learned about at the Maine’s First Ship exhibit, Fort St George built in 1607.  The signage explaining about the Fort was is sad shape and difficult to read.  Here are two pictures – first one is of a memorial rock about “the Virginia”, Maine’s first ship, the second is looking back at Fort Popham from across the cove and the third one is beyond Fort Popham is Bay Point (actually part of Georgetown), which used to be a fishing village.

I noticed again that the temperature had dropped over 10 degrees during the drive from Bath to Popham! We arrived and Ethan was at the floating dock – yay!

We arrived at our Cove and there was a group leaving the island.  But we also noticed that the volunteers didn’t look like they were coming out with their gear.  Turns out they opted to stay until the roofers were finished for the day.  Some bad weather is coming in tomorrow which is why we went in today.

Well, that’s all the notes I have for today.

Wednesday, August 17^th – Rainy day and the wind is coming!  I have three things on my list today – blog, paint sign and finish up cleaning etc. for our friends Bryan and Mary arriving tomorrow and Colin on Friday. We had a light breakfast and made some lobster salad with some leftover lobster from Sunday’s lobster cook at the boat house.  I sat and picked through some of the bigger bodies, a skill my Dad taught me when I was a child.

As you can see in the pics above, there are pretty large swells at Cobblestone Beach and I’ve never seen surf like that at Seguin Ledges (the pic on the right).  I’ve finished my other tasks and decided to bring down to the Whistle House some leftover roofing wood and pull the nails out so it can be used for something else, that’s just the island way. Once something arrives on the island, it pretty much stays there!

Decided to have lunch, made lobster rolls for lunch – actually quite yummy!   I don’t have any other pics or items to share other than dinner that was our tofu sausage crumbles in red sauce over pasta (it’s really chickpea pasta).

Thursday, August 18^th – Weather still unsettled, foggy and a little chilly.  Here’s a picture as I was walking up from the Whistle House around 8:30 a.m.  This morning Bryan and Mary, friends from back in VA, arrive this morning on “Gratitude.” I ran around doing the last-minute things like getting a few flowers, final clean of our bathroom, etc.  As I was walking back up to the house trying to find a few island flowers I saw these little yellow ones that look similar to dandelions.  But every flower I looked at had one or 2 ants crawling around on them.  So, I cut a few and jiggled them all to get the ants off!  There is still a little night shade (the little purple and yellow flowers that I’ve mentioned before) so I cut a few of those.  They were supposed to leave 5 Islands at 9:00 but due to weather, they didn’t leave till noon.  Here they come in on the boat!

While I was walking on the beach, still in search of my tiniest claw, I found this one.  We helped them carry their stuff up the trail.  They did an awesome job keeping it to a minimum! We walked up the trail, gave them an orientation to the house, the composting toilet, what goes in trash, burnables, recycle, returnables, etc. They got settled, had a quick bite to eat and then we headed out the North Trail to pick some blackberries and check out the view.  It was cloudy, etc. but at least it wasn’t raining.  So here are the pictures from the North Trail and the view back towards the Cove.

As we turn the last corner, the Tower come back into view, it’s definitely a feeling of coming home.  We also noticed a large Coast Guard vessel, that appeared to be working on a navigational aid (not sure if it was a ‘nun’ or a ‘can’). We all sat on the porch to regroup a little and chat. 

We did have a chance to sit a bit, then a group three came up the trail and Steve gave them a tour.  Notice the flyswatter in her hand!  Those little buggers (the biting fly’s that arrive with a Northerly wind) were annoying.  I did have a guest once that just used a branch to shoo them away and I thought that was a good idea…

Picture to the left is the view west and picture to right is view east around 6:00.  At least the clouds are breaking up and tomorrow looks like it will be a nice day.   Tonight’s dinner was chicken marsala with peas accompanied by roasted yellow and green squash (from our Seguin garden) along with some Vidalia onions.  Nothing like a toasty warm dinner when there is a nip in air.

When we finished dinner, Bryan and Mary had brought us a new dice game.  It’s called 10 dice!  It was pretty easy to learn, a few unique rules and it was lots of fun to play. In a nutshell, you roll 10 dice and decide, based on points, which dice to keep.  Some dice have a point value for one di, others you need three of the same di to score.  For example, one of the #1 di is worth 100 points, but you need three #2 dice which can score 200 points.  Anyway, we picked up most of the rules in a few minutes and we were off and running!  We played a few games before deciding to call it a night.  Everyone had been up early.

Friday, August 19^th – Ah, another beautiful day and here’s my Cove picture which tells you everything except the temperature!  There was a nice breeze and it was warm.   We noticed that our Canada geese family of five had made it up the trail and was enjoying some dry grass from the lawn.  This was the first time we noticed them up top!  This was a little after 8:00 am.  I went up in the Tower to see if I needed to sweep and opened the door to the catwalk as it seemed a little warm inside.  As I opened the door, I saw a dog come up the main trail and that was all the geese needed to see. They immediately took off! (you might have to look hard at the right picture, but the 5 geese are flying to the right)

Just when I returned to the front porch, we had our first visitors!  We recognized two of them Peter & his wife Dorothy from Portland, they were here in July, and today they brought some friends, Wojtek and Renee, from Scarborough with them!  Fun group.  Gave them a tour. 

Shortly after that tour was complete, we had Mike and Melissa come up again.  They had come up late yesterday afternoon and did some exploring, but today they wanted a tour.  We chatted with them quite a bit as they travel in an RV in the winter time and in a boat in the summer time!  Just like people ask us a lot of questions about this Lighthouse gig, we asked them a lot of questions about their unique situation.  Another group of two came up, Mike & Dino.  Mike was from ME, but Dino was from MA.  They too had come up yesterday but decided to wait for a nicer day for a tour.  So, I gave the four of them a tour.  All four really enjoyed the tour and asked questions, etc.  By the end, they were swoping information as Mike kept his boat in the same marina Mike and Melissa were going to that day. Mike wasn’t going to be there so he offered his mooring to them.  That’s just how most boaters are, helping each other out like that!

Decided to take a walk down and see what’s going on in the Cove.  Well l got to the Donkey House and guess who was there! The family of 5 Canada geese.  Guess they just fly around the island and decided to walk up from the beach!

Here’s the Cove around 1:00 only a couple of boats.  I recognized one of them as Mike and Melissa’s, so I guess they haven’t left yet. Not sure who is in the blue boat.  Then here is a picture looking towards the NE, clouds and the view are so pretty and just like sunsets, every day is very different so you have to capture them all and check them out later!

Well, we seemed to have a break in the action, we opted to have a quick lunch with Bryan and Mary.  They took off for their own hike and it was the perfect time to make a sign for Colin as he is coming in this afternoon.  His trip here was a super early flight from Richmond, VA to Boston.  Then a bus to the Portland, ME transportation center, then another bus to Bath, ME.  Cyndy was to pick him up and bring him to Georgetown to take the 5 Islands Boat Tours (http://www.fiveislandsboattours.com), with Captains Cal & Katrina, over to the island at 3:00 finally arriving here around 4:00!  I get tired just typing it up.  It’s not always easy to get to Seguin, but it’s always worth it! Cyndy had to go to Georgetown anyway for some prep work for the fundraiser on August 27^th. And as with any task on the island, you make due with what you have.  What do you think of my sign???

I came out of the house to head back down to the Cove to meet Colin and guess who made their way up the main trail again!  Our geese family of five!  Well, guess they like the grass!  From up top here, we could see that Cal & Katrina are headed over!  Yay!

Got down to the Cove and climbed up onto the rocks by the boat house so I could hold my sign!  As I was looking down to make sure I was on secure footing, I saw these little amoeba looking things that were jiggling in a little puddle by my feet.  I zoomed in and took a picture.  Not sure what type of bugs these are but in a few days there is going to be a ton of them! Yippee, the boat has arrived!

How fun is this!!!!  I’m am so psyched that his class schedule (he is in graduate school for his doctorate of Physical Therapy) allowed him to make the trip as well as he was up for the plane-bus-bus-automobile-boat trip to get here!  Cal & Katrina came up to hang out a bit with us before they headed back.  Then Steve gave Bryan and Colin a brief tour of the Tower.

Tonight is lobsters night, but we have learned to not have the meal ready when it’s sunset time!  That has happened to us so many times!  So this time we waited for a beautiful sunset then went in to cook.  Then all of a sudden, we noticed so many people coming up the trail and they all had cameras!!!  Steve talked to the lead guy and they had kayaked over and wanted to know if it was ok to camp!  They had reached out to check with Cyndy as well too.  Sure we said… Can’t believe I didn’t get a pic of all of them.  I think there was 6 or 7 of them.  Then another 3 came up to watch sunset, it was Bill and Yolanda (who have been here before during our watch) with their nephew!  Quite the crowd!

We played 10-dice again and taught Colin the game.  It’s great because you can play it with as many people as you want and it’s easy enough to pick up the rules your first game.  Thanks Mary and Bryan for a great gift!

Saturday, August 20^th – Well, another beautiful day here on Seguin.  However, before I share my Cove picture, I have to share this one!  I walked into our bathroom this morning and noticed a spot on the composting toilet.  Thinking I needed to clean off a dead fly or something from yesterday, I got a little closer and it was two ladybugs making more ladybugs!  How crazy is that!

Today, Bryan and Mary need to leave and begin their journey back to Virginia.  We walked down to the Cove to see them off.  We also noticed a 1^st year seagull over in the seaweed, pecking away at a crab.  Now you can tell how difficult it is to see them as they really do blend into the surrounding area.  Guess that is all part of their survival instincts and genetic make-up.  They won’t look like the white and gray seagulls we are used to seeing until they are 3!  Bryan and Mary climbed into the dinghy and waved goodbye.  They were very thankful for the invite to come experience this very cool island and Mary was especially helpful in taking care of their linens, etc.  They had hiked all the trails and maximized their stay.  Safe travels guys!

Today we had 30+ visitors over the course of the day, not crazy but a steady stream.  Colin joined in on one of my tours.  The group he joined had four kids.  It’s fun to see their eyes light up when they see all the rainbows from the sunlight reflecting through the prisms.  Here’s a couple of pics

Next, we had a family of three, they were very excited with the tour!

The next group was the Connelly family with four generations that has been coming to Bay Point (an area near Popham Beach but in Georgetown), since 1921!  The pic on the left is the generations picture and on the right is the whole group that came out.  Again, they loved the tour and were very excited to have everyone on the island!

Next was Cathy and Scott from Phippsburg.  A very nice couple enjoying their visit to Seguin.  They plan to stay over on the moorings and we enjoyed a lengthy conversation in the museum about all sorts of topics including house sitting and a book recommendation – “The Light Between the Oceans” by L. M. Stedman. Another one to add to your reading list!

We decided to walk to the Cove to check out the moorings to see if we’d have enough time to walk from the Cove to Cobblestone Beach.  Only Cathy and Scott’s boat was in the Cove so off we went (Steve, Colin and me).

The following 8 pictures are from that walk.  It is a different walk every time as there is no set path.  You have to climb over rocks, etc. so the route is unique to that day.  It is an amazing geological experience as there are so many different rocks.  The tide was coming in so it was especially fun with the waves crashing on the rocks.  Colin (and his older brother Gary coming in a week) love to walk on the rocks and build cairns.  Check out the one Colin built plus we saw a few seals pop their heads up in the ocean too! Just before the end we noticed a quartz vein in the rock and finally we ended up back by the Donkey House.  A quick trip down to the Cove to take a dip in the Gulf of Maine to cool off.  Not me though, someone has to take the pictures!

Back in Cove, no new boats, so we shouldn’t have any new visitors until tomorrow.  Back up the trail for sunset, then dinner.  Sunset is already starting to occur earlier than a few weeks ago.

Here’s our dinner pic tonight.  Remember we picked up some tuna at Plants Seafood on our day ashore? Steve always does an excellent job of perfectly cooking the tuna!  We had roasted sweet potatoes and sautéed green beans with cranberries, candied pecans and some feta.  We opted to play some more of the 10-dice game for a little bit along with some family time conversation!

See you next week! Keep checking back as I still have a couple more posts to go!

Before I start this Blog, I want to let you know that from here on in the Blog will be a little different.  As our time here on Seguin accelerates to the end, what I share will be different.  My style of writing takes time.  It’s not elaborate, but it is definitely me.  I will do my best to share me, but what’s really important to me from here on in is to maximize our experience, live in the moment and be present.  I’m sitting here typing this particular week on Saturday Aug 20^th.  It’s been a busy month already as we crossed the 1000 visitor mark.  Our son Colin arrived yesterday and is here for two full days.  In between meet and greets and tours, I will be spending as much time as possible with him and his experience on Seguin.  I know you are all saying, “Carol, I get it, go enjoy these last few weeks.”  But I don’t want to leave you behind.  Thank you 😊

Sunday, Aug 7th –   Well my notes already reflect this shifting tide.  I have only a few short notes!  It’s a beautiful day, wind out of the East to start.  Maybe that will blow the little biting flies away!  Only time will tell.  Time to do a little stretching.  The pic is my view while I stretch.  Check out that beautiful blue, blue sky!  The first visitors of the day were Lindsay and Jason and their very patient pug.  Given the day, we’ll likely be busy.

Our next tour was a group of 5 from Cozy Harbor.  They were Aaron, Nate, Emma, Kerry and John.  I’m not sure the order of the names matches the picture order as I haven’t paid much attention to that!  A lively and engaging group, some have been here before but not all.  Well time to run down to the Cove for something, but the way back up I see that blue sky above with the contrast of the tram trestles (or “bents” as they are sometimes called), the sky and the vegetation.  However, the real point of this picture was to share the terrain where MITA cleared!  Again, Kudo’s to the team of volunteers that spent their day helping to maintain this treasure – Seguin!

Cove is looking a little light for 11:21 on this great day, but that can change! Well here is our next group of four.  My notes don’t say where they are from, but look at those happy faces -they are happy to be here!

Next we had a group of 6 come through.  Turns out his mom was here as a young woman (wife of a keeper) and made a planter that we have in the museum.  Her name was Dorothy Hart and here is a picture of her son holding the planter!  She was stationed here with her husband 1955-1957.

Well, here we are at 3:30 and the Cove is empty!  No time like the present to just take in the day, the view and the calm!

Then it changes! The weather didn’t change for us, but folks to our west look like they were potentially getting a storm!  Check out Steve’s pictures of these thunderheads!

Monday, Aug 8th – Woke up to a very different day.  Absolutely NO wind!  We’ve never had that.  Steve went to check the Cove and no one.  Time to look around and get a few house tasks done.  I did some bed sheet inventory work labelling the closet where they are stored in the guest quarters.  Also took a look at all the towels as they sometimes move around and since we’ll have a busy month of friends and family, would like to be ready for them in advance of their arrival.   We also took the opportunity, since it was soooo hot with no wind, to pack up a duffle of cold weather clothes that we’ll not need anymore and bring them ashore this week. That means our time here is waning and I don’t want to think about that just yet!!!  I also started a new “starter” with my rye flour.  Not sure if I’ll make one here on the island, but the one in the fridge didn’t look so great! Then I prepped all the veggies for making Ratatouille later, made a cucumber salad, focaccia bread and more crackers.  Definitely a house day.  Steve spent most of the morning vacuuming around all the dust and mortar from all the roofing / banging, etc.  We decided it was a good time for some lunch. 

Then out of nowhere, a group of 16 comes up the trail!  It was about 1:00 and the day was still pretty weird.  The wind had picked up and lots of clouds, a good Maine day!  They came from the Morse Mtn area.  We did two tours and it was great fun and they all had a blast!

After they left, the weather continued to deteriorate. The wind was shifting in all directions and the fog was rolling in. It hadn’t started raining yet but it was chilly.  We decided to get out of the house for a little walk. We were bundling up a little, pants, socks and hiking boots.  Seems like a good time to collect some blackberries out on the North Trail. We found a couple of amazing spots just loaded with blackberries!  I’ve had them in the past and they have always been a little tart, but holy cow, these were amazingly sweet!  You can tell when the little bumps on the berries look like they are ready to explode, then they are sweet.  And like any berry picking, there is always that one branch just out of reach that looks like it has the most perfect berries! Good thing we had on our boots and jeans as we dove into the thorns to get these yummy berries!!!

We decided to keep walking all the way out.  It was just that kind of day to explore.  We walked up to the vista on the North Trail, and we couldn’t see any land.  Another day where we are ‘socked’ in!  Since we were now out in the open with no real protection from the trail, the wind was blowing, probably 25-30 mph! 

As we turned around to walk back, at one point due to the elevation changes, you could now see the tower.  Next to it there is a pine tree that I use to point North during my tours on the catwalk.  You can see that lonesome pine tree in the picture, but we were never able to find it as we continued to walk back in.  Guess it’s not that close to the actual trail.  And here’s our collection of blackberries we picked in less than 20 mins!

Then here she is, the Tower and house looking south as we came by the helipad, back home! Came into our cozy spot and cooked up the focaccia and started to cook the ratatouille.  Burning propane today for sure! We had to run around and close any open windows as the wind keeps changing direction and the rain was starting to come in.

Dinner was shrimp with homemade pesto, the ratatouille and some focaccia.  After this entry, I have learned how to spell ratatouille correctly!

Tuesday, Aug 9th – Up early this morning, around 6:15 and down to the Whistle House to post the blog for Cyndy.  It’s a little windy and still a little foggy.  Had to run up in the Tower to take another picture for the blog…. Sometimes as I’m writing, I say, oh, I need a picture of that and it’s best if I go run and do it right then!

As I walked around the catwalk, cause I can, I noticed a boat leaving the Cove.  You could start to see the clouds breaking up a little too as I looked a little further towards the NW. 

Then we took a walk to the Cove to see if anyone else is there and took these pictures of the trail. Looks a lot different after all our visitors, compared to back in June.

As we got down to the Cove, we noticed Dean is back. We recognize his boat and kayaks.  We also noticed a mooring ball was missing in the water.  We ended up finding it on the beach, looks like someone put it there as it was up pretty high.  We walked to the vista on the Cove trail so we could yell to Dean. He shared that he believes the other boat brought the ball into the beach.  Well, being down a mooring will make the weekends a little crazy as people are expecting 5 moorings plus the Coast Guard one.  I started cleaning the kitchen area (floor, fridge, stove, etc).  Probably not going to be a busy day for visitors.

Dean came up to the house around noontime and we invited him in for a cup of tea.  We sat and talked for a few hours about every topic under the sun!  It was fun having “company” in our home away from home.  It was like having one of the neighbors over.  We learned about his trip since he left us here back in July.  He is a very learned, well-spoken, well-read person with an amazing life.  He shared several very colorful stories!

I went back up into the Tower to look out and see if there would be any clearing later on.  Doesn’t look like it anytime soon. We shared about the blackberries on the North Trail and he headed off to pick some.

We moved onto dinner time.  We had lamb kidney chops, but sorry no picture today!

Wednesday, Aug 10th – Today Betty arrives!  One of my long-time best friends who currently lives in NC.  However, she is on her way her from Wisconsin, where they have a family camp, after dropping her twin sister at the Chicago airport!  Today is our shore day, so the plan is for her to meet us in Bath and come back with us on Ethan’s boat!  Our tide overnight was HUGE as we are very close to the full moon which also means lots of seaweed on the beach!

We did our usual run around, only today Steve made a stop at the chiropractor – he had a little hitch in his giddy-up!  While he was off doing that I had the chance to check out the consignment shop on front street.  Been looking for a belt for some of my shorts.  No luck but did find a pair of shorts and a cute top.  It was fun to walk around, like I lived here! After groceries, we headed to the Marriott Residence right on Rte 1 as that is where we planned to meet Betty.  Right on que!  From there we went to Winnegance for lunch.  We always have good food and service there, but today they were running behind a little – not sure why.  We had enough time but felt a little pressure to snarf our food so we don’t keep Ethan waiting. I was riding with Betty and Steve was in our car.  After he dropped me off at the Residence, he went on to see Garden Jacquelyn – jackpot again!  But the real bonus in this weeks bag was a picture that Little Ruth drew for us.  It was a lighthouse, with a house and a man and a woman – how adorable.  We put it up on our fridge as soon as we got home!

When we got to Popham, it was low tide – rats!  We thought we would have to lower our stuff down by rope, but this time Ethan pulled up close to one of the ladders.  I handed bags to him as he was standing on his roof, then he handed to Steve.  That worked very well!  No rope and everything made it down in one piece!  The pictures above were from our ride in.  We got our dinghy and were able to bring all three of us and all of our stuff in one trip!  Once we landed and brought up all our stuff, we sat for a beverage on the front porch so we could give Betty her official welcome and orientation to the property.  And here is the pic of Little Ruth’s drawing she made especially for us!

We spread out all our produce on the kitchen table as I usually need to do a little inventory to make sure we know what we have.  This picture show’s some of Jacquelyn’s produce, some of ours from our garden and then the purchased stuff (like cherries and corn).  I love looking at all the yummy veggies!!!  Dinner was salmon with the ginger chutney, quinoa with roasted veggies on some greens with shaved parmesan, along with a few oven-roasted tomatoes!

Thursday, Aug 11th – A little cloudy, no real wind and low tide again.  Full moon is actually tonight.  Another snail making his way somewhere and check out a little branch with pine needles on it.  We don’t have any trees like that here, it must have come a long way!  So much goes on here, you just need to look for it!

Walking back up, check out this view of cobblestone.  It was only 7:16 a.m.  how pretty!  Anyone getting tired of these photos yet!  Even though they are of the same area, they are different every time!  After breakfast, we decided to see how the blackberries are doing hoping we can get enough to make a blackberry crumble!  Here’s Betty picking some.  We also walked down the “Cove Lookout” off the North Trail.  This little offshoot of the North Trail is it’s own micro climate.  It’s all different here, pine trees, ferns, damp, lots of moss growing and a definite aroma which is wonderful.    Here is a little air plant growing on one of the trees. I feel like little gnomes should live here!

Once we came back, Betty helped me with the new load of inventory Cyndy dropped off.  Cyndy had already bagged and organized all of it.  We played around with a few arrangements of the clothing and putting out a few pieces so people can see the sizes.  Here’s a picture of it all done!

We had a couple of visitors come up for a tour a Dad from Five Islands and the couple from Charlotte, NC.  Steve took Betty for a walk from Cobblestone to Cove.  When I was done with the tour, I walked down to the vista off the South Trail and took their picture. 

Then I walked down to the Cove to see if anything was happening there.  This way we can see what might be next.   Humm, another boat there, so probably another tour in my future. By the time I got back up top, I noticed our blue schooner coming back in.  Jeffrey the lead was here with co-lead Robin and their crew of 5 this time.  Robin was particularly enamored with the tour.  Turns out she is from Worcester, MA (near where Steve went to college). 

While I gave them a tour, I asked Steve to take down the Welcome sign outside the gift shop / museum.  It’s in need of some touch up.  It will take a little while as there will be several coats of different color paints.  Here is the before picture.

Another group from the S/V Aloha from Gloucester, MA.  These guys were great, so much fun!  Hippie, Ellen, Kathy and Tom. More on them below.  After the tour, we hung a sign on the house door that says where we are just in case and headed out the North Trail with Betty.  We walked all the way out to the Geodetic Marker on the far end of the trail.  We were only here once before but the seagulls didn’t like us then, but now everyone has had their babies and most of them are flying.  The middle pic is the view North and then the view back towards the Cove.  Boat to the left is the schooner.

The plant in the picture on the left is Night Shade.  It’s very pretty and has the delicate deep purple flowers with a touch of yellow hanging down from the center. I don’t think I’ve included that in a photo already.  I sometimes add a branch of it to my little vases I put out when we have guests in the guest quarters.

Here’s a pic of the Cove around 5:30. We’re heading back down to get our lobsters out of the “lobster car”, the cage thing that is tied to one of our moorings.  So we rowed out in the Cove.    We yelled over to the schooner to see if they wanted a couple of pics of the group from the water.  We thought that would be fun for them.  Betty did a photo bomb as I was starting to line up the photo – silly Betty!  Here’s the pics of the crew.

Then we rowed over to the Aloha (the last tour group we had).  They invited us aboard for snacks and a beverage.  Our lobster car was on the mooring they were on. Here’s a pic of the group again on the boat and then a side view of the boat. Very spacious!

We brought our lobsters up to house.  Dinner fresh steamed lobsters and cold broccoli salad is served!  Betty made blackberry crumble!  Holy cow was it good.  Should have taken a picture.  A pretty simple dessert which is always the best when you have fresh fruit.  Watch for a pic in future post as I’m sure I’ll make this dessert again or at least until the blackberries run out!

Friday, August 12th – We are all up early today as it is helicopter day!  Jim of Maine Helicopter will be bringing out our new shingles and taking the old ones back. So down to the Cove as some FOSILS volunteers are coming over to help with today’s effort.  Super low tide! So low that Hippie on the S/V Aloha said he touched bottom a little bit!

As the group is coming in, I look back at the boathouse and there is some beautiful reflection on the clouds as the sun is coming up.  We’re not usually up this early or down the Cove this early.  So peaceful and calm.

We all walk up from the Cove and get to see an infrequent sight – the sun is rising in the East and the full moon is setting off to the West.  Within about 10 minutes, we hear the helicopter coming to the island.  His first trip is to drop off his “guy-on-the-ground” person that will be talking to him during the operation as they drop off the new and pick up the old. I see an infrequent opportunity to catch a picture of the house and Tower with the sun coming up and it reflects off the vegetation and provides some additional Crayola colors in the foreground!

Steve’s captures a beautiful picture, from the perfect angle, of the helicopter with its first delivery, an extension ladder and the contraption that attaches to that ladder that brings the shingle bundles up to the roof, along with the sunrise! As you look at the pictures can’t you just hear the thump-thump-thump-thump noise of the helicopter?

Here is the equipment being “let-go” from the helicopter and the first bag of old shingles being latched by the mechanism to be carried back to shore.  And so it begins.  Max load he can carry is 800 lbs. This process went on for a while.  Once a bag of new shingles were dropped, we pulled the bundles out, put them in the ‘sled’ and moved them to various locations around the house closer to where they will be used.

The picture on the left above is from the west side of the tower and boy did those rotor blades look close to the Tower!!!  I was getting nervous, but no one else seemed to be bothered.  Then I walked around the front of the house, like where you come up from the trail, and now as the picture on the right shows, he is not as close as I thought.  Phew!  Now I could breathe easier!

Next, I decided to go up in the Tower to see how it would look from there.  Just another view, only three more bags to go.  By 8:25 a.m. he was flying into the helipad to pick up his “guy-on-the-ground” and take him back with him.  He was done.  We had all the shingles distributed around the house.  Now the fun begins as the workers will begin the installation.  Oh and here’s Rick giving me a ride back in the ‘sled,’

Around 11, we had a couple groups of ‘3’ come up for tours.  One group was Hank, Bob and Beverly from Bustins Island, ME and the second group was Kate, Michael and Kristen from Five Islands and Portland.  Their picture is from inside the museum.  The roofers were setting up and began working just before lunch.  The three of us (Betty, Steve and I) decided to take a walk on the South trail.    The picture on the left is almost all the way out on the South trail.  As I looked closer, I saw something move (look just to the right of the light green algae puddle)!  I just zoomed in and sure enough there was a 1^st year seagull there.  Their coloring blends so well with the surrounding rocks – you could barely notice him!

From this point, I took two pictures from where I was standing.  The first one was looking back towards the shore (almost looking North) and the second one was looking almost  due South.  Really beautiful – such an expanse of just the ocean – gives you a true sense of our little island in a BIG ocean!

Well now that we’re all hot from walking and being in the sun, we stopped at the house and Steve and BE put on swimsuits and we headed to the Cove.  I didn’t bring a suit and going in up to my knees was plenty to help cool me off!

When we got down to the Cove, we noticed it was Pam and Don’s boat on it’s way into the Cove.  This would be their 3^rd visit.  Once they tied up, Pam came out on deck and we waved!

While they were jumping and splashing around, I continued to look at the beach and today I found two more little claws for my “tiniest claw” contest!

Well, we all headed up to the house.  Betty and I headed off to pick some more blackberries.  I wanted to make sure I can get some more to make a future blackberry crumble for dessert!  We had chicken stroganoff with peas and rice.  And of course, we finished off the crumble she made last night and we finished the whip cream – put one on the list for next shopping trip!  At this point we were all a little tired since we had been up so early, so off to bed.

Saturday, Aug 13th – Today’s weather started out a little weird.  Very clear at the waterline but lots of clouds, sea was flat, wind out of NNE (not good as that means the annoying little flies again)! Roofers walking up with some additional wood they need to lay on the angle brackets on the roof to provide a standing surface from which they can install the shingles.  Also here is a picture of the new shingles.  They are like a mixture of gray and brown flecks.  I think it will look nice.

Tours for today started around noon, a little late for a Saturday.  First a group of three – Kent, Laurel and Anna.  Then Ian and Donna who were here back in late June. Two women, Tammy & Jill came up for a tour.  They were very intrigued by the Tower and very engaged in the tour – fun and easy going. Then Cal and Katrina pulled in with a group as Betty is going back with them when they all leave around 2:00.  While doing a tour for a group of 6 – I could see from the catwalk “Gratitude”, the boat Betty was on, heading to Popham – Bye Betty!  ☹

Another group of 6, new to the island! Steve did their tour (pic on right above is the group in the museum) while I grabbed a quick bite of lunch about 2:30.  Then I did another group of 6 – getting the picture that today was a busy day!!! I guess 6 is the popular number today! Then a group of 14 came up and we broke them up into two groups.  Below is a pic of the Mom’s and the kids!  Time to shift gears to a kid-friendly tour….Sometimes when I take a picture, I say I’m doing a normal picture first followed by a silly picture.  Thought I would use the silly picture of this group.    Next up was Scott and Mary who arrived about 5:00.  Well how about a tour!

At this point, the tours for the day seemed to be done so we walked down to the Cove.  As soon as we turned the corner at the top of the trail, we could see the mast – HOLY COW.  The boat was huge!  When we got down to the Cove, Scott and Mary were on the beach.  I said to Steve, it looked like the catamaran was unsure of the mooring they were on and we’re thinking of leaving.  However, our dinghy was out on a mooring because Roofer AJ had to buzz back to the mainland for something….. So Scott offered to take Steve out to the catamaran to let them know they could tie a stern line to the Coast Guard (CG) mooring to help keeping them from shifting towards the rocks.  They decided to stay, Scott began to bring Steve back to shore, then the ‘cat’ yelled out to ask if the guys could help him secure the stern line.  So back out Scott and Steve went to bring the line over to the CG mooring.  Then we saw another sailboat coming in and the only mooring available was the one with our lobster car on it (which is a little close to the rocks for some captains). So, for the third time, Scott took Steve out to our dinghy and to move it to the one with the lobster car so the boat coming in could take that mooring.  Just as they were about to tie it off, AJ came back into the Cove.  Phew! Scott and Steve didn’t even tie off the dinghy, they just handed it to AJ for him to use to come in. All of a sudden, such a flurry of activity!! The Captain of the S/V Aurora 2 (catamaran) was very appreciative of the help and offered a glass of wine to thank us.  We decided to head out and ultimately Scott and Mary came over to join us as well!  What a fun group!  They were a group of 4 – Vincent and Anne (from Philadelphia now but originally Paris, France), Amelie (from Montreal) and Carole (from Paris, France)!!! Of course, there was all the usual questions back and forth. Amazing hospitality, shared some snacks and some red and white wine.  Anne gave us a tour of the boat.  So here’s some pics of the boat, Steve and Scott coming in for the last time, the group, etc.

While we sat there the sun was setting and the clouds and sky became so beautiful. It was getting late, time to head back up.  We all said our goodnights.  They said they would be up in the morning for a tour! We’ll say our goodbyes then!  As we came up and turned the last corner, oh my – the sky was a blaze of color!  We have NEVER seen a sunset like this – it was spectacular!

Tonight’s dinner was Steve’s special meatloaf using ground chicken with quinoa and asparagus. All yummy!!  Trying a new method for cooking my crackers, here’s a pic of one big cracker and then when it’s done, I just punch my finger into it and they break into random sizes.  And to wrap it all up, the moonrise!

Well it’s certainly winding down. I’m posting this on 9/1. Thanks for hanging in there!. I’ll have a few more posts so stay tuned!