Sunday, July 17th – A gorgeous morning! Our friends Sharon and Brent need to leave today ☹, but it has been a great weekend having them here! I know we need to rock and roll this morning as it’s going to be a busy day. We are going to go down the main trail and then out to Cobblestone Beach, we’ll walk the coastline back to the end of the Cove trail. It’s sort of a rock scramble, but you just need to pick you path ahead of you as there is no trail on the land. What’s great about this walk, is every time you see something different, a rock formation, a flower, something has washed up on the shoreline, etc. Here we are on the porch ready to walk the island, is the perfect size! I love being able to say that, it’s like Goldilocks said, “This island is just right!”
Here’s the Cove this morning, a few boats enjoying the calm, sunny morning. The walk to Cobblestone down the trail doesn’t take very long and Steve’s excellent trimming and snipping skills make it an easy jaunt to the beach. The picture is our ‘selfie’ with the Tower just behind Brent’s head! I need more experience taking these selfies as I can always find something wrong with the picture! Here I’m looking into the sun. My sunglasses have those transition lenses for when you go from outside to inside, they adjust, but I don’t like them. In pictures, they are never dark enough like regular sunglasses so then I have a “squinty eyes” face! Note to self, get regular prescription sunglasses that are dark!
There is always a lot of wood washed up on the beach, some big, some small, some well-worn, others just random shapes. I picked up this piece of wood as it struck me as interesting since both the knots in the wood had fallen out. It also reminded me of one of those pasta tools for spaghetti where it has different size holes for different serving sizes! Do I always digress to food? Anyway, I thought I would attempt a picture through the hole in the wood, not a bad first try!
Again, we asked Sharon to take a photo of us on this walk. We continue to pick our path, looking at the shoreline, looking at the rocks and having to look down a lot as you pick your foot placement, I see this tiny, itty-bitty claw – kind of cute actually. As we make our way around the coastline, there are pockets in the rocks that sometimes fill up with water. Some are ocean water, some are rain, some are both. Sharon and I are walking much slower than Steve and Brent, as we are exploring and taking in all the little sights we see! We found this one particular larger, maybe 6-8 inches deep puddle, that was filled with some kind of algae. But what was very cool was that the water was so clear and deep enough that you could see the algae growing towards the surface. Combine that with the suns reflection and it was really quite pretty. The adjacent puddle wasn’t as deep so the algae was laying over in some parts. These two pictures were looking into the water. I found that to be rather interesting!
Then Sharon found a Morning Glory flower! I think I’ve only seen one other of these near the tram near the Clivus. How delicate they look. She also found a sea urchin, empty of course. Not sure I’ve seen any of those on the island before. Maybe it was a seagull’s meal and it was like leaving the wrapper!
We turned the last corner coming around to the Cove and there are the men surveying the Cove. Gives a good perspective on what the coastline looks like on this side of the island vs what Cobblestone Beach looked like.
As we approached the guys, Steve was talking with Tom (our museum visitor last night that was last here in 1955). Tom was letting us know that a father/daughter team had paddle boarded to shore and was headed up to the top. Well time to put on our keeper hats, walk up the main trail and see what’s what with our early morning island visitors!
We found Kara and her dad Dennis over on one of the benches near the cairns of the first lighthouse. She was just rolling up her yoga mat – I like her already! Dad had a mat as well, but it looked like he was already done with his morning stretch! We chatted with them for quite a while. Kara went to Boston College had just finished her residency I think at Mass General Hospital in Boston. She is also a certified yoga teacher. She is taking a break with her Dad before she decides what her next move is. We hear of folks’ journey’s and usually have lots of questions related to what has brought them here and our visitors are always interested in learning about our journey and what has brought us here. It usually starts with where are you from and 45 minutes later, we realize we need to get moving! The pace started to pick up as more groups were arriving and that means more meet and greets and more tours!
Well, are friends are heading out to start their journey home to Norway, Maine. We bid them farewell at the beach around 2:00 pm. After all the hugs and waves goodbye, Cal brings them back to ‘Gratitude’ for their ride back to Georgetown.
We stayed down at the Cove for a bit as we had given tours to the current groups so we decided to just stay down there. Here’s a couple of pictures of the goings-on at the Cove.
Steve opted to just sit and enjoy the sun, I on the other handed headed to the shady part of the Cove. After a little bit, we headed back up. As it seems to happen more often than not, it wasn’t long before another group of 4 arrived. It was Maria, Nick, Sophia and Simon (MNSS was my acronym). They are from NH and it turns out they just missed some friends of theirs from NH that were here! How crazy is that! Nick had bought his dinghy from them! Very down to earth folks. They enjoyed the tour and all got swag and Sophia took some Seguin shells I offer for free in the gift shop to hang on hoop earrings or necklaces. The pic to the left is them.
One last group of the day, showed up as the NH foursome was heading down. This group had a dog and had just pulled in with a catamaran. They signed the guest book and just used their last names! So much for the acronym! They were from Atlanta, GA and Saco, ME. I gave them a tour, then they headed on their way. As Steve and I relaxed on sunset bench to see if Mount Washington would appear, we saw them head towards Portland in the catamaran. We waved! No Mount Washington but we did see a beautiful sunset! Noshed on some yummy Sharon Granola while we prepared dinner. Tonight, we had leftovers! All good!
Monday, June 18th – Foggy morning, even in the Cove. Only one boat. Very Maine-u-lar as I would say if talking to you in person! As the morning progressed, it got even foggier, is that a word? We started the foghorn which runs for about 45 minutes each time you set it off. Our breakfast was more leftovers. You know how some leftovers are leftovers, but others are just as delicious as the day you first had them – well today was like that! We have the from-scratch-yummy-Sharon maple biscuits with homemade strawberry jam, scrambled eggs and bacon. Awesome again! We sure have been eating well here on Seguin.
We got dressed and headed out to do some trail work. Steve went off to attack some PI and do the main trail. I headed off to do some serious work on some sections of the North Trail. As I was whacking, I saw someone come up behind me on the trail. Caught me off guard a little bit. They were Jean-Claude and Dennis from the boat in the Cove. They had seen Steve on the main trail and talked with him a little bit. I had shut off my whacker and talked with them for a spell. They pulled in last night and were just taking a walk before they headed out. Jean-Claude has been here several times and was very familiar with our trials. They went on their way and I proceeded to try and get my whacker started. A few minutes later he came back up the trail and apologized since he didn’t mean to have me shut it off when they approached me. No worries, I’d rather chat than whack! I got it started eventually.
Steve met up with me on the North Trail so I kept going and he was addressing the growth that starts to come in from the sides. We wanted to get this all done as it is supposed to rain later today and tonight. Sometimes that is a nice break in the action. I made it all the way to the end and boy did some sections need it. Passed the blueberry bush!!! We need to pop back out with a container to get some more delicious Maine blueberries! Here is a picture of the Cove from towards the end of the North Trail and then another pic from back by the bottom of the tram in the Cove. Notice how in the second picture the visibility just stops at the end of the Cove, we are “socked in” as they say!
Once the trails were done, we headed back out to the North Trail to pick some blueberries! They are the tiny ones. Thinking we’ll maybe make some blueberry scones later in the week! Did some general stuff around the house, put out the rest of the dry sand I had in the sidewalk cracks then I walked back down to the Cove to get some drinking water which we store in the Donkey Engine house and put away my weedwhacker. Mine is a little lighter and easier to start. While I was down there, I put out more doggie poop bags. I must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to roll them so they would undo 1 at a time when you pulled them out of the bottom of my Clorox-bleach-jug-turned-dog-bag holder!
All of that before lunch – ate more leftovers, starting to see the back of the fridge now! Thanks again Sharon and Brent for all the great food! After lunch, rehung a sign in the Tower that had fallen.
Well, interestingly enough, that’s all the notes I have. So, I’m sure we did a few more things but didn’t write it or dinner or anything else down! Oh well, on to the next day.
Tuesday, July 19th – Check out this picture, a gorgeous morning. There is the Osprey flying by. Couldn’t tell if it was the male or female, but I don’t often catch it in flight. I’ve started heading to the Cove in the morning just so we can see if any more boats came in overnight, check the Clivus status, etc.
At one point when Steve was heading down to the Whistle House, he saw this butterfly on this plant. He was able to catch it just hanging out! Sometimes it’s just a matter of slowing down to see what’s right in front of you – you’ll be surprised at what you notice!
I spent a lot time of the blog today. When I get behind, I need that rainy day to catch up. Well, we worked a bunch yesterday before it rained. Then sometimes the day goes by and you wonder where did it go plus I do get distracted easily….. (those that know me well enough are laughing and nodding their head right now!)
We only had a couple of groups today. A group of 4 from Freeport, ME and then a little later a group of 2 (Gabe and Mariah) from Bend, OR. Well, they are a long way home. Didn’t catch a pic of the Oregon couple.
More time on the blog. When I’m writing the blog, I sometimes realize I need another picture of something around the Tower or property, so I go run and take it. Then I need to upload it to the computer, “resize” the photo (those pixel dimensions you see when look at the info for a picture) as that determines how many pixels the file is and improves the speed with which it uploads) and modify the blog text accordingly. I have figured out a process by which I write the blog, but I’m not so sure it’s the most efficient. However, at this point, I’m sticking with it as it allows me to prep all of the things I need offline and then it’s just a matter of uploading the text and all the pictures when I am on the internet! When I’m uploading, I’m doing it one by one as I need to decide if it’s 1 picture with text around it or 2 pics side-by-side or 3 pics in a row, etc. It sounds like a lot and it is, but I know for a fact that a year from now when I have my book that captures this adventure, I will be so glad I did it all and then made a book of it!
Well, I guess I digressed enough there! No other notes or pictures for today. Tomorrow, shore day already!
Wednesday, July 20th – Lots of stuff to bring in today as last week our shore day was a day the Transfer Station is closed. Nothing of note with the usual stuff at the transfer station. Nothing exciting for me in the free section. I saw a pair of hiking boots but Steve said he didn’t need another pair. Off to Café Crema for a little breakfast. The first big decision of the day is do we have a big breakfast or lunch. Think we decided on lunch. At Café Crema I had a chai tea, Steve got a coffee and we split a blueberry scone. I haven’t had tea like that in a while and I’m hooked! The scone was grilled with a little butter. Yummy! They compost everything and if you bring in your own cup, they only charge you for a small! I’m bringing my own cup next week!
Steve headed off to Rocky’s and Lowes. While at the laundromat, I was looking at Venmo to help Cyndy get her QR code so we can post it in a few places. I sent her some instructions based on what I found then she’ll be able to print a few for us to post around. Then I remembered to have Steve take a picture of Amy and I at the Garden Island Laundromat. She is really a sweet person and very helpful. Oh, and here’s a pic of Steve with an envelope from my Mom. She sends Steve crossword puzzles (and the answer key). She also included a notification she received in her electric bill about offshore wind – she included that too! Steve was very involved with an offshore wind project off the coast of VA beach before he retired.
Finished laundry and wanted to stop at the bookstore near the library that sells used books and the money goes to a local charity. We popped in and walked around it for a few minutes, looked for a few specific books and then we needed to rock-n-roll to get going to Shaw’s for our groceries. Big news was cherries are on sale for $2.77 lb instead of 5.99! I was pretty excited about that so I bought a bunch. I have a little kitchen tool that punches the pits out then I freeze them. They have been very good so far this season.
We stopped at Winnegance for lunch. We like to stop here as we are very close to Popham so there is no rushing. It makes lunch a little more relaxing. I had a grilled veggie wrap and Steve had a Fish (haddock) BLT on sourdough. Both were really good. From here we headed to the dock. We had a few extra minutes so we stopped in Paper Tides. It’s a little shop right along rte. 209. They sell some jewelry that Andrew makes and Emma does some color printing in the shop. They also carry other items that local people make. We met them a few weeks ago when a group came out to Seguin on July 9 and brought their dinner with them! She had some really pretty mugs that a local potter Elizabeth Levi makes. Here’s a couple of pictures. I was thinking of reaching out to her to see if she could make my olive dish. I broke one several years ago and have never found one that is exactly like what I had. Everything they had in the little shop was unique and of excellent quality. If you’re out that way, it’s worth a stop. Open Wed thru Sat 10-4. The building they are in is really unique too as it was previously a grange hall, it’s called Dromore Grange No. 302. Here’s the website! https://www.papertides.com/
We still had a little time, so we took a little ride down a side street that we’ve passed a few times called Parker Hill Dr. What a pretty road! We only went a little way down but noticed across the water was a small house with a lighthouse on it! How fun would that be if that were your house! We should have just looked up where it went as it ultimately ended up back on 209 so we could have stayed on it, but we turned around as time was getting close.
As we approached the Popham State Park (a day park where you can park and hang out on the beach) we noticed all the cars parked in a line along the side of the road. We thought when we saw it, it looked like folks were lining up waiting for the park to open in the morning or waiting for people to leave. But all these cars were parked and no on was in them! Guess, they just left their cars and walked in. They charge a per person fee to enter the park, and it is a spectacular beach!
We didn’t have much for groceries today and it was mid-tide so we were able to load from the floating dock. Yay! Ethan’s older son Larson was with him today. Pretty wavy going back. I had received a text from Cyndy that Leeli had come out to visit today. She is one of my new Maine friends. We just missed her and her husband Jim. They had brought out a couple of friends. They were just leaving as we pulled into the Cove. We waved! Other visitors were just leaving in the catamaran as well. Looked like Cal and Katrina were in the Cove too. They left shortly after we got there. Looking at the guest book, it looks like our volunteers had 22 people visit today!
From here on in, we just brought up our purchases, left what we could at the Donkey engine house until we come down next time. Unloaded, put everything away – food, laundry, etc. I don’t even have any notes about dinner. As we were putting everything away, we had a group of 2 come up (Maron and Amand). They are from France! That’s pretty wild. I gave them a tour and we chatted a little bit with them. Very nice people. Guess I was too tired to remember to take a photo!!! Oh well, that’s a wrap for today.
Thursday, July 21st – Today I bought tickets for Colin to come visit in August. I shared with him the timing and plans and he was game! I’m so excited. I feel bad his girlfriend Aliese will not be able to join us but she is working an internship job that doesn’t give her much free time. Anyway, he’s coming in mid-August. It will be the planes, buses, automobiles, and boats trip! Weather report for this morning – foggy, can’t quite see the mainland! But within the hour, the fog had cleared and we had a sunny day!
Our first guests today were Dave and Jenny from Old Lyme, CT. Yes, Old Lyme. For some of you that don’t know, we lived in East Lyme, CT for 10 years. We moved into that house when Gary was born and moved to VA about 10 years later. As we talked with them, things kept lining up. Like he went to WPI, Steve went to WPI. He worked for Stone & Webster, so did we. We talked about where we worked in CT and he knew several of the people we knew at the power station where we worked. It was uncanny!! They were super friendly, funny and we had a good time chatting with them. As I went to take their picture, as they had been married for close to 50 years I think, the two were just standing there and I said, “come on, you can do better than that after 50 years” and that is when he leaned over to give her a big smooch – that’s more like it!
Next was another group with Different Drum Sailing Adventures! This was a group of kids from Connecticut. Their teacher was Melinda from the CT Experiential Learning Center in Guilford, CT. The kids all had a great time as did their teacher. Here they are heading back out to their boat. Liz said she’d be back again next week with another group. Wow they are busy with one group after another!
Weather says we should expect a storm late this afternoon. We love when we get a storm here. However, about half the time we actually get a storm, the other times maybe the shore gets it or sometimes it’s too far west for us to get it. I checked the Clivus as it’s been a busy week. Later on, while sitting on the porch, we noticed an unusual boat going by. It didn’t show up on Steve’s Marine Traffic app. But we tried to figure out what type of boat it was. It was a schooner! Steve did our 2nd burn today down at the beach at low tide and I painted the Seguin Island Museum sign with a new coat of red paint. This is the before and after.
Turns out we didn’t get any storm, just some wind. Steve wanted me to take this photo of his swag from Ft. Pierce this winter. Yes there is a story about the shirt, but that’s for another time….Then the fog started to roll in and we could barely see the ocean! Time to start the fog horn.
It was getting close to dinner time, but as I started prepping dinner, I heard “Seguin, Seguin this is vessel Corsair, come in Seguin” HOLY COW – someone is actually calling us on the Coast Guard radio!!!! I responded with “Seguin here, take it to channel 78” which is the non-commercial channel. It was a gentleman on his way to Seguin but wouldn’t be getting in until late and he wanted to make sure we had mooring space, which we did! So, I let him know, over and out! How fun is that!
Well, she started remembering again – take a dinner photo! Here is shrimp pasta (fake pasta made from chickpeas) and homemade pesto made with basil from Swango, the farm stand next to the fish store! With of course, a toasted piece of homemade rosemary bread! Just as we were eating, I looked out the dining room window to the south and noticed how the sun is setting, it makes the tall grass look very wheat-like, so I thought a picture would be in order. And since we have two dining room windows, I didn’t want the other window to feel left out, so I took a sunset picture out that window! No Mount Washington but still a great pic.
Then as we walked outside later to check the stars, we noticed some significant fireworks going on but couldn’t quite tell who was putting them on. Turns out it was Bath, but we’re not sure why! Oh, and got a call from Cyndy today – new roofing project is still scheduled to start on Monday!
Friday, July 22nd – Beautiful morning! We had a visitor bright and early this morning. It was Auri! He is the person that spoke to me on the radio! We chatted for some time and then I gave him a tour. Today was a pretty busy-steady day of tours. Not too many, pace seemed pretty good. We had a group of 2, Sandy & Jim from Chebeague (and island off Portland, ME). We asked them if they knew the people we knew, but they knew one group but not the other. Then we had a group of 2 from New Gloucester, a group of 5 from West Bath and a group of 4 from Colorado! We get them from all over. When it gets busy, I forget to get photos of all our visitors – oh well.
Then things seemed to take a break so I decided it was time to try the Murphy’s Liquid Soap to clean the inside of the Tower doors. The outside kind of takes a beating and can’t really be cleaned but the inside needed some love and attention. I was cleaning the inside of the doors and Steve began cleaning the top of the steps. They had some mold as they are on the North side of the tower. He cleaned the top and it came out great and we decided to leave the vertical section of the steps alone. There are two before pictures and two after pictures. The sun was in the wrong angle when I took the whole door picture, so I took another one the next morning and that is the last picture here.
Once we finished the doors and the steps, we still didn’t have any visitors so we went off to pick some more blueberries. We got to the bush and it had exploded with ripe blueberries. Steve and I both had containers and we picked a bunch!!!!! Steve headed back but I hung around to pick some more and just when I was ready to leave, I turned and lost my grip on my container and spilled more than half of my blueberries! I was crushed!!! I tried to pick up as many as I could but they are so tiny and they fell into the grass and leaves. I was so bummed!
Then we had a large group consisting of 4 girls that had just graduated from Tulane, 3 kids and 4 adults, for a total of 11. Here are a couple of pictures of that group. Everyone was having a good time!
Then I had a man with 2 grand nephews. They were actually our #500-#502 guests! Wow, we have crossed the 500 mark! I gave them a brief tour as they didn’t have much time. The day seemed to get busy right at the end. It has a habit of doing that. We had a really nice relaxing dinner of lamb, red potatoes and broccoli. Then we decided to sit outside on our porch and just listen. Our friend Sharon that visited last weekend had shared an interesting observation: “You think it’s quiet until you close your eyes and hear all the sounds you took for granted when your eyes were open – the waves, birds, wind, flag flapping, etc.” Just a nice quiet restful evening.
Saturday, June 23rd -Well I needed to get moving as the overnight guests are coming and should arrive around 10:00 this morning! It’s a grandmother (Molly) and two of her grandchildren, a girl (Vera) who is 12 and a boy (Beck) who is 9. They are staying one night. I needed to finish up the cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming. I like to do that they day folks arrive plus put a few flowers, etc. that grow here into some vases to add a little pop of color to the rooms.
A gentleman came up the trail and he has never been here before. His name is Dean. He had two long days of sailing up from Gloucester, MA and is planning to spend a few days. We probably spent an hour talking to him. Very friendly and engaging person! Over the next few days, we learned a lot about him and has had an interesting life. He was a lawyer with his law degree from Columbia. Currently lives in Vermont, keeps his boat in NY and spends most of the summer sailing Maine. That sounds like fun!
Here is just a little garden update. Been eating a few zucchinis! The last picture is our first tomato! No yellow squash as most of them seem to die at the end where blossom was. We just learned from a visitor that is probably due to insufficient pollination. She shared how we might be able to remedy that, Steve did what she recommended, so we’ll see if it makes a difference. We don’t have many bees up here and the ones we do have are enjoying the clover more because it is sweeter than the pollen of yellow squash. See, we are learning about gardening in Maine, too!
Next up the trail was the overnight guests Molly and her 2 grandchildren. Her son brought them over on his boat along with several other relatives to enjoy the beauty of Seguin. Steve gave the portion of the group that is not staying a tour and then I gave a tour to a group from Cozy Harbor, the Hurd family. After some discussion we made the connection with Diane and Dave! Another group of 2, local folks, no real tour just some idle chat.
Lucinda and Greg McCormick were back with some more friends. They brought a picnic lunch and hung out a bit. I gave them a tour and we chatted for a while. They were asking if they could see the guest quarters, but I mentioned that we have a group that just arrived today. I offered a tour of our side and they said sure! Forgot to take pics of some of the groups. Funny how sometimes I remember and then others, well not so much. I am trying to sneak in writing the blog in between visitors, then it is a little more manageable.
Next two up were Ben and Lauren. They are from Georgetown, ME. Steve was down in the Cove, so he already met them. Young couple, really easy to talk to and engaging. Eventually, I decided it was time to head down to the Cove and it was very busy. Steve shared that a small powerboat had lost his dinghy and it drifted to the rocks on the left side. The owner tried to get it using his powerboat and ended up getting stuck on the rocks himself. Eventually he got off the rocks but the dinghy was still stuck. Another captain brought him ashore as he was going to climb around on the rocks to his dinghy but Steve offered to row out and bring him to his dinghy. I always miss the excitement in the Cove!
We watched as a few more people changed moorings etc. We were sitting on the rocks by the vista on the Cove trail. That is the spot where I have mentioned we have sunshine for a little bit longer. As I was sitting there, I noticed another tiny claw. But this one had a dot on it that looked like an eye! Pay attention to the small things!
We decided to head back up. While we were in the house, we heard some voices and went out to the porch. Turns out that the people that changed to another mooring were our first guests back in May, Pam and Don, and now their son Mike had joined them! We chatted with them for a while. They are planning to stay the night, so we agreed on a tour in morning.
We spent some time talking with Molly – all of them had enjoyed their day. Later while in the kitchen, Steve showed me the harvest from our garden! We are going to try to eat it all tonight (ha-ha)!
Lauren and Ben said they would be back up for sunset and Dean said he would be too. We moved a bench over so the five of us could chat and watch the sunset. I learned more about Dean. Again, a very interesting character full of so many interesting experiences, some happy, some sad. He had a book by John Steinbeck he recommended I read, “The Winter of Our Discontent.” He said reading it as an adult, it was a whole different book compared to reading in high school! He said he would give it to me to read from his “little lending library” he has on his boat.
As the sun was setting, Ben came over and asked if I would take some pictures of them on sunset bench! I said sure. He gave me his camera and I walked over behind the bench to catch different angles. I finally had to ask him to move as I couldn’t see him in the picture. I repeated my request a couple of times when it finally dawned on me. He was down on one knee proposing to Lauren. I ran back over to the other guys to tell them! How exciting – our first engagement on Seguin! He pulled out a bottle of Prosecco and we all toasted to the new couple. Here are a few pictures of them! How fun!
The day is not complete without a sunset of Mount Washington.
Well, we have reached the end of another blog. As always, thank you for reading and participating in the adventure with us! Oh, and thanks for sending your comments!
