Tidy Tidbits: Bands & Birds

We’re home.  I’ve spent the week sorting mail, stocking the larder, poring over all the cooking magazines and New Yorkers that accumulated, getting back on the treadmill (need to undue the effects of lobster and potato chips!) and soaking in the pool.  Florida is hot and humid, but I’m reveling in being in our own space!

Old-time Music

We just attended our first performance at the Florida Studio Theatre, a multi-venue outfit with a range of offerings from drama to improv to music.  This was The Swingaroos performing in their cabaret space.  A full menu was available, but not realizing this we dined at the Bijou Café around the corner, one of our current favorites.  I had never heard the term, “territory band,” before but they were small dance bands that toured in the U.S., primarily in the Midwest and west, playing in small towns and night clubs during the 1920’s and 30’s.  The Swingaroos are a group of six:  one female vocalist accompanied by musicians on piano, drums, clarinet, trombone, and string bass.  They gave an energetic performance, but we would have enjoyed it more had more of the music and songs been familiar ones.

Nature Note—Missed Photo Op

A robust thunder and lightning storm the other day lasted several hours.  It left puddles galore and, I noted that all the birds that are either in the trees, the sky, or elsewhere during the day had congregated near our pond and on the grass.  The white ibises always do this when the weather is threatening, but this time I observed many great white egrets, brown ducks. and also several of the smaller herons.  Quite striking to see the bright white birds all poking in the grass or stalking around the pond’s perimeter.  I always think there are more birds around when the people population here is down, but that may not be so.

White ibis in June
White ibis in June
Bird on the beach
Bird on the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Star Romp

For some light diversion, we rented “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”  While not quite as good as its predecessor, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” it delivers megawatt star power in the form of Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and a distinguished gray, but still very handsome, Richard Gere.  Sunny (Dev Patel), proprietor of this unusual Indian hotel where roll is called each morning to see who survived the night, is as exuberant as ever.  He is soon to be married and wants to expand his business.  And he is sure he knows the identity of the unannounced hotel inspector.  Pure fun with a tinge of the poignancy of the last stage of life.

 

Maine Musings: Winding Down of Summer

 

We just ended a week of house guests as we wind down our Maine time. My sister and her husband were easy to have and together we visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, ate lobster as often as possible, and enjoyed another excursion to Pemaquid Point.

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We then welcomed our 3 year old granddaughter (and her wonderful parents) who provided nonstop commentary on what she and everyone around her was doing. That was when she wasn’t making up family stories about sticks, stones, and her dolls or involving her grandmother as playmate in various scenarios: going to the dentist, lying on the beach, being sick and requiring a trip to the hospital in an ambulance, making pancakes (clementines stood in for the pancake batter), and arranging a tea party. She and I did all of these things and we even read a few books together; for the one she especially liked, it was, “again, Grandma, again.”

We also made blueberry pancakes for breakfast (for real) and spent many hours in the children’s garden at the aforementioned botanic garden. A lively visit and a real gift of their precious time.

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What I’m Not Reading

Despite a recent article in the Wall St. Journal about the demise of the summer reading list, I still try to read tomes on vacation that I don’t attempt the rest of the year. This summer I have one of Trollope’s novels on my stack which I will start soon.

I also subscribe to a first editions book club and receive an autographed novel in the mail each month. I seldom read these books as soon as they arrive and over time I accumulate a small stack of them. I brought two with me to Maine. I have started both of them and abandoned both of them, probably for good. I anticipated being absorbed and even engrossed in them, but not so.

The first one is about a young woman who masquerades as a man and goes off to fight in the Civil War. She leaves her husband and their farm behind. The writing is spare and the images of war are graphic and bloody. The author keeps the reader at a distance and I didn’t stay engaged. Maybe not just the right time or mood for me, so perhaps I’ll return to it. It is Neverhome by Laird Hunt.

The second novel, Flying Shoes, by Lisa Howorth, is a first novel built around the re-opening of a murder case in the 1980’s that was the actual murder of the author’s brother. It’s set in Mississippi and has a sassy, what I would characterize as southern, tone. I found the narrator’s voice too flippant and saucy; hence it’s on my discard pile.

One of the liberating aspects of this stage of life is that I don’t need to finish every book I start. I sample fifty to a hundred pages and if I don’t like what I’ve read, I give myself permission to set it aside without guilt. Life is short and there are too many books I want to read to get bogged down in one that is not compelling or enjoyable in some way!

Maine Musings: Light and Color

We have moved to another house in Maine and are now enjoying views of the Sheepscot River. It’s a saltwater river and so we have some gentle tidal action exposing mud and rocks and seaweed, then covering them over again. A large family of ducks swam by yesterday and occasionally the thrum of a power boat punctuates the peaceful quiet. The neighbor’s dock is long and its struts are an appealing cross hatch of x’s and diamonds. At dusk they rise above the water and, as one person put it, look like bent knees. The other night’s sunset sky, pictured above, began as somewhat red and then intensified into slashes of mauve and magenta, like thick paint. In the early morning light, yellow predominates and all is calm.

 

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What I’m Reading: Family Portrait

I just finished Trompe L’Oeil by Nancy Reisman, a very satisfying novel on several levels. The characters are revealed as if painted on a canvas; painting; their responses to events and their feelings shift and are shaped and shaded and re-visited over time.

A tragic event in Rome opens the novel and changes life forever for the Murphy family. As readers we then follow the parents, Nora and James, and their children, Theo, Kate, Sarah and Delia, for several decades until the children become adults. Place matters enormously for each of them, be it the Rome of that family vacation or the Massachusetts shore, site of their beloved beach house.  Scattered throughout are chapters devoted to their homes interspersed with ones from the perspective of each family member individually.

Reisman also introduces real art, as in descriptions of paintings of Mary Magadelene by various artists, in separate chapters.  The description of who else is in the work, the colors used and the mood of the painting are used, I think, to reflect the feelings and emotions of particular characters. I found this an intriguing literary device and, overall, quite successful.

Like great art, this novel takes time, time to read and time to contemplate, as Reisman slowly builds up layers of life events and their impact on each member of the family.  She cares about these people and explores how they respond to the tragedies and vicissitudes life throws at them.  It is a beautifully crafted piece of work.

For an illuminating interview with the author about the creation of this novel, check out this link: http://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/solitude-and-possibility-an-interview-with-nancy-reisman/

 

[Photos copyright JWFarrington]

Maine Musings: Lighthouses

LIGHTHOUSES

Maine is home to more than 70 lighthouses, nearly all of them built in the 19th century. That number is not surprising when you consider the state’s rocky coast which zigs and zags in and out creating harbor after harbor, some very narrow.

I’ve been pondering why lighthouses have such an appeal and why we like to visit them.  I certainly don’t have a definitive answer, but perhaps it’s partly history and partly the novelty.  Lighthouses are generally old and they remind us of a time when seafaring, sans GPS, was dangerous and fraught with potential peril.  There is also the novelty of contemplating living in a tower at the edge of the sea—isolated and possibly lonely with only immediate family for company.

Over the years, we have gazed upon, but not visited up close, The Cuckolds (1892, 1907), off Cape Newagen at Southport, and Hendricks Head (1829, 1875) on the other end of Southport at the mouth of the Sheepscot River. The Cuckolds Light is now a fancy inn containing two suites.  You can stay in one or rent the entire island (both suites) for a different kind of getaway that includes boat transport to and from the lighthouse!

Cuckolds Light (www.lighthousefriends.com)
Cuckolds Light (www.lighthousefriends.com)

 

 

Hendricks Head from commons.wikipedia.com
Hendricks Head (commons.wikipedia.com)

Last summer, we took a boat out to Burnt Island in Boothbay Harbor to tour that lighthouse and its keeper’s house.  This 1821 lighthouse with adjoining keeper’s house stands tall on a small patch of green. Local folks purchased it several years ago and created an education center.  They now offer occasional tours for the public as well as overnight programs for school kids.

Burnt Island Light from www.lighthousefriends.com
Burnt Island Light (www.lighthousefriends.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While in Portland several weeks ago, we explored Fort Williams Park with my cousins and paid homage to the iconic Portland Head Light, which dates to 1791 and guards the Portland Harbor. It’s a lovely park with native plantings and tables for picnics on the grounds.

Portland Head Light
Portland Head Light

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week, we finally (I say finally since we’ve been coming to Maine a long time) drove over to the next peninsula and down to Pemaquid Point to visit the Pemaquid Point Light. This lighthouse was commissioned by President John Quincy Adams in 1826, opened in 1827, and then due to defects was re-built in 1835. In good weather, its light can be seen from 14 nautical miles away.

Pemquid Point Lighthouse from www.ighthouseratings.com
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse (www.ighthouseratings.com)

You can climb a winding narrow staircase to the top of the tower and also tour a small museum in the light keeper’s house.  In the museum we saw models of fishing boats, tools and nets for fishing, an old-fashioned lobster trap and a series of lobster buoys strung up high along the wall. Fourteen lighthouse keepers served this lighthouse until it was automated in 1934. The rocks on this stretch of coast are particularly dramatic and you can understand why ships ran aground and appreciate the critical importance of the light.

Were my mother still around, I would have mailed her at least one postcard from this summer’s explorations.  She appreciated architecture and was particularly interested in lighthouses and suspension bridges.