gone

"labor day", the kid said when I asked how much longer the ice cream stand would be open. where, oh where has the summer gone?

the last hurrah

nothing like waking up first thing in the morning

and remembering you're at the ocean!

wildly curious

seeing this sign makes me want to go grab a book, an apple, my phone, and my water bottle and camp out here all day long, waiting for that baby animal to cross the road. 

picking crab

picking crab is certainly not what i thought it would be. it's not choosing a crab - it's picking the meat out of the shell. i've picked lobster a lot and thought it couldn't be all that different. but i was wrong.

first of all, the implements are different. no nutcracker for this job - the tools of the trade are beach rocks and vices and hammers! these crab shells were so much harder than even the hardest shell lobster. the meat was in the same place - in the legs, the claws, and the bodies. but crabs are so much smaller than lobsters, and the amount of meat you have to work for is minuscule in comparison to the amount you get from a lobster. and it takes so long! the shells are the same hue as the meat so it's easy to get small hard remnants mixed in with the collected meat. crunch!

before we even began the task, i watched this video of a woman from downeast maine who was skilled at picking crab. she made it look so easy and painless! but it was very difficult and no fun. the small amount of meat, as tasty as it was, was not worth the aggravation.

i think if folks from small northern maine fishing villages ever go to hell, picking crab is what they must have to do for eternity. in my humble opinion.

downeast

i've recently had a much-needed week away and a much-appreciated visit with good friends. these are a few of my favorite random shots.

a bald eagle greets me the minute i step from the car! i took about a gazillion shots, but really wanted to capture him as he lifted off from the rocks. i waited and i waited, but finally looked away to swat at an annoying mosquito. that's when he took off - and when i missed the shot!

all around my host's house, thistle grows. a fascinating flower with interesting thorny leaves. i'm always so happy when the blooms coincide with my visit. 

again this year, we visited with a 91 year old woman in town. she's vibrant and so interesting and i hope i grow up to be just like her. i watched her face closely as she talked across the table, eyes lighting up and wrinkles coming and going, and she was beautiful. i so wanted to take her picture, then desaturate it to black and white, showing all those wonderful creases and lines. but i settled for her pincushion, tucked into the corner of the sill by her open window.