January 30th, 2012
I really have done more than walk in the woods this winter. But maybe it’s been the most interesting or at least inspiring thing. I so love walking around Mosquito Head and through the wooded, mossed center of the headland. And even though I’ve been here countless times (the dogs would have us traverse this route daily at least, though I’ve not always lived up to their expectations) what is so familiar is also always different. Not new, just different in terms of what I see, what catches my eye.
On a foggy day last week it was the big picture, the landscape.
Dogs turning for a treat at one of the ritualized feeding stations along the route.
Land giving way to rocks and water.
The notion of a distant horizon.
And then there are the bright days, like yesterday, when I seem to focus on details.
Roots, rocks, lichen and moss.
A buoy that has been bouncing around on shore for months.
Another buoy that has been hanging in a tree for just as long.
Wrecked traps tangled in branches.
Same place, different experience. Each time. — A. C.
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January 23rd, 2012
We’ve had some fresh veg., harvested right from the hoophouses. The carrots have been the best and sweetest. Sometimes the top bit of soil is frozen and I have to wait until mid-day on a bright, sunny day to dig them out. But it works. I made a carrot soup that was so sweet it could have been dessert.
Spinach is on the menu for tonight.
And the new chard leaves are tender and tasty. The old ones that were nipped by the cold are kind of yucky, but the new young ones are good.
Once the carrots and spinach are all gone I’ll prepare the beds to plant with early spring crops (fun to be thinking about that and putting together a planting plan already!). The chard will keep going a good long time into the spring, though. — A. C.
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January 18th, 2012
As Maggie is a puppy, she gets special puppy kibble. And because she is a bit on the lean side we want to encourage her to eat this formula, since it is supposed to have all of the nutrients — and probably some additional fat — a young dog needs to grow well. As it turns out, everyone likes Maggie’s food. Especially Bruce.
There are no arguments here: Maggie and Bruce just alternate bites. Bruce, by the way, does not need the additional fat; he just wants it. — A. C.
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January 18th, 2012
This has been a see-saw sort of winter. A few very cold, often sunny days; then a spate of warmer weather bringing slushy snow and rain. I love what the low winter sun on these bright cold days does in the house, zinging into normally subdued corners.
When we potted up that begonia to bring it in for the winter, who knew it would be so electric by a west window. Up until this year my feelings toward begonias had only been tepid, but now I’m quite in love with this one.
The red-twig dogwood stems left over from a decorative bow toward the red and green of Christmas were dancing in the sun.
Maggie was not deterred, though her trips outside were shorter than the norm.
Meanwhile Stuart — and all the cats — tucked into warm places.
Yes, that’s the ridiculously huge rug that I for some reason decided to take on this winter. I’m about 75 % through so far. — A. C.
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January 11th, 2012
Thus far this has been a fairly open winter, so walks through the woods are possible. Most winters lately, woods walks in the winter have been a snow shoe affair. So we’ve tried to take advantage of the weather, often with the dogs.
This past weekend I went on a Conservation Commission sponsored walk through the town forest. This is the one-tree footbridge that Duke Ellis (leading the hike) made.
One feature of this parcel of land is Jones Brook.
The path runs along the brook for a bit. Nice how the thin skin of ice defines the course of the brook.
And an exciting piece of news is that the Conservation commission is working to connect this trail to the Fort Point walk and possibly to another parcel of town-owned land, making a lovely walking circuit.
And of course we keep returning to Mosquito Head and rambling over the rocks and through the woods that are currently without a winter coating of ice. And loving the changing light on the water.
So we’ve started venturing into our wooded area beyond the nursery to see if we can’t get a short woodland walk. As this is often a wet area we are lucky to have several loads of wood chips from the CMP line clearing that has been going on down the peninsula for what seems like forever.
The beginning of the path is fairly obvious (and built up just off the lower raised beds), and we’ve cleared the beginnings of a route through these logged, wet and scruffy woods. But we’ve just come to a decision point, to figure out where to go next.
That’s Esme (Ella’s sister who’s visiting for the week) in the lead, followed by Ella and Maggie dancing around somewhere.
A nifty thing about getting into this part of the property is discovering things like this thick stand of bearberry.
By the end of the winter I hope to have a nice loop trail with possibly a spur that runs along the side of the marsh. — A. C.
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January 4th, 2012
The poodle girls call us out for walks every day. This week one of our destinations was the great trails at Old Woods Farm. Sylvia (Maggie’s sister) led the way.
We passed by the ledge-y high spots.
How’s that for a glacial erratic? It marked the point where the trail began to dip down back toward some lower, wetter areas.
There was a little bit of drama when Maggie stepped onto the ice that was just forming over this flooded stream and broke through. She was ultimately fine, but the poor little thing had dreadlocks of icicles for the remainder of the walk. No pictures of that, sorry. And she was fine.
The flooding had to do with beaver activity. Just upstream was the Hoover Dam, northeastern beaver style.
We didn’t linger looking at the dam as I was worried that Maggie was getting too cold. Next trip, though. — A. C.
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December 30th, 2011
One of our favorite places to walk with the dogs is at Mosquito Head, about half a mile from the house. One windy day this week we went twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. It was the same and different.
In the morning:
The morning was a bit foggy — just a bit — so sunlight showed up in distinct shafts.
And in the afternoon:
Maggie practiced sitting pretty (in the morning).
The mosses and lichens on the interior of the Head make a lovely tapestry of green, blue, grey, and each one is fascinating up close.
And weren’t the waves roiling along the rocky edge. Sometimes there is hardly a ripple, but not when we were there on Wednesday.
And I always love emerging from our ramble through the woods and over the rocks into open fields with old walls.
There’s not much lovelier than this place. — A. C.
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December 19th, 2011
It was a light snow, but enough for Maggie to have fun rooting around in it. Her first snow.
The down side of being a poodle in the snow is all of the cling-on snow balls.
Wait until we get a big snow and she starts tunneling. We’ll have one big snow ball to melt in front of the fire. — A. C.
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December 10th, 2011
Maggie’s growing up. Sort of. Only 3 1/2 months old and quite a scamp. Ella’s accepted her now and even enjoys playing with her. With this mild December weather we’ve been able to get out on a number of hikes, our favorite being on Mosquito Head.
Not a bad place to practice some of our obedience exercises. — A. C.
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November 27th, 2011
This was the ninth of the St. George post-Thanksgiving Yuletide events. From Oceanview Grange in Martinsville all the way to the Marshall Point lighthouse in Port Clyde, seasonal shops opened for the weekend.
At Hedgerow I was able to finish (barely) a new rug for the gallery.
New this season were embellished gourd vessels by Ron King of Penobscot.
And we had many new hand-woven towels and scarves for the show by Lucy Williams of Camden.
While this show marks the end of our regularly scheduled hours, both the gallery and the Twiggery garden shop are open by appointment until December 23rd. — A. C.
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