And now it's September,....

...and we must remember;

the spirit of each fall,
all eyes are on the baseball.

Some teams at the top have a chance,
of making the series, the big dance,
so with each ball a pitcher may fling,
will increase or diminish a chance for a ring.

The Red Sox seem to go the wrong way,
with each September game that they play,
if they lose each series of the game,
they must find somebody to blame.

Thursday night when there was a chance they would win,
something happened so they'd lose again;
a ball to the infield was hit, and a piece of the bat seemed to go,
so the ball wasn't caught, and who missed the play - Scurtaro

And on Friday, they have earned a way,
to stay on top another day,
the Wild Card list is where they are,
hanging on, can't drop too far.

So here we are, the weekend is here,
will there be an occasion for us to cheer,
as we throw our hopes into the fray,
we'll see if they can last another day!

Just moving all over the place....

Looking at Bar Harbor from the other side of the bay

..but it wasn't intended to be a race,
from the west to the east,
Frenchmans Bay serves a good feast (for the eyes).

As I traveled beyond the reversed tides,
on a hot day and the craziest of rides,
headed on down Route One,
and I think I was having great fun,

On my way down to Gouldsboro town,
the Winter Harbor part won't bring a frown,
it's got Schoodic Point, the lazy mans dream,
and there's a lot more to it, than may seem.

The Cleat, from a former Schoodic Sculptors Series.
The Cleat itself is about 10 feet long.

The Winter Harbor Light is on an island offshore,
this photo was digitally zoomed, it's further away than it looks.
Or should that be "farther away..."?

The Schoodic Sidewalk, it's the end of land, nice too.

Books and more books

Auburn Maine Library

There are more on shelves in these....
...libraries, that are sure to please,
most any that will give them a look,
so, come in, sit down, read a book.

All kinds of reading awaits,
right through a library's gates,
most of them are free, won't cost you a dime,
but if you're late to return, there'll be a small fine.

The old Swans Island Library, struck by lightning and burned to the ground,
a replacement opened this year.

Winterport, Maine, another field stone beauty.

Gouldsboro, Maine - built in 1906 it's a beauty too.

Libraries deserve more

Baxter Library, Portland, Maine. photo by Corey Templeton
This building is now in private hands.

Grab a pencil, and take a note,
"make going to the library, a thing of rote",
if you can read this, then please remember,
libraries may be closed, one day in December.

You can walk right in, no need to knock,
they open and close, works like a clock;
you're always welcome, well almost anyway;
you aren't very likely to be turned away.

Lithgow Library, Augusta, Maine
photo by lib.web.cat

Belfast, Maine Library has had some additions through the years.
Photo: steveartist photostream

Milo Free Public Library, photo from Milo Free Public Library,
a special place in "A Friendly Town", and that's a fact.

Lot's of stuff to look at

The "south" side of the bog

  My guess is that it's a mile around the wooden part of the walk and the access trail is a quarter mile or so, it's a good walk, but it just takes longer than usual because there is so much to look at.
It is, at times, difficult to imagine how anything grows on top of 15 feet of peat, but the plants are there.  Stunted spruce, larch, cranberry are the predominant woody plants you'll see, but it's the other stuff that gets my attention.  Cotton grass was puffed out all over the place, but hard to photograph, and of course the pitcher plants already starting next years growth, peat moss, thyme; well, you get the idea, there's a lot to look at.
  There is another bog just a few mile north of this one, the Alton Bog doesn't have a trail, but I95 was built right across it, something that may not have happened these days.  I remember when our son Jon, who had spent his entire life in Metro-Portland, and was an avowed city boy, saw that when we moved up to Medford (Piscataquis County) from South Portland.  He was kind of wide-eyed at the sight of it, I told him we were entering the tundra!   It's fun to look back sometimes isn't it.  As an aside he now is married and lives in Old Orchard Beach, still not a country boy.

Linda takes a break at the turn, or half-way point

The geezer in the flesh, takes a break too.

Spruce and Cotton Grass

The Volunteers Cabin-Park Office at trails end.

On the board walk

Getting to the "Bog board walk"

  Yesterday the morning was cool and fall-like, it was 41 degrees when I went for my morning walk, but after returning home and cleaning up; Linda and I went to Bangor to take another kind of walk.
The Bangor/Orono Bog Board Walk is a trail part of which is in each town.  After parking the car you walk in on a dirt trail that leads directly to the board walk, there are other trails in the Bangor Forest Lands that people use to do other things.
  Arriving at the boards we complete about a one-mile loop the trail starts and stops in the same place.  It starts out in a mature forest, but in a wetland, yesterday the forest floor was puddling with pools of water.  As we leave the forest the line is just about instant, from forest to ombrotrophic zone is more than a line it's one step in one and one foot in the other.  The Ombrotrophic Zone (caution: the geezer has learned a new word) means that plants on the surface get their nutrients from the air rather than the soil; that means trees are tiny in comparison to their ages.  You can't plant seeds either plants re-produce by "layering"; if an adult trees dies and tips over new trees will start from the old trees roots or branches.  The peat moss here is 14 to 16 feet deep, it's a quite different place, and cold late in the fall - one year we wore winter coats and hats and were still cold.

The boards start and stop here.

From forest to "atmospheric zone"

Lots of Pitcher Plants (the red ones with veins) here, they eat flies, these
are next summers plants.

The moss has already turned from green to red.  There are cranberry bushes and rosemary here too.

Well we're stuck in the zone, nothing but air, we'll finish tomorrow.

Quite a day!

Tidal Falls Conservation Area, Hancock Maine

  Before I get started please notice that some phrases are in italics, those are "Mainer talk" they sound out the way they are spelled, 'kay?
  I wanted to go for a ride, Linda suggested Ellsworth, so that's where I started out, after I milled around awhile and had lunch, I 'sided to go ovah to Bah Hahbah that was my biggest mistake.  It's about 15 miles from Ellsworth, so not to far.
  I drove strait down root 3, far as you can go, there was them jezzly cahs with all them people from away.  I got all tha way down theyah and there wahnt no place ta pahak.  I 'cided I wahnt gonna waste no moreah time.  On th way back I noticed that on tha root 3 signs theyah was 'nother sign, blew ones; them signs said 'vacuashun root, well sir - that made me want to go rite back down theyah and 'vacuate my bowels in tha middle of tha rode. (that's hard writing).
  After I got back to Ellsworth I decided to go see Tidal Falls in Hancock, it's a short drive.  Nice place they got theyah.  I was watching three people in kayaks fight the current (tide was going out) in the first small rapid, then when they quit paddling the water moved them almost a quarter mile across the water and down "river" to the bigger rapid, they were having fun and it was fun to watch.  I should mention it's on Frenchman Bay and the Tidal Falls run in the direction of the tides, so it's like a river that flows in both directions.
  After I left there I was halfway to Schoodic Point so I went there too. More about that pahart tomorra.  I write all this stuff in my head while I'm drivin', it's what they call 'stracted drivin'

The kayak nearest was fighting the flow at the small rapid, the "yellow" one is being floated over and downstream.

This is what I called the big rapid.

Looking towards the open ocean.
Pretty day down theyah, one of them you wahnt to muckle onto and lug off fa winta