festivity
Our friend Martha is moving to the west coast so we had a lobster feast to say goodbye. She and Jim got the lobster from a fisherman in Stonington and came directly here. We (editorial we) boiled them up outside and ate for hours. Melissa debuted a couple of new photogenic summer salads. She also put grilled lemons in the clarified butter. We paused before dessert (Vickie's cherry gallette with maple whipped cream) to tour Jim's building downtown next to ours. It was a bank at one time and has a fancy vault upstairs and another one in the basement. The upstairs vault will become a closet. The before and after pictures of this space are going to be amazing.
Loon count was Saturday and I actually saw 2 loons. It helps that one was calling and I could just paddle towards the sound. The lake was like glass.
I just saw that The Brand New Testament was voted audience favorite at MIFF. It was the best thing I've seen in a long time and it helps me define what I like in a film: great imaginative story telling, joyful irreverence, a lot of language, heart, structure, sweetness. People left the theater quietly smiling. I saw eight films including the one we sponsored, The Promised Band; Lo and Behold:Reveries of the Connected World; Seasons (amazing nature photography), The Usual Suspects, Five Nights in Maine (everything I don't like in a film), The Song of the Broad Axe (starring Dave Smith and Mike Beaudry); and Bajirao Mastani, our Bollywood fix for the year. Next year we will buy two 10-show passes. We love eating on the street then walking over to the opera house. Festive!
People in New England go to Maine to step back into the past; people in Maine go to Canada; people in Canada go to PEI. The dirt is red, the northern beaches are beautiful. We walked them for hours. The southern beaches are carved out red rock cliffs. There are almost no fast food places and convenience stores and no litter. There is a lot of rolling farmland with potatoes and hay and cattle, often with fields going down to the water. The search for morning coffee proved interesting. Twice I was sent into a Downton like hundred year old resort to get caffiene. One trip in got us breakfast at Shaw's in Brackley Beach, another got me into the paneled respectability of Dalvey By The Sea.
Lennox Island is a Mi'kmaq Indian town. A nun appeared to let me into the church which had in place of the usual stained glass subject matter this image of an eagle.
