Good morning everyone.  We are busy packing up suitcases and boxes to ship home.  When I get back to Winter Harbor I’m going to be looking forward to getting some lobsters.  It’s been a long winter here watching the tanks at the local grocery store hold those poor old lobsters that to my thinking can’t possibly be nearly as good as what we have available all around us in Winter Harbor.  I love going to the Co-Op to buy lobster. I don’t go as often as I think about going but when I walk down that road and see the views beyond it feels like coming home.  There have been major changes to the Co-Op over the years.  I remember being a kids and climbing up the slippery ladders to the top of Mort Torrey’s Wharf from the boat below.  I was always pretty sure I’d loose my grip and go flying back into the boat or worse yet into the water.  Luckily I never did fall.  Most visits to the area of the wharf though were like a warm embrace.  There is something about that little cove, the light, the water, the smells-I just love being there and many of those feelings, smells and sights can be found there even today.  The Co-Op has grown along with the demands of the business, but seeing the boats pull up to fill up with fuel and bait and to sell lobsters after a day of hauling is one scene I just love.  The boats, the people and the buildings have changed a lot but the business of selling the haul, getting fuel and bait at the end of a day on the water remain.

Well it is coming on to spring in Maine.  When I look at this picture it reminds me of the wonderful apple blossoms that abound during the spring.  We have a tree in the front yard that is always loaded.  How I love looking at them, fooling myself into not thinking about all of the apples I’ll need to rake up from under the tree in the fall.  I guess life is always like that-enjoying the beauty of the everyday and not letting the downside of such things get to us.  Thank goodness for human nature!

Every time I drive into town on rt. 186 and reach the ocean this is the scene that greets me (and you).  I love this scene and really enjoy seeing the cleat sculpture.  It was added during the International Sculpture Symposium, created by the late Don Merserve.   Maybe it’s because I have spent long hours in boats and returning to the dock, tying up at a cleat-home again-gives me a good feeling.  For many boaters arriving at the destination and safely tying up to the cleat has a significant meaning.  Arriving at a destination safely has become all too precious during this past week when we all experienced the horror of seeing the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  That picture has haunted me and probably everyone I know.  It is so sad and scary to realize that the finish line will never be the same for any event.  The most comprehensive article I have read was posted by Breaking Even Communications, one of their clients was there and wrote an amazing article that was picked up by the  Huffington Post.  huffingtonpost.com/carrie-jones/I-was-at-the-boston-marathon_b_3091219.html   I hope this was the right address- but also can be found at Breaking Even Communications.

Wishing everyone safe journeys and a cleat to tie up to when you get there!