A stay in Bangor, Maine

In mid-November I was back in Greater Atlanta, Georgia. I intended to take pictures in a park nearby for a fall blog post. Time went by too quickly and instead I just took a couple of photos of the leaves in the backyard.

In lieu of this fall blog post I'll relate my summer stay in Bangor, Maine. In early June my daughter asked me if I would like to drive with her, my son-in-law and the kids to Bangor, Maine. I replied, no thank you - it is too far. I had only planned to drive the two hours north to Paducah, Kentucky. Nashville, Tennessee to Bangor, Maine is about 1,330 miles (2,140 km) about the same distance as Brussels, Belgium to Budapest, Hungary - it's quite far as I said.

She explained that three of the four grandchildren were going to attend several weeks of Chinese language immersion summer school in Bangor. She only could stay with them part of the time but then had to get back. As an enticement she offered to have me fly there and then she would come back when the Chinese school ended. She said we could drive down the coast of Maine and on the way stop a day in Kennebunkport, Maine, then New Hampshire and also in Newport, Rhode Island where I had always wished to go, and then stay in Boston a couple of days and I could fly back from Boston. So I went. Because Bangor is close to Acadia National Park summer lodgings are difficult to find. My daughter could only find a small farm to rent. The owners lived in another house adjacent to the original farm. The owners, the wife, drove a Prius, a Toyota hybrid (instead of one of those big SUV vehicles) and the husband, a pick-up truck. Actually, compared to Nashville and Atlanta, there were a lot less SUVs in Maine (where winters are rigorous and they could say they need them, not like in Deep South downtowns ... but in Maine they are more mindful of the environment.)

The farm was built in 1900. Chickens were free to roam and would come to the front door. They would run to greet us as soon as we drove into the farm. Horses were in the back near a wildlife trail. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

I took some photos of the interior but found some better ones on the owners' site (theirs were taken in winter.) The farm has 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen with eating area and two front rooms with a piano. I stayed in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

My daughter and her family drove to Maine a week prior to the start of the Chinese summer school so they could visit the area and Acadia National Park. This park is about 41 miles from Bangor. It is located on Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut. The highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the US, Cadillac Mountain, is in this park.

In its 49,075 acres (76.7 sq mi or 198.6 km2) the park contains wetlands, forests, meadows, mountains, lakes, streams, beaches and a large diversity of animal and plant life. Millions of visitors come to the park and I believe reservations are required now to enter it, at least in the summer months, because of the congestion. In 1929 the name of the park was changed from Marquis de Lafayette Park to Acadia National Park in honor of the former French colony of Acadia that used to include Maine. The center photo is of my son-in-law - he had to fly back to Nashville after a week in Maine.

My daughter flew back to Nashville after her 3 weeks and left the big van in Bangor. They use this large van to transport the 4 kids, 3 adults (including the au pair) and two dogs (no SUVs for member of my family.) For commuting to work they just have two small passenger vehicles. But the van is quite high and long - I was afraid to drive it. Fortunately the au pair stayed during my time there and he drove. He is an Italian of Moroccan ancestry and his family lives in France now, so he speaks Italian, Moroccan Arabic, French and English. We ate most evenings in local restaurants and pubs, apart from the day the Italian soccer team won the European Soccer Championship, its first time since 1968. Our au pair was so overjoyed that he treated us to a pizza dinner. That week was also my youngest grandson's 10 years old birthday. He requested a chocolate cream pie. I found a bakery in Bangor that was able to bake one especially for him. Below is the van, the bakery, the pie, the au pair with the Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders and my grandchildren. The grandson in the center is letting his hair grow to donate to a group helping young cancer patients who lost their hair.

The first Sunday after I arrived I was pleased to meet one of my blogging friends for lunch in Bangor. I had been reading her blog for years until she eventually stopped blogging. Ruth's original blog was named "synch-ro-ni-zing" and her last blog, ended in 2017, was called Birds of the Air quilts where she showed the quilts she made. Ruth and her husband retired and moved to a small coastal town in Maine, not far from Bangor. It was so much fun meeting her after having read her blogs for over a decade. We met at the Mason Brewing Co. Restaurant along the Penobscot River. We ate outdoors as it was a warm day and also because of Covid.

I was surprised by the long list of beers and ciders. Ruth told me that there are a great many pubs and restaurants in the area featuring local artisanal beers and ciders. Later I read that behind Vermont, Maine has the second highest number of breweries per 100,000 residents in the USA. The 100 or so local breweries produce New England IPAs, English ales, stouts, porters, sours, Belgian, farmhouse, lagers and more. They have the largest variety of hard cider that I have seen outside of France and Belgium. Most restaurants and pubs will offer "sample beers" of your choice in 4 small glasses. I did not try them since I am more partial to cider.

I remember writing Ruth and telling her I was going to stay in a small town in Maine - Bangor. She answered that Bangor was one of the largest cities in Maine, and with 32,000 residents is considered the unofficial capital of northern Maine. Well, when you consider that the population of the state of Maine is 1.34 million, Bangor is ... large. But coming from greater Atlanta with 6.09 million and the state of Georgia with 10.83 million, I thought Bangor was tiny ... oops! The weather was nice though, not as warm as in Atlanta. We did not have to use air conditioning and I was chilly a couple of times. Of course, in winter it must be quite cold - much too cold for me. Here are a couple of photos of the city in winter (courtesy the Bangor Daily News.)

Definitely a city to visit in summer, in July like I did. At least for us southerners ...

More birds, fog on Monteagle and snow in Nashville

Last Christmas morning, you may remember that I mentioned on my blog post "Cooking for the Holidays" that I had been surprised by a murmuration of starlings in my backyard. But this time the birds were robins, a flock of them. They flew on my back deck, so many I stopped counting at 45. They kept moving and it was difficult taking photographs. I decided to just concentrate on individual birds. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

I enjoy watching birds but am not knowledgeable about them. I read up on the robin - the American robin is a large songbird with long legs, round body and a fairly long tail. They are the largest of the thrushes here. American settlers named these birds "robin" because they looked like the European robins, but actually they are not from the same family. The American robin is from the subspecies of Turdus migratoris. The European robin is from the subspecies of Saxicolinae. They both have a reddish orange breast, although not as pronounced in the European robin. In winter the American robins form flocks (sometimes hundreds or thousands of them,) to avoid predators. During the spring and summer they are mostly independent. They came in my backyard two consecutive mornings, flying from the trees to my deck or the ground.

The third morning I looked for them, but they did not come back. But I have many postcards with robins on them. Robins were a favorite subject on vintage greeting postcards, especially during the winter holidays.

In January I missed my monthly trip to Georgia because I was waiting for the Covid vaccine. I finally received the first shot on January 28th. Then I drove to Georgia for about 10 days in early February, returning last Sunday. The trip to Georgia took 6 hours because of road work being done on interstate 24 close to Chattanooga. After driving for one and a half hour for what usually takes 20 minutes I took the side trip through the North Georgia Mountains. It took as long but I was rolling. Coming back last Sunday I was hoping the trip to Nashville would be faster, even though I am always apprehensive about the mountains near Monteagle, Tennessee. And sure enough - I drove through Chattanooga under overcast skies with no problems, but then as I ascended the steep incline towards Monteagle I entered the fog. The trees and vegetation had suddenly appeared covered with ice. As the fog kept thickening I decided to exit the highway at the travelers' rest stop. A good thing I knew its location, too, because the exit ramp was barely visible. As it is, a huge truck could not see it and at the last minute veered in front of me toward the rest stop (giving me a shot of adrenalin...)

Parking the car carefully I decided to take my time, eat my snack and drink coffee in the car hoping the fog would lighten up. There were only a couple of other vehicles and they departed. I kept watching the trees. I thought when I can see them better I'll start driving again.

About 45 to 50 minutes later I started seeing the trees.

I had heard sounds of engines nearby but seen no vehicles. I came out of my car to check. Surprise! I could count as many as 14 or 15 snow trucks parked behind me and more were coming. I became worried that maybe Nashville was under heavy snow. I asked one of the drivers where were they heading - Memphis, Tennessee he replied. Why? It's going to snow heavily starting on Monday there and they have hardly any equipment he said.

I forgot to ask about Nashville weather, so I decided to start moving down the steep downgrade. I did not need to drink coffee to stay alert while driving down that dangerous descent - it always gets my undivided attention. In the 1980s that stretch of east-bound I-24 was notorious for killing truck drivers. Later they improved the interstate there but crossing Monteagle is still one of the most notorious stretches of mountains interstate east of the Mississippi. With some trepidation I began driving following a couple of 18-wheeler trucks. Visibility became better as I came down the road.

Traffic close to Nashville was very light. Bad weather was forecast and motorists had been told to stay inside. It was dry when I arrived at my house but by evening it started snowing. On Monday the roads were covered with snow and it was very cold. It snowed during the night and today, Tuesday 16 February, 2021, not much is moving. The temperature is a frigid 13 degrees F (-10C) which is unheard of around here. It did snow heavily in Memphis - up to 12 inches yesterday (30.5 cm) so those snow trucks I had seen were certainly needed. I realized that today is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in French.) How I wish I was in New Orleans! Because of the virus they are not having their usual parades. The parades are cancelled, but not the Mardi Gras celebration. Instead the residents, who love a party, are decorating their houses to celebrate. I looked at the New Orleans site and a couple of newspapers. Photographs below courtesy the Gentilly Messenger and Allen Boudreaux.

Since there would be no parade this year, Megan Joy Boudreaux asked everyone to turn their house into a float, as a joke. But the idea took off and she started a Facebook group, the Krewe of House Floats, for her neighbors. Then 39 subgroups joined with more than 9,000 members. Thousands made "house" floats. Vive New Orleans and its great spirit that a pandemic cannot suppress!

It has been frigid here all day. It looked so pretty though that I thought I'd walk around the block to take pictures. A couple was coming down the road with walking sticks as I was taking pictures from my front porch. As they passed my house the woman fell in the snow.

I took pictures to my right and to my left, then gingerly walked to the road and took one photo. But then my fingers were numb from the glacial air.

After a nice warm cup of tea I ventured to the back deck for some pictures. My cat Mitsouko was looking at the deck, hoping to see a bird; too cold for birds and other critters, but a lonely fox was walking down the back alley.

My daughter and son-in-law went for a walk at the golf course near their home today and sent me the photos below.

They look like they are standing somewhere in Alaska, not just south of Nashville. Although today, Mardi Gras 2021, it was 28 F in Anchorage, Alaska, and 11 F (-11.66C) in Brentwood, TN... just saying... Here in my street the sun is starting to come back; next week hopefully it will warm up.

And maybe we will see the birds again?

Late October in Nashville and Atlanta

 When I returned to Tennessee in mid October I was disappointed that my absentee ballot had not been in my P.O. Box in Georgia.  Back in Nashville it was sunny and warm.  I was surprised when I moved my big garbage bin to find some bright flowers behind it.  I was not sure what type they were but after some research found out they are called Spider Lily.  I had never seen them before against the wall behind the bin.  They were not in a nice area, I wonder if I could move them and when?

From my kitchen window I looked toward the backyard to see if there were more flowers, but no, just flowering weeds.  But as I looked I saw a strange bird at a distance.  It was medium in size but seemed different somehow.  I kept watching it and it flew to my neighbor's tree.  Then it landed and climbed up the tree - it was a squirrel.  I had heard of flying squirrels but never seen one before.  I found out that they are called Southern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomy volans) and are common in Tennessee.  They do not have wings but "patagium."  The patagium is an extended fold of skin from the wrist to the ankle that enables them to glide rather than fly.  They are usually nocturnal.  Another visitor to the backyard is an albino or white squirrel.  Kenton, a small city in Tennessee west of Nashville toward Kentucky, is home to a large population of albino or white squirrels, and so much so that they have a yearly White Squirrel Festival in July.  There is also a winery in the area that adopted the white squirrel name.

This would make an interesting road trip but with the virus around us I usually only drive to the grocery store.  On October 22, 2020, I did drive to the grocery store.  I noticed that as my road dead ends into Belmont Boulevard the street was closed toward the university, a couple of blocks away.  I parked the car and walked there to have a look.  This was the day of the presidential debates.  There were already some Trump and Biden supporters along the streets.  The shops and restaurants facing the side of the university were closed for security reasons.  A long wire wall had been erected all along a side of the street and policemen on bicycles kept riding back and forth along it. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
 

Belmont University is about 1/2 mile from my house.  Actually my house is equidistant between Belmont and Vanderbilt Universities.  I read that Belmont U had applied to host the debates back in 2018.  It was chosen out of six finalists that included the University of Michigan and University of Notre Dame.  The Belmont mansion was built in 1853.  It later became Belmont University.  I had planned to visit the mansion on Belmont but now will have to wait.  When I can go back there I'll take more pictures and have a post on its history.  Belmont Mansion is shown on top left below.

Several days later it was time to drive back to Georgia to see if my ballot had arrived.  I left Nashville early last Wednesday October 28th.  It was raining during the whole trip.  Around the mountains the fog was so thick and rain so heavy that I could hardly see where I was driving.  I decided to follow a slow moving large fuel truck as it had numerous bright red tail lights; at time though I could hardly see them.  I followed it for at least a good hour, hoping it would not get off an exit to a small Tennessee hill town as I would have followed it there.  By the time I reached my usual traveler rest stop the fog had subsided somewhat.  I ate my lunch snack in the car as it was still raining. Behind the trees the lake looked sombre.

Reaching my house in Greater Atlanta by 3:00 pm I hurriedly unpacked the car so I could hasten to the post office.  Unfortunately my absentee ballot was not in my P. O. Box, still.  It had been mailed on September 18 and here we were October 28 or almost 6 weeks later, and it had not been delivered yet.  I drove then to the Voter Registration Office.  I had to fill an affidavit that I had not received my absentee ballot, and had to fill another authorization form to obtain an early voting ballot.  Then I could join the about 100 people waiting in line to vote.  Luckily in Georgia if you are an elder you can go to the front of the line ... so I did.  Finally I was able to vote after driving twice to Georgia, or 1000 miles.  I went home happy and ready to relax (not knowing that I would not ...)  The top photo is an earlier one from days ago when voters had to stand for hours, even in the parking lot. The bottom photo shows the way it was last Wednesday.

Wednesday evening I was looking forward to go and relax in bed with a good British mystery, which I did until midnight.  Then at about 4:00 am I was suddenly awaken by a loud noise.  I guess heavy branches were falling on the roof.  Debris was constantly hurled against the windows and walls.  The house was creaking and almost shaking.  But the worse was the wind.  It was not a wind but a violent storm unlike one I had ever heard.  It was howling as heard in some action films, with everything flying around. It lasted a good two hours, and it was frightful, indeed.  The next morning I had no television, no Wi-Fi or internet.  They came back on at 8:00 pm that evening.  Later I found out that Hurricane Zeta now a Post-tropical cyclone had crossed through Georgia with wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour for more than two hours along with sustained winds of 40 mph for five hours straight.  Below is a view of the weather program I never saw because I had no TV access.

Millions were without power.  Habersham County, north of us, had 498 down trees, 249 of them were on the roadways and the other 249 were embedded within power lines.  Marietta City had advised people not to drive, but since I had no television or internet I was unaware of this and did drive to Toyota to get my car serviced.  First I had to move large branches out of the driveway.  I was surprised to see few motorists.  The traffic lights were not working and the roads and sidewalks looked like they had been mulched with pine straw and leaves.  My Toyota associate told me that he had lost 8 large pine tres in his backyard.  His little street in his subdivision had lost 27 trees.  He was from Kansas and told me he had lived through many tornadoes there but never heard a wind as violent as this sub-tropical cyclone.  Three miles away, in Acworth, a man had been killed.  It seems I find myself often in Georgia when there is inclement and dangerous weather condition.

By the time my car was ready it was still a bit windy but the weather had improved considerably and the sunset was lovely.

It is still sunny and a bit cooler today but safer for kids to go trick or treating tonight.  It will not be a usual Halloween though with the coronavirus hovering over us.

This Halloween night will be lighted by a full moon, and a rare blue moon at that.  There has not been a full moon on Halloween night since 1944!

Now for the sake of cultural diversity, I offer below various spooky skeleton specimen from all walks of life.

10 year blog anniversary, its history and more

Ten years! A very long time when you are a child, but as a senior with a different perception of time, it seems the years went by quickly.  I have enjoyed writing for this blog and visiting my friends' blogs as well.  It has provided me with many hours of fun, creativity and gave me support during my late husband's long illness.  I am back in Georgia right now where spring is exploding with more color than in Tennessee, maybe because azaleas and dogwood trees thrive better here.  Some of the pictures below have already been shown in earlier posts.  The pink azalea bush on the top left of collage was taken yesterday in my backyard.  Click on collage to see better.

Now, let me explain how I started and kept this blog.  I owe the beginning of my blog to three persons, actually.  Ten years or so ago my husband's cousin Lyle who is a physician retired now from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta wrote some of his memoirs for the family.  He constantly urged me to write my remembrance of growing up in Paris so that my grandchildren would know about it.  I did not think my memoirs would be that interesting, certainly not like his memoirs.  When I talked to him on my last visit to Atlanta he gave me so much information on his career in the medical detection field that it would take a full post to explain it.  I'll have a post on him later as he is writing a biographical book and promised to give me an early copy.  He started his career as part of the first Peace Corps medical staff sent to Nigeria in the late 1960s.  He cared for patients during the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, from both sides of the conflict.  He became the staff physician for the Peace Corps in Africa at that time.  Then he pursued a long career as a public health hero at the CDC.  He traveled widely and constantly investigating disease outbreaks and finding ways to stop them, such as the Ebola virus.  He was deployed in many parts of the world and in the US as well.  Through a lifelong dedication to public health, Jim's cousin Lyle is certainly one of the main godfathers of epidemiology.  Below are some photos from Lyle's files.

As we were talking about writing my Paris remembrances then, I happened to read an article on the New York Times about Ronni Bennett, the owner of the popular blog on aging, Time Goes By
(Timegoesby.net, ) who was saying: "The Internet provides people with a new way to tell their story.  When the grandkids aren't interested in listening anymore, older people can still share their stories and get feedback.  The technology makes it simple."  I went to her blog and saw that one could send a story to her and be published.  I thought I could send her some of my recollections and did send her one about a first kiss which was published.  Later I included this story in my first anniversary post "First anniversary and recollection of a first kiss."  Concurrently my husband and I went to celebrate my birthday in Long Beach, California, where our daughter was living at the time.  I told her about writing some articles for Times Goes By.  She replied that only a few of my stories may be published and it would be better to start my own blog.  Of course I had no idea how to do that, but she did.  She helped me set up the blog after we found a title for it.  So I owe my blog to Ronni Bennett, the second person and to my eldest daughter, the third person.  I spent some time looking at photos I have taken during these last 10 years to include in this post.  (Click on collage twice to enlarge photos.) 

 I thought my blog would include more stories from my past in France, but then we found out that my husband Jim had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  This changed my blog.  I read everything I could find on Alzheimer's as I knew very little.  I found out that each person's disease is unique but that stimulation to the brain (reading, talking, socializing, traveling, etc.) as well as a healthy diet could slow down the disease.  I also realized that as my husband was losing his short-term memory he could, for a long time, remember events if he saw pictures of them.  I started to take many photos of the same subject, with different cameras, and then showing them to him, and asking him to decide which picture to publish.  It slowed down the posts, but I do believe that it helped him.  He patiently waited during our travels while I took picture after picture of buildings, flowers, animals, food and more so he could better recall them later (I did not tell him why I took so many.)  It would take a while for him to check them as he would have to study up to 300 pictures per post!  For stimulation I also asked him to read every paragraph I wrote, telling him to correct my English.

I remember as we would visit historic buildings, castles in Europe or mansions such as Bulloch Hall here in Roswell that has yearly Christmas and spring quilt shows, I took a great number of photos with both my Nikon and another little camera, my Sony or Cannon.  Then it was Jim's turn to decide which ones I should use.  I know it was a good tool for his brain stimulation.  Now of course, I need to go back and delete all these duplicate photos taking my computer memory.

I would spend hours figuring where we could go, far away or close by, so he would have many visual opportunities, and we would write posts on them.  I studied all the offers on the Internet for budget travels such as 2 for 1 price cruises - as those we took to Hawaii and Alaska.  I would also find out if there were any special events or festival close by, as you can see by the 3 top pictures in the collage above - a re-enactment week-end.  I have not had time to write posts on many of these trips and have enough pictures and material to write posts for the next 3 or 4 years, even if I don't step away from home!  Of course we took many photos of animals and visited several zoos to see them, in Atlanta, Columbus, OH, Houston, TX, Brooklyn NY, Paris, France, Memphis, TN, in Hawaii, West Palm Beach, FL, Tampa, FL, the kangaroo Center in North GA, and many other places (in addition to hundreds of cat and tree pictures.)  Or we saw them in the wild, such as the baby alligator in Florida, the lambs in a field in the Louisbourg National Historic Site, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, the reindeer in Norway Arctic Circle, and the bear below while in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

Birds were another favorite.  Toward the end of his illness my husband could not read anymore but he could look at bird books all afternoon as well as each cat in his one-cat-a-day calendar.  It was difficult now to choose which bird photos to include here.

Flowers of course with such an array of colors and shapes were always included in our series of photos and required critical inspection.  My home-made therapy for my husband's disease was quite time consuming.  The trips research, the photos, the posts and decision on photos did not leave much time to take care of the house.  I thought I would do it later - and am doing it now.

As my husband's illness progressed it was difficult for him to remember the beginning of sentences and we would have to read my post paragraphs 6, 7 or more times.  Then when he could not longer read it was the constant reappraisal of the photos.  I did try to be patient but at times it was not easy.  I knew that my blog was our therapy, so we kept at it - for almost ten years!  Even as late as early last year I would ask his opinion on my photos.

Even when we went to eat with family or friends or even to restaurants I took photos and included them in posts so he could remember the meals.  I don't think he realized that I used my blog to help his memory - he believed he was helping me write and select photos.

I am so used to taking many photos for my posts that I don't think I'll change now.  Looking at my photos and selecting some for this post has been a walk through his illness in a way.  It has been bittersweet.  I started my blog ten years ago on my birthday.  Now when my birthday comes around I'll always be reminded of the beginning and evolution of my blog, and what it has meant to my husband and me.  It has helped him, has been fulfilling for me and brought me new friends.  I am very grateful for their taking time to visit my posts and commenting.  I brought my cat Mitsouko with me to Georgia this time so she would not be lonely in Nashville now that her companion Cody is gone.  She had not been here in over one year but quickly jumped into their place by the window, looking out at nature and the sun.  I took a picture of her - my latest picture at the bottom of this collage (to be truthful, I took about 8... can't stop myself...)

Mitsouko, my little cat, is right.  Looking forward to the sun and keeping darkness behind is the way to go forward.  (Below photo of the beach at Dana Point, California, taken during our last trip in 2016 to our eldest daughter's wedding.)

 "Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you."  - Maori proverb