Maine, good and bad

We drove to Maine this week as we have done every year for maybe forty falls?  We always go to NoonFarm to buy organic lamb.  We have grown to care about Jean Noon, who raises lambs, grows them to sheep for their wool and has some slaughtered for restaurants and for us.  She lost her husband two years ago and we a revery sad for her. 
She had three sons with him, raised the family with him out of poverty into the middle class, became an artist who shows and sells her sculpture – we have one of her simpler [and cheaper] pieces outside. 

We also hit the outlets in Kittery and in Freeport.  We stay in Freeport but most of our outlet shopping these days is in Kittery. I make a list and shop quickly.  I don’t impulse buy. I am an efficient shopper. Except for outlets, retail is mostly dead these days.                                                                                                                                   Woody had to replace his Android phone and went to the Verizon store, but they refused to transfer the data from the old phone to the new.  So there was no point going there.  He should just have ordered it on line and skipped the 2 hours travel and the waiting for somebody to wait on him.  It took him two days to manage to transfer his data. 

I was particularly glad to find a Sketchers outlet as I have trouble with their sizing if I try to order it. They ran a full size to a size and a half larger than any of my other shoes or slippers.  I also need to get a summer weight down comforter.  I didn’t actually know I wanted summer weight till I felt the various types of comforter in the store. I just knew I wanted a lighter one than my very old comforter.  I tried to buy lipstick at Bed, Bath andBeyond in Hyannis but they had only liquid lipstick and very few of those.  So I got two lipsticks in Kittery.

We always stay at the Harrasseeket Inn in Freeport.  The hotel was as comfortable, well furnished, and well run as always, but the breakfast – usually the best we have all year –was not nearly as good as usual.  We also had a terrible supper at the restaurant we’ve been going to our last two trips where the food used to be excellent. Now it sucks.  Obviously the restaurant has changed hands since the menu was different and so were the personnel. Next year, we’ll try a different supper place  We always have lunch on the way at Bob’s Clam Shack in Kittery, and that was great as always.

We are getting a reasonable number of vegetables now.  I think the plantskydd may have worked. We are getting a decent amount of tomatoes, finally.  We have never had so many pattypans as this year.  They started in June and they are still producing. The rabbits did not like them. They gnawed at one pumpkin and otherwise left them alone.  They ate most of our zucchini, but now we’re getting a few.  I finally was able to freeze a second bag of peppers for stuffing. We are getting a few Oriental eggplants. If a frost holds off, we might be able to freeze one more bag of peppers – I need about five unless they’re huge, which is unlikely this year.

I read a book of short stories by Nanna Kwame Adjei-Brenyahthis week.  They’re original and imaginative and moving.  He has a way of taking something in our society, our world and pushing it to an extreme so you can see how ugly it is –racist shootings, mall culture, entertainment ‘parks,’ our violence, the burocracy and indifference of hospitals.

It’s so sad with the foxes. We saw a sick and skinny fox with mange in the middle of the street in Wellfleet. They’re usually so beautiful and we have enjoyed having them around since the cats don’t go out

[because of the coywolves]

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