Cell phone user.

Cell phone blusser.

When ya gonna wake up and see what your missin'

There's a world out there

Too bad that you're in prison.

Glance up now and then to see what 's comin' down.

You'll see more than that screen if you just look around.

The worlds goin' by like a beautiful prism

A spectrum of light, just waiting for your vision

Someday you'll wake up

Scales will fall from your eyes

Just Like Rip Van Winkle,

Your life 's been a pack of lies!

"Where have I been?"you'll say.

What have I missed?

Did I eat a poison apple?

For this I'm really pissed!

So hang up that phone kid

and take a look about.

There's color! There's life!

If you'll only just chill out.

Then one day when you're old

There'll be time for that ring tone.

And you'll have so much to tell

When you dial up that cell phone.

Today was my first day as a volunteer at the food co-op. It was fun. Mainly I filled bags with food and got orders together for people. We sold lettuce, broccoli, red potatoes, shell peas, organic blueberries, basil, New Zealand spinach, home made soap, gelato, (turtle is the favorite) and frozen organic meat. Also homemade preserves and cheeses. Met lots of very nice people.

10 Free St. A lot of work went into the landscaping. Edith is our designer. I chop roots out of the ground. It's a challenge. In the photo below, Inez, our normally fearless leader of the food co-op is hiding behind the carrots. She fears photos.The other women are customers. They're very healthy looking, wouldn't you say?

EARWIGS! They have a way of appearing when I least expect them. I took a tissue out of the box, wiped my nose, and an earwig popped out of the tissue and nearly went down my shirt. Did I jump! I've had a few hair raising moments like this. Do you think they have a plan ?

I've rigged up a clothesline in the shower. I also use a wooden drying rack. Since I usually do laundry about once a week, I figure I can save electricity by hanging it up. It's a little messy though.

Earwig wars- I think the little guys are out to get me.

Am I going overboard to save electricity? No shower until they're dry!

The more I meet beautiful friends, the more I like Machias. Had a wonderful afternoon, complete with wine and dinner, and lots of laughs. What would we do without friends?

Barbara, Diane & Gudren in Barbara's Bog Lake doll house.
Barbara's house at dusk. Bog Lake in the background

Unfortunately I'm not a good photographer. Bad Little falls is really a hidden natural beauty. People don't know it exists. It's hard to get close enough to get a good shot of it. I'll try again another day. Mike and Lucy are much more beautiful than my photo indicates too.

Bad Little Falls
Lucy, walking Mike

Swiss Chard- good enough to eat!

As I'm preparing swiss chard, I think of something so profound! (Haha) The swiss chard was beautiful when I bought it last Tuesday at the co-op. Now, as I get ready to cook it, five days later, I'm finding little black spots and things that need to be removed. This is the way of nature, of all things as that age. We too start out beautiful. As we age things happen. Muscles weaken, skin wrinkles and sags, we require surgery and makeup. Now you need to look harder to find the beauty. Look deeper.

I look at young people today and remark at their beauty. Too bad so few of them realize this gift. If they only knew they might take themselves less seriously. How upset they become when a love affair goes wrong! Youth and beauty make a world of possibilities. It's like the saying about getting too soon old and too late smart , or however it goes. But I do think that age makes us appreciate life more. Knowing that it won't last forever, and guess what? we're not immortal, is a powerful bit of knowledge. Then we can be thankful that we've reached this point as unscathed as we are. Occasionally,when I see or hear something that's beautiful I realize that I'm lucky to experience it, that there will be a time when this isn't possible. Enough profundity, for the moment. Back to the swiss chard.

Went to the Women on Weights class led by Rich Fabri this morning. I find it exhausting! This just tells me how much I need it. Later, I stopped at the cooperative extension office to get information about having the soil in our postage stamp front yard tested. They tell you to take several samples per acre. This is funny as I doubt we have an eighth of an acre. Anyway, we'll have it tested to see if we need lime or not. We get lots of compliments on our gardening. I have to admit it's looking good. So, Edith says we might as well have a good looking lawn too.

I'm going to take a new picture of the house. It's very cute, if I say so myself. New England-ish with it's white facade and green shutters.

We've been battling some sort of beetle which eats the lilies. They drive Charlie L(neighbor) nuts! He wants us to pick the critter off the plants and crush it. Edith out and out refused. She has the courage to say what she thinks. Anyway, I now realize they are destroying the lilies. Henna gave me Tansy, an herb that she grows. Steep it in boiling water and once it cools, it's sprayed on the plants. I think it's working! I sprayed it on the beetle and nothing happened, but once I got rid of all the beetles (I did crush them) no more came back. You can look it up on the Internet. There are long notes about tansy, which has been used for hundreds of years. People drink it and it also can be poisonous if you drink enough. Don't think I'll do that.

Hope this blog isn't too boring. My life at this point isn't very exciting. But it's OK. I'm not complaining. Had a swing dance lesson with Edith last night( with Cara and Mike, ), am doing cross word puzzles, am reading "Mr. Sammler's Planet" by Saul Bellow. Written about 1970. Interesting how ideas change. I won't bore you anymore. Need to do more hiking, but not now. I'll hang up now. Please RSVP, all you followers out there in cyberspace.

Camp on Bog Lake. Jamie, Lauraina and girls visiting. A beautiful sunset.

I think this could be an advertisement for the camp. Or for wine. Or, if we want to reach "Senior Citizens,' we could say there's prune juice in the glass. Prune juice cocktail. ( Pardon my awful, crude joke.) I was aiming for a little levity.

People don't seem to like the title of my blog. I think of myself as being in the final quarter of life and that isn't depressing to me, but since others see it that way, I'm willing to change it. All suggestions will be considered. Send them in!

This is an older photo of Ella. She probably had all her teeth then, but you can't tell.Had a "Skype" message from Fred while I was doing this.Ben and Ella were there too. I must say Skype is wonderful. Saw Ella's missing teeth. That's it for now.

Visited Mike last night for an "inservice" on Blogs. He helped me a lot. I didn't write anything down, as he said it's best to just do it over and over until I remember. So if this gets very boring, just ignore it. I need to practice.

Frances May was here for a week. We hiked at Quoddy Head and even in the fog it was beautiful. Fog brings a certain ocean chill to the air and the sound of the fog horn has a ghostly quality. We hiked to the area where there are unusual plants with explanations about the environment and how it effects them. Later we went to Campobello (FDR's summer home) and then found the Family Fish Restaurant(some name like that) and I ate a huge lobster. Luckily the waitress was very helpful as she had to crack it open for me. (She got a nice tip.) A powerful lobster! But delicious! Frances May had something that was more lady like to eat.

Quoddy Head Trail in the fog. July 2010
Frances May, my friend from Cincinnati, July, 2010

The girls-Nancy Judy, Barbara and Henna. Hen party at Judy's July, 2010. There is a small gaggle of women and we get together just for fun. It all started when Christina Jordan, who worked in a furniture store in Columbia met us there and got us together. We were all "away people." So it was very interesting to hear everyone's stories. We were also a loud, raucous group, as Christine had only one voice and that was LOUD. But that's part of what made it so much fun. There were no holds barred.

Sadly, Christina died last year in the Spring. It was an interesting death, if there is such a thing, as she choreographed it herself. She was alert and in control to the last. Be that as it may, our group continues to meet and hopefully to grow.

Had a "Skype" message from Fred while I was doing this.Ben and Ella were there too. I must say Skype is wonderful. Saw Ella's missing teeth. That's it for now.

Here is a Rap I wrote on the GreyHound on the way home.

June 26, 2010 Dog Day

Hot pink toe nails on dirty feet
Sound asleep on a greyhound seat.
Headed for adventure, headed for a job,
A place to meet a boyfriend or a new heart throb
Oh yeah.

Sky outside the window is a silvery grey
While leafy greens and scrubby pines salute the same throughway.
Cars shoot by heading out of the dawn
The hum of the hound is a never ending song.
Oh yeah

On my way to an unknown destination
Life's a trip, with unending fascination.
Fear the loneliness, bask in the high
One among millions, on my way through the rye
Oh yeah!

Alana and Aeriel, my two little first cousins once remove (Amy's daughters) who we met in Manhattan. Alana is studying art and has a summer job at the Museum of Natural History. Aeriel is studying at Julliard to be an opera singer.
A favorite cousin, Norma
Chicken feet in China Town
Well, Jessie came to my pad (ha ha ha) yesterday and tried to show me a few things on the computer and on the blog site. I'm realizing that whatever I write on a blog can be seen by other people. It's not exactly like a diary, is it. This makes me feel a little restrained. I'll have to be careful what I say, so that people will still talk to me.

I didn't tell you anything about our trip to NY City. I enjoyed it, maybe because heat (usually it was hot) doesn't seem to bother me that much. Actually it wasn't the kind of heat that knocks the wind out of you. Then too, you can always go inside where it's air conditioned or eat an ice cream bought from a street vendor.

Well it was a fun and funny trip. We took the Greyhound for a mere 12 hours, and you better think of that as funny if you can't think of it as fun. It can be quite entertaining, depending on who gets on. The funny part was when we all got off the bus (all being Cara, Alex, Jessie and me) and walked through Time Square with our rolling suitcases right to the Manhattan Club, my time share on 56th st and 7th Ave. Time square had an unbelievable mob scene. Half the world's population seemed to be there, and if you enjoy being with people of every stripe,(I'm sure some were striped) you'd like it. Once we got settled we went out for Falafel from one of the many street vendors. Even though it was close to midnight, there was a long line and we had to wait about 20 minutes. We ended up finding a different vendor who had no line but had delicious, deep fried Falafel on Pita bread. Jessie and Alex liked him and his food so much that they kept going back to him the next few evenings.

Well, I enjoy museums and sight seeing to an extent, but for me the best part is the people. And also the food. I can usually round up a relative or two when I'm in NYC, and this time around Norma Coblenz came in and took Cara and me to a terrific Dim Sum place in China Town, on Elizabeth street. That's where I accidentally ordered chicken feet. The server didn't understand my accent and I didn't understand hers, so I actually ate one, sucking on those tiny toe bones. One was all I could take. Norma said her sister loves them, and I remember as a kid Mom used to put them in the chicken soup and I was too naive to know I was not supposed to like them so I ate them and loved them! Actually, I thought the server had said "chicken fingers,"not chicken feet.

Since I realize I may someday have an audience for my blog, I think I'll end this here and not bore that person to death. I'm going to try and import a picture of the chicken feet. It's a nice one. Very professional if I say so myself.