Visit to Maine

Friday, we got up and got going a bit earlier than usual, once again prepped the house to protect against frozen pipes, got packed up, and were off by 10am for a trip to  Maine to visit Jim and Mary. It was a beautiful, sunny day, seasonably cold. We took our usual route through Keene, Concord and Portsmouth, with a stop for lunch at Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery, ME. Bob's was as crowded as we've seen it! Then a quick stop at When Pigs Fly bread outlet - always a good stop - delicious bread samples - and on our way "down east" to Hope, ME but with a stopover in Brunswick at Bowdoin College where I knew I would find a copy of The New Interpreter's Bible. I'm preaching in Bellows Falls next Sunday and the lectionary reading is Numbers 21:4-9, which is a very interesting but somewhat bizarre passage, and I was curious to see what recent biblical scholarship in the NIB had to say about it. 
 

In the Library

 I found it and took photos of the pages I needed, to consult later, while Ellen checked out the fine Bowdoin College Art Museum. I could easily and enjoyably have spent several hours in the BC library but we needed to push on to Hope. It did leave me wishing we had a library like that in Brattleboro -  the closest one of that caliber is about an hour or so from home - Dartmouth to the north or Smith to the south.

We got to Jim and Mary's before supper and had a great chile Jim had made plus a strawberry rhubarb pie Mary made from   fruit from their garden (out of the freezer of course). We also heard the latest about the status of the house they are building in Owl 's Head. After supper Jim and I watched the Celtics play basketball on their new TV. Very HD! Very different from our TV at home which is over 40 years old and definitely not HD!

Post-prandial, pre-game scene in the Tolles kitchen in Hope. 

Saturday we had a leisurely morning and then went out to see the foundation of the new house in Owl 's Head, had lunch at Clan MacLaren's Cafe in Rockland (great sandwiches and always Celtic music in the background) and on to the Dowling Walsh art gallery (where Jim hopes to have his paintings displayed someday) and then to the Farnsworth Museum, a favorite. The last day of the Shaker exhibit, which we saw last summer but were happy to see again. The Farnsworth is always a treat. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed in special exhibits but I got a few where it is allowed. 

A cove near the site of Jim and Mary 's new house in Owl 's Head

               The new foundation 

        Ocean-view from the house site. 

               Rockland, ME street scene

Shipping in Down East Waters by Fitz Henry Lane 

      

Clock, c. 1810 (case-maker unknown)

The case has been decorated with candle smoke.

The Farnsworth Museum gift shop - Ellen is checking out the post cards.

After the museum I went to T.J. Maxx and J.C. Penney looking for gloves (no luck), we went to Goodwill industries (books) and Hannefords (halibut for supper), and back to Hope where we had a fine supper and then watched the UNC TarHeels play Duke, which was exciting the first half and about ten minutes into the second, and then became heartbreaking for Tarheels fans, ending in an 84-77 loss. Sigh!