Category: Seguin Island News

Hello my friends, thanks for hanging in there all the way to the end.  I don’t imagine there are too many of you, but if you’re here, you are just a few minutes from the finish line.

Just looking to share a few highlights as we hung around in Maine for a few days before we began our journey back to Virginia.

We stayed at Diane and Dave’s in Southport Sunday night and Monday night. Sunday afternoon was spent looking at the wedding pictures from their son’s wedding in April.  Diane and I decided to work on getting my mom a small book of some key photos of the day.   Diane prepared a wonderful dinner for all of us (Lemon Shrimp Risotto) and it was a great way to relax and just take in the change of pace.  Later that evening, we also taught them the 10-dice game.

They showed us some of the improvements they just completed on the property this year.  Some new stairs from the house to the dock as well as new granite blocks along the water’s edge.  Looks wonderful and will surely last a long, long time. We closed out the evening with more 10-dice as we were all having fun, laughing and enjoying the unplanned time.

Tuesday morning, we got up and ate some breakfast before we headed out.  We headed back to Bath as I had an appointment with Shawn at Old Bones Tattoo and Steve was headed to the Subaru dealership for an oil change before we make our long trip home.  I made out better than Steve though as when they went to rotate the tires, a couple of the tires were down to the layer just above the belt!  We have our tires/oil change done at the dealership religiously at 6K miles and sometimes before if we were headed on a long trip.  We were not happy with having to purchase 4 new tires with only 27k on the ones that came on the car!!! There will be a few phone calls when we get home.

Moving on to my tattoo.  I have a couple of pictures here to share and then a picture after all the redness from the “shading” healed.  I’m very happy with it as the house / tower actually have a touch of whimsy, a little Dr. Suess-u-lar, which I love! It’s a little busy with all the freckles 🙂

Wednesday, the 7^th we left Maine heading to South Hadley, MA (near Springfield, MA) to meet up with Steve’s high school friends Tom and Jane.  Every time we come to MA or head up this way, we try to stop in and see them.  Above is the journey for today and to the right is crossing into New Hampshire.

Before we actually landed at their house, we stopped in at Nicks Nest.  Steve worked here when he was in High School.  It’s a little corner hot dog restaurant.  It’s still there and when you walk in, it’s definitely a step back in time.  Here is Steve ordering his hot dog followed by a picture of him and the new owner (he’s been the owner now for about 8 years).  It was fun listening to him share why he purchased the place and his efforts to maintain some of the original charm and equipment!  When you left, there was a chain / door pull the person behind the counter would use to open the door because the customer usually had handfuls of hotdogs!!! 

On to Tom & Janes.  We hung with Tom for a few hours before Jane came home from work just chatting about our adventure.  Jane joined us on the screened porch continuing the catch-up conversation about them, their lives and updates on their two daughters.  We headed out for a bite to eat – one more opportunity to not eat well and we went all in, but boy was it yummy.  No pictures as I don’t want to be reminded of what I ate!!!!

Thursday, we left MA, next stop, West Chester, PA at Steve’s cousin Cathy and her husband, Mike.  Again, we were supposed to stop here on the way up, but Steve’s Covid a few days before we left prevented that stop.  Well, here we are in the country side about 30 mins west of Philly.  Beautiful area.  We again went out a for a nice dinner so no one would have to be a chef tonight!  But I did take a picture at the restaurant.

The last travel day, we’re heading to Glen Allen, VA today! No picture of today’s route as we kept changing it due to traffic, etc. We took all sorts of back roads as we’ll drive way around just to avoid 95 and the DC area so it took a little longer than expected.  Here are a couple of pictures though as we drove through rural PA and parts of Amish country.  We arrived home about 5:00.

We unloaded the car, brought everything in and began the process of unpacking, going through mail and putting everything away.  Probably took us about 2 days before we didn’t have a pile of something that needed to be addressed.  Once you return from living in a smaller space, at least for me, I was feeling overwhelmed by all the stuff we have in the house!  We have already downsized once, but it has become apparent to me that downsizing needs to be an ongoing process!

Well, that’s it for the journey home.  I could keep writing, but it’s time to close this chapter.  Again, thanks to all of you who read the blog, it helped me to make sure I captured everything about Seguin so I could share with you and create a lifelong memory as I plan to turn the blog into a book!  And to all of you with whom our journeys crossed over the summer, may our friendships stand the test of time.  You all were a highlight of our adventure.  The memory of this summer will be with us for a lifetime. 

I found two quotes and they both spoke to me, so I share both!!!

May your Anchor be tight, your Cork be loose, your Rum be spiced and your Compass be true.        

May the dreams you hold dearest, be those which come true. And the kindness you spread, keep returning to you.

Carol and Steve Pietryk ([email protected])

Sunday, August 28^th – No pictures of the Cove this morning as we are in Topsham, ME.  Here are a few pictures from the Black Lantern B&B where we stayed.  Our breakfast was awesome, a delicious homemade meal as good as if you made it yourself! Judy and Tom were very accommodating with a few special requests we had!

After breakfast we went for a walk around historic Topsham and then across the bridge over the Androscoggin River towards Brunswick. We came to this very large building called the Cabot.  Looks like it was turned in an Antique Mall full of vendors and their wares.  We opted to not go in as our car was FULL to the brim with stuff! Also, during our walk, we noticed this interesting bug on a plant we walked by.  Even back on the mainland, it’s amazing what you can see if you just look! Walking back over the river we noticed the Salty Dog Brewery, a little too early for a beer!

Once back at the B&B, we packed up our gear, loaded up the leftover pizza and headed down to Portland.  We did a little grocery shopping at a Hannaford down there.  Oh my, it was huge! We were a little overwhelmed to say the least.  I noticed this same phenomenon when we were on our first caretaking gig in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  As you can imagine, not everything we have here is available in the islands and if you see a box of Triscuits then buy them as next week there may not be any.  This was also the case here, although not quite to the same extent.  We did most of our shopping at Shaw’s.  If they didn’t have a brand we were looking for or a product, you make do.  But when you return to your normal shopping store when you return home – I am astounded by the options provided to shoppers to the point where I get overwhelmed in the store as there are so many options! I digress!

We drove around a little and found a place for lunch, the “Miss Portland Diner.”  Lots of great reviews and it was packed.  Looks like they have added on another dining area as well as an outside eating space.  We didn’t have to wait long and really enjoyed our lunch!   Next we drove to the hotel where we are staying so we could bring our refrigerated food inside (we did have a small cooler with us), along with our stuff. We are staying in the Marriott Residence on Commercial St near the waterfront, stores and lots of eating choices for later.

Finally, it was time to head to the airport, about 10 minutes away to pick-up Gary and Therese.  The airport was much smaller than I expected.  I was thinking it would be like Richmond, which is not huge but it has two terminals.  Needless to say, picking them up was a breeze and they were waiting outside in the pick-up area as we pulled up!  Back to the hotel to bring in their gear and decide about food.  We had a few snacks in the room (which by the way, plug for Residence is that many of them have a good size refrigerator in the room) and some beverages.  We let them get settled and started looking for our dinner place.

A few years ago, we had come to Portland to see some folks we met in St. Thomas. After we spent a couple of nights at their home on Chebeague Island, we returned to the mainland and went to Boone’s Fish House. I thought we would try this for tonight’s dinner! We walked to the restaurant, only to find that almost 80% of the menu was lobsters and the prices were out of sight.  The four of us were planning lobsters while on the island so we decided to get a few apps and share.  Plus, we understand what the lobsterman are getting paid for their catch compared to what everyone is charging in the restaurants.  It’s highway robbery.

After our apps, we headed to Ria Ria an Irish pub.  We sat upstairs in the back restaurant area which was bright and didn’t look like an Irish pub compared to where we walked in.  However, it was perfect as we could hear each other (the downstairs pub was loud).  Again, we each chose some appetizers.  Here are some pictures of us just having a fun/silly time.

After here we headed back to the hotel, we sat in our room and shared the presentation we made last night.  I know they have seen a little bit of the blog but this was definitely a view into what the island is like.  Then it was time to head to bed as we needed to be back at the floating dock in Popham by 10:00.

Monday, August 29^th – We headed down to breakfast about 8:00.  They have a nice spread of options for breakfast.  Everything from eggs, sausage, to bagels, muffins, oatmeal, granola, cereals, yogurts and all sorts of toppings!  All yummy and again I didn’t have to cook!  Two days in a row! Besides meeting Ethan in Popham at 10:00, Steve’s cousin Mary Rose and husband Frank and my sister Diane and Angus (the dog) are headed our way from Five Islands with Cal & Katrina to spend the day with us.  Frank just retired and they are on a 7-week retirement tour in their truck/camper.  They live in Ohio and are covering all of New England and down to Pennsylvania before making their way home.

We have prepped all sorts of food, etc. to have a great celebration of just being together. We’ll just see if we have visitors – but it will all work out (it always does). Made it to the dock on time and ready to roll!

We made a big salad with all sorts of toppings, cooked a bunch of chicken on the grill for wraps and some cheese, cold cuts, condiments – making you hungry? This is the dining room with our buffet!

Here’s a normal and silly picture of all of us.

Sitting at the picnic table and Steve giving a tour to Frank and Mary Rose

While we ate at the picnic table, I shared my favorite toast.  “The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here, the reasons to be happy are all around us.”  You can copy that for your next family dinner – I came across in a magazine years ago and it’s the best!!!  Well, I guess all this fun has to end.  The clock has a way of ticking by.  Here is the Cal & Katrina crowd heading out.  You can see we have three boats behind them.  I see tours in our future!

By 3:00, the rest of the boats were all headed out, time for a splash in the ocean, at least for Gary & Therese! Ooooowee the water is still chilly.  I’ll walk into my calves but that’s it for me! 

We decided to walk out on the Cove trail, so we could wave goodbye to everyone.  While we were there, we saw a seal.  I texted Katrina, but she said it looked like it had a pretty good cut on one of its fins.  We walked a little closer and in my best “mom” voice I was encouraging the seal to make its way to water.  It was moving but having a tough time with one hurt flipper.  Luckily though, he finally made it and swam away – yay!  After we finished, we headed back to the welcome area and saw this spider web. You can see so many things if you slow down and take your time to look around.

The best picture of all is the next one.  Gary has been working on taking his time lapse photos and then overlays all the photos into one picture.  He set up his tripod and the timer for 2 hours tonight to take a picture of the tower, with the very tippity-top of it centered on the North Star.  Since we rotate about that axis, the stars should make a circle.  After taking the pictures, sorting through all of it, he decided 1 hour of time lapse was the best perspective and here is that photo.  One of us must have walked into the kitchen during his time lapse as the light shows it was on!  All it needed to do was be on for one snap and then it becomes part of the final image.  Very cool!

Tuesday, August 30^th – Another gorgeous day here on Seguin.  Here’s Gary and Steve taking a morning selfie to capture the view, then a walk down to the Cove to see whose there – just one boat, for now!

We sat on the front porch a bit as it’s interesting to watch the shadow of the house grow as the sun is setting.  The picture on the left is about 6:00 and the on the right is about 7:00.  We can tell the wind is still pretty stiff from the flag and how far the rope is away from the pole.  Another night where at sunset it’s too windy for the drone.   Still have tomorrow night though…..

After dinner we taught them the 10-dice game that Mary and Bryan had given us.  Everyone we have shown this to has enjoyed it because it’s simple with only a few rules.  Lot’s of walking, hiking and fun in the sun today but time to call it a night! 

We walked down to Cove.  Three out of four of us were determined to go in for a swim, cause how often do you get to go in the Atlantic Ocean off Seguin Island?  Not too many, so no time like the present! They all walked in then dove into the water.  Burr, even though the sun is out, the water is still like 62 degrees!  That’s pretty chilly!  We sat for a while on the rocks and enjoyed the sunshine, the view and being present, taking it all in.   In an effort to be present, I hadn’t taken any photos of them all in the water!  I remembered as we were walking up the steps from the beach to take one of the three of them.

We didn’t really get to chat much with them, how and why they are here etc. as Gary asked us, politely, to move over towards the side of the tower so we wouldn’t be in the picture.  Then he asked me if I could start the tour inside the museum – I said sure, that would work out fine as I can point to lots of pictures in there.  Then Steve headed inside too, to be out of the picture.  Director Gary had a vision of the view he wanted and we weren’t in it.  We didn’t give it a second thought as he only had this one shot to get sunset. 

I’m inside giving Daren and Amanda the tour, and Steve came in about 15  mins later and said we could come out now as Gary had taken the shots he wanted.

Well, la-de-da and guess what.  Maybe because of what I’m typing, your getting suspicious.  I didn’t give a second thought.  But this was all part of his master plan to propose to Therese!

Once I turned the corner by the tower, I could see the excitement on everyone’s faces.  Even Daren and Amanda were super excited!  It was amazing – everyone was surprised! In the picture below, if you look close, you can see Gary on the catwalk down on one knee (follow the grounding cable up to the catwalk). It was great Daren and Amanda were there as they took a picture of the four of us and then we had to take a picture of them!

Well, we were all a buzz and of course in hindsight, we should have thought something was up.  Gary had been planning this since before we arrived on Seguin.  They had been discussing getting engaged, but no specific timing.  As Gary would say, “Well how ‘bout that?”

We love Therese and are very excited to have her join our family!  Then of course we shared that we’d have to finish the tour tomorrow and had to go in and call all the peeps to let everyone know the good news.  She was able to FaceTime her parents and we called Steve’s mom.  Then Therese needed to reach out to all her girlfriends and let them know the exciting news.  We opted to not tell my Mom because we had planned for them to visit and see her tomorrow when they get to Woburn on their way to Boston, their destination for Thursday night. Their friends from San Diego are picking them up at my Mom’s house as the four of them have a wedding in Connecticut on Sunday!  If you haven’t experienced the power of the universe.  This was a prime example.  Gary had some tentative plans for the whole thing and it all played out perfectly.  The engagement, going to my Mom’s, spending the night there and then meeting their friends.  You just have to believe it will work out and it does!!!!

We got to the bus stop in Bath which is located at a particular store front on State Rd.  Here’s the very funny part though, oh my gosh I’m laugh every time I share it.  We’re at the stop and we have their luggage out and all together to make sure no one forgets anything, just standing there chatting.  10:10, 10:15, 10:20, 10:25, coming up on 10:30 and no bus.  So I jumped on my phone as I knew the train didn’t come as far north at Bath, but wondered where it started.  Turns out it started in Brunswick which is only 7 miles away.  If they missed the 11:00 train in Portland, they would have to wait 2 hours for the next one!  The train station was only 12 mins away and we had just about 30 mins before the 11 o’clock train.  We all agreed to throw the stuff back in the car and make a beeline to the train station in Brunswick.  Threw the suitcases in the back, we all got in with our stuff and back packs.  Steve backed out of the parking spot and when it was clear, pulled out onto the road. 

As we did, the two suitcases, 8 cans of diet coke and the 48 pkg box of Cheezits he got at the fundraiser all fell out of the back of the Subaru onto the road.  We forgot to close the hatch!!!  The soda cans were rolling everywhere and squirting soda, the luggage fell out but luckily didn’t open!  Fortunately, no one was right behind us and the cars coming in both directions, politely stopped and waited for us crazy people to run and pick up all the stuff.  We never laughed so hard and neither of us though to grab a quick photo!  Oh my, it was so funny!!!!! 

We all got back in the car and laughed the whole way to the train station.  Just another great story!!! 

And to boot, another friend of ours from Virginia, Caroline, is driving up this a.m. to come back out with us.  She was up in Rhode Island visiting her parents and REALLY wanted to come out and experience the island to see firsthand this amazing adventure we were having.  So, we did our errands, grabbed a quick lunch from Two Sisters Deli, which we split since we each had a good size breakfast but at the same time knew dinner wouldn’t be for a while.  Then we picked up a yummy kale tofu chickpea salad from the Bath Natural Market for Caroline.  We drove to the Marriott Residence in Bath and waited for Caroline.  She pulled in around 2.  I somehow missed her pulling in so we were both there for a bit before we found each other.  I hopped in her car, and drove us to Popham while she ate her lunch!

Once back in the Cove, first order of business was to help the volunteers with their stuff into the boat and then we loaded all our stuff and Carolines and made one trip to the shore.  Then up the stairs, regroup and up the trail.  I know I’ve type that so many times, but each time it’s different.  This time we were sharing with another close friend.  Her husband, Helmut, was bummed he wasn’t able to join us but he had just had knee surgery a few weeks ago and we decided the in/out of the dinghy and up the trail etc. would likely have been too much.   Next time Helmut!

Once we got everything up to the house and put the refrigerator stuff away, Caroline and I headed off on the North Trail.  She is only here till Saturday, so time is of the essence to show her everything! We captured some beautiful pictures of the sunset from out here as well as a picture facing due North.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen this view at high tide as there is like a pond in between some rocks.

I actually took a panoramic photo of the coastline when you reach the end of the Cove Trail.  We’ll see how it looks when I post it. Looks pretty good I’d say!

Then here I have facing due east for a gorgeous view looking at sunrise.  On the way back, I took another photo looking up past the Donkey Engine House up the tram.

Well, time to head back up to have breakfast with Caroline and to get ready for the day.  We didn’t have any visitors until around noontime today so that was a nice break.  It is Friday on Labor Day weekend.  Wonder how many visitors we’ll have today.  We went up the Tower and gave it a quick sweep to make sure she was looking ship shape for the holiday weekend.  As I start at the top, I noticed some more unique rainbows from the prisms. 

We had a couple of guys come up just after noon and they were excited to be on the island and really wanted a tour.  They asked all sorts of questions and were intrigued with the history I shared. It was lunch time and I figured if we didn’t eat something soon, we’d miss or window of opportunity.  

The other day, my sister Diane suggested we take a picture of the two of us, trying to replicate the “American Gothic” from our perspective.  It was perfect since Caroline was here, she could take the photos of us.  Here’s some funny pictures of that effort and once we started doing it, the three of us couldn’t stop laughing!

By sunset, I was feeling like I needed to take this opportunity to head up the Tower to take a few more pictures up there. 

And of course, can’t miss the sunsets!

Saturday, September 3^rd – Well, here we are our last full day.  I wonder how many visitors we’ll have.  I’ve noticed that the last few days that the flag was starting to fray along the edges.  I grabbed some red thread and Caroline and I started to stitch away.  Here are some photos of us diligently working to finish the task before someone comes up the trail!  We look like Betsy Ross and her sister Sarah tending to the flags.  We have a new flag, but I thought we can repair this one so it will last the rest of the season.

Business started to pick up.  We had a group of 4 from Portland, then a group from Christmas Cove (Julia, Callie, Henry, Bart, Melissa, Bridgett).  Julia was especially enjoying the tour.  When they left, she asked me several questions about what I did before the lighthouse, etc.  We chatted for quite some time.  She really loved the tour and told me she thought I did an excellent job in delivering all the historical information.  As she turned the corner to head down the trail, she yelled back to tell me that she was a speech consultant!  Well, I’ll take that as a compliment.

Before you know it, it was time for us to head down to the Cove as Cal and Katrina were on there way over to pick-up Caroline.  She needed to head back to RI as she had plans to have dinner tonight with her brother, Mother and Father. It was a quick visit but she was able to walk all the trails either with us or by herself. We went down to the Cove and previous visitors (Scott and Leah) were here again staying in the Cove and spending time on the beach looking for sea glass. Here they are searching for that special piece and Caroline leaving in the background.

Took a picture out the front porch at the flag with a unique splash of different clouds and a little while later one of the two of us as our last sunset was upon us as well as the Tower.

Our last sunset

The last sunset with Mount Washington

The last sunset reflection on the Tower

Here we are. Our last night.  I continue to work on reading the book a Short Bright Flash.  I came across a quote from Robert Lewis Stevenson whose Father, Thomas Stevenson, designed a holophotal lens, which would bend all of the available light into the central beams. Thomas Stevenson billed the idea as the ultimate perfection in lens design. The French replied that they had been working toward precisely that goal for years. This rebuff from the French was not the biggest disappointment of Thomas Stevenson’s career, a moment that came when his only son told him he wanted to be a writer instead of a lighthouse engineer. “You have rendered my whole life a failure, ” Robert Louis remembered his father yelling at him. Thomas had dragged the boy to the worksites on remote northern skerries in an effort to get him interested in lighthouses, but all that would come of it were vivid settings for the shipwreck scenes of his later novels. The family business lingered in his poetry as well, including an 1887 ode to the Skerryvore lighthouse:

...But there

Eternal granite hewn from the living isle

And dwelled with brute iron, rears a tower

That from its wet foundation to its crown

Of glittering glass, stands, in the sweep of winds,

Immovable, immortal, eminent.

(this is an extraction from a Short Bright Flash, by Theresa Levitt, Chapter, “Race to Perfection”)

Then walking back up the trail, one last view of Cobblestone from the Vista on the South Trail.

Had to take one last snap of the log book where we keep track of our numbers each day.  Looks like as of yesterday we’re over 1300 visitors!  That’s amazing!  I feel like it’s been a pretty productive season.

Things changed all of a sudden, we had group after group coming up.  We still needed to wrap up a few things and pack the cooler bag, etc.  It actually got a little crazy.  Finally, we had to share with the visitors that it was our last day and we had to stop the tours to finish packing.  I felt bad but no one seemed to mind except me. 

Next thing I knew, we were on the boat heading back to shore one last time.  But today, we rode in luxury! Joining us were Cyndy, Tom and his wife Katherine, Rick and the friendly Captain Jeff and his wife, Catherine.

We got back on “contiguous land” as a friend of mine likes to say.  Everyone helped us unload from the boat and Rick helped us load the car.  Then we left Popham for the last time heading to Boothbay Harbor to stay with Diane and Dave for a couple of nights.

I plan to write a short blog for our next couple of days (as I am getting a Seguin tattoo) and our journey home.  That’s my way of delaying just a couple of more days, that it’s over.

Once we finished there, back up top to get ready for some tours.  First group up a threesome from Cozy Harbor, Kelly + M? + Margaret and their dog Coral.  Coral was very well behaved during the tour I might add!  During their tour I took a pic of some more rainbows from the prisms.  Always an interesting perspective.

By mid- afternoon, the sky above was still “sky blue” but looking straight out you could see fog.  It was pretty unique looking! And just as it rolled in, it rolled on out. 

Next as we were walking along the barnacle line, I noticed lots of small mussels.  Colin and I began looking for some that might be large enough for Steve to actually use as bait!  I had a blue rubber glove in my pocket so we used that as our “container” to carry them back.  They were in areas that were deeper than the barnacles and mostly where it was shady. Then I just took a scenery shot of Colin.  I’m looking in a southerly direction on the western side of the island.

The picture on the right is of some cool rock formations.  Sometimes you’ll see these areas where it looks like the rock was flowing or moving at some point during its life.   They just look so unique; I hope you can see some of it in these pictures.  This next picture is a wide-angle view of another amazing rock which looked like it was about ready to fall on us and part of it was resting on another rock yet a portion was suspended over our heads.  I left this picture large so you get a sense of what I’m sharing.

Then we looked more towards the North and decided how far we wanted to follow the coast.  We picked an area and said lets go there and see what we see, then we’ll start to head back to where we descended from the trail and go back to the house.  During this part of the hike, we saw a seagull nest and noticed one egg off to the right that was unhatched (see the green arrow).  I’m guessing that one didn’t make it. At this point I took a picture of Colin facing Northeast, it just seemed appropriate for me to take a picture of him! 

From here we walked a little further north and noticed the change in the steepness of the island.  Here we figured was a good place to stop.  However, we noticed an area where the tide was raging in, it would fill up an inlet and then the water would race out as the wave receded.  I did take some videos, but the pictures didn’t do it justice as you need to hear the sound of the rushing water.  Maybe close your eyes and mentally picture the wave going back out to mix with the ocean!!!!  Then we thought we should take a picture of the two of us.  So, we put the phone against the water bottle, hit the timer button and Colin ran over to where I was standing.  That’s the picture on the right!

We reversed direction and headed back the way we came and then back up to the trail.  What a great hike.  I love those as you’ll never know what you see or find!

Back at the house we decided it was time to have some crab claws / legs out on the picnic table.  It was about 5:30 and Steve hadn’t had any visitors.  Here we are eating our crabs and check out the view behind them, you can’t see a thing!  By 6:00 the shore was hidden by the fog.

As I turned more towards the west, these clouds were our view! The weather out here is just amazing!

Well time to go in start working on dinner.  On the menu tonight was lamb burgers with sautéed bak choy, carrots and onions topped with sesame seeds and pickled cucumbers. Then Steve came out of the kitchen with a bowl.  I couldn’t quite figure out what he would be bringing out before the meal.  He said “Oh I cooked the mussels you brought back as an appetizer!”  Oh no – he misunderstood. We brought them back to be used as bait – he thought they were to eat. We all laughed!  We ate them, they were just like mussels!  The picture is of my plate as mine was minus the bun! 

Here are the pictures down in the Cove, very calm, but very foggy today. Steve taking him out….

A hug for Dad and a wave to me!

Then off they go into the fog- going, going and gone!

Well, we had a great time with him and great weather.  He got a real sense of what our summers been like!

My comfort is that by the time we return home to VA, Colin will have moved back in with us.  So, we get to look forward to having him around for a few months, which we both enjoy.  He and his roommate opted to end their lease as they are heading in different directions. His next clinical is very close to our house and the one after that will be in CA near Steve’s mom.  Ok back up to the top.

Around 4 o’clock, our next group came up.  It was Jeff from Sailing Ships Maine (https://sailingshipsmaine.org/ ) again with another group!  It was not a great day for sailing!  It was foggy and windy and the temperature was on the chilly side but they came up for a tour so a tour they’ll get!  At the beginning, you can read the crowd to see who is interested and who isn’t.  I take that on as a challenge to see if I can pull the group into what I’m sharing.  And I did that for this group!  By the time we were out on the catwalk, they were asking questions about the Tower, Steve and I, our adventure etc.  It was a great group and I really enjoyed giving them an top notch tour.

After that group, I went down to the Cove and met up with Steve and the roofers who were packing it all in.  Taking all their stuff out to AJ’s boat.  It was rainy, cold and raw.  Fortunately, a small power boat offered to help and bring some of their gear out to AJ’s boat instead of piling it all into the dinghy!  They made three trips and said they needed to head on their way back to the mainland as the weather was continuing to deteriorate. Took them about an hour.

We went back up top, got warm and made dinner.  No other pictures though!

So each day, I try to take pictures along the way, the groups of people, interesting notes about visitors, some of their names, weather, meals, etc.  For today.  That is all the pictures I had!!!  I didn’t have any notes and only had “8/23?” on my visitor list!  Oh well, guess that’s it for today. 😊 Although, we are headed to shore tomorrow, so I’m guessing we did some menu planning and I know that we were working diligently on our PowerPoint presentation for the fundraiser “SummerFest 9” on Saturday.

The focus for today is to get most of the food for the next week which includes a four-day visit from our oldest son Gary and his girlfriend Therese.  They are flying into Portland Sunday from Colorado Springs.  We’ll be going back in on Saturday too for the fund-raiser, so we’ll pick up a few refrigerated items then, but we’ll get the bulk of what we need today. 

This was the first time we have gone ashore where you literally couldn’t see 20 feet.  The water was calm and there wasn’t any wind but wow it was foggy.  We pulled into Popham and it was still very foggy.  Most of the time it would be foggy at the island, but clear on the mainland but not today.

Next up the trail was a family of four.  Dave and Morgan with their two children Garrett and Joslyn.  During our tour, we took some more rainbow pictures with the prisms as well as a picture with the rainbows going across Garrett and Joslyn and then, the Christmas card family picture in front of the Tower.  They enjoyed the tour – even the kids!

They headed up the trail with us to see the Tower, the museum, and of course have a tour!  Later in the afternoon, he brought us out to their boat for some snacks and beverages and to see the boat!  By the time we were done, it was getting to be dusk, so he brought us back to shore.  We headed back up the trail to have some dinner and check out the sunset!

We started to get a little nervous as he hadn’t replied to the text.  Just when the storm was overhead, we got a text saying he was on his way up.  He was drenched when he arrived at the house.  We took him in and offered him a beverage and some snacks.  Spent some time chatting with him and hearing about his adventures this summer.  Very interesting young man.   He slept in the house in his sleeping bag, but at least he was dry!

Saturday, August 27^th – Well later today we head to shore for a couple of days! We’ll go in late this afternoon, head to SummerFest in Georgetown and when that is over head to a B&B in Topsham for our overnight!  First time in three months!  So, we have things to pack and take with us.  But first we have a day where the clouds are breaking up after the storm – so we’ll see if we have any visitors, it is Saturday after all.

We spent morning packing and prepping for our soiree on shore, collecting our last few items and heading down to the Cove to meet Ethan around noon! Instead of taking us right in, he offered to take us around Seguin from the water side.  We have never seen all the island from this perspective and hence, have a bunch of pics of the island as well as a few of us (again, we don’t often have pictures of the two of us together).

I’ve written a little description of the pictures underneath the pic as there are a few!

We are coming around the eastern side of the island. Oooo – a picture of the two of us!

This is the only picture we have of Ethan where you can see his face! Southern most point looking North.

I love the reflection in Steve’s sunglasses! After we landed on shore, we stopped at Grab N’ Go to grab (no pun intended) a quick bite (chicken curry sandwich) that was fantastic! We needed a little nourishment before tonight.

Here are some pictures of SummerFest, outside listening to the band, my sister Diane and Dave you’ve heard about them several times, Sara from The Osprey in Georgetown (they were providing the pizza, salads, dessert and beverages).  All was super delicious!

The silent auction was held in the main hall of the Georgetown Community Center, the live auction was upstairs, and here’s Jodie (creator of our purchase) with our purchase of the seaglass window made with some glass from Seguin as well as other locations.  I can’t wait to find a place of honor to hang it when we arrive home!

The food (pizza) was delicious and there were many left over.  We gave our presentation which was divided into several areas: Work, Weather, Observations, Food, People and Closing remarks.  We shared many picture that described those categories and shared what we found to be the amazing highlights of our adventure.

After the auction we helped clean up, pack up etc. and then headed to our B&B for the night.

The Black Lantern B&B was in Topsham and you’ll see some pictures in the next blog.  Steve and I arrived about 9:00 and were greeted by Tom, one of the innkeepers.  Very welcoming, beautifully appointed room which had everything we could need.  We then went down and sat in one of the sitting rooms to just recap the day and enjoy a little night cap!

The Black Lantern B&B (https://blacklaternbandb.com/ )is located on 57 Elm Street, Topsham, ME 04086.  Judy and Tom Connelie have owned the Black Lantern B&B since 1997.  Initially at another location in Topsham they moved to their present waterfront location in 2005 and have tastefully renovated the circa 1860 home, adding bathrooms and restoring the original charm to the bedrooms and public spaces.  We are very excited to have someone cook us breakfast! Well, that’s all we have for this week.  Can’t believe we are winding down.

Carol’s closing remarks from the Keepers presentation:

My Observations

The keepers before us leave their spirit behind, yet we need to discover our own;

A single grass bends to the wind, the clouds bring reflection of the sun as it sets and the night is upon us;

The sky is somehow so vast, we feel alone yet it reminds us we are one.

Every day we get to feel and see the splendor of Seguin.

We see the sea, the sun, the clouds, it’s life and it touches us in a place we did not know existed.

Every day is different, every day we seek to behold its beauty

Whether it’s cold or warm, or still or breezy – its life is ever changing.

We know not what brings this beauty, yet it is captured uniquely by the eye of the beholder

Who stops for a few minutes to listen, observe and slowly exhale as we absorb it all.

The morning comes each day, with a promise to be different yet somehow still the same.

The rocks, the sea, the wildlife, the sounds will forever be etched in our minds and soul, labelled Seguin.

Next week is our last week on the island and it’s a doozy! I plan to write a brief blog about our journey home so I will have two more blogs – thanks for hanging in there!

Sunday, August 14th– Pretty day today, not much wind and roofers are still here working.  Our first guests up today are the group from the S/V Aurora 2 (the catamaran that came in late yesterday afternoon). They wanted a tour and I was ready to share what I know about the island and the Tower. It was great during the tour as I asked them to help me with my pronunciation of the lighthouse in southern France where they installed the first Fresnel (remember it’s French so it’s pronounced Fruh-nel) lens and the name of the company that made Seguin’s lens – Henry-LaPaute.  It was very helpful!  Then they stopped into the museum and gift shop and all the ladies bought some swag.  This is one of the most fun parts of the job, meeting people from all over and learning what brought them to Seguin. As I’ve mentioned before, we can’t always see boats as they are coming into the Cove, but if they head east up the coast, we can.  The picture on the right is them sailing away.

Today was an exceptional day in the Tower for rainbows created by the prisms.  Here’s a few shots of them including Larson, Ethan’s oldest son. He looks like his face has been painted!  They came to the island today with some friends for a day of fun and some lobsters down by the boat house.

Here’s two more shots.  My favorite one is the one on the right.  The reflection is as the light shone through the last step up to the upper inside catwalk. What has been interesting is to see how the prisms have changed over the season as the timing and location of the sun has moved.

This was probably one of our busiest days as we had 60+ guests today. Scott & Mary from yesterday came back up to walk some trails, a couple of peeps from Brunswick, 3 gentleman from Bath heading to Boothbay, a kayak group of 8, and FOSILS member Chris, wife Sarah and 2 friends! Just to name a few!  Here’s a pic of Steve up on the outside catwalk with some tour goers. Oh and hey check out the new roof!  Looking pretty good!

Well, it’s about 1:00 and we decided to walk down to the Cove to see what the situation looks like.  Here’s some pics of the Cove, Ethan and group enjoying the deck and the kids swimming!

Next, we had a group of 5 waiting for a tour, then a family on the catwalk and the youngest in his rainbow swim trunks with a prism rainbow!

Back to the house for dinner prep and to see what the sunset was going to look like.  It was beautiful, Mt Washington and the right mix of light and clouds.  Here are a couple of pictures over the span of 20 mins.  You always take more than you need but you never know how the sky will change and you have to grab them all! Then a couple come up the trail, he was Richard but I missed her name. She was an amateur photographer was coming up to photograph the sunsets.

Spent part of the day getting ready for our friends coming Thursday and Colin (our youngest son) is coming Friday.  We needed to go through our menu plan, check towels and sheets to make sure we’re all ready to roll.  Then I made a few calls and texts to catch up with a few peeps. Steve went down to weed whack around the tram trestle area down by the Cove.  That area gets shade so the grass continues to slowly grow in that area and then around the garden area near the house.

The afternoon picked up a little.  Although I didn’t take many pics.  We had a mom plus 4 young adults (aka not kids) and a group of 10 which included Andrew from MITA plus friends and family.

Our boat ride in was very smooth as there wasn’t much wind or swell.  It was approaching low tide but luckily, we still had enough water for Ethan to drop us off on the floating dock. We stopped again at Café Crema for my chai latte tea.  It’s yummy for sure, but a little too much caffeine for me. I keep a running “things to do on the computer” list so that when I get to the laundromat, I can be efficient with my computer work.  Well not this time!  After I left the laundromat, I realized that I was supposed to copy the blog text over to the website then I would just have the pictures left to load….. Oh well.  While I was there, Steve ran to Walmart to return an item and I gave him a few things to pick up there that would likely be cheaper than Shaw’s.  He also stopped at Plants Seafood (the fish store) and picked up some tuna and salmon – oooooweeee eatin’ good on the island this week!  After the laundromat, we headed to do our grocery shopping as we were meeting Cyndy for lunch in town.  Since we came in on Tuesday, I brought in items for her and she had some more things for the gift shop. But on the way, we decided to take a couple of pictures of this very cool old tree we go by every week on Lincoln St.  We looked it up on my phone and it was a Copper Beech.  Steve thinks it was at least 4 feet in diameter.  It is huge!!! Oh, and yes Amy had grabbed my shoes and socks last week, phew!

Arrived at Shaw’s and we needed to be crisp so we could leave plenty of time for lunch.  In the grocery store we noticed a few women in similar shirts with three VERY full grocery carts.  Turns out they were from a yacht and making the food run for a charter starting the next day. We met Cyndy for lunch at Bruno’s Wood Fire Pizza.  We all got some pizza.   We got the same pizza we did last time, but boy they are yummy!  It was fun to meet someone for lunch!  We also needed to swing by Garden Jacquelyn’s to pick up some veggies she had ready for us. Before we headed to her house though, I ran into the bookstore on the corner and picked up a little book for Ruth about “Living on an Island.”  It was very cute story and some of the parts were similar to living on Seguin.  Ruth was napping when we got there, but Jacquelyn said she would give it to her first thing…

When we came to the last turn, we decided to go straight on to Fort Baldwin Rd, which takes us by two homes and brings us to a little park that has some information about the original Fort we learned about at the Maine’s First Ship exhibit, Fort St George built in 1607.  The signage explaining about the Fort was is sad shape and difficult to read.  Here are two pictures – first one is of a memorial rock about “the Virginia”, Maine’s first ship, the second is looking back at Fort Popham from across the cove and the third one is beyond Fort Popham is Bay Point (actually part of Georgetown), which used to be a fishing village.

I noticed again that the temperature had dropped over 10 degrees during the drive from Bath to Popham! We arrived and Ethan was at the floating dock – yay!

We arrived at our Cove and there was a group leaving the island.  But we also noticed that the volunteers didn’t look like they were coming out with their gear.  Turns out they opted to stay until the roofers were finished for the day.  Some bad weather is coming in tomorrow which is why we went in today.

Well, that’s all the notes I have for today.

Wednesday, August 17^th – Rainy day and the wind is coming!  I have three things on my list today – blog, paint sign and finish up cleaning etc. for our friends Bryan and Mary arriving tomorrow and Colin on Friday. We had a light breakfast and made some lobster salad with some leftover lobster from Sunday’s lobster cook at the boat house.  I sat and picked through some of the bigger bodies, a skill my Dad taught me when I was a child.

As you can see in the pics above, there are pretty large swells at Cobblestone Beach and I’ve never seen surf like that at Seguin Ledges (the pic on the right).  I’ve finished my other tasks and decided to bring down to the Whistle House some leftover roofing wood and pull the nails out so it can be used for something else, that’s just the island way. Once something arrives on the island, it pretty much stays there!

As we turn the last corner, the Tower come back into view, it’s definitely a feeling of coming home.  We also noticed a large Coast Guard vessel, that appeared to be working on a navigational aid (not sure if it was a ‘nun’ or a ‘can’). We all sat on the porch to regroup a little and chat. 

Picture to the left is the view west and picture to right is view east around 6:00.  At least the clouds are breaking up and tomorrow looks like it will be a nice day.   Tonight’s dinner was chicken marsala with peas accompanied by roasted yellow and green squash (from our Seguin garden) along with some Vidalia onions.  Nothing like a toasty warm dinner when there is a nip in air.

When we finished dinner, Bryan and Mary had brought us a new dice game.  It’s called 10 dice!  It was pretty easy to learn, a few unique rules and it was lots of fun to play. In a nutshell, you roll 10 dice and decide, based on points, which dice to keep.  Some dice have a point value for one di, others you need three of the same di to score.  For example, one of the #1 di is worth 100 points, but you need three #2 dice which can score 200 points.  Anyway, we picked up most of the rules in a few minutes and we were off and running!  We played a few games before deciding to call it a night.  Everyone had been up early.

Here’s the Cove around 1:00 only a couple of boats.  I recognized one of them as Mike and Melissa’s, so I guess they haven’t left yet. Not sure who is in the blue boat.  Then here is a picture looking towards the NE, clouds and the view are so pretty and just like sunsets, every day is very different so you have to capture them all and check them out later!

Got down to the Cove and climbed up onto the rocks by the boat house so I could hold my sign!  As I was looking down to make sure I was on secure footing, I saw these little amoeba looking things that were jiggling in a little puddle by my feet.  I zoomed in and took a picture.  Not sure what type of bugs these are but in a few days there is going to be a ton of them! Yippee, the boat has arrived!

How fun is this!!!!  I’m am so psyched that his class schedule (he is in graduate school for his doctorate of Physical Therapy) allowed him to make the trip as well as he was up for the plane-bus-bus-automobile-boat trip to get here!  Cal & Katrina came up to hang out a bit with us before they headed back.  Then Steve gave Bryan and Colin a brief tour of the Tower.

Tonight is lobsters night, but we have learned to not have the meal ready when it’s sunset time!  That has happened to us so many times!  So this time we waited for a beautiful sunset then went in to cook.  Then all of a sudden, we noticed so many people coming up the trail and they all had cameras!!!  Steve talked to the lead guy and they had kayaked over and wanted to know if it was ok to camp!  They had reached out to check with Cyndy as well too.  Sure we said… Can’t believe I didn’t get a pic of all of them.  I think there was 6 or 7 of them.  Then another 3 came up to watch sunset, it was Bill and Yolanda (who have been here before during our watch) with their nephew!  Quite the crowd!

We played 10-dice again and taught Colin the game.  It’s great because you can play it with as many people as you want and it’s easy enough to pick up the rules your first game.  Thanks Mary and Bryan for a great gift!

Today, Bryan and Mary need to leave and begin their journey back to Virginia.  We walked down to the Cove to see them off.  We also noticed a 1^st year seagull over in the seaweed, pecking away at a crab.  Now you can tell how difficult it is to see them as they really do blend into the surrounding area.  Guess that is all part of their survival instincts and genetic make-up.  They won’t look like the white and gray seagulls we are used to seeing until they are 3!  Bryan and Mary climbed into the dinghy and waved goodbye.  They were very thankful for the invite to come experience this very cool island and Mary was especially helpful in taking care of their linens, etc.  They had hiked all the trails and maximized their stay.  Safe travels guys!

Today we had 30+ visitors over the course of the day, not crazy but a steady stream.  Colin joined in on one of my tours.  The group he joined had four kids.  It’s fun to see their eyes light up when they see all the rainbows from the sunlight reflecting through the prisms.  Here’s a couple of pics

The next group was the Connelly family with four generations that has been coming to Bay Point (an area near Popham Beach but in Georgetown), since 1921!  The pic on the left is the generations picture and on the right is the whole group that came out.  Again, they loved the tour and were very excited to have everyone on the island!

We decided to walk to the Cove to check out the moorings to see if we’d have enough time to walk from the Cove to Cobblestone Beach.  Only Cathy and Scott’s boat was in the Cove so off we went (Steve, Colin and me).

The following 8 pictures are from that walk.  It is a different walk every time as there is no set path.  You have to climb over rocks, etc. so the route is unique to that day.  It is an amazing geological experience as there are so many different rocks.  The tide was coming in so it was especially fun with the waves crashing on the rocks.  Colin (and his older brother Gary coming in a week) love to walk on the rocks and build cairns.  Check out the one Colin built plus we saw a few seals pop their heads up in the ocean too! Just before the end we noticed a quartz vein in the rock and finally we ended up back by the Donkey House.  A quick trip down to the Cove to take a dip in the Gulf of Maine to cool off.  Not me though, someone has to take the pictures!

See you next week! Keep checking back as I still have a couple more posts to go!

Before I start this Blog, I want to let you know that from here on in the Blog will be a little different.  As our time here on Seguin accelerates to the end, what I share will be different.  My style of writing takes time.  It’s not elaborate, but it is definitely me.  I will do my best to share me, but what’s really important to me from here on in is to maximize our experience, live in the moment and be present.  I’m sitting here typing this particular week on Saturday Aug 20^th.  It’s been a busy month already as we crossed the 1000 visitor mark.  Our son Colin arrived yesterday and is here for two full days.  In between meet and greets and tours, I will be spending as much time as possible with him and his experience on Seguin.  I know you are all saying, “Carol, I get it, go enjoy these last few weeks.”  But I don’t want to leave you behind.  Thank you 😊

Sunday, Aug 7th –   Well my notes already reflect this shifting tide.  I have only a few short notes!  It’s a beautiful day, wind out of the East to start.  Maybe that will blow the little biting flies away!  Only time will tell.  Time to do a little stretching.  The pic is my view while I stretch.  Check out that beautiful blue, blue sky!  The first visitors of the day were Lindsay and Jason and their very patient pug.  Given the day, we’ll likely be busy.

Our next tour was a group of 5 from Cozy Harbor.  They were Aaron, Nate, Emma, Kerry and John.  I’m not sure the order of the names matches the picture order as I haven’t paid much attention to that!  A lively and engaging group, some have been here before but not all.  Well time to run down to the Cove for something, but the way back up I see that blue sky above with the contrast of the tram trestles (or “bents” as they are sometimes called), the sky and the vegetation.  However, the real point of this picture was to share the terrain where MITA cleared!  Again, Kudo’s to the team of volunteers that spent their day helping to maintain this treasure – Seguin!

Cove is looking a little light for 11:21 on this great day, but that can change! Well here is our next group of four.  My notes don’t say where they are from, but look at those happy faces -they are happy to be here!

Monday, Aug 8th – Woke up to a very different day.  Absolutely NO wind!  We’ve never had that.  Steve went to check the Cove and no one.  Time to look around and get a few house tasks done.  I did some bed sheet inventory work labelling the closet where they are stored in the guest quarters.  Also took a look at all the towels as they sometimes move around and since we’ll have a busy month of friends and family, would like to be ready for them in advance of their arrival.   We also took the opportunity, since it was soooo hot with no wind, to pack up a duffle of cold weather clothes that we’ll not need anymore and bring them ashore this week. That means our time here is waning and I don’t want to think about that just yet!!!  I also started a new “starter” with my rye flour.  Not sure if I’ll make one here on the island, but the one in the fridge didn’t look so great! Then I prepped all the veggies for making Ratatouille later, made a cucumber salad, focaccia bread and more crackers.  Definitely a house day.  Steve spent most of the morning vacuuming around all the dust and mortar from all the roofing / banging, etc.  We decided it was a good time for some lunch. 

As we turned around to walk back, at one point due to the elevation changes, you could now see the tower.  Next to it there is a pine tree that I use to point North during my tours on the catwalk.  You can see that lonesome pine tree in the picture, but we were never able to find it as we continued to walk back in.  Guess it’s not that close to the actual trail.  And here’s our collection of blackberries we picked in less than 20 mins!

As I walked around the catwalk, cause I can, I noticed a boat leaving the Cove.  You could start to see the clouds breaking up a little too as I looked a little further towards the NW. 

Then we took a walk to the Cove to see if anyone else is there and took these pictures of the trail. Looks a lot different after all our visitors, compared to back in June.

Dean came up to the house around noontime and we invited him in for a cup of tea.  We sat and talked for a few hours about every topic under the sun!  It was fun having “company” in our home away from home.  It was like having one of the neighbors over.  We learned about his trip since he left us here back in July.  He is a very learned, well-spoken, well-read person with an amazing life.  He shared several very colorful stories!

We did our usual run around, only today Steve made a stop at the chiropractor – he had a little hitch in his giddy-up!  While he was off doing that I had the chance to check out the consignment shop on front street.  Been looking for a belt for some of my shorts.  No luck but did find a pair of shorts and a cute top.  It was fun to walk around, like I lived here! After groceries, we headed to the Marriott Residence right on Rte 1 as that is where we planned to meet Betty.  Right on que!  From there we went to Winnegance for lunch.  We always have good food and service there, but today they were running behind a little – not sure why.  We had enough time but felt a little pressure to snarf our food so we don’t keep Ethan waiting. I was riding with Betty and Steve was in our car.  After he dropped me off at the Residence, he went on to see Garden Jacquelyn – jackpot again!  But the real bonus in this weeks bag was a picture that Little Ruth drew for us.  It was a lighthouse, with a house and a man and a woman – how adorable.  We put it up on our fridge as soon as we got home!

When we got to Popham, it was low tide – rats!  We thought we would have to lower our stuff down by rope, but this time Ethan pulled up close to one of the ladders.  I handed bags to him as he was standing on his roof, then he handed to Steve.  That worked very well!  No rope and everything made it down in one piece!  The pictures above were from our ride in.  We got our dinghy and were able to bring all three of us and all of our stuff in one trip!  Once we landed and brought up all our stuff, we sat for a beverage on the front porch so we could give Betty her official welcome and orientation to the property.  And here is the pic of Little Ruth’s drawing she made especially for us!

We spread out all our produce on the kitchen table as I usually need to do a little inventory to make sure we know what we have.  This picture show’s some of Jacquelyn’s produce, some of ours from our garden and then the purchased stuff (like cherries and corn).  I love looking at all the yummy veggies!!!  Dinner was salmon with the ginger chutney, quinoa with roasted veggies on some greens with shaved parmesan, along with a few oven-roasted tomatoes!

Thursday, Aug 11th – A little cloudy, no real wind and low tide again.  Full moon is actually tonight.  Another snail making his way somewhere and check out a little branch with pine needles on it.  We don’t have any trees like that here, it must have come a long way!  So much goes on here, you just need to look for it!

We had a couple of visitors come up for a tour a Dad from Five Islands and the couple from Charlotte, NC.  Steve took Betty for a walk from Cobblestone to Cove.  When I was done with the tour, I walked down to the vista off the South Trail and took their picture. 

Then I walked down to the Cove to see if anything was happening there.  This way we can see what might be next.   Humm, another boat there, so probably another tour in my future. By the time I got back up top, I noticed our blue schooner coming back in.  Jeffrey the lead was here with co-lead Robin and their crew of 5 this time.  Robin was particularly enamored with the tour.  Turns out she is from Worcester, MA (near where Steve went to college). 

Here’s a pic of the Cove around 5:30. We’re heading back down to get our lobsters out of the “lobster car”, the cage thing that is tied to one of our moorings.  So we rowed out in the Cove.    We yelled over to the schooner to see if they wanted a couple of pics of the group from the water.  We thought that would be fun for them.  Betty did a photo bomb as I was starting to line up the photo – silly Betty!  Here’s the pics of the crew.

Then we rowed over to the Aloha (the last tour group we had).  They invited us aboard for snacks and a beverage.  Our lobster car was on the mooring they were on. Here’s a pic of the group again on the boat and then a side view of the boat. Very spacious!

We brought our lobsters up to house.  Dinner fresh steamed lobsters and cold broccoli salad is served!  Betty made blackberry crumble!  Holy cow was it good.  Should have taken a picture.  A pretty simple dessert which is always the best when you have fresh fruit.  Watch for a pic in future post as I’m sure I’ll make this dessert again or at least until the blackberries run out!

We all walk up from the Cove and get to see an infrequent sight – the sun is rising in the East and the full moon is setting off to the West.  Within about 10 minutes, we hear the helicopter coming to the island.  His first trip is to drop off his “guy-on-the-ground” person that will be talking to him during the operation as they drop off the new and pick up the old. I see an infrequent opportunity to catch a picture of the house and Tower with the sun coming up and it reflects off the vegetation and provides some additional Crayola colors in the foreground!

Here is the equipment being “let-go” from the helicopter and the first bag of old shingles being latched by the mechanism to be carried back to shore.  And so it begins.  Max load he can carry is 800 lbs. This process went on for a while.  Once a bag of new shingles were dropped, we pulled the bundles out, put them in the ‘sled’ and moved them to various locations around the house closer to where they will be used.

The picture on the left above is from the west side of the tower and boy did those rotor blades look close to the Tower!!!  I was getting nervous, but no one else seemed to be bothered.  Then I walked around the front of the house, like where you come up from the trail, and now as the picture on the right shows, he is not as close as I thought.  Phew!  Now I could breathe easier!

Next, I decided to go up in the Tower to see how it would look from there.  Just another view, only three more bags to go.  By 8:25 a.m. he was flying into the helipad to pick up his “guy-on-the-ground” and take him back with him.  He was done.  We had all the shingles distributed around the house.  Now the fun begins as the workers will begin the installation.  Oh and here’s Rick giving me a ride back in the ‘sled,’

From this point, I took two pictures from where I was standing.  The first one was looking back towards the shore (almost looking North) and the second one was looking almost  due South.  Really beautiful – such an expanse of just the ocean – gives you a true sense of our little island in a BIG ocean!

Well now that we’re all hot from walking and being in the sun, we stopped at the house and Steve and BE put on swimsuits and we headed to the Cove.  I didn’t bring a suit and going in up to my knees was plenty to help cool me off!

While they were jumping and splashing around, I continued to look at the beach and today I found two more little claws for my “tiniest claw” contest!

Tours for today started around noon, a little late for a Saturday.  First a group of three – Kent, Laurel and Anna.  Then Ian and Donna who were here back in late June. Two women, Tammy & Jill came up for a tour.  They were very intrigued by the Tower and very engaged in the tour – fun and easy going. Then Cal and Katrina pulled in with a group as Betty is going back with them when they all leave around 2:00.  While doing a tour for a group of 6 – I could see from the catwalk “Gratitude”, the boat Betty was on, heading to Popham – Bye Betty!  ☹

Another group of 6, new to the island! Steve did their tour (pic on right above is the group in the museum) while I grabbed a quick bite of lunch about 2:30.  Then I did another group of 6 – getting the picture that today was a busy day!!! I guess 6 is the popular number today! Then a group of 14 came up and we broke them up into two groups.  Below is a pic of the Mom’s and the kids!  Time to shift gears to a kid-friendly tour….Sometimes when I take a picture, I say I’m doing a normal picture first followed by a silly picture.  Thought I would use the silly picture of this group.    Next up was Scott and Mary who arrived about 5:00.  Well how about a tour!

At this point, the tours for the day seemed to be done so we walked down to the Cove.  As soon as we turned the corner at the top of the trail, we could see the mast – HOLY COW.  The boat was huge!  When we got down to the Cove, Scott and Mary were on the beach.  I said to Steve, it looked like the catamaran was unsure of the mooring they were on and we’re thinking of leaving.  However, our dinghy was out on a mooring because Roofer AJ had to buzz back to the mainland for something….. So Scott offered to take Steve out to the catamaran to let them know they could tie a stern line to the Coast Guard (CG) mooring to help keeping them from shifting towards the rocks.  They decided to stay, Scott began to bring Steve back to shore, then the ‘cat’ yelled out to ask if the guys could help him secure the stern line.  So back out Scott and Steve went to bring the line over to the CG mooring.  Then we saw another sailboat coming in and the only mooring available was the one with our lobster car on it (which is a little close to the rocks for some captains). So, for the third time, Scott took Steve out to our dinghy and to move it to the one with the lobster car so the boat coming in could take that mooring.  Just as they were about to tie it off, AJ came back into the Cove.  Phew! Scott and Steve didn’t even tie off the dinghy, they just handed it to AJ for him to use to come in. All of a sudden, such a flurry of activity!! The Captain of the S/V Aurora 2 (catamaran) was very appreciative of the help and offered a glass of wine to thank us.  We decided to head out and ultimately Scott and Mary came over to join us as well!  What a fun group!  They were a group of 4 – Vincent and Anne (from Philadelphia now but originally Paris, France), Amelie (from Montreal) and Carole (from Paris, France)!!! Of course, there was all the usual questions back and forth. Amazing hospitality, shared some snacks and some red and white wine.  Anne gave us a tour of the boat.  So here’s some pics of the boat, Steve and Scott coming in for the last time, the group, etc.

While we sat there the sun was setting and the clouds and sky became so beautiful. It was getting late, time to head back up.  We all said our goodnights.  They said they would be up in the morning for a tour! We’ll say our goodbyes then!  As we came up and turned the last corner, oh my – the sky was a blaze of color!  We have NEVER seen a sunset like this – it was spectacular!

Tonight’s dinner was Steve’s special meatloaf using ground chicken with quinoa and asparagus. All yummy!!  Trying a new method for cooking my crackers, here’s a pic of one big cracker and then when it’s done, I just punch my finger into it and they break into random sizes.  And to wrap it all up, the moonrise!

Well it’s certainly winding down. I’m posting this on 9/1. Thanks for hanging in there!. I’ll have a few more posts so stay tuned!

Next up was Joshua.  He used to run a charter service to Seguin.  His wife Jacquelyn and little Ruth, their daughter, accompanied him!  She was so cute and very excited to be on the island! As we chatted with them, he shared they have a garden and always have too much produce. They would love to share some of their harvest with us!  We exchanged contact information and suggested I text him on the day we are going ashore. He’ll let us know what is currently in abundance!  How great would that be?  Fresh organic produce! I’ll definitely share that part of our shore day!  Unfortunately, I gave them the tour and forgot to take a picture, but will take one when we get our produce.

Next up, Ethan, yes our lobsterman that brings us in, his wife Lindsay, Larson, Griffin and a young friend.  I gave them a kid-level tour and they all seemed to enjoy it.

Another nice couple, Scott and Leah, came up the hill.  We showed them the museum and they spent some time in there while I finished up my tour.  Steve chatted with them and gave them a tour.  They are another couple with whom we connected, so we exchanged contact information.  They have a very cool Down-easter type of boat.

Had a little break in the action, so Steve and I weeded the garden a little bit.  The zucchini and yellow squash are coming in along with the herb’s rosemary, oregano and basil!  We have lots of tomatoes now, but none are ripe yet! Not sure we’ll one will get ripe enough to eat before we leave!

Next to arrive was Diane & Dave (my sister and brother-in-law) and their dog Angus.  They sailed over from Southport and plan on spending the night in the Cove.  We are very excited to see them and have them visit us here on Seguin.  Even though they have been in Southport for many years, this was their first time on Seguin!  Like many others they have sailed past it several times.

They are also on a new boat and were very excited to share it with us.  We brought them ashore along with their dog Angus and had dinner together.   Dinner consisted of some appetizers, steak tips and salmon and roasted vegetables – delicious, plus some pecan pie and brownies for dessert.  We walked them back down to the Cove.  This was the first time we walked the main trail at night!  Yikes – we had flashlights but boy it was still very dark!  There were a few stars out, but no moon.  Diane has been anxious to come out here to see the night sky as it is a location with no real light pollution.  Since the lighthouse is currently not working (due to the solar panels taking a severe hit over the winter) Seguin offers an amazing spot for star gazing!  Steve rowed them out but unfortunately no bioluminescence tonight.

Don’t forget Rabbit, Rabbit – it’s the last day of the month!

In my quest to look down and observe, I found a periwinkle making his way across the beach in the Cove.  Not sure how long it has taken him to get this far, but it’s kind of cool to see his trail!  We had breakfast on the porch with smoked salmon, pesto, avocado, cream cheese + my homemade bread.  Three kids from Popham came up.  They chatted a bit and shared they have never been here.  Their dad’s boat was off catching some bait fish so they came ashore to look around.  Didn’t really have time for a tour.

Today the roofing crew will arrive to begin the process of providing the main house with a new roof.   First all the workers, their tools, food, camping gear, etc. will be brought ashore to stage the jobsite.  It’s a crew of 6 people.   Big picture – spend this week removing the old roof, spend next week installing the new one! 

Another group 4 plus Grandma walked up.  Very excited to be here and some have been here before.  Steve chatted with them and they were going to walk around a bit and check out a few trails. Everyone is always excited to be here, it doesn’t matter whether they were here last week, last year, twenty years ago or this is their first time.  Seguin has a reputation of being an island of all things beautiful and puts them in one spot!

Around 2:00, it was time for Diane and Dave to head back to the boat and sail back to Southport.  Steve brought them out in the dinghy and we watched as they pulled away from the mooring to begin their journey back home.

Next to come up the trail were Michael and Michelle from S/V Ibis.  We notice they were on the mooring next to Diane & Dave.  Instantly, we could tell there were a very friendly couple.  We talked with them quite a long time, gave them a tour and chatted about a couple of books.  They were interested in the book I am reading, “A Short Bright Flash – Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse” by Theresa Levitt.  Since my tour speaks in some detail about Augustin Fresnel, Michael shared the author and name of two other books I might enjoy reading – “Longitude – the True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solve the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time,” by Dava Sobel and a book call “Cod – A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World“ by Mark Kurlansky.  Both sounded very interesting.  They were staying the night, so we knew we’d talk to them again. They also mentioned they had a water maker on their boat and if we needed some more drinking water they are happy to “make” some!

We had a group of 9 show up, then another group of two guys and then the Grandma of the group of 4 came back with her family, but they had run out of time for a tour. Maybe next time!

Well last up was a couple Jorge & Fran from S/V Skalliwag. Within a couple of minutes of starting the conversation, it turns out he used to work for Dominion at North Anna (a power station in Virginia)!  How random is that!  We knew several people in common and in fact he made a post to his Facebook page sharing who the lightkeepers were on Seguin Island he was visiting in Maine.  It never ceases to amaze me where and when your circle overlaps another and there is something in common.  Jorge recently retired and they are sailing full time. Thought I took a pic of their setup, but it’s not in my photos. Their vessel was clearly set up for long distance sailing.

Tuesday, August 2nd – Pretty foggy this morning which translates to a great roofing day – no sun!  I made some Oatmeal Zucchini bread for the group and an extra pot of coffee.  Always feed the crew!  This is the front of the house showing the pile of used shingles so far. They pull them off and just throw onto the tarps. We walk around and sometimes help out by putting those that land on the lawn back on the tarp.

I have a unique question for all the crafters…. Below is a series of pictures of an item we have in the gift shop.  Someone made it, but none of us can figure out what it is for?  Any thoughts?  Comment on this blog post with your thoughts!!!

Later on, we took another walk down to the Cove and actually walked a little bit on the beach.  Steve was heading out to our lobster car to get some more crabs.  Me, I’m still in search of the smallest claw.  I have had a couple of other pictures, but this one looks the smallest.  Guess I need to put them all in a row.  I’m using my finger for scale so later on I can tell which is the tiniest! Also checked the Clivus and on the way back up took a jug of water and a scrub brush to clean several signs that had bird droppings on them!

Around 10, we saw a group come up and it turns out it was MITA (Maine Island Trail Association).  A group from their organization volunteers once a season to come by and help us attack some of the bigger clearing / weed whacking challenges.  A couple of them headed up under the tram, like they walked up the entire tram around the trestles and cleared the growth away from the wood.  HOLY COW!  They did an awesome job.  Since most other areas are very dry and the grass / weeds have not grown much, we gave them a couple other areas to clean up, like the edging.  So they edged the sidewalk, around the main house, and weed wacked the area by the cradles that held the diesel tanks which store diesel fuel for the fog Diaphones.  Another group of MITA workers went down to the area where the Coast Guard cleaned up the scrap metal pile near the Whistle House and cleared all the grass that had grown up and around the pile.  This allowed them to clear around what was once a foundation for another building here on Seguin.  The group was amazing!  They still had more time so then they helped fill helicopter bags of old shingles and condense some of the lesser filled bags.  They were all like energizer bunnies!  Thanks to Chris Wall and his team of workers!  Here are a bunch of pictures I took of them working and the areas they cleared!

Next group was John and Cindy (local folks) that brought two friends, Terry and Des who are from England.  A delightful group.  I gave them a tour which was well received. Then we had Brenda and Brian from North Reading, MA, then Linda and Jim from Phippsburg and another group of 4.  The picture above on the right is the group of 4 in the Tower with Steve.

After all those tours, I sat on the front porch and cleaned crabs.  Not sure yet what I’m going to do with the crab, maybe crab bisque this time.  Did I already make that?  Well for dinner we had swordfish and a zucchini stir fry – scrumptious!

Last is of course, sunset.  This was taken at 8:00 pm.  Yes, I know, it’s another one of Mount Washington!

We had another group of volunteers come in today from IDEXX (IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. is an American multinational corporation engaged in the development, manufacture, and distribution of products and services for the companion animal veterinary, livestock and poultry, water testing, and dairy markets. They are located in Westbrook, ME).  Their task was also to help load old shingles into the helicopter bags. Looks like the helicopter won’t be coming tomorrow, maybe Monday, stay tuned as that will be an exciting blog entry for sure!

Usual stuff for us in town, so I’m not going to bore you with a repeat of what we do every week!  Except one new thing, we had lunch at The Fountain.  It’s the place where Leeli and I had ice cream last week.  We decided to try their lunch!  We both had panini’s and guess who we ran into – Cyndy!  She was in ordering her lunch!  How fun to run into someone we know in town!

As we approached the Cove, there was a beautiful blue schooner coming in.  All hands-on deck tiding up the ship.  Also, there was a group heading in as well as our group assembling on the beach to come out to swap places.

Friday, Aug 5th – Day 5 of the roof project.  Good day to roof as it is cloudy and warm. Today, they are putting on the GRACE weather shield /underlayment. The flag was not moving at all, that never happens. Brooke from the second schooner came up early for a tour.  She said the rest of group was not embracing the opportunity.  So, I gave her a tour, she knew the rest of the group would regret not having participated.

I went up into the tower to take a few photos of some items I keep meaning to capture on film.  While up there, I checked the rubber door seal on the door that leads to the outside as Steve noticed it was loose in a few spots.  Steve and I grabbed some nails to reattach where we could.  Some places the wood has rotted out. Let’s see what I have for pictures.  First, I took some of the stairs.  Here are two pictures, the left one is from the deck at 28 steps looking down and the second picture was from the 38-step deck looking all the way down.  These stairs were designed and built by Ira Winn of Portland.  He was well known for his iron work.  They were built there and assembled here.  Unfortunately, about 10 years after the install, the facility in Portland had a fire and all his designs were lost in the blaze.  So, it’s likely these stairs are “limited edition.”

Next two pictures are some whipping that was done by Hank Lipain.  He was in the Coast Guard in the 1970’s.  He served on Seguin 1976-1977. He loved to do this type of work and was very good at it.  Some of his co-workers tried to convince him it was a waste of time.  They also told him that when they were re-assigned, the next “coasties” would likely rip it so he would have wasted all that time.  He continued to do his work as it was a great way to pass the time.  Last summer, Hank came to visit Seguin for the first time since he left here in the 70’s.  He was in his early 70’s.  He came up the last 10 stairs and saw that all his hard work was still there and in great shape.  He was very touched that it was still there! How great is that!  The design on the top railing in the left pictures is called “coxcomb.” He indicated that he would like to return next summer with his grandkids to show them it’s still here.  I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Things slowed a little bit and there was absolutely no wind.  Lots of fly’s today, they are little, biting and annoying. We learned from a guest that this is typical when we have a North or Northeast wind as it brings them out from the mainland.  They really like legs that have had salt water on them!  Then a really large yacht went by, so I had to grab a photo of it. You can tell it was big by the size of their “dinghy.”

Since I was in the tower, I figured it would be a good time to take a couple of photos of the roof progress, the gift shop side (to the left), then our kitchen side.  Can’t wait to see what the new shingles look like.

I walked around the front of the house to capture the roof from that perspective as well. I didn’t want the front roof to feel left out! And of course, the dinner photo.  That’s BBQ chicken for our protein.

Deb and Tom from S/V New Life came back up this morning. She gave me a bag of apples to thank me for yesterday.  She asked if we had any knowledge on the engraving on the rock part way up the main trail. We asked, “what engraving, what rock?” We had never noticed the rock. It’s tucked back a little and usually in the shadows. It says “J. Gould 1859.” We are not sure who he/she is but have a text in to our historian, Chris to see what he has to say. We found a J. Gould that was master of a boat “Nancy” where he and the first keeper John Polereczky engaged in cod fishery in 1798.  However, the years don’t line up.  I had to give some other folks a tour and felt bad I didn’t actually get to say goodbye to Deb. She’s an amazing woman.

Then there was Lindsay and Jason + their pug dog.  I took them on a tour while the dog waited patiently at the bottom.  Younger couple but very engaged in the tour. 

I forget who was in the power boat, but here they are leaving.  Steve then remembered there was a race out of Portland that was going on all weekend up to Seguin, and around the can on the south side of Seguin.  I ran out to the concrete deck south of the Fog Signal building (aka Whistle House) and there they are.  All had made the turn around the can except one.  I think one of them initiated the fog signal, so I kept running out in between blasts to try and get a pic 😊

Here is sunset for Saturday night, the close of this week’s blog.  Be well, be present and show kindness each day!

Love sunsets? Make sure you come back to read the next blog. The sunset photos we took on Aug 13th, next Saturday are UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Sunday, July 24th – Good morning! Can’t believe we are starting the last week of July.  I have said to Steve a few times, I don’t want to hear – “Well we only have “x” number of weeks left or “x” number of trips ashore.”  I’m not ready – so I put my fingers in my ears and say “watermelon, watermelon, watermelon.”  Then he catches on.  It’s just too soon to start any kind of countdown. I know it’s coming, faster than I want.

Let’s see what my notes have to say.  Might be a good day for a history lesson too!  Our overnight guests, Molly and her two grandchildren are leaving today.  She said they all had a wonderful time and everyone left a note in our guest book, even the kids.  She was also kind enough to sing praises to Cyndy about us.  Again, that’s just how we roll!  Today’s weather was pretty windy and it lasted most of the day.   Our engagement couple Ben & Lauren popped back up again to say thank you for all the pics we took, then it was time for them to head on their way. Don, Pam and Mike came up again, this time for a tour.  They enjoyed a private tour even though we had 17 guests today!  A couple of them had been here before.

So, it appears next up on the list is info on the current lighthouse which I commonly refer to as the Tower.   The pictures below are from the museum and show some structural drawings of the cross section view of the Tower as well as the house structure. Crazy to think they went out to bid for projects like this back in the 1850’s.

Here are some facts:

• In 1853 they decided to make Seguin a First Order Station.  That means it would use a 1^st order Fresnel lens, which is approximately 6 feet in diameter and a little over 9 feet tall.
• In 1855 they allocated $35,000 to build both the tower and the house.  The centerline of the lens is 53 ft about the ground making the total height 238 ft give or take a foot or two, this makes it Maines highest lighthouse. 
• The Tower and the house were completed in 1857 and both still stand today, 165 years later, looking much as it did back then.  There are a few minor changes to the house.
• When the 1^st order Fresnel lens was installed, it used a single lamp consisting of reservoir holding 10 gallons of kerosene oil. 
• The lens consists of somewhere between 242 and 284 pieces of glass and weighs in the vicinity of 12,000 lbs.
• It’s a very impressive passive piece of technology.
• The lens was fabricated in the Henry- Lepaute (Henri-lapaut) facility in Paris and was then shipped to the U.S.  Here’s today’s quiz question – any thoughts on what packing material was used to protect the lenses during shipping????  Here are two clues:  It is a food item and is somewhat liquid…  This is where I start to hum the Jeopardy jingle!!!! (Answer will be later on in the blog!)

Here’s a picture looking towards the Northeast and you can see the unsettled weather.  Also in the pictures is a fog bell and additional fog signaling technology called diaphones.   And a closer picture of the fog bell.  Let’s learn a little about fog signal technology here on Seguin. Information on Seguin’s Island fog signals is a little sketchy. 

• Although the date is not known, the first fog signal used on Seguin was a bell, rung by hand! Whenever a ship passing in the fog would signal, the keeper would signal back.  Many sailors complained that they could not hear the bell when a sea was running, crashing against the island and its ledges. 
• The fog bell grew in size from the time the first bell was installed until 1872 when the bell was replaced with a fog whistle.  Bells ranged in size from hand bells to those up to 4,000 lbs. in weight!  The story goes that if you wanted to make an extra $100 a year, you could volunteer to “bang” the bell!  Yikes, I’d volunteer for just about anything but not that!
• September 5, 1872, the American Sentinel reported “The Lighthouse Board gives noticed that the steam fog whistle has been established on Seguin Island.  During thick or foggy weather, the signal will be sounded at intervals of 52 seconds, the length of each blast being 8 seconds. The machinery is placed in a small wooden building about eight yards to the SW of the lighthouse and 149 feet above sea level.”
• In 1907 the operation of the fog signal required 60 pounds of steam pressure and used 90 gallons of water and 150 pounds of hard coal per hour!
• In the latter part of the 1920’s, the steam fog whistle was replaced by a compressed air diaphone horn.  The diaphone fog signal is the old familiar “Beeee Oooooh” sound.  (That is the sound I’m most familiar with when as a child I heard the fog horn at Nubble Light – aka Cape Neddick, in York, Maine).

Given the weather we didn’t think we’d have many visitors today. We thought it would be fun to make a video of Steve playing the Lightkeepers Waltz. I think he has done a fantastic job with this piece. So we went into the Tower and played around with make a video. We did it about 5 times and agreed on one! It’s been posted to YouTube so if you’d like to view / hear it – this is the link! He’s got 70 views already! ( Steve’s Lightkeepers Waltz July 25, 2022)

Next was to do some clean-up whipper snipping of the Cobblestone, Cove and Main trails, then under the tram, around the Clivus.  It certainly doesn’t take as long as you are basically cleaning up the edges and the center is well packed from all our visitors.  Steve took this picture of the waves at Cobblestone.  I find it very invigorating to be on the rocks with the waves and the wind.  I have always loved being near the sea when she is exhibiting her massive strength…..

Spent part of the afternoon working on the blog, then more blog and more blog.  I know what you’re saying – Carol you spend so much time on the blog, I hope you’re not missing the experience of the island.  Well, as I type this up on Aug 5^th, I’m starting to feel a little sentimental and want to make sure I fill every part of my being with Seguin.  I think that is because as the clock continues to tick with the same regularity as it always has, I’m making an effort to ensure I take it all in.  Oops, there she goes again digressing.

We could see a storm approaching so we went up in the tower to watch but it seemed to skirt us.  We got a very brief shower.  I’ve been wanting to get to the South Trail when it’s low tide.  Steve took his snips and I joined him to walk the trail.  However, from just the little shower we had, the rocks were very slippery.  He slipped a couple of times, which set off the “danger Will Robinson” alarm! We decided it was best to turn around.  We are cautious when walking here as neither one of us wants to hurt ourselves.

As we came back to the house, the clouds were pretty crazy all around us.  Here’s a few pictures of them about an hour and half apart.

We walked down to the Cove and decided to row out and get some more crabs.  Ethan has been very generous with them so we have a lot! We pulled out a bunch and Steve cooked them up.  While he was doing that, I headed to the Whistle House to actually make a post to the website (the Whistle House is where I connect to the internet).  You’ve heard that story before – lol!   Dinner tonight was swordfish, tots and asparagus.  Around 8:00 or so, the sky’s started to clear a little and the clouds parted for another beautiful sunset.

Back down to the Whistle House to work more on the blog and make a few phone calls.

Our first visitors today were Don & Sandy from Boothbay Harbor and their son Craig and wife Colleen.  They are here for a brief walk around to plan a treasure hunt for 3 of their grandchildren next week.  They hide things on the island and have a little treasure map!  How fun is that! Unfortunately, Don broke an oar on his way in, so we let him borrow one for the row back out to the boat.

Next group was fun, Arthur Osgood and family here from Sebasco.  He was active Coast Guard 1968-1972 and was involved with working on lighthouses up and down the Maine coast! He was loving the tour!  He actually educated me on a few things and I learned about the “mogul bi-pole.”  This is a device that held different light bulbs (incandescent and halogen, both 1000 watts).  It was wired such that if a filament went out or something went wrong with the bulb, it would detect the change in voltage, set off a relay that would rotate out the bad bulb and rotate in a good bulb into place to keep the light on!  How cool is that! I love learning new things about the Lighthouse and its operation from my visitors!  Here’s a couple of pictures of Arthur in the Coast Guard room of the museum and him sporting is swag!

Arthur then asked if he could see the area where he worked which was down in the whistle house as he was the person that worked on some of the high voltage connections for the shore power line. By then, two other gents (Paul and Dave) had come up the trail, overheard some of the discussion and decided they would love to see that area in the Whistle House as well.  So Steve headed off with them. Unfortunately, we forgot to get a few snaps of that part of the visit.

We had a long chat with Paul and Dave as it was later in the day and we figured no one else was coming up.  We talked about so many things.  Paul has built several small boats and paddled in several locations around New England.  He has one more trek to complete and he will have paddled around New England!  There is a name for the loop, but I didn’t catch it. I was in absolute awe listening to his story.  He also shared about his children and was especially proud of his daughter.  She works at Mass General in Neuro PT.  So of course, we chatted about Colin, his journey so far and the range of opportunities in PT these days beside our traditional thinking which is usually Orthopedic.  Dave was trying to orchestrate transportation from Portland to Boston for the next day.  Not an easy task as cell service on the island is not the best!

We started to get a few things together for our shore day tomorrow, prep dinner which was pork tenderloin and I headed off to the Whistle House to finish fixing my picture issue!  Which I did thankfully!  Yikes that was a curve ball for sure!

Here’s one of my favorite pictures as I was walking back up to the house a little after 9:00 pm.  Isn’t it beautiful?

When we got to the transfer station, I noticed that the “free” section was just about empty.  I’m not sure how often they empty it out and move it all to the trash side….. so much stuff, so much waste.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find three items in the free section.  A Black Dog brand bandana for Gracie, a box of Monet note cards (I can always use those) and jackpot – a Baggallini back pack / purse!  It’s an eggplant color with a beautiful lime greenish color on the inside.  I’m stoked!

Next stop, fire station to drop off returnable bottles and cans, then off to Café Creme!  We drove down the little hill to City Park to drink our beverages and have our blueberry scones.  It was delightful to just sit and enjoy the scenery and our own little breakfast.

Off to groceries, Swango (local produce), fish store, etc.  We got all our stuff and then some.  While at Swango, he was throwing out these weird looking things and we asked what they were – Garlic scapes!  I’ve seen those at the farmer’s market.  He said they were going to give them to the pigs….. So, he gave us and the lady behind us a bunch.  Both the owner and a customer said they are good, sauté them up, little balsamic vinegar on top…. We took some and figured we’d give them a try.  Then I had about 20 mins so I went to the tattoo place to chat some more with Shawn about setting a date as well as more discussion on the actual tattoo!  I’m very excited!  After that I walked up to Mae’s Café to meet my Maine friend Leeli for lunch!  As I went to walk in, I ran into some folks that had come out to the island for a tour!  I recognized them – how crazy is it that I’m recognizing people on the street after being here for 2 months.  I went in and Leeli had a table for us already. We had a most delightful lunch!  We shared lots of stories and got a chance to get to know each other a little better.  She is a very funny, sweet, generous person.  Then we still had a little time so we decided to have ice cream at Fountain on Front Street.  As we walked to her car, we walked by our car.  Then we found Steve and he joined us for ice cream!  Leeli had Georgia Peach and I had Vanilla with Brownie Bites and Caramel. Is your mouth watering yet – OMG it was soooooo yummy!  I’ve had a hankering for ice cream and they had so many flavors, now I need to go back!  And guess what I forgot to do?  Take PICTURES!!!  Well, I’m meeting her again for lunch on the 24^th of August so I will definitely take a photo then!

Alrighty time to head back to Popham.  As we left Bath, temp in the car read 87, by the time we got to the dock it was 75!!!! Popham is only 10 miles from Bath! Gotta love the ocean. We met up with Ethan who hit the mother load today, about 700# of lobster!  That’s great except, they keep lowering the price they are paying them for the lobster, but are charging the consumer the same amount!  They don’t really have any recourse.

Dinner tonight was haddock and garlic scapes fried rice which was delicious!  When you put the cold rice in with all the vegetables and egg, you stir it then press it into the pan.  Let it go for a bit, then flip it all around, press into the pan and that is how the rice becomes “fried.” It was really good, definitely being added to the recipe roster!  Rick, this dinner pic for you! Check out how good our basil is doing now that we moved it to a new location that enjoys some shade during the early morning.

Here is a pic of the house / tower.  Taking a few of these from this angle to help Shawn with the tattoo. I like the perspective that includes the door to the Tower. Oh and also another unique sunset!

Tonight’s entertainment was an episode of Virgin River.  Season 4 came out a few weeks ago.

I did my Clivus duties and boy the barn swallows were flying crazy around the area and right in front of the door.  It was like they wanted to come in! Headed back up the trail for breakfast.  Took a quick look at the weather today and could be windy and rainy this afternoon.  We’d love a good thunderstorm!  We see a lot of thunderheads near shore, but we’re so much cooler out here, not sure we’ll get any.

I made up a tray for breakfast, toasted homemade rosemary bread, avocado, peppadews, Kalamata olives, cream cheese, cucumbers, some greens, some pesto and some SMAK (the spicy stuff in the bottle).  Oh, almost forgot the smoked trout!! It was delicious – now you see it, now you don’t!

First up the trail this morning was Rob and Sarah, they have come here several times and have a Leopard 39 catamaran.  We talked with them at length.  They are both captains and she has done a lot of sailing and has helped people sail their boats from one place to another.  Boy did she have a few stories.  We were very interested in hearing what they had to say about boats, chartering, being crew etc.  They invited us to come by later on in the day to see their boat (you’ll see those pics a little further down).

Next up was Natalya and Mariana and their dog. They had never been here before and enjoyed learning about Seguin.  Lots of questions which was fun. Then a group of 3 – Craig, Wendy and Olivia.  Give them a tour.  They were easy going, friendly and really enjoyed the tour. Here they are in the gift shop. Many people say they have been here several times, but by far my tour was the best!

Next pic is Steve wanted to cover up the scrap metal pile the Coast Guard made down by where you come up from the beach (I mentioned it in yesterday’s write-up).  Anyway, we thought it looked a little cleaner if it was covered with a tarp vs looking at all the pieces, etc. just piled up by the tram.

I noticed my phone had a call a little while ago, which I screened (Google phones will screen a call from someone not in your contacts).  Turns out it’s a guy named Dan Schmitt that I know in my yoga class. He decided this summer to ride 4,500 miles across the U.S. from Anacortes, Washington to Bar Harbor, Maine in a solo, unsupported bike-packing trip to fulfill a twenty-year dream to pursue an adventure inspired by a true story.  Kon-Tiki is a book documenting the journey of 6 men who sailed 4,300 miles from Peru on a balsa log raft across the Pacific to the Polynesian Islands to prove it could be done. Dan will be riding to raise awareness and funds to support Sportable’s. ( http://sportable.org/events/coast-to-coast-2022/ ) Their mission is to provide opportunities and access to sport for people with physical disabilities in Richmond, Virginia.   “Sportable creates opportunities to make sports accessible for individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments year-round.  By fostering a fun, inclusive, competitive, and accessible environment, Sportable transforms the lives of athletes and frees them to see beyond their disabilities, enhances their peer relationship and helps them to reach their personal finish line.” Colin’s PT class went there a couple of times to help out as well as our close friends have brought their son there for some PT.  Dan knew about our gig here in Maine and said he might call.  Well, he was in Camden, ME and expected to be in Boothbay Harbor in a few hours.  He wanted to know if there was any way I might be able get him out to the island!  Yikes!  I started sending a few texts to my sister, a friend of hers that has offered to bring people out, the charter people etc.  No luck, bummer.  I asked Diane if it was ok with her if he camp at their place and she said sure.  I told him about Robinsons Wharf, which is in Southport near her, to stop and have a bite there as it is a typical lobster place in Maine, right on the water by a swinging bridge!  We go there every other year for our family reunion lobster meal!

Today, while Diane and Dave were out sailing on their boat with a few friends, Dave called us from his Coast Guard radio and we heard him!  They were out sailing near Cuckhold’s and we could see them, albeit a super tiny sailboat as they were pretty far away!  The cool part of this story was that Steve went in and got a mirror and signaled them from here and everyone on the boat could see it!  How crazy is that!

We did end up heading out to Rob and Sarah’s catamaran in the Cove. They gave us a tour of the boat, pointed out all the features they love about having a catamaran, lessons learned, etc.  Interestingly enough, she had a picture her mom had painted of Seguin on the wall!  It’s beautiful.  Seguin is her favorite island she said. Here’s a picture of painting and their dining area.

Cove is still pretty busy!  We started to head in but rowed around to a few other boats to say hi again and in the last boat we went by, was a couple from NH.  We sat there for a bit and chatted with them.  Nice couple, offered us a beverage and we hung out there for a little bit.  They didn’t have a dinghy but one of the other boats was kind enough to bring them in and they had gone up top.  We saw that dinghy but thought it was the people we had already given a tour to, but it wasn’t.  I felt bad they had gone up and we weren’t there. Another sailboat had came in with registration for Anchorage, AK!  They took the Coast Guard mooring and made sure they had ample protection from bumping into it.  Put a life vest on the actual mooring to protect the hull and hung their spinnaker pole off the front rails along with fenders tied off for added protection.  We stopped to introduce ourselves, chatted for a few and they said they would be up in the morning for a tour. They were Jade and Benjamin.

We rowed into the beach and pulled the dinghy up and covered it, part of our normal task but there is a storm coming so we made sure everything was in order.

Dan did stop at Robinson’s and then went on to Diane and Dave’s.  He stayed there overnight.  It rained pretty hard so she offered him a futon in their home!  That was super nice of them!  Here’s a pic of the three of them – Dan, Diane and Dave! The last picture is our dinner, shrimp etouffee for tonight and I made crab bisque as I needed to make it before the crab went south!  Wow what a busy, crazy day!  Storm finally came in about 8, thunder, rain and some wind.  That’s it for tonight.

Next group up the hill was the Damariscove Island caretakers and their friends that own the Life Saving Station on the same island.  And boy did we talk with them for a long time, tour, showed them our quarters, etc.  Scott and Aiko the caretakers live in a 12 x 16 building!  They don’t provide tours but act as a presence on the island. They also have an arrangement where they ‘work’ 10 days then have 4 days off. This is their 2^nd year as caretakers on behalf of the Land Trust.  Then Chub and Natalie told us their story.  Chubb had an amazing story of how he purchased the Lifesaving Station on Damariscove Island for the cost of a pick-up truck!  Natalie was having a blast taking photos of our place. We had great fun sharing stories. Here is the picture of the gang that came over and all their Seguin swag and then a pic of both “caretakers.”

Next up the trail was another group with Liz Armor, Different Drum Sailing Adventures.  She shared this is her last trip to Seguin this season. Her husband may bring one more group but she is returning to teaching for the next school year. I’ve enjoyed seeing her a few times and we are convinced our paths will cross again! This was an American Girl group from Chicago.  Very fun group of young women and their leaders.  We all had a laugh or two.  In addition, one of the girls McKenzie was the first person to have the answer to my shipping the lens question that I ask during every tour as well as I asked it here in the beginning of the blog.  She is 14 and knew the answer, way to go McKenzie!

Next, we had a group of 3.  John was from Rhode Island and the two women were from DC.  Took a pic of them in the tower while on tour with Steve.  As I was waiting for them to come down and we’ve had a seagull or two acting a little weird.  One landed on the sidewalk and walked around poking in the grass.  At first I thought maybe there was some food left over from the Small Point Summer Camp group.  Then another came by and landed on the picnic table and just stood there.  They are big birds up close…. Not sure what’s going on with them.

Things seemed to slow down around 3:45 so I had a little bite to eat since I hadn’t had lunch.  Jeff and Susan came up from the Cove.  They are sailors.  Jeff lives in Melrose, MA and she lives in Wilmington, MA.  We spent a bunch of time chatting with them, one of those couples with whom you connect. When we were finished in the museum, they asked it we wanted to come out to their boat for a little bit – why not!  We enjoyed chatting with them about their adventures and we shared ours.  He brought us out in his dinghy which he actually built (it’s a small sailboat) and they have actually sail it sometimes! It was getting late, so we decided it was time for us to head in, up the trail and have dinner.  Tonight was homemade crab bisque along with sautéed bok choy and carrots.  Pretty yummy and very flavorful. And last but not least, a sunset.  You can see most of Mount Washington.  Later in the evening I got a text from Auri!  They were sailing our way and wanted to check on the moorings.  I said you’re good, we have room!

Here’s our first group of the day.  Three young women Lauren, Lacy and Quinn.  They wanted a tour so up we went!!  Nice, engaging and funny!

Steve headed over to mow the helipad as we are anticipating the pending roof work starting next week. The helicopter is supposed to come out Aug 5^th and he’ll bring out new shingles and then take back some of the old ones.  He’ll do that a bunch of times.  That will be an exciting day!  As we were sitting on the porch, Jeff from last night popped up to drop off one of his business cards and to let us know they saw the bioluminescence last night in the Cove.  WOW!  We’ll definitely check that out tonight! 

In the museum we have a blue board in each room that list the keepers for that period of time.  The front room goes from 1795 to 1939.  Middle room is the Coast Guard years that go from 1939 to 1985.  We don’t have all the Coast Guard keepers but if someone comes in and has new information, then a little plaque is added. For instance, I should have checked it when Burton was telling me the story, so I could have had him get the info so we could add a plaque for his Dad. Then the gift shop room has the keepers since 1990 when FOSILS took over.  And we actually got to hang our plaque up!

Two more groups of two came up today.  One was Jeff and Maria from the Mt. Washington Valley area. Gave them a tour as they had not been here before. Thought I had a picture of them, but no luck.  Then we met Jim and Jill. They came up kind of late, but we still gave them a tour.  Really nice folks and we chatted a bit about all things sailing.  They have a 406 Sabre, with a beautiful blue bottom. 

Well, it’s 5:00 and that’s Cove time.  We headed down and sat on the rocks near the Vista off the Cove Trail.  My new favorite spot.  Here’s a pic of Jim and Jill’s boat.  She sent me a picture of us sitting on the rocks!

Beautiful moonrise over the west tonight, just above the clouds, not quite a half moon.  And guess what, the bright star that is to the left of the moon and about 1 ½ inches up is the International Space Station!!!!  The Tower pic has the ISS too, just above the dome! 

Lastly, we did go down to the Cove tonight and we both saw the bioluminescence for the first time in our lives!  Of course, I tried to take a photo as the little waves came into the beach and as Steve was paddling the dinghy, they would stick to his oar.  However, my pictures didn’t really capture anything.  I know what the little dots in the photos are, but I don’t think you’d see them on the blog.  Guess you’ll just have to use your imagination!

Phew that was a long blog entry – Hope you are all well and thanks again for reading!!!

PS – Almost forgot to give you the answer to the question!  It was molasses that they used to package the lens for it’s shipment across the pond!  I know, you’re saying “sweet!”  But the related fact we learned was they turned it into Rum and sold it!!!  Now that was smart!  They weren’t going to take it back, right?

See you next week 😉

There is always a lot of wood washed up on the beach, some big, some small, some well-worn, others just random shapes.  I picked up this piece of wood as it struck me as interesting since both the knots in the wood had fallen out.  It also reminded me of one of those pasta tools for spaghetti where it has different size holes for different serving sizes!  Do I always digress to food?  Anyway, I thought I would attempt a picture through the hole in the wood, not a bad first try!

Again, we asked Sharon to take a photo of us on this walk.  We continue to pick our path, looking at the shoreline, looking at the rocks and having to look down a lot as you pick your foot placement, I see this tiny, itty-bitty claw – kind of cute actually. As we make our way around the coastline, there are pockets in the rocks that sometimes fill up with water.  Some are ocean water, some are rain, some are both.  Sharon and I are walking much slower than Steve and Brent, as we are exploring and taking in all the little sights we see!  We found this one particular larger, maybe 6-8 inches deep puddle, that was filled with some kind of algae.  But what was very cool was that the water was so clear and deep enough that you could see the algae growing towards the surface.  Combine that with the suns reflection and it was really quite pretty.  The adjacent puddle wasn’t as deep so the algae was laying over in some parts. These two pictures were looking into the water.  I found that to be rather interesting!

Then Sharon found a Morning Glory flower!  I think I’ve only seen one other of these near the tram near the Clivus. How delicate they look.  She also found a sea urchin, empty of course.  Not sure I’ve seen any of these on the island before.  Maybe it was a seagull’s meal and it was like leaving the wrapper!

We turned the last corner coming around to the Cove and there are the men surveying the Cove.  Gives a good perspective on what the coastline looks like on this side of the island vs what Cobblestone Beach looked like.

Well, are friends are heading out to start their journey home to Norway, Maine.  We bid them farewell at the beach around 2:00 pm. After all the hugs and waves goodbye, Cal brings them back to ‘Gratitude’ for their ride back to Georgetown.

We stayed down at the Cove for a bit as we had given tours to the current groups so we decided to just stay down there.  Here’s a couple of pictures of the goings-on at the Cove.

One last group of the day, showed up as the NH foursome was heading down.  This group had a dog and had just pulled in with a catamaran.  They signed the guest book and just used their last names!  So much for the acronym!  They were from Atlanta, GA and Saco, ME. I gave them a tour, then they headed on their way.  As Steve and I relaxed on sunset bench to see if Mount Washington would appear, we saw them head towards Portland in the catamaran.  We waved! No Mount Washington but we did see a beautiful sunset!  Noshed on some yummy Sharon Granola while we prepared dinner.  Tonight, we had leftovers!  All good!

Steve met up with me on the North Trail so I kept going and he was addressing the growth that starts to come in from the sides.  We wanted to get this all done as it is supposed to rain later today and tonight.  Sometimes that is a nice break in the action. I made it all the way to the end and boy did some sections need it.  Passed the blueberry bush!!! We need to pop back out with a container to get some more delicious Maine blueberries! Here is a picture of the Cove from towards the end of the North Trail and then another pic from back by the bottom of the tram in the Cove.  Notice how in the second picture the visibility just stops at the end of the Cove, we are “socked in” as they say!

All of that before lunch – ate more leftovers, starting to see the back of the fridge now!  Thanks again Sharon and Brent for all the great food! After lunch, rehung a sign in the Tower that had fallen.

Well, interestingly enough, that’s all the notes I have.  So, I’m sure we did a few more things but didn’t write it or dinner or anything else down!  Oh well, on to the next day.

I spent a lot time of the blog today.  When I get behind, I need that rainy day to catch up.  Well, we worked a bunch yesterday before it rained.  Then sometimes the day goes by and you wonder where did it go plus I do get distracted easily….. (those that know me well enough are laughing and nodding their head right now!)

More time on the blog.  When I’m writing the blog, I sometimes realize I need another picture of something around the Tower or property, so I go run and take it.  Then I need to upload it to the computer, “resize” the photo (those pixel dimensions you see when look at the info for a picture) as that determines how many pixels the file is and improves the speed with which it uploads) and modify the blog text accordingly.  I have figured out a process by which I write the blog, but I’m not so sure it’s the most efficient.  However, at this point, I’m sticking with it as it allows me to prep all of the things I need offline and then it’s just a matter of uploading the text and all the pictures when I am on the internet!  When I’m uploading, I’m doing it one by one as I need to decide if it’s 1 picture with text around it or 2 pics side-by-side or 3 pics in a row, etc.  It sounds like a lot and it is, but I know for a fact that a year from now when I have my book that captures this adventure, I will be so glad I did it all and then made a book of it!

Well, I guess I digressed enough there!  No other notes or pictures for today.  Tomorrow, shore day already!

Wednesday, July 20th – Lots of stuff to bring in today as last week our shore day was a day the Transfer Station is closed.  Nothing of note with the usual stuff at the transfer station.  Nothing exciting for me in the free section. I saw a pair of hiking boots but Steve said he didn’t need another pair.  Off to Café Crema for a little breakfast.  The first big decision of the day is do we have a big breakfast or lunch. Think we decided on lunch.  At Café Crema I had a chai tea, Steve got a coffee and we split a blueberry scone. I haven’t had tea like that in a while and I’m hooked!  The scone was grilled with a little butter.  Yummy!  They compost everything and if you bring in your own cup, they only charge you for a small!  I’m bringing my own cup next week! 

Steve headed off to Rocky’s and Lowes.  While at the laundromat, I was looking at Venmo to help Cyndy get her QR code so we can post it in a few places.  I sent her some instructions based on what I found then she’ll be able to print a few for us to post around.  Then I remembered to have Steve take a picture of Amy and I at the Garden Island Laundromat. She is really a sweet person and very helpful. Oh, and here’s a pic of Steve with an envelope from my Mom.  She sends Steve crossword puzzles (and the answer key).  She also included a notification she received in her electric bill about offshore wind – she included that too! Steve was very involved with an offshore wind project off the coast of VA beach before he retired.

Finished laundry and wanted to stop at the bookstore near the library that sells used books and the money goes to a local charity.  We popped in and walked around it for a few minutes, looked for a few specific books and then we needed to rock-n-roll to get going to Shaw’s for our groceries.  Big news was cherries are on sale for $2.77 lb instead of 5.99!  I was pretty excited about that so I bought a bunch.  I have a little kitchen tool that punches the pits out then I freeze them.  They have been very good so far this season.

We stopped at Winnegance for lunch.  We like to stop here as we are very close to Popham so there is no rushing.  It makes a lunch a little more relaxing.  I had a grilled veggie wrap and Steve had a Fish (haddock) BLT on sourdough.  Both were really good.  From here we headed to the dock.  We had a few extra minutes so we stopped in Paper Tides.  It’s a little shop right along rte. 209.  They sell some jewelry that Andrew makes and Emma does some color printing in the shop.  They also carry other items that local people make.  We met them a few weeks ago when a group came out to Seguin on July 9 and brought their dinner with them!  She had some really pretty mugs that a local potter Elizabeth Levi makes.  Here’s a couple of pictures.  I was thinking of reaching out to her to see if she could make my olive dish.  I broke one several years ago and have never found one that is exactly like what I had.  Everything they had in the little shop was unique and of excellent quality.  If you’re out that way, it’s worth a stop.  Open Wed thru Sat 10-4.  The building they are in is really unique too as it was previously a grange hall, it’s called Dromore Grange No. 302. Here’s the website! https://www.papertides.com/

From here on in, we just brought up our purchases, left what we could at the Donkey engine house until we come down next time.  Unloaded, put everything away – food, laundry, etc.  I don’t even have any notes about dinner.  As we were putting everything away, we had a group of 2 come up (Maron and Amand).  They are from France!  That’s pretty wild.  I gave them a tour and we chatted a little bit with them.  Very nice people.  Guess I was too tired to remember to take a photo!!! Oh well, that’s a wrap for today.

Thursday, July 21st – Today I bought tickets for Colin to come visit in August.  I shared with him the timing and plans and he was game!  I’m so excited.  I feel bad his girlfriend Aliese will not be able to join us but she is working an internship job that doesn’t give her much free time. Anyway, he’s coming in mid-August.  It will be the planes, buses, automobiles, and boats trip!  Weather report for this morning – foggy, can’t quite see the mainland! But within the hour, the fog had cleared and we had a sunny day!

Our first guests today were Dave and Jenny from Old Lyme, CT.  Yes, Old Lyme.  For some of you that don’t know, we lived in East Lyme, CT for 10 years.  We moved into that house when Gary was born and moved to VA about 10 years later.  As we talked with them, things kept lining up.  Like he went to WPI, Steve went to WPI.  He worked for Stone & Webster, so did we.   We talked about where we worked in CT and he knew several of the people we knew at the power station where we worked.  It was uncanny!! They were super friendly, funny and we had a good time chatting with them.  As I went to take their picture, as they had been married for close to 50 years I think, the two were just standing there and I said, “come on, you can do better than that after 50 years” and that is when he leaned over to give her a big smooch – that’s more like it!

It was getting close to dinner time, but as I started prepping dinner, I heard “Seguin, Seguin this is vessel Corsair, come in Seguin” HOLY COW – someone is actually calling us on the Coast Guard radio!!!!  I responded with “Seguin here, take it to channel 78” which is the non-commercial channel.  It was a gentleman on his way to Seguin but wouldn’t be getting in until late and he wanted to make sure we had mooring space, which we did!  So, I let him know, over and out!  How fun is that!

Then as we walked outside later to check the stars, we noticed some significant fireworks going on but couldn’t quite tell who was putting them on.  Turns out it was Bath, but we’re not sure why! Oh, and got a call from Cyndy today – new roofing project is still scheduled to start on Monday!

Then things seemed to take a break so I decided it was time to try the Murphy’s Liquid Soap to clean the inside of the Tower doors.  The outside kind of takes a beating and can’t really be cleaned but the inside needed some love and attention.   I was cleaning the inside of the doors and Steve began cleaning the top of the steps.  They had some mold as they are on the North side of the tower.  He cleaned the top and it came out great and we decided to leave the vertical section of the steps alone.  There are two before pictures and two after pictures.  The sun was in the wrong angle when I took the whole door picture, so I took another one the next morning and that is the last picture here.

Then we had a large group of 4 girls that had just graduated from Tulane, 3 kids and 4 adults, for a total of 11.  Here are a couple of pictures of that group. Everyone was having a good time!

Then I had a man with 2 grand nephews.  They were actually our #500-#502 guests!  Wow, we have crossed the 500 mark! I gave them a brief tour as they didn’t have much time.  The day seemed to get busy right at the end.  It has a habit of doing that.  We had a really nice relaxing dinner of lamb, red potatoes and broccoli.  Then we decided to sit outside on our porch and just listen.  Our friend Sharon that visited last weekend had shared an interesting observation: “You think it’s quiet until you close your eyes and hear all the sounds you took for granted when your eyes were open – the waves, birds, wind, flag flapping, etc.”  Just a nice quiet restful evening.

A gentleman came up the trail and he has never been here before.  His name is Dean.  He had two long days of sailing up from Gloucester, MA and is planning to spend a few days.  We probably spent an hour talking to him.  Very friendly and engaging person!  Over the next few days, we learned a lot about him and has had an interesting life. He was a lawyer with his law degree from Columbia.  Currently lives in Vermont, keeps his boat in NY and spends most of the summer sailing Maine. That sounds like fun!

Here is just a little garden update.  Been eating a few zucchinis!  The last picture is our first tomato!  No yellow squash as most of them seem to die at the end where blossom was.  We just learned from a visitor that is probably due to insufficient pollination.  She shared how we might be able to remedy that, Steve did what she recommended, so we’ll see if it makes a difference.  We don’t have many bees up here and the ones we do have are enjoying the clover more because it is sweeter than the pollen of yellow squash. See, we are learning about gardening in Maine, too!

Next up the trail was the overnight guests Molly and her 2 grandchildren.  Her son brought them over on his boat along with several other relatives to enjoy the beauty of Seguin.  Steve gave the portion of the group that is not staying a tour and then I gave a tour to a group from Cozy Harbor, the Hurd family.  After some discussion we made the connection with Diane and Dave! Another group of 2, local folks, no real tour just some idle chat.

Lucinda and Greg McCormick were back with some more friends.  They brought a picnic lunch and hung out a bit.  I gave them a tour and we chatted for a while.  They were asking if they could see the guest quarters, but I mentioned that we have a group that just arrived today.  I offered a tour of our side and they said sure!  Forgot to take pics of some of the groups.  Funny how sometimes I remember and then others, well not so much. I am trying to sneak in writing the blog in between visitors, then it is a little more manageable.

Next two up were Ben and Lauren.  They are from Georgetown, ME.  Steve was down in the Cove, so he already met them.  Young couple, really easy to talk to and engaging.   Eventually, I decided it was time to head down to the Cove and it was very busy.  Steve shared that a small powerboat had lost his dinghy and it drifted to the rocks on the left side.  The owner tried to get it using his powerboat and ended up getting stuck on the rocks himself.  Eventually he got off the rocks but the dinghy was still stuck.  Another captain brought him ashore as he was going to climb around on the rocks to his dinghy but Steve offered to row out and bring him to his dinghy.  I always miss the excitement in the Cove!  

We spent some time talking with Molly – all of them had enjoyed their day.  Later while in the kitchen, Steve showed me the harvest from our garden!  We are going to try to eat it all tonight (ha-ha)!

Lauren and Ben said they would be back up for sunset and Dean said he would be too.  We moved a bench over so the five of us could chat and watch the sunset.  I learned more about Dean.  Again, a very interesting character full of so many interesting experiences, some happy, some sad.  He had a book by John Steinbeck he recommended I read, “The Winter of Our Discontent.”  He said reading it as an adult, it was a whole different book compared to reading in high school!  He said he would give it to me to read from his “little lending library” he has on his boat.

As the sun was setting, Ben came over and asked if I would take some pictures of them on sunset bench! I said sure.  He gave me his camera and I walked over behind the bench to catch different angles.  I finally had to ask him to move as I couldn’t see him in the picture.  I repeated my request a couple of times when it finally dawned on me.  He was down on one knee proposing to Lauren.  I ran back over to the other guys to tell them!  How exciting – our first engagement on Seguin!  He pulled out a bottle of Prosecco and we all toasted to the new couple.  Here are a few pictures of them! How fun!

The day is not complete without a sunset of Mount Washington.

Well, we have reached the end of another blog.  As always, thank you for reading and participating in the adventure with us!  Oh, and thanks for sending your comments!

This Blog is looooong!  Grab a beverage, get comfy and enjoy!

Sunday, July 10th – Beautiful low wind day!  Three boats stayed overnight.  We are working on a pipe in the wall of dirt leading to the beach at the Cove.  This water appears to be pretty clear and we wanted to make a dam of sorts so we can capture some of it in case it turns out that it is potable.  Here was the attempt at putting the pipe in, but the water is not running out through the pipe. We need to think like a beaver and build some type of dam….

During the break, I took the liberty of trying to look up some more data on the 1^st order Fresnel lens.  That is pronounced “Fru-nel” (hold your nose so it sounds more nasal and French like). I’m trying to figure out how many pieces of glass there are in our 1^st order lens.  I have two numbers , 264 and 284.  I counted them, but it didn’t match either one of those numbers.  I can’t tell which pieces of the lower or dome prisms have seams.  The other piece of data, is how much does it weigh.  We found 12,000lbs in one place, so I’m saying now about 6 tons, but regardless, it’s VERY heavy!

A couple more pictures of the lens. 

Steve headed off to spray some Poison Ivy (PI) on the North Trail.  The North Trail has a loop and if you take the loop, this is where the irises grow and you walk along some pieces of board through a damp area.  This is where the PI is growing and is right along the edge of where you walk.  So, we decided it was best to tell folks to avoid this area.  People are walking in sandals or Teva’s, Chaco’s, etc. and their feet are right near the PI.  In a few days, hopefully we’ll see it start to die off and we can open up this portion of the trail, but until then – it’s a place to avoid.

I chose to make some more bread today as well as the crackers.  I’m really digging the crackers.  You make them using the sourdough starter that you would normally throw out when you “feed” your starter.  That is part of the reason I stopped making bread with starter a couple of years ago as when you feed it with additional flour and water, the part you removed can be used to make bread or you throw it out…. or unless you’re making crackers!!!  Next time I make them, I’ll be sure to take a picture.  They are yummy and easy!

Steve took over for dinner as I was giving tours.  Tonight, was chicken marsala, with peas and wild rice – delicious – oops no picture though!

When I finished cleaning, we went down to the Cove to see what’s going on.  It was a little “swelly” or “rollers” as they call it in Maine, but we decided to row out to the closet 3 mooring balls to write on them.  I brought my paint marker with me to write “Mooring Donation, Venmo Seguin_Island”, many folks come and spend the night in the Cove but never come ashore and this way they can make a donation for stayng. They came out great!

Took that pic from part of the trail closer to the house.  Well, it’s time to get some crabs (back down to the Cove to row out to get them) and then back up to the house to cook them up.   Here’s our bucket of 9 crabs.  A few hours later, I had picked, picked and picked enough.   I picked clean 7 bodies I might add and did a most excellent job in making sure there were no pieces of shell or cartilage!

Here’s Steve with the empty bucket and then a picture of how much of the sun was still left. I like sitting on this side of the Cove as we get that extra sunlight, and it provides a different perspective. Here are some more pictures of how the rocks are shaped on this side of the Cove, it’s a mixed bag for sure, wished I had studied geology.

Well, it’s sunset. I decided to walk up to the lens and see what interesting shots I can get for the blog. First here is the sunset, then the sunset through the lens. Plus a few more random shots.

Tuesday, July 12th – Nice day but super windy, don’t really expect anyone to visit today or at least this morning. We walked down to the Cove just in case someone came in overnight – nope, Cove is empty.  But while we were there, I noticed there were a lot of fish jumping.  There was a large dark shadow in the water, so it must have been the fish.  Steve went to get his rod in the Donkey Engine House and meet me on the rocks near the Cove Trail vista.  We stood there a while and he would cast right into where they were jumping, but no one was biting.  Guess that is how they roll.  The Cormorants were swimming and every once in a while one would duck under the water and were gone for a long time!  But then, one of them would come up with a fish.  Turns out it was a school of Pogie and not really good for eating but are good bait fish and in the old days, they used to use them for making paint as they were very oily.   

Walked back up to the house to grab my water bottle and my gloves and head back down to mow the Cove Trail and the campsite.  Things are still growing but it’s definitely slowing down.  I also picked up some more sand to top off a few sidewalk seams.  As the wind blows here almost all the time, it blows some of the sand out of the cracks. 

Tonight, was a Spot-the-Station (the International Space Station-ISS) night.  I get texts alerting me to the times when I might be able to view it based on my location. Luckily the storms up here roll in and roll on out.  Viewing time was around 10:45 pm.  I was able to get a pic of it by itself, then a pic to the right of the tower from the gift shop side (there is a little blue arrow pointing to the dot that is the ISS). As it was approaching, from my angle, it went zooming by the last star in the big dipper handle, and as it departed and then faded, it went by the top right star of constellation call Cassiopeia (it looks like a ‘W’). I was VERY excited as the viewing time was 6 minutes tonight! It was crazy to be able to see it even though there was almost a full moon! Then I turned to see the moon – amazing!

Wednesday, July 13th – Tonight is the full moon!  Overnight, the tide was up to 11 feet (a normal high tide is about 8.5 to 9 feet) and the low tide was 1.4 feet below mean low tide! Weather report – it is very foggy right to left but if you look straight up it’s sunny!!

Not a shore day.  Weather was too iffy earlier this a.m. so it was moved to tomorrow.  Walked around the house and noticed this spider web on the picnic table.  Then down to the Cove to see if there is anyone there and there were several ground spider webs with dew reflecting the sunlight.

While down in the cove, I took a picture to show Steve how far up the tide came overnight as you can see the seaweed line!  We had brought the boat up the highest we’ve ever done and the water still came up to the middle of the dinghy! As I walked a little on the beach, I saw these foot prints.  Looks to me like a goose walked up and then walked back into the water

Lastly, Steve just standing in the water enjoying the view and the serenity of an empty Cove. Here’s the pair of Vans, that no one has yet claimed.  They are dry now and I have emptied out all the sand out from getting bounced around on the waves coming into shore!

I would like to just chat a moment about my new saying from out here…. “My existence is my exercise.”  We are busy about 80% of most days, unless it’s raining.  And most of that 80% is physical exercise, up or down the main trail, cleaning up the other trails, going down to the donkey house for something, etc.  I really like that.  It’s not perfect as sometimes we don’t feel there is enough cardio, but if you just add a gallon of water to your walk up from the cove every time – you’ll notice it. I feel like there is always something to do here.  Of course, I look for things to do.  Those that know me well know that’s no surprise!  Well just wanted to share that as it was a little bit of an ah – ha moment for me.

Ok back to the pics….Besides the absolutely amazing supermoon (also referred to as a Buck Moon) rise we had tonight, I had another viewing of the International Space Station (ISS).  This time it was for 7 minutes and it was very high in the sky!  So, I’ll make a deal – how about two moon pics and two space station pics? Ok, maybe three moon pics and 1 ISS pic! The ISS is just to the right of the dome on top of the Tower.

Here they are in chronological order.

There is Sam and Fran’s house with the red chairs, notice the heron is now in the foreground of the photo, but check out how LOW it is!

And now, here are the ‘after’ pictures (high tide) of what I took this morning, the boats and the view of Sam & Fran’s house!

Ethan pulled up with a group that had been on a lobster tour with him.  We had time to chat as Ethan wanted to clean up a little before we got on with our stuff.  They got off the boat and she noticed my VCU Physical Therapy shirt.  She asked what that was, we explained and proceeded to chat about lots of random stuff.  They were a family from Bakersfield, CA., first trip to New England and had a their young children with them.  They had started at a lake in CT, stopped somewhere I can’t remember in Massachusetts then up to Maine where they rented a cottage in Popham.   But – I forgot to take their picture! You’d think by now there would be an internal alarm that would go off!

On the ride back, we needed to get 4 lobsters as our friends Sharon and Brent are coming in tomorrow!  Yay!!!!  Here is Steve picking them out to put in our lobster car.  Couple of nice boats in the Cove on our return. Here is Steve carrying up 10 gallons of water from the Cove to the donkey engine house and here is all our stuff on the beach (looks like it will be a long way to move the dinghy up as it will be another very high tide tonight)!

I still had some cleaning to do in the guest quarters before the 40^th wedding anniversary couple come in tomorrow (a little welcome basket, with a few treats, napkins, etc.) and Sharon and Brent are arriving in the morning too! 

Friday, June 15th – Happy Birthday Kari (my nephew’s wife) – Hope you “had” an awesome birthday!  I was up early today.  I get like that when I know I have a busy day coming up as well as a few things to address before the guests and our friends arrive! Since it was early, I start with some general pickup / cleanup around the house and straightening. I was looking at some of the old Lighthouse Digests that are hanging around and was making notes if they talked about Seguin on them or not.  I came across the Jan-Feb 2016 issue and noticed it was a picture of Seguin on the cover!

The next story was in the section titled “From the Archives of Lighthouse Digest” – An old newspaper clipping from the Portland Sunday Telegram and Sunday Press Herald, dated September 29, 1949.

I continued to turn the pages and found another article “Memories of Life at Seguin Island Lighthouse!” It’s a story about Beverly (Stephens) Ramsey, who lived her first two years of life on Seguin Island with her parents Walter F. and Mary A. Stephens. Walter was an assistant Coast Guard keeper and they live in the same part of the house where we are living now!  The officer in charge lived where the museum and gift shop are located next to us.  Beverly’s mom, Mary, went home to Florida in October of 1958 to await the birth of their child as being on the island would be no place to give birth.  After Beverly was born, the U.S. Coast Guard arranged transportation for Walter to go to Florida and pick up Mary and baby Beverly.  They took a bus from Jacksonville to Portland and then arranged transportation to the island (yikes, that must have taken a few days!). The wintery boat ride was blustery and cold and the water was choppy. As they left the Kennebec River, the swells or “rollers” caused the vessel to go up and down. The captain of the vessel ordered everyone be tied to the boat to prevent them from being tossed about or injured! Then they had to climb the narrow steep and slippery pathway up the top and snow was falling at a pretty good clip.  Things were going well for the young family until September 28, 1959 when Mary had to leave the island and travelled to the town of Bath months before her due date with a second baby.  Unfortunately, baby Linda Jo died a few hours after her birth. 

In 1999, Beverly and her mom Mary returned to Maine to place a granite marker at Linda Jo’s gravesite and they made a trip out to Seguin. Beverly fell in love with Seguin and its historic lighthouse.  In 2011, Beverly convinced her husband David to apply for the job of summer caretakers of the island and lighthouse. Unfortunately, Beverly’s father Walter S. passed away in October of that year and she wondered if her upcoming quest for the 2012 caretaking duties at Seguin Lighthouse would be joyful or gloomy. Beverly said she felt her father’s presence everywhere on the island. As a caretaker, or modern-day keeper, Beverly said it was a special treat for her to be able to stay in the same rooms that her parents lived in when she was a small child on a remote island off the rugged coast of Maine.  Beverly has returned to the island several times since.  She says, “Seguin pulls at my heart each time that I have to leave.  I have yet to find another place like Seguin Island.”

So, in our living room, we have a very old chair that has seen many years of use.  I wondered why such a chair was here.  Of course, living on an island, once something makes it way to the island, it never leaves! But interestingly enough, here is a picture from that article.  It’s baby Beverly sitting in that chair when she was one and then sitting in the same chair in 2012.  I now look at that chair with a whole new perspective.

All of this before 7:00 am in the morning!!! It was an amazing article and shifted my whole view on many of the items I see here in the caretakers’ side of the house.  Well now, I need to get crackin’!

I finished cleaning and sanitizing, putting little vases in both guest rooms, and a final vacuum.  Phew, ready now!

We headed down to the Cove as we got a text from Sharon and Brent saying they were on their way.

The next few pictures are of the visitors where I remembered to take a photo.  Today, we had visitors from Maine, Mass, NH and CT!

Just before 5ish, visitor traffic seemed to slow down so the four of us headed out the North Trail.  We got a picture of us and I took one of Sharon and Brent.

Saturday, July 16th – First and foremost, let’s look at our delicious breakfast Sharon and Brent made for us.  She made homemade from scratch “oh-my-godder” maple biscuits with homemade strawberry jam with bacon and scrambled eggs. Holy Cow, what a feast for the pallet! 

The guests staying in the Guest Quarters arrived today, Brenda and Steve from Litchfield, Maine. Very nice and they are super excited to be on Seguin.  We had a steady stream of visitors today, but not crazy.  Here are some pictures of our guests.

Left Photo: The Larkins from Maine and Mass. They were super fun and really enjoyed the tour!

Right Photo: Vanessa and David, long time supporters of Seguin picking up some new swag!

Our last group for the day was Tom and Meg from Freeport.  The last time he was here was in 1955!  Steve and I had so much fun talking with them, listening to their life, etc.  What experiences they had in life.  They are planning to stay over night.  A picture moment didn’t really present itself, but I wish we had taken one.  There was something about them that Steve and I just wanted to keep talking to them! 

We kept talking to them so long, that we never got to hike Cobblestone with Sharon and Brent so we’ve delayed that till the morning.  They leave tomorrow but not till later, so we’ll go first thing as it’s supposed to be beautiful which translates to a busy day!

We had another amazing meal prepared by Sharon and Brent, felt like we were at a restaurant!  They prepared baked haddock, broccoli and zucchini from their garden, parmesan risotto plus she made homemade blueberry pie with local Maine blueberries for dessert! Everything was delicious! She is a Renaissance Woman for sure!  And what a night of conversation, just a joy to have them here!

Well, I think that is the most pictures in one of my blogs!  Did you have to get a second beverage? Hope you enjoyed!

We have friends Cindy and Dave from Connecticut that were our neighbors.  They moved into the hood the same time I did and it was the first home for both of us!  I started dating Steve and we became very close friends with Cindy and Dave.  Ok I did digress a little but there is a connection!  The next group were Dave and Cindy – this is the 2^nd “Dave and Cindy” that have been to visit Seguin and it reminds me of our neighbors! I need to send the Blog address to them.

Next group was a group of 5 young men, the Colorado Boys!  I guessed 25-30 years old based on our guys,  but they were 21-23!  Yikes.  All super friendly, interested in the info I had to share and very polite.  I told them about the special picture I can take in the tower where the background is flipped and I took that picture of 4 of the 5 guys plus Steve took a group photo outside the Tower. But one of them was supposed to give me his cell to text the picture, but we both forgot! (Update: Eventually they reached out to Carney who does our Instagram and I was able to send the photo on the right to them – yay!)

Well today was tour, tour and more tours – somewhere around 8 groups. Powerboats, sailboats, young/old, dogs – we had it all today!  I thought today was a busy day. I didn’t know what was coming!

Tonight, was another Mount Washington night.  I tried to get a little more creative with the edges.  We also saw a lot of firework displays, up and down the coast but they were pretty far away.

Monday, July 4th – Happy 4^th of July!  Sunny, currently calm.  Perfect! Check out the clouds behind the flag – looks like eyelashes!  First tour of the day, Peter and Dorothy, again, very nice folks.  Everyone is so willing to share, chat, ask or answer any question.  We’ve met so many fun and interesting people, definitely a perk of the job.  They are starting to sail a lot as they were able to accelerate their retirement.  Their kids are in college in Canada. Really nice couple, might see them again in August as they sail back through the area.

Finishing up the morning daily chores, one of which is to filter some more water using our Sawyer filter.  We picked this up while we were in St. Thomas.  They were handing them out in an effort to encourage the general population to use this vs buying cases and cases of bottled water but rather use the water they have and run it through the filter.  The filter only lets water molecules through!  It filters out Cholera, E. Coli, Streptococcus, Salmonella, Typhoid, Dysentery, Botulism, and it goes from yucky to crystal clear drinking water!  We knew our water was not potable and that we had to buy our drinking water and carry it up.  This filter allows us to filter it and use that water for coffee/ tea, rice, pasta, etc.  Here are two pictures, one of a jug of water before and then a pic of a pan with the clean water!  It’s amazing! And you just periodically backwash the filter and it will last and filter like a million gallons!

Since we don’t have any way of knowing when visitors come up the trail, we try to do tasks around the house and Tower so we’ll see them.  Even still, we find we miss a group or two when they first walk up.  So, I continued to work on putting sand in the sidewalk by the Tower.  I used up all my sand!  These two pics show a section of the Tower walkway where I’m done (around to the west) and a pic of the next task, the sidewalk out front leading to the flagpole.  It’s time consuming but very rewarding as you can see your progress! 

Walking up from the Cove, we noticed the sun was passing through the lens.  Made it look like it was on!  Tonight’s dinner was swordfish, cumin cauliflower and roasted butternut squash arugula salad with toasted pepitas, chopped figs and maple vinaigrette and yes, she remembered to take a photo!

Spent some time down in the whistle house researching flights to try and get Colin (our younger son) and Aliese (his girlfriend) here for a few days.  Oh my, flights and times were crazy trying to get from Richmond, VA to Portland, Maine.  Then it’s a bus ride to Bath, then an accommodation if you’re in the late evening, then a ride to get the boat in the morning!  Yikes.  I’m crushed as I really wanted them to visit.  

Tuesday, July 5th– Relaxing morning.  Weather report – squinty!  We ate breakfast on the porch as usual, took our time and rallied about 10. Decided to continue working on the front sidewalk since that is what visitors see right away.  All done!  This won’t take as much sand as the back sidewalk. 

Well, our first guest came up, it was a single person by themselves.  I’m always amazed that people would boat by themselves. That seems a little risky to me. He was followed by a group of 9.  This was a group of three adults and 6 young people.  Captain Jeff and Liz Armor run “Different Drum Sailing Adventures, Educational sailing adventures in Maine, Chesapeake Bay and the Bahamas for teens, adults, teachers, schools, scouts and families.” ( www.differentdrumsailing.com ) The group was very interested in the Tower and they were very polite and courteous.  Liz and Jeff usually run 4-6 trips a summer up the Maine coast and almost always stop here at Seguin.  So, I will be seeing Liz again! They stopped in the gift shop to buy some swag and I pulled out my little glass full of shells that have an opening if you want to wear one on a necklace or hoop earring.  I said to the young women, you have to select one that speaks to you.  They were very excited to select their very special Seguin shell from the Cove to wear!  That was pretty fun! They headed on their way and I headed down to paint the stick sign.  It didn’t take long and was definitely in need of a coat of paint.

Last but not least, we have our first zucchini in the garden!  Nothing else in my notes – how can that be?  Oh, not going ashore tomorrow, weather is not cooperating.

Wednesday, July 6th – Overnight it was pretty stormy and rainy which was perfect timing as the garden was in need of some water and we also started the foghorn. Steve took a walk down the main trail towards the Cove looking for some snail things that hide in the moist grass.  He was using them for bait, but wanted to collect some so he could tie up to a mooring and fish a little bit.  Once he got on the section of the trail that has a little bit of a canopy, he found a bunch.  He put them in a container with a little grass and poked a few holes in it.  Not sure you would have guessed what they were by the picture but to me they almost look like garbanzo beans except for the grass!

Once he got to the Cove, he noticed a good size seal on the beach pretty far up.  He came back up to the house to get some gloves, a broom and a few other things to see how we might get him back into the water.  He found phone signal and looked up how to help a beached seal. First thing they said was to be careful as they will bite.  By the time we got back down there, he was just swimming away, but there was a small powerboat in the Cove and a man standing on the beach! 

The weather started clearing a little bit but it was interesting to see the fog going by as well as the sun being out. I had a video of the flag with the fog rolling by, the clear sky above and the fog horn going, but too much work to put it on YouTube to then put a URL here. Oh well, use your imagination…

Next was a group from Harpswell, which is around Cape Small and up a little.  Harpswell is the next ‘finger’ of land.  It was a mom, Jessica, her three kids, Eloise, Adair, and Augusta and her parents, Amy and Nelson, in a 15’ Boston Whaler!  Even though the weather had cleared up, the wind was blowing and was expected to get worse.  Turns out they own a farm in Botetourt, VA near Roanoke.  The grandmother got a little wet coming over so she had left some of her clothes drying on the beach.  Gave them a tour and they were all excited about being here. 

I was trying to build my acronym but I said I can’t do with without a vowel!  Someone pipped up and said well, we do have an Elizabeth – still too many letters!  Anyway, Charlotte was the little person and she was so well behaved during the tour.  Up in the top of the Tower during my lens discussion, she politely raised her hand and said, “Can I see where you live?”  I said absolutely you can when we finish up with the tour!  I took her over to our side of the house and gave her a tour.  I pointed out my sea glass collection and asked her if she wanted a piece and she said YES!  We selected a curved piece of frosted clear glass with which she was very excited. Then we rejoined the group in the giftshop.  I also pulled out my shells for them too!  Some of them selected their favorite one. Lastly, I mentioned while in the gift shop that there is a picture of a Mr. Webster painted by someone with the initials ABW in the lower right.  They were going to check and let me know if that Webster was related to them!

When they headed out, I headed down to check the Clivus then joined Steve and we headed off to clip the South Trail and spray some PI (Poison Ivy).  It was beautiful!  I don’t remember walking this far out on the South Trail.  I definitely want to go there on a low tide day as I’ve seen some cool pictures from someone that must have climbed down and took pictures looking back up! Also today, for the first time I saw baby seagulls’ kind of up close, 2 sets of them.

As we came back, you could see Cobblestone Beach.  The waves were crazy! Also, when we head out like this to do a few things around the island, we have a whiteboard we hang on the door to let folks know where we are or when we’ll be back.  When I came back, I finished up the second half of the back walkway with sand.  Now the back is all done!

As I was waiting for Steve to pull around, I was walking around and saw a pretty plant that was flowering next to some rocks on the side of the road at the Fort Popham Historical State Park. I have the “Lens” feature on my google phone which looks up the picture and tells you what plant it is. It’s called Common Milkweed. Didn’t look like that to me. I thought milkweed was the thing we painted in crafts at school and it had all the little seeds with light feathery things that blew away in the fall. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

Next stop at Cyndy’s to give her our trash and she has a bell for us to hang somewhere that visitors can ring to let us know someone is here!  From there, it was the laundromat.  Steve headed out to get water and he swung by the fish store and the produce place to see what they had to help us with our shopping at Shaw’s. 

We left the Bruno’s Pizza and stopped at the P.O. to drop off some birthday cards.  Mail Mike was working and I heard him mention to a person a few people ahead of me that the price of stamps was going up to 60 cents.  Here’s two perspectives for you.  I still think it’s a deal that you can send a card clear across the U.S. and it will get delivered in a few days, for 60 cents.  I shared out loud my thought and the woman ahead of me replied, “it all goes up and the service goes down.”  She went on to explain that she has to come in to get her mail and drop off her mail.  They no longer deliver or pick up where she lives.  Guess I never really thought about how there might be a lot of folks in rural areas that don’t get any U.S. Postal services due to increasing costs, less staff, etc.  Something to think about next time you walk out to your mailbox. 

Ok – so off to the dock to meet Ethan.  Did the usual, unload Carol and all the stuff and Steve parks the car.  I carried everything down to the floating dock (yay!) to wait.  At the back of Ethan’s boat, he has a fiberglass tank that holds his haul.  The lobsters in here have already been banded and are ready for sorting.  When they pulled up, they needed to unload the tank and put them in the lobster “cars.”  This time he filled three of them.  He still said his haul today was light. Once he fills them, he puts them in the water and ties them off in his skiff slip till he comes back after dropping us at the island.  Then he drives them to where he sells them to a distributor.  It’s a long day for a lobsterman!

We got everything in the dinghy, onto the beach and up the first set of stairs. We were deciding what needed to go up and what could stay and low and behold a Boston Whaler pulls up to the beach!  His name was Yash and today was his birthday.  He took the day off from work and his wife suggested he go for a boat ride (another boater by themselves).  Really nice person – he helped us carry our stuff up to the house!  I gave him a tour, which he very much enjoyed.  He works for Hinkley (the boat people) but he works in their power boat division. Missed taking a picture again!  I’ll probably learn to remember taking one about the time we’re due to leave!  I went back in to put our shopping away and Steve went down to help him leave (push his Whaler back out) and 2 more groups came in! One didn’t have time for a tour but the other did.  So, back in to host mode! But I did get a pic of the group that had time for the tour.  Oh, and Mom sent me a pic of her in her swag – looking good Anne!

The second group that came in was on a large catamaran – S/V Thirsty, beautiful boat.  You’ll see a few pics tomorrow.

I finished up around 7 and luckily Steve had started cooking dinner. We seemed to have found our balance between who does what.  Many times, if I’m late with tours, he starts cooking dinner, which is awesome! Tonight, was fresh haddock, red potatoes and salad.  I’m tired just typing it all up!

Friday, July 8th – Good Morning! Breezy, with some clouds that look like wispy eyelashes! We sat out front with a fruit plate (nice, since shopping was yesterday although the cantaloupe doesn’t look like it faired too well in the transport!)  I took a picture of the guest log book.  We have a subtotal through June of 119 and you can see the tally for July so far is 114!  Things are picking up!!!! 

The other boat I mentioned yesterday, ‘Thirsty’, their crew came up this morning for a tour.  They were Shamus, Amy, Bob and Barb.  They are sailing north for some races and ultimately up towards Roque past Bar Harbor near Jonesboro. We chatted with them for quite a while. It has been super interesting to hear of various peoples’ stories, their journey, what brought them to Seguin, etc.