Sunday
June 12, 2016
Sitting on the front porch this morning, drinking our coffee, we heard an owl hooting somewhere below us near the tram tracks. It’s the first we’ve heard an owl since we’ve been here and I wish we could have seen him but he (or she) was well hidden as they usually are. It was overcast and a little chilly on the porch so we moved inside after finishing our coffee to get more and have our breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola.
The forecast called for rain all day today and it sure looked like that would be the case but since it wasn’t raining yet, we set off to get in a little work before it started. When I went out the North Trail with Chris & Bob from Maine Island Trails Association on Friday, the end of the bog side of the North Trail look was completely overgrown and needed attention. We had purposely not finished trimming that section for fear of disturbing the nesting gulls but the trail was at the point where if we waited any longer, we might not be able to tell where it was. Patty worked on clipping back the underbrush from the sides of
the trail while I weed whacked from the bog to the point where it meets the other side of the loop and then out to the rocky point at the northern tip of Seguin. I had on a baseball cap and a hoodie with hood up almost the entire time I was on the half of the trail closest to the point. I still had a couple of close calls when several of the gulls felt I was invading their space and took to the air against me. Patty had just a hat but no hoodie and they chased her off a couple of ridges with their bombing runs and squawking. It was a battle…man against nature! Between the gulls and the waist high vegetation, I thought I might be trailblazing a new route a time or two but luckily ended up at the sign indicating the two directions of trail. At the least, we ended up in the right place even if the route is new.
Around the time I reached the point where the two sides of the loop meet, the sky cleared and we had calm winds. We could see the cove from there and there were no boats moored but, because we had a lot of visitors yesterday, we expected we might have some today too if the nice weather held. Patty headed back to the house in case we had visitors show up and I continued on to the very end of the trail. From there, I worked my way back the short side of the loop and then all the way back to the trailhead near the house. All total, I was out there about three and a half hours but felt great about the condition of the trail when I was finished. And the timing was good too because just as I reached the trailhead, the weather turned again and became overcast with strong hints of rain to come.
After she returned to the house, with the weather still sunny, Patty got more of the guest linens out on the line to air out, beat some of the rugs from the guest quarters to try to clean and freshen them up a bit, and even repaired one of the braided rugs that was fraying. We were in touch by radio and once I was close to finishing, Patty put some
leftover chili of the stove and heated some of the cornbread from the other night. By the time I came in, the wind had really picked up and it was chilly while we ate our chili. In fact, part way through lunch, we had to run outside to take everything off the clotheslines before they tore off and blew away.
We pretty much hunkered down after our late lunch and stayed inside. Patty’s been bothered by an earache the past couple of days and it’s throwing off her balance sporadically but it didn’t stop her from baking some ginger snap cookies. I was going to help
and do a little more baking but instead, I ended up heading down the hill to add a couple more bucket loads of stone around the exposed electrical main that comes up from the cove. I hadn’t really planned to do that but wanted to take a couple of empty water jugs down to
Paco’s and sidetracked myself for a while with the stones. By the time I got back to the house, the cookies were done and they were really good.
We also had leftovers for dinner also but not your everyday, boring leftovers. We had sautéed lobster and scallops with a side of broiled asparagus. We didn’t get a sunset tonight and the day ended with continuing strong winds from earlier today. We never did get more
than a few sprinkles and definitely nothing like the day long rain that was forecast. I’m glad we decided to get out and do some stuff outside and didn’t get diverted by the call for rain. There’s lots to do here on Seguin but we enjoy working outside and by doing a little each day, it never feels like too much.
Visitors – 0
Favorite Moment(s) – Checking ‘Finish clearing the North Trail’ off our list
