Monday
August 1, 2016
The temperature was comfortably cool, the sky was still overcast, and we had a night north wind to start the day. After fruit for breakfast, Patty went down to the Whistle House to paint a couple of new sign and I did a little blogging. We were essentially killing time until the grass dried a little and so it would cut a little more cleanly.
A little after ten, we went down the hill and mowed, clipped the Cobblestone & Cove Trails, and weed whacked. Patty was able to mow camping area without harassment from the insane mama gull that was there for a long time, disappeared for a time, and then came back again. While we were working, two sailboats came into the cove and moored up then, just as we finished and putting things away in Paco’s Engine House, a couple with their daughter and granddaughter started rowing ashore in their dinghy. I headed up the hill with the weed whacker and put it away and changed clothes while Patty greeted them as they crested the Lighthouse Trail onto the lawn.
The couple are long time Mainers and their daughter grew up here to until moving to Port Townsend, Washington fifteen years ago where she and her husband are raising their daughter. We’ve had the good fortune to spend quite a bit of time in the Pacific Northwest and I talked to her about the many similarities in geography between there and Maine (aside from the big mountains out west).
Ethan’s group arrived next and it was fairly small, probably because the weather wasn’t that great this morning. It actually drizzled for a few minutes a couple of times this morning which might have discouraged some from coming even though our visibility was mostly clear. From the ferry, we had a local woman with her niece visiting from a little farther way and another couple from the nearby town of Yarmouth.
After our morning visitors went down the hill, Patty and I had leftover shrimp and grits for lunch at the kitchen table. When we finished, we did a few odds and ends around the house, including putting up the first two signs in a milepost that we’re putting up in the area where oil tanks were located in the past.
Mid-afternoon, we went down to the cove to meet friends that are arriving with Ethan. Hanna-Catherine is a friend of mine from high school, longer ago than I care to think about, and is here along with her husband Kevin, daughter Claire, and son Angus. I rowed out to meet them at Ethan’s small boat and in a couple of trips we were all ashore with them and their provisions. At the same time, another sailboat arrived and a couple came ashore and we all started chatting.
I left Patty with the newly arrived couple and walked up the hill with our friends and Patty followed behind a short time later with the couple. Up top, Hannah-Catherine and her family got settled in and Patty showed the couple the museum and then I took them up in the tower. They had not visited Seguin before but were Mainers and another sailing Mainer couple recommended visiting Seguin because it’s so nicely maintained and the “keepers are great”. Such a nice compliment to F.O.S.I.L.S. and to us personally!
Hannah-Catherine and Angus went out to hike the North Trail while I was in the tower with the couple that arrived and the same time – they made it about 2/3 of the way out until some gulls started dive bombing Angus and he streaked back up the trail, past Hannah-Catherine, back to the trailhead. He said one of the gulls brushed his head when it flew past him. Angus wasn’t a fan.
We grilled a bunch of burgers, steamed corn, and sautéed tomatoes and zucchini for dinner and ate at the picnic table outside the kitchen.
After we finished eating and talking at the table, we cleaned up and then hiked out the South Trail picking berries (not many left to pick) and then watched a sliver of a sunset in an otherwise cloudy sky from the southern end of the island.
Back at the house, we played cards for an hour or so – I think the rules were based on a real game but Hannah-Catherine also remembered new rules and the order of dealing and playing randomly switched back and forth. It was more funny than anything and we were all kind of punchy and decided to call it a night after one final hand where Angus bet the max and secured last place (where I would have been otherwise). I think Kevin won and everyone else fell somewhere in between.
Visitors – 16
Favorite Moment(s) – arrival of friends from Virginia
Sunrise – 5:18am
Sunset – 7:54pm
#Seguinisland #seguinislandlight #seguinislandlighthouse #maine #LifeOnTheRock
