Monthly Archives: August 2010

I ended this month with a visit from my (internationally-known geochemist) brother, Steve Shirey, and his son Clayton. It was great to have a chance to see him before he heads off to Australia to look at some of the oldest rocks on earth.

At the same time my brother was on the island, all three of our cousins were staying in the family house. I think the last time we were all on Islesford together was when we were kids.

L to R: Gail Collier, Lisa Luke, Steve Shirey, me, Jonatha Paetzhold. (Yeah, Steve looks like a dork in this photo, but at least there is a better one of him above it.  And if you happen to check his Web site, he has an excellent picture there, along with the most extensive CV I’ve ever seen.)

Our family dinner was preceded by this sunset from the front porch:

The Islesford Dock Restaurant closed for the summer after dinner on Sunday, August 29. The next day, 40 people including staff, friends and family headed to nearby Baker Island for a picnic to eat up some of the restaurant left overs. (Clams, crabs,  lobsters, ribs, sausage. It was kind of a hardship, but we were willing to help out.)

The name of Dan and Cynthia’s boat is one of my favorites; the Macamer. It looks so French and yet it is just a shortened version of “Ma! Com’ere!”

Henry Isaacs and his lovely wife, Donna. (Does this guy ever take a break from painting?)

The picnic ended with yet another gorgeous sunset.

At this point in August I feel a little bit “fried” from trying to work and keep up with the fantastic pace of friends and visitors who are squeezing a lot of activity  into their 2 week vacations.  How could the summer go by so quickly?  There have been so many events and no way to attend them all, without being two places at once. A few years ago, I heard someone say, “My life is SO busy!  It is so full of good things.” I try to remember that. Busy does not have to equal bad.  But sometimes it means rushing through something where more time should be taken.

Sunday was the first gray, cool day we have had in a while and I was able to work all day in the studio to make some necklaces for Alone Moose Gallery in Bar Harbor. It was exactly the kind of day I had been craving. By Monday morning, I was back to the rush. Taking photos at 8 a.m. by the window, before hurrying off to yoga class and then rushing to catch the boat to go off island to drop the necklaces off. How do people manage to blog daily and add in great photos? I just have to accept that, in August, I am not going to figure that out!

What a day for the outdoor wedding of Ashley Alley and Drew Staplemen at the old Coast Guard Lifesaving Station on Islesford. It was sunny with just enough breeze to keep everyone cool and keep the mosquitos away. Absolutely perfect!

…to cocktails and dinner in Northeast Harbor with the New York Yacht Club? We were invited by dear friends who were raising funds from the sailing crowd to help pay back lobster fishermen for some of the gear that gets lost due to being cut off by yachts passing through. The money will go to the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation to help continue their “ghost trap” work. (Recovering old lobster traps from the ocean floor.) It was a really nice thing to do, and the dress was much more casual than I expected.

Luckily I found a little black skirt I have not worn for a few years, paired it with a salmon t-shirt and salmon sash belt, and put on one of my old faithful necklaces of PMC beads. (The necklace from the old header photo.) I think I even looked okay, and I was very comfortable, if  a tad over dressed for the occasion. Always better to be over dressed than underdressed don’t you think?   Bruce wore my favorite shirt  with nattily dressed fish.  We were unplanned in our color coordination!

I was afraid the group would be a bit stuffy, but our dinner companions were delightful, and the family style dinner of antipasto, salad, garlic bread and ziti with meatballs was quite tasty, and relaxing.  Thank you to our hosts, and thank you to the N.Y. Yacht Club for their generosity toward fishermen with whom they share the same ocean real estate.

By doing away with my original “theme” I had to make some changes. I lost the header I was using, which made me change the header photo. As I was adding back the widget for my links, I started looking at font options. (Widgets? I still have so much to learn!) But, I like the new font, and I didn’t even know I could customize it until tonight.

Change = growth. And I thought I was just going to go to bed early tonight.

I can’t believe WordPress just did away with my blog format and put in one of their own that I didn’t choose!! Where are my features from yesterday? The order of the blogs of my friends and the tips and tricks category?

I’ll straighten this out or have a new look soon. But if this format looks different to you, it does to me too and I’m not so happy about it…..

Too tired to take this on tonight.

Hosted by Marian Baker and Kaitlyn Duggan at the Islesford Pottery, this year’s theme was cats. For some reason August has been busier than ever before, so not all of the entries were made out of clay.  Check out some of the interpretations that helped to raise $2,500 for the Islesford Neighborhood House Capital Campaign:

Martha Miller had a generous display of painted rocks.

There were many mugs on which to bid.

My husband, Bruce, made this one. There were several collectors of “lobsterman art” at the show, so bidding was fierce on this piece. (winning bid – $120!)

Fine silver “Dancing Cats” pin by yours truly.

Disgustingly realistic and deliciously clever, my  nephew raised $35 with this chocolate cake!

Who knows what the theme will be in 2012. Got any suggestions?

Fritz’s girlfriend, Meghan, came home from work at 11 on Thursday night and announced that Ashley’s Night Blooming Cereus was blooming. We were out the door in a flash, to find Ashley and friends upstairs in his dark studio, with a flashlight, to watch the incredible one-night-a-year bloom. (My own cereus has never flowered.) For some reason Ashley’s plant has been producing blossoms every month. There was one in June and two in July! I was happy to catch the August blossom, (my first viewing ever) and to see that there are two more buds. The flower is quite spectacular in looks and smell. There is something special about sitting in a room with just a few friends, at midnight, in the midst of frantic frantic August, to quietly watch an exotic flower put on a spectacular show. It was a tiny moment of grace in a week of craziness.