…my favorite mother-in-law’s big birthday. She does not want to acknowledge her age, so she decided to cut the age in half and start over at 40. She has that much energy and zest for life. We had a birthday dinner with friends at our house tonight. This afternoon her oldest son (my favorite) baked her a cake.
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…to sourdough bread!
Am I becoming obsessed?
My studio day was not really lost. I just didn’t work there, today. Instead I made 2 loaves of bread and some bolognese sauce for pasta for Bruce’s mom’s birthday party tomorrow night. (Along with some olive cheese puffs to bake for hors d’oeuvres.) The other 2 loaves I took with me as gifts for the dinner party we attended in Ellsworth tonight. My friend Susan had arranged a birthday dinner at Simone’s restaurant for our dear friend Helen. One loaf for Helen and one for Susan and her husband Chris who were celebrating 20 years of marriage. Congratulations to all!
I took the 4 p.m. boat off of the island, and hoped there would be enough light to still read my book on the way to N.E. Harbor. There was enough for 5 minutes or so. Suddenly, Tiffany, who was sitting next to me , whipped her head around to look behind her and said, “Oh my god!” It took a second for each of us to grab our cameras, and run out to the stern of the boat. Where there were more passengers, mostly workmen, and many with their phones out snapping the same photo we were.
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Well, the wind is still howling but the temperature has hovered around 32º all day, so much of our snow was mixed with rain. It’s messy but not deep. Just three miles away on Mount Desert Island they have a foot of snow. We might have 3 inches. Go figure. Everyone had a snow day on the mainland, but that doesn’t happen on the island unless the power goes out. Which it did not do until 5 p.m. For the students at the Islesford School, it was business as usual.
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Today was such a pretty winter day. Sunny and still. I forget how warm 28º can feel when there is no wind. It was also the kind of day known as a weather breeder. Today’s high pressure system is going to suck low pressure right into its place as it moves out of here tomorrow. That means snow and high winds for us. I’ve heard a range of predictions for snowfall ranging from 2″ to 12″. On the islands we’ll be prepared for boat cancelations and power outages. We’ll just have to take what we get because, “What can you do eh? Not much I know.” (A little nod to my Canadian friends Angie and Marly, that.)
I finished writing my column for next month’s Working Waterfront newspaper and went off island on the 11:30 boat to get my hair cut and stock up on groceries. I pass this road sign every time I’m on my way out of Northeast Harbor and it just cracks me up. I can’t even tell you how many times I have thought I should stop and take a picture, but in seconds I’m past the sign and dealing with the suddenly rough pavement 30 yards beyond the sign. Today I remembered.
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…since early December.
That’s when I bought these beads at the Island Arts Association holiday fair in Bar Harbor. They’re made by Linda and Ken Perrin from Atlantic Art Glass, in Ellsworth. (It’s so cool to know they have their groovy hot shop in humble little Ellsworth, the crossroads of downeast Maine!)
I haven’t been in the studio for a couple weeks, but my little winter break is about to end. I keep thinking of how I would like to combine these with some of my own PMC beads. Today I got them out for a fresh look. And I left them out on my bench. To call me back to the studio.
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…because my life isn’t all about the jewelry. After staying up late last night to watch football, I worked on the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle which was challenging but fun. It’s not really feasible to subscribe to the Sunday Times up here on the island. It’s very expensive and usually arrives a day late. I could have it sent over from the newspaper store in N.E. Harbor, by boat, but it wouldn’t get here until 4 p.m. on Sunday and by then the weekend is almost over. So, I subscribe to the NYT crossword puzzles on line. I download the Sunday puzzle on Saturday night and then stay up until I finish it. Woo Hoo! Wild fun on Islesford.
I had the most relaxing Sunday. I started work on my next column for the Working Waterfront, watched some football with my husband and took a long nap on the couch. After a brisk walk at sunset, we spontaneously invited our friends Henry and Donna over for pasta primavera. I am so fortunate to have a husband who likes to cook, especially at this time of year when his boat and lobster traps are out of the water. Bruce made the pasta dish and I made a little salad of avocado and pineapple, and we had fresh baked coconut chocolate chip cookies for dessert. At this time of year we do not feel rushed, and I love it.
I am not a fan of the single-use kitchen gadgets. I don’t mean disposable things like sponges or scrubbies, but those items that take up a lot of room in the drawer or cupboard and they only serve one purpose. So when Santa put a rather large pineapple-corer-slicer-thingy in my stocking a few weeks ago, I thought it was a candidate for the regift pile or the white elephant table at the Islesford Fair. Last week, with a pineapple about to rot beyond edibility on my counter, I took the pineapple-corer-slicer-thingy off of its cardboard sleeve and gave it a try. I’ll be damned. The thing actually worked! And it worked well. Well enough that I made sure to buy another pineapple the other day when I was off the island at the grocery store. I couldn’t wait to show my lobsterman chef husband what a useful gadget it was.
All you do is cut the top off the pineapple, place the pineapple-corer-slicer-thingy on the freshly cut surface, and twist. When you reach the bottom of the fruit, you pull up and out comes the inside of the pineapple, neatly sliced, with the outer shell intact. Good times with a one-hit wonder and no more pineapples rotting on the counter.
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Sarah brought the soup, I provided bread, and Ashley provided all the rest.
How lucky I was to spend the afternoon with friends who feed my creative spirit. Ashley gave us a presentation of the beautiful new book he is working on. I am not able to show it here, but he will be showing it to his publishers in New York next week.
I checked out Ashley’s night blooming cereus plant, remembering midnight visits last summer, with other islanders, to see the once a year blossoms. I don’t know what it is about his studio, but that plant sure likes it. It flowered 7 different times last summer, and three of the times were with double blossoms! Today, though, there were no buds in sight…until I turned around to look at the unassuming aloe plant.
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Blog, I mean. I may have to change my mind on this resolution…It feels like there is nothing to write about today. With a little stomach bug, I spent the day on the couch, reading. Not much to say about that. Not much to photograph either.
But I recently bought some lighted branches to put in my bathroom for a nightlight and they make me happy every time it gets dark. I think I could put these in every room of my house and still not get tired of them.
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Barbara S Fernald Jewelry 