This past weekend, we headed up to Ellsworth to visit my father and C. As you can see, it’s taken me three days to recover from the trip enough to post about it.
Item #1 to love about Ellsworth:
The greenhouse in Dad and C’s house. We actually got there just in time for this picture. I took this picture on Saturday, while it was raining. The next day, Dad dragged everything outside for a spring cleaning and watering. I love this greenhouse. It’s one thing I’d love my own of if we ever manage to buy a house.
Item #2:
The Big Chicken Barn. The best used book store in Maine. Perfect for rainy Saturday wandering.
Item #3:
We actually went up to see a play that C was in, and my father built the sets for. The play is called Art, and was an interesting commentary on the way art effects different people. It was done up in Winter Harbor, and we got there a little early so we could have dinner at the local diner (best Reuben sandwich I’ve had in a while). The below picture is a sculpture in the actual harbor, done by an artist in residence last summer. It’s actually pretty cool to see when the tide is in as well.
Item #4:
After dinner, we had enough time, and the weather had cleared enough for us to head over to Schoodic Point. Schoodic is the part of Acadia NP that’s actually on the mainland. Which is great in the summer, because it’s a bit less congested than the island. It’s a really lovely spot, which some cool geologic features for rock buffs. It also had an interesting section of marshy areas right on the shoreline rocks. We don’t get those down here in the south. Our rocks are good for sealife and pretty much nothing else.
Item #5:
On Sunday, the rain cleared out, and I got to go out in my dad’s garden. It’s a lovely garden, with more of a woodland setting then I’ll ever manage here, and much more room then I have to play with. He and C have been molding it a bit more every year, and it’s looking really lovely. There are a ton more flowers than I showed here, but this is at least a sample of the springtime bounty.
I also saw a hummingbird and a veritable flock of woodpeckers feeding in the garden. I will say, that’s a definite advantage of living out in the country. (Ok, ok, Ellsworth is technically a city, but a city by Maine standards isn’t quite like a city by most other standards.)
On our way out of town, we stopped at Surry Gardens, which is the garden center in the next town that Dad and C use. Though an exercise of gargantuan willpower, I managed to walk out of there with only four plants: a hosta, an Amber Waves heuchera, a felicia and a trailing campanula. I love that place. I wish it was down here.
Item #6:
The fantastic drive home.
We took the extremely long way home, by way of Blue Hill, Deer Isle/Stonington and Castine. (If you want a laugh, check out Route 1 from Ellsworth to Bucksport, and then notice the loop where 15 and 175 take you.) It was lovely driving weather. The blueberry fields are freshly burned, which is always an interesting sight, and we saw beehives out in a number of the unburned barrens. (I think they burn about a third of the barrens at a time. It’s actually good for the blueberry bushes.) We saw several wild turkeys, and some sort of hawk, right by the roadside while we driving.
About the only slightly weird bit was how quiet it was everywhere. I mean, it was the weekend before Memorial Day weekend. I don’t expect summer hours, but I expect to see places open to prep for tourists. It was pretty quiet around. Enough that I have a somewhat bad feeling about the coming summer, tourism-wise.