August 27, 2004

• MAINE AS A WORK OF ART

  I'm sitting looking out the window as I type this. The sun is making the lake sparkle with innumerable glints of eye-squinting flashes. As the wind is from the South, right off the Gulf of Maine, it's cool and bringing with it a haze which makes the islands and the far shore misty. A hummer just flashed by on his way to defend the feeder from other hummers and marauding bees.
  This late in the summer, Maine's wild and ragged look has become lush and full. I spent some time this morning brushcutting pine and moosewood saplings that were coming up out of the thigh-high cinnamon ferns under our maple trees. Now I will have to haul them down and burn them; I use our outdoor fireplace for that to decrease the danger of wildfire. It takes longer but it's safer.
  In a few weeks the ferns will be cinnamon- color (and begin to smell sort of cinnamony). By then the birches and maples will have begun to do their thing followed by the red oaks. As we have had a cool, wet summer the fall foliage should be at its best. A lot of the shoreline of our lake is lined with spruce, pine, and hemlock but there is enough hardwood to make the colors pretty spectacular. I'll keep you posted.
  I'll have to cut this short as our next door neighbor (whose family owns all the land in back of us as well as one of the islands in front), has asked us over for wine & cheese. We'll spend a comfortable hour or so admiring the lake her viewpoint (100 yard difference, but furthur back from the shore - not an nice as ours )

  • 4:01 pm
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