Category Archives: Out and About

Camden, Maine, Aug 2025

Three days in Camden. We ate out twice, dined on leftovers on our little deck, hiked, photographed inlets, drove up Mt. Battie, and read a lot. Peaceful.

Mt. Battie views below.

I brought a handful of quilt scraps to work on but only this long-ago-revamped sleeveless top got any attention. Mindless.

This next bit could be a Yelp review. Sorry, not sorry.

To say, as I did at one point, that our accommodations “narrowly missed being a dump” wasn’t quite fair. More like, I expected a bit more for the price. For instance, for $300 a night I expect better than plastic utensils at breakfast. Maid service. We had a cute deck that overlooked a creek, but it was garbage-strewn. But worst of all was the much-touted floral pedestrian bridge. Picture after picture online showed hanging baskets overflowing with flowers. I was really looking forward to it.

The reality? Every single pot contained dead plants. Ick. I was perhaps prepared to cut these folks a little slack given how very hot it’s been down here and knowing how quickly a plant can become distressed in such heat, until I saw a hose curled up at the end of the bridge. C’mon!

But! The pluses were significant. Plenty of towels. Thoughtful blackout curtains. And even if the sight of the creek wasn’t that great, the sound of it soothed and delighted. And the lights from the ice cream shop across the way were pretty.

Me: you think they’d send someone down to the creek to pick up the garbage. It wouldn’t take more than 20 minutes.

Husband: they were too busy watering the plants.

Oh! And! We got to see Lisa on the way north.

Post script (text from Deb L) (me slapping my head):

What to say

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Sunday June 22, 2025, the day after dipshit unilaterally decided to bomb Iran. GOP members of Congress being MIA matters more than it did last week.

Meanwhile, record-setting heat wave ought to command our attention and resources. It is beyond baffling that it doesn’t.

Finished this book this week. It’s about a crew that goes around repairing underwater cables, cables that connect us to the internet. The ship of the story sets out from South Africa, so there are some interesting observations about race. I learned about this network of cables enough to understand how fragile our connectivity is. But mostly the novel is a character study of the ship’s operational leader and a compelling one.

Grey skies, charm in CO

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We arrived to grey skies in Denver yesterday, May 6, 2025, a first I think. Usually as we’re driving north to Boulder, I’m shooting photo after photo of beautiful white clouds backed by an impossibly blue sky. Not yesterday. It’s rainy and grey today too.

We’re staying in a CHARMING neighborhood in Longmont — what? Green spaces, mature trees, and a big variety of well-built homes had us scratching our heads. The homes look newish, but the trees are older? How? In Colorado, so many neighborhoods are cheaply constructed boxes surrounded by parking lots, lacking greenery, often plopped next to highways.

Come to find out, this neighborhood used to be a tree farm! And luckily, the developer was the tree-farm owner himself, not some outfit who wanted to do the work as cheaply as possible which invariably means taking most trees down. It’s lovely.

The developer had a lot of fun naming the streets too. We’ve got: Tenacity Drive, Confidence Drive, Half-measures Drive, Hundred Year Party Court, Katy Lane, Tempted Ways Drive.

I’d want to live on Incorrigible Circle.

Ceiling from restaurant yesterday — The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. Its history is fascinating.

A night out

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April 26, 2025

The last time I saw Alvin Ailey was in 2013. It’s a little hard to believe sometimes how time passes. The show, no surprise, was spectacular and moving. It was good to get out.

Stitching to a terrible Netflix Series, Ransom Canyon. Hallmark movie without the Christmas, I say, including the signature near-miss handsome lead. This hero looks like a mash up of Timothy Olyphant and Matt Damon and all I can see is how he’s not Olyphant. Then there’s Ugly Brooke Shields. If you watch, you’ll know who I mean. Lots of preposterous story lines.

Walked over to Chinatown before the performance last night and got a little turned around getting back to the Wang Center which isn’t the Wang Center anymore but hey. It was a lot of steps, steps on uneven, wet, and unpredictable sidewalks. I’m tired today.

Concord April 2025

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It was warm yesterday with the kind of blue sky and soft air that makes a New Englander glad to have survived another winter. We went to Concord.

A friend alerted me to a series of regional fiber art shows, including one at the Concord Art Gallery, and we thought we’d start there since April 19, 2025 (today) is a big day. It’s the 250th anniversary of the shot heard round the world. Resistance, tyranny, courage, high stakes, uncertain outcomes — it is all so newly relevant.

My favorite piece. Artist: Erin M. Riley

The fiber show was mostly disappointing but the air of celebration and pride out in the streets was energizing. Flags everywhere! Vendors out hawking goods! All manner of preparations being made.

A a pop-up beer garden next to the Wright Tavern hosted a crowd in spite of it being mid-morning, many guests wearing tri-corner hats. Hey, why not? We got ice cream.

Patriot’s Day is usually celebrated on the Monday closest to the 19th here in Massachusetts, which is also when the Boston Marathon takes place. But the significance of the anniversary and the fact that it landed on a Saturday made for a break with routine. I hope it is going well out there today.

This morning at 5:30 the military reenactment started. The first shot is celebrated as being shot at the Old North Bridge was actually fired in Lexington. I thought the reenactment might be sparsely attended, but judging by local TV coverage there was a good crowd assembled.

Everywhere across the country today, NO KING protests are taking place.

Acknowledging the courage of our early settlers’ resistance to a tyrannical king is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Our hour is here. The stakes are high — freedom, the constitutional order, international standing, brain drain, loss of expertise in every sector, agencies (critical agencies) going dark, personal data being shared with our adversaries, the economy cratering, the certainty that children formerly receiving USAID nutrition packets will die of starvation, ongoing genocide in Gaza — and the outcomes uncertain.

If you’re protesting today, stay safe. I for one do not think Trump will be declaring martial law any time soon. But does he need to? GOP lawlessness and destruction makes autocracy evident at every turn even without such a declaration.

Meanwhile (and sometimes the dissonance is truly disorienting), I’m making a three-layer carrot cake for Easter dinner tomorrow. Heading out to buy flowers and chocolate and toilet paper with an “A conservation rating” (Trader Joe’s).