The Children's Chapel in Rockport

This area is not only gorgeous and magical but has great meaning for us because Mom helped build some of the features as a kid. Area children's groups like church groups and scouts, etc. traditionally do a lot of upkeep and new landscaping on the Children's Chapel grounds. Info on how to visit is here:

http://www.steppinoutmaine.com/archives/2004/aug_11/offpath.html

Camden

Calderwood Lane is named after our old family homestead, which the road passes by/through.

This was just a cool private residence where I turned the car around! I liked their gardens.

Public Lake access. Mom and Dubby had a cabin near here when Mom was a kid.

Public beach access in Camden where we used to swim when I was a kid (til a crab bit my toe!)

Mom made me take a lot of pics of the cows, which are Belted Galloways

Mt. Battie from afar

Memorial Pics: the Cemeteries

Mom's half brother, Glenwood (Dubby was his mom)

My great-grandparents. Francis was a Spriritualist Medium known for doing levitations at her seances!

I put an amethyst down for Francis

This is the cemetery Dubby is in

"Dubby"

Dubby's grave: we brought one set of flowers and our cousin Tricia obviously brought the other. Same color! I put a rose quartz under the forget-me-nots that stay planted there. The cemetery does not allow year round plants for mowing purposes so I like to leave things that way.

Memorial Pics: Our old House Lot

creepy coincidental street name

the actual lot

the tree Mom planted!

Memorial Weekend

Sigh. I have always enjoyed Memorial Weekend as a Maine holiday with lots of meaning: the small town parades (in which I used to ride my tissue paper decorated bike as a kid, or sometimes march as a girlscout), the picnics, the Spring flowers, and even the annual upkeep of the family graves. This is an emotionally loaded task for me but one I value. I don't have much of a relationship with my living relatives (except for my parents), but I do have an ongoing connection to many who have passed. And going to Mom's hometown of Camden (as well as the neighboring villages which also have meaning to us like Lincolnville and Rockport) with Mom is a hailstorm of family information. No matter how many times we do it I always learn something new.

This year we did one thing which is usually too emotionally difficult for both Mom and myself. We went by the site of our old house. Mom has lived in several parts of Camden and Lincolnville but in this case I mean the last house we owned as a family; the one my grandmother owned until her death. This was a raggedy little cottage on Limerock Street. My mom had planted a pine tree at the edge of the small lawn when they bought the property and I would hide in it's eventually-copious branches as a kid (somehow always believing my grandmother couldn't find me as she patiently stood underneath me an called my name until I got tired of the joke). My grandmother's name was Hester, by the way. I always called her Dubby because apparently that is what I called her when I first learned to talk and it took. My mom always referred to her as Dubby in my presence also, so I still think of it as her name even today.

There was a little brook behind the house which my grandmother and I used to walk on when it was frozen; winding a path through the woods to the corner grocery (named "Bilbo Baggins" Grocery by the Tolkien-crazed proprieter) for a pizza, pretzles, and a TV guide. I remember playing my Mom's old piano in this little house, scribbling with crayons in all my books, riding my hobby horse in front of the TV or dancing to Dubby's fave program (Lawrence Welk!).

Dubby died of a fairly rapid progression of cancer when I was eight years old. I was monumentously devastated. It still has ripple effects through my senses even today. For instance, any time I even drive by a funeral parlor or a hearse I smell that smell that I remember as I touched her embalmed hand in that casket. I was terrified to touch her and terrified because she could never wake up. I put a little, bejeweled cat pin in the casket with her. Dubby had 16 cats at one point and always had more than a few. Mom and I definitely inherited that quality from her.

Anyhow, we went back to the house lot this year. There is a new road from the corner of our old house lot and up to a series of modular homes. The new road is mysteriously dubbed "Linden Lane." We were braced to see a parking lot or house or some awful thing where ours used to stand but thank the goddess it was a vacant lot filled with lupin. The brook was still there, though dry right now (it had recently flowed so probably only dries seasonally). The pine tree and some remnants of our stone wall are still facing Limerock Street. I picked my way through the growth and had a moment under the tree. It was pretty intense for both Mom and me but I'm very glad we went.

So...that was the experience, and I also have a bunch of pictures. Happy Memorial Day!

catch up

gosh, it feels hard to blog these days! but things are fairly okay. one major issue lately has been the health of my familiar and furry soul-mate, Ophelia. I got Ophelia in Tennessee when I was in grad school at Vanderbilt. She and her sister, Sarah, are named after MinniePearl (Sarah Ophelia Colley-Cannon) who died the week I adopted them and whose name was prominent in the Nashville media at that time. That was summer of 1996 so, whether I want to admit it or not, my kitties are almost fourteen years old! in general they are very healthy but at her last exam the vet noticed that Ophelia had early stage thyroid tumors. they are benign in the cancer sense but they lead her thyroid to overproduce and that can cause heart problems as well as other systems to fail if it progresses too much. so the diagnosis was very scary but we are being proactive. I am taking O to the holistic vet in belfast and he has given her some supplements and diet changes that we hope will regulate her thyroid for a long time to come. anyone reading this send us good healing energy please! she's my girl.

goin home

well, here it is Sunday morning and we are preparing for the journey home. it's been a great trip and its been fun to share it! see you soon. :0)

orbs

so here's how it works: I took multiple shots of all these angles so that largely eliminates the possibility that there was glare off a surface or dirt on my lens. I was really careful to note where street lights or windows or other stuff were and if I had any doubts I left the picture out. so as far as I'm concerned these are all good pics of spirit orbs. some are very bright and some are more translucent. the bigger the pic the more of them you can see so you may wanna click on the photos individually to get at least a slightly bigger frame. :0)

Salem at Nite

Well, we didn't find a ghost tour so we made our own by walking around and shooting our cameras for orbs around the points where we thought it might do the most good. It's always neat to go around a town after dark and see how its character changes. Here tonite was very peaceful. Okay, I guess it's creepy and peaceful, but I like it.

In this post I'll just put the cool shots of Salem after dark and then I'll do a seperate post for orb shots...one of which is right in our new hotel room above my bed!

Cool New Development at the Hawthorne!

Well, not long after I blogged last time I went out to get some supplies and then to use an ATM. the first THREE of them were out of service! So I learned from the concierge where there was an actual bank and walked down there while mom rested.

When I came back she was all excited. The front desk called and offered to upgrade us to a fancier room because it was my birthday! At first I was totally mystified but then they told me it was because I posted on the Hawthorne blog that I was there for my b-day.

So now we are in a really big room with a view right out over the front door onto Essex St. (versus a wall and some AC vents which were our view in the other room). Not only do we have two queen size bed but two BATHROOMS with TUBS in them! We had a tiny potty and shower in the other one. now we can do tandem baths and race each other! Freaky! It is soooo cool and obviously I love the Hawthorne more than ever! Oh yeah and don't worry, there's still an iHome and an even bigger TV! ;0)