Columbus Day Weekend~ the last camping weekend of 2015?
Handmade is marvelous, don’t you think? The oak leaves are still green…the promise of warm afternoons in our future.
It’s the season of conflicting emotions…yes we’re tired and looking forward to lingering over coffee in the morning and a glass of wine in the evening without thinking about being in the office when guests arrive…but we never close the park with a rush of energy, because we’re always hoping that Fall will last a bit longer and we’ll enjoy the company of campers for “just another couple of days.” When people call the office to ask when we close, I’m frustratingly vague because it all truly depends on the weather. When it’s cold enough to threaten our water lines with freezing, we’ll be closed. Maybe Oct 18th…maybe the 25th…it’s a day by day thing, sort of like farming.
Captured by Karen Martin on Site 15
Today it’s even more difficult to lay the season to rest because this weekend we’re expecting guests for the Maine Maritime Academy’s Family Gathering while all of our local media covers the tragic loss of four Mainers’ lives on the El Faro…If walls could talk, the sea captains’ homes of Searsport have been privy to private tragedy on the seas for over 200 years…the tides, storms and vagrancies in the weather and we’re clearly part of the cycle.
Was that too heavy for a campground blog? Mostly we’re feeling “Fall Festive”… honest 🙂 Steve’s been mowing the fields, repairing the seawall from Wednesday’s storm and building a new wood shed…I’ve been putting food up for winter, greeting guests and making foliage tour recommendations and dyeing wool with marigolds, coreopsis and grapes. My most recent pics show a blissfully mundane life don’t you think?
Our frog ponds are candy jars to a couple of blue herons that have been hanging around lately. It was foggy this morning and I tried to capture this young one…can you see her to the left of the red maple?
My new favorite way to preserve for winter: Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick, sprinkle with salt, oregano & paprika, roast in a 250 degree oven for 3-4 hours (an oven in a lobster shack by the sea is best).
Our friends at the Yardarm Motel in Searsport had a bumper grape crop…and shared with us. Yesterday’s grapes are today’s juice…Welch’s never comes close!