I’m not complaining but I don’t think I realized how much energy we put into Fiber College until yesterday (check out the slide show from this year at www.FiberCollege.org )…It was worth every ounce of effort but maybe I’m just getting older.  I thought it would take a couple of days to unwind and pretend that I was focusing on the new tasks at hand, but now I see that I was just struggling to get everything accomplished.  It’s only been the last couple of days that I feel like me again…so I did what comes naturally…

I put the top down on the convertible, found Emma and we drove to Blue Hill to find the latest yarn store “String Theory.” Sue Wright, one of the Fiber College instructors, told us about this terrific store that focuses on hand dyed yarn.  We pulled up to a restored farm house set among lovely gardens and were greeted by a fellow spinner and fiber’holic (we recognize each other instantly by the odd fibers clinging to our cloths).  The sunlit shop consists of three rooms, floor to ceiling yarn displays, plenty of knit swatches and lots of hard to find books…heaven between walls!  When we’d poked around enough we went down to the local coop for coffee and because the day was so perfectly autumnal, we took our brew and mango muffins to the town pier and watched the ducks hunting for snacks among the seaweed fronds…I wish you could have been with us.

Things here at the campground are blissfully quiet.  Dad and I trade off minding the store but we’re never far away.  We host just a few guests during this time of year and everyone enjoys the non-formality of the season.  The days are sparkling and call for just a sweater, the nights beg you to cuddle with someone special.  If your ever lucky enough to come and visit now, don’t ever worry about reservations…just call the morning you’ll be arriving and tell us what time you think you’ll be here.  There are always plenty of sites to choose from and I’m usually somewhere in the park, just not womanning the counter all of the time.   Come to enjoy the solitude of sitting at the Bay with only the osprey for company and the sparkling stars at night.

Steven’s gardens are bursting with fall flowers and produce.  A week ago the abundance felt like a cruel trick of nature (you know, be careful of what you wish for because you just might get it), but with new found energy, I’m the food saving queen!  We have a large (5 burner) grill and it’s perfect for charing the tomatoes…5 minutes on the grill, the skins slip right off and they’re ready for freezer bags. 

I always try to put up enough vegetables for the entire winter but this year it looks like we’ll be buying all of our peppers and eggplant because those haven’t done well at all.  The winter squash and onions seem to be making up for it but still, I’ll miss the babaganoush.    Next week I’ll make the blistering Armenian pickles we love with carrots, green tomatoes, string beans, cabbage and hot peppers and then I’m going to try ketchup…I’ve never made it but have always wanted to…after that we’ll move on to mince meat or chutney…unless the weather turns cold because I only like to cook in the lobstershack beside the ocean…call me fickle!

Tomorrow the Common Ground Fair starts…my second favorite weekend of the year.  The weather is predicted to be perfect and I’ve already got my scheduled marked out…I’m going to try weaving a pouch with porcupine quills (I have no idea what it’s about), attend a lecture on growing lavender in Maine, I never miss the beanhole bean tasting and I’m going to hear a lecture on the variations of llama fleece…I’m glad to be me!