Thursday on Penobscot Bay

For the most part, this week has been devoted to Fiber College and our annual call for instructors. To prepare our instructor call list beyond the vendors, instructors and students whom we know personally, I scour the national magazines, websites of fiber festivals throughout the East and leads people have given me during the year…I have one notebook devoted entirely to gathered thoughts generated by Fiber College conversations.

Border’s in Sarasota provided me with the magazine research material I needed. Looking through Holiday Knits by Interweave Press led to an absolutely delightful morning yesterday. Designer Mary Jane Mucklestone had her December Light’s Hat beautifully presented on the pages of this “big deal” magazine…and a quick jump to the bio was one of my best gifts of the Christmas season…Mary Jane lives in Searsmont…just 15 minutes from here…how cool! Yesterday we finally got to meet…I hope this is the beginning of friendship that will last decades. MJ is an exceptionally talented artist who divides her time between photography and photo design, knitting and living a fully engaged life…for a peek, check out her website: Mary Jane . For more about our meeting, visit Fiber College WordPress

Steven and I have been sharing Clifford (the Big Red Truck) because Kermit (the Little Green Truck) has been in the auto shop for a new gas tank. This means I had to be dressed and out the door to take him to school before breakfast with Mary Jane…let’s suffice it to say that I don’t do early mornings during cold weather and the process is painful.

But I was on Main Street Belfast by 7:30. Aside from the beauty of the sea smoke rising from the Bay, I was reminded again why I like living here. It was cold there were plenty of cars, parked but idling to stay warm while the occupants ran inside for a to-go cup of fresh coffee and a couple of muffins. If the national news is telling the truth, we live in a better place than most. I know that this isn’t a plug for ecological living but when the frost is thick, it sure is nice to get the car warm…

We met at Chase’s Daily and ate apricot walnut scones (I brought one of these Chocolate Pear Tarts home for later) while we traded stories and talked about how we both ended up in Maine. I learned about Moo Cards from her…have you seen these great, tiny calling cards made from photos uploaded to Flicker? This weekend I’ll be designing a set for the campground…I’ll post them when they get here from England. These were designed by MJ.

After a delightful breakfast, I headed back to Steven’s school to chauffeur him to an eye doctor appointment in Rockland. I thought you might like a little photo essay of our quick road trip.

If you’ve ever taken the back road from Belfast to Camden, you’ll recognize this park pavillion overlooking Megunticook lake.

Here we are driving into Camden, you can tell by the filled parking spots that there’s still plenty of folks around during the Winter months.

While Steven was at the doctor’s, I drove into Rockland to pick up a bag of Rock City Coffee…this month we’re trying the Organic Breakwater Blend to see if we might want to carry small bags at the campground store.