Wordless Wednesday: a state that knows diversity is a strength!

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Wordless Wednesday: so many shells!

 

Picnic with history

A lovely picnic spot, you would say, right? And it certainly is! But that's not all you get at Fort Allen Park on the Eastern Promenade in Portland, Maine. It's practically oozing with military history information!

Just take a look at the handy sign on the left (click to enlarge). Wow! Revolutionary and 1812 War stuff, Civil War stuff, Spanish-American War stuff, and a monument to some seriously impressive World War II stuff. 

I'll show you the individual monuments and artifacts from each of these conflicts below. But first you can admire the late afternoon sun on Casco Bay in the picture above. Something about the light at this time of day, at this latitude, makes the water so amazingly, magically, blue. Like, the bluest blue you can imagine!

But now, on to the history.

There is another very useful sign that enumerates the various forts that you can see, or almost see, from this vantage point. 

Early in the nation's history, this area was not only a major industrial area, but also a strategically vital port. Plus, it's the closest our territory gets to those European powers we weren't completely sure bought into our independence. Hence, these fortifications, many of which were built, as you can see, around 1812, when these worries burst into conflict.

Some were also erected during the Civil War, but the main attraction in the park with regard to that war was this:

It was the site of a massive reunion of Grand Army of the Republic vets, which must have been an impressive gathering. (I left the gorgeous Eastern Prom houses in the background of this shot for your enjoyment  ) 

Moving on to 15 or so years after this reunion, we have this impressive piece of artillery:

What's most notable about this gun is where it came from: the Maine...yes, the "Remember the Maine" Maine! But wasn't the Maine sunk, historically astute readers might ask? Of course it was, but somehow this piece of it got recovered. As this plaque verifies:

But I personally don't think this is the most impressive informational plaque in the park. My vote goes to this one:

The Portland isn't here, and actually doesn't exist any more. But the mast you can see on the left in the picture at the top of my post is from it. And in the plaza where it's displayed are some informational panels describing this ship's remarkable record in WWII. Just take a look at those battles listed on the plaque above. I mean, it was everywhere in the Pacific war! All the big battles, for sure. Then to top it off, while the surrender that happened on the Missouri is the famous one, the Portland accepted the surrender of an important naval base at Truk, in the Carolinas, at the same time.

The city of Portland has every right to be proud of its namesake vessel, don't you think?!

Finally, some white stuff!

 

When you go to spend a late Christmas just after new year's in Maine, of all places, you assume there will be snow everywhere. And you just hope the roads won't be icy when you go to the sledding hill or the skating rink. Right?

Well, because of climate change, or just the luck of the draw, we only saw the white stuff a couple of days before we left. And the poor Austin family didn't get to see any at all!

There wasn't too much for us, either, as you can see above, where an Adorable Granddaughter is waiting on the deck for everyone else to get suited up to come out and play.

Now they do have snow-making equipment up there, and everyone got to enjoy the man-made stuff at a tubing hill. Although some of the party just found the tubes to be comfy places to nap...

But the natural stuff waited until we were almost ready to go home to make an appearance. 

Even the little bit we got was enough to make for lovely coatings of bare tree limbs, one of my favorite winter photo subjects...

That last photo was actually taken from the car window as we headed mountain-ward. Yes, the two oldest Maine grandkids are taking skiing lessons at Lost Valley [and in the few weeks since we saw the first lesson they're already up on the big kid slopes and probably skiing faster than Gramma could keep up]...

Of course they have snow-making capability there, but they've been getting a lot of natural stuff since we left as well. Maybe our next winter visit will be with a more typical New England ambience.  

Wordless Wednesday: a colorful wall

 

A bit of downtown Portland

I have often blogged about my fondness for Portland, Maine—not only special as home of more than half of my grandchildren, but also because it's just such a cool little city.

Our recent late Christmas trip was mostly spent indoors with family stuff, but we did get out and about in Portland's Oldtown a few times.

Much as we were looking forward to snowy adventures, the weather didn't cooperate with the white stuff until just before we left. So I don't have winter-wonderland photos for you, just a few randomly interesting structures and objects we happened to see.

Like the handsome building you see above, across the street from a park where the kids enjoyed climbing on rocks and generally running off the sugar from their Standard Baking pastries. I was quite taken with this edifice; here's a closeup of some of its cute decorative elements:

A rather cool thing about the park where we played, in addition to the rocks, were a couple of these at first mysterious post-boxes (it is Post Office Park):

I was immediately reminded of the post-boxes in London, and how you can tell under whose reign they were erected (see one at the bottom of this post). But the Asian characters were a puzzle...

...for a few minutes, anyway, until we saw this plaque (and you'll notice I was able to sneak a pic of Oldest Granddaughter into the story).

I saw another informational plaque down by the harbor when we went to one of our favorite eateries. 

Portland has been welcoming to folks escaping from bad situations for a long, long, time, and the tradition continues with their embrace of refugees from many recent conflicts. Like I said, a really nice city!

Wordless Wednesday: Indeed!

 

A late finish

Thanks to an unreliable senior memory, I thought I had finished my series of Maine blogs...but, no. I wanted to show you a few sights from the lovely Evergreen Cemetery near the kids' house. As you can see by the fact that I have a "cemeteries" label to this blog (on the right) I do enjoy exploring these memorial parks. They're especially interesting in New England, where some of the memorial customs (like the rows of family member headstones you see above) are different from what you find in the South.

They also have more really old graves, like this one, whose occupant was born just after the birth of the nation, in 1792 (although the headstone has obviously been replaced more recently):

Also, in contrast with many graves and memorials in southern cemeteries, if you see a Civil War notation here, the person fought wore a different uniform. "GAR" on this emblem stands for "Grand Army of the Republic," which Wikipedia tells us is a fraternal organization for Union vets:

(I've been doing some genealogy research this past year, and found that I have ancestors on both sides of that conflict.)

A rather interesting memorial that I noticed during this latest visit is this rather rustic, but enormous, boulder...

...with this plaque to tell you about the honoree, another 18th-century baby:

Nearby was this very sad chronicle of a family's grief. It's the backside of the family headstone, with two children's names. I hope you can read the inscriptions (click on the photo to enlarge), but if you can't, it tells us that Howard, Jr., was born and died in 1923, and Mary Dell was born and died in 1927. You know, intellectually, that back in the day it was likely many of a family's children would die as infants, but seeing a record like this, in stone, really brings home the sadness. And makes this grandmother so very, very thankful that we are living now and not then.

That does finish up tales of my trip to Maine, but some closer-to-home excursions are coming up.

Fabulous fungi redux

Last year I shared some Maine fungi photos and I saw more of these fascinating woodland growths on this year's trip. The slime mold you see above was spotted on a delightful excursion with a group of my granddaughters' friends and their moms. We hiked around Robinson Woods, in Cape Elizabeth, and one of the little girls got so excited when we came upon these colorful growths. That's how I know what they are!

Another good example of flourishing fungi on this hike (note the pink rainboots of one of the little girls in the background; it was a little muddy, a good fungi environment):

a fungi family on the Robinson hike

And here are some more handsome, yet unidentified, mushrooms. We saw those on another hike in the Hawkes Preserve, in Gorham:

Yet another hike took us to the Sewell Woods, in Scarborough. (My son's family is so lucky to have so many wonderful places to hike, not far from their home!) Here are some big boys there:

There were even fungi on display at Bunganut Pond, where my son's in-laws have a cabin and where I told you about the mammoth job of dismantling their dock for winter. Amazing how mushrooms grow so profusely when a place actually gets regular rainfall!

Wordless Wednesday: if you live in New England, you will get these jokes

 

Maine flowers

Last time I mentioned that there were still lots of lovely flowers in Portland yards when I visited a few weeks ago. Asters, like those you see above, were particularly plentiful.

But there was lots of other color on offer as well. Not only do these folks have a perfect climate for blooms to thrive, but a lot of the families obviously spend a good bit of time working on their floral displays.

a barrel-o-pretties

pink and purple: favorite colors of several of my granddaughters

In addition to seeing these lovely yard displays often on neighborhood walks, a visit to the community garden (for cleaning up vegetable plants past their prime) was another opportunity for colorful snaps...

nasturtiums are a personal favorite

we had nasturtiums in our yard when I was a child, and
seeing them always takes me back

marigolds are always abundant in the garden

Cultivated flowers were the most prominent during my stay; we didn't see many wildflowers on our woodland hikes (although we saw all kinds of other colorful life forms—more about these next time). But these lovely wild ones were growing along the edge of Bunganut Pond:

While I was there, I got to witness the oft-discussed dismantling of the dock, in preparation for the lake's partial draining in winter. How exciting! (Especially when you could just watch and didn't have to help haul heavy dock parts up to the cabin.) Here's a summary of an earlier, summertime visit. And here's the dock, partially taken down:

the diving "island" in the distance also had to be brought in

I feel like I witnessed a crucial piece of New England, and family, fall ritual, finally, after hearing about this operation for several years. Glad it coincided with my visit!

Wordless Wednesday: see you at the pond

 

Maine woods

I never cease to be amazed by what trees look like in areas with reasonable rainfall. Like Houston, or Maine. I spent a delightful couple of weeks in the latter location recently...primarily delightful due to the presence of not two but THREE adorable grandchildren. But the local flora, as well as the wonderfully cool temperatures, was another draw.

The photo above was taken in Robinson Woods, in Cape Elizabeth. And here's one from Sewell Woods, in Scarborough...

But you don't have to drive far, in the Portland area, to see wonderful trees. Just down the street is where I saw most of the fall color that I was hoping for on this trip. Unfortunately, rain at the wrong times, as well as generally warming trends, big-picture-wise, are making leaf-peeping more hit and miss. I was a bit too early for the peaks of color, but saw plenty all the same. Mostly on a walk with my host family around their neighborhood cemetery.

As long-time readers of mine will know, during my semester in London ('way back in ought-8) I lived within a couple of blocks of Brompton Cemetery, where I loved to walk, especially with newly arriving guests working to get their bodies on European time. Cemeteries are just wonderful places for walking (and biking, as my granddaughters can attest), and Evergreen is one of the best.

you can see the host family here, although the bike riders are pretty far ahead

Here's another shot of early fall color and monuments...

...and you can see other neighbors also take advantage of the lovely weather and the expansive trails...

The reds are the most vibrant here, and I couldn't resist zeroing in on them (although I'm not happy with this camera's capture of vivid colors; but good news! I've got a new one now and am hoping for great things!)...

The yellows are eye-catching, too, as you can see elsewhere in the neighborhood...

Not only are these leaves good for passive peeping and photo-snapping, but when you've got a super-crafty (in a good way) mom in the house, collecting them can result in these wonderful pieces of art...

Aren't those nice!? In spite of the cold snap I got to enjoy during my visit, there were still lots of flowers blooming in the 'hood. And I'll show you some of those next time.