Columbus Day Weekend in Five Islands, ME

Reid State Park, Georgetown, ME
F. Holland Day House, Five Islands, ME
View from the back porch of Day House

It almost felt like Indian Summer in Maine this weekend, and you could've sworn it might have been early September--weather in the mid-60s, clear blue skies, and a warm breeze. Steve took Friday off and we headed up to Georgetown, ME, a small town outside of Bath where the F. Holland Day House is located. I've been coming to the Day house ever since I was researching my dissertation on F. Holland Day in 2001 and met the owner. I wrote a lot of my dissertation there, and it still serves as sort of a touchstone for me--it's one of those places that I walk in and just feel like I am home. It's a lovely and inspiring place [as evidenced in the photographs above], used now in the summers as a healing retreat for women with cancer. The environment always gets my creative juices flowing, and I wrote a grant proposal to work on a Maine photographer--Chansonetta Stanley Emmons--while I was up there--and also went treasure hunting in the Little Good Harbor (behind the house). As you can see in the photograph below, I found lots! I have been collecting seaglass ever since I was little, and I found some great pieces at low tide, as well as some beautiful old pottery shards, which are the real prize of any beachcomber. They've already found homes on various windowsills at home.



We spent most of the weekend outside enjoying the weather and the landscape. The leaves were in full color--some stunning oranges, reds and yellows and we took advantage of our proximity to Reid State Park [about 1/2 mile from the Day house] and went and walked the beach on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, our friends the Delcourts who live in Portland drove up and we all watched their 2-year old daughter Nola fill endless buckets with ice cold seawater only to dump it out and do it all over again. I loved the water like that when I was little--still do. We took the Delcourts down to Five Islands Wharf where lunch was being served for the last time until next summer. The dock was crowded with leaf peepers and tourists hungry for lobster and other seafood, and we sat on a picnic table overlooking the harbor eating our lunch and enjoying the company for ages.

After the Delcourts headed back to Portland, Steve and I decided that we would go and play some disc golf [frisbee golf] at a local course in Brunswick [Enmon Field]. It was a great course, and we spent a few hours hiking through the woods chasing frisbees and hitting targets. It's a great sport if you've never played--same principle as regular golf, only with frisbees. Greens fees tend to be a good deal cheaper ($5 round) and it's something we started playing in Massachusetts a few years ago. We also have a great course about 10 minutes from our house in Gorham. Come up some weekend, and we'll take you out to play ;).

We headed home early Sunday afternoon so Steve could get his weekly football fix, and now it's Monday, and back to work. I'm off to revise a conference paper to submit as a potential article for a book being published in conjunction with the conference--about Transatlantic Women Writers. WIsh me luck! Then it's on to making up Midterms for next week. It's hard to believe it's midterm already, but I'm not complaining ;). Things are about to get alot busier, and I'm just grateful for the October respite that is/was Fall Break. I needed to clear my head, and thanks to our jaunt to Five Islands--mission accomplished!