GONE WRITING

We've arrived in Hubbards, Nova Scotia - a two day drive from Bar Harbor, Maine. We'd planned on three days, but we were making good time. It rained along the way, but the sky ahead looked clearer, so we decided to keep going. We were wrong about the sky - it was a deluge for most of the drive. But RVPainter kept it slow and here we are. This - the South Shore of Nova Scotia is supposed to be very beautiful. It's on the National Geographic list of top 10 must-go destinations for 2012. We'll be checking it out, of course, but this month is also one in which I plan to settle back into a writing routine.

So, I'm putting up my

GONE WRITING

sign.

I may post pictures occasionally, but generally plan to take the month off from blogging. RVPainter will be posting though, over at his BLOG. He'll have pictures and updates.

Please stop over to say hi to him and to find out what we've been up to. So dear friends, thank you for following along on our journey, and I look forward to reconnecting with you soon.

Bar Harbor and Acadia

It's just so beautiful here that I'm going to let the pictures do all the talking ...

Even lunch is beautiful - crab roll- yum!

RVPainter talking to a couple of other artists who were painting Plein Air

East Boothbay, Bootbay and Southport

We wind up our fantastic week in the Boothbay area today, heading up now to Bar Harbor. We had spectacular weather here, mostly glorious blue sky days with the sun sparkling on the sea. Just what you hope for - and rarely get! It doesn't look as promising up in Bar Harbor, but we feel that our time here was very blessed. We got to see our artist friends Jan Kilburn (http://www.jankilburn.com/), Maddie Lou Chaplin (MChaplin@maine.rr.com), and Tony Van Hasselt (http://www.vanhasselt.com/) and his wife Jan. I spent some time with my friend Darla, and we had dinner with friends Randy and Marsha.

There were a few sad moments, when we learned about the deaths of artists Judi Wagner and Nancy Gagnon, whose work we admired. And when we went to visit another artist couple, we found them packing up to leave for a new life in Florida.

Here are pictures from around the Boothbay area, which I have visited and loved since I was a little girl. I think you'll see why.

Cosy Harbor on Southport Island

Cuckholds Light off Southport

Hendricks Head Beach - RVPainter thought it was chilly, but he felt right asleep!

The East Boothbay General Store - now better than ever! Our old house is right around the corner.

Lobstas at Robinson's Wharf

One of the beautiful old inns in downtown Boothbay

The Ebb Tide has been there forever!

Boothbay Library - they have band concerts on the lawn every Thursday night during summer

The footbridge - one of the defining features of Boothbay

RVPainter enjoying FUDGE!

Sigh. A beautiful morning sitting on the rocks at Ocean Point. Perhaps my favorite thing in the world to do.

Looking out to Ram Island Light from Ocean Point

That's me, on the rocks at Ocean Point

MAINE: CAMDEN AND PORT CLYDE

We are having the MOST wonderful time here in Maine. RVPainter and I lived in Maine for 20 years - first in York Beach, which is in southern Maine, just over the border from NH, and then in East Boothbay, which is in mid-coast Maine. I have a life-long association with Boothbay, as we vacationed here from the time I was 7 or 8.  We have had the most wonderful weather here. There is nothing more beautiful than a perfect Maine summer day - the only problem is that it often seems there are too few of them! But this week has been GLORIOUS!

We went up to Camden, which is where the movie Peyton Place was filmed way back when. It's one of the most charming towns in this area. Then we drove out to Port Clyde, where Marshall Point Light is. Parts of Forrest Gump were filmed there. The whole area is just gorgeous.

We spend today out at Ocean Point in East Boothbay - possibly my favorite place on earth. Then we went over to Hendrick's Head Beach. Today I'm posting the Camden pictures, and I'll post the Boothbay ones later in the week.

Enjoy!

Camden, Maine

Camden Harbor

RVPainter in front of one of the schooners

Different view of the harbor

Sea Roses

More harbor

shops and galleries

One of the sailing vessels you can go out on

Camden side street

Just a great little scene

RVPainter getting frisky with a moose



Belted Galloways - I think these cows are beautiful



Port Clyde

Marshall Point Light in Port Clyde

This would make a good painting

Typical Maine seacoast garden - this one at Marshall Point Light

Marshall Point is a very unique lighthouse, being out at the end of the walkway like that

Looking from the lighthouse back toward the lightkeepers' house

Buoy display inside the lighthouse museum. I love buoys :)

Pictures from My Classroom Visits

Had a ball these past few weeks visiting classrooms in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

This 3rd grade class (in the pictures) read my book last fall and loved it so much they ALL wrote me letters. I spent a morning answering all their questions about writing and being a writer.

We had a great time talking about books, what makes a good book and why.

And, I was able to treat them to a reading of the first chapter of my next book,

the sequel to The Christmas Village.

Another day I visited with 150 4th and 5th graders in NH. I read from The Christmas Village and we used it to SHOW how a writer's choice of words can make stories come alive.

I had them act out little scenes to illustrate the difference between Showing and Telling.

These kids were so enthusiastic and engaged, and they seemed pretty excited about the book!

I wore a special microphone so that a hearing-impaired boy in the 5th grade could hear me. Afterward, he came up to me, thanked me again and again, and gave me TWO big hugs.

Best thing that's happened to me in ages, and the nicest thing that could ever happen to a writer!

These pictures are from my visit with the 3rd graders.

"Some of you said you wanted to know if there will be another book, because you want to know 'what happens next.' Well, SO DO I!"

We were talking about "bad guys" in stories and why they are important!

So many great questions and wonderful insights from these kids!

Damariscotta, Maine: A wonderful day at Pemaquid Point

We are up in mid-coast Maine now, staying in Damariscotta for a week. This is the next town over from Boothbay, where we lived for 7 years during the 1990's. Actually it was East Boothbay, where we had a lovely Victorian home with a gallery where Dick sold his paintings. The house also had a small red barn that I loved. We drove by there this evening, and you can hardly see the house for all the overgrown trees and bushes, so I didn't take pictures of it. But here's a photo of what used to be RVPainter's gallery ...

It was a carriage house that we converted to the gallery - RVPainter did all the shingling, which of course looked newer back then and we put in that door. We always had tubs of flowers outside to make it look pretty. I had gotten this old ladder back chair with a hole in the seat, and put a pot of flowers in the hole. It was really cute. I loved doing stuff like that. Now I think the owners probably use this as a guest cottage.

And here's the barn - I was taking the photo into the sun with my Iphone so it's not that great. You can see the back porch of the house too, somewhat hidden behind all the foliage. The barn is about 150 years old - older than the house actually - the house was built in 1892.

We spent ALL DAY up at Pemaquid Point in Pemaquid, Maine, and it could not have been a more spectacular day. We set up our little beach chairs overlooking the rocks. RVPainter did a sketch and started a painting, and I did a little writing and a lot of meditating and looking at the ocean.

For two dollars a person, you can spend all day there and also you can tour the light-keeper's house and go up into the lighthouse. Back when we had the gallery, RVPainter did many paintings of Pemaquid Light and I have to say they were some of the best paintings of that lighthouse that I've ever seen and I'm not just saying that because he's, well, you know, RVPainter.



That's the lightkeeper's house - the lighthouse is behind it. Geez, can't believe I didn't get it in the picture!

That's RVPainter working on his painting

That's the view from where I parked my beach chair. I did NOT want to leave there today - it was such a glorious day as you can see from the color of the ocean and sky.