At the beginning of last week we had a cold spell - which means the temperatures got down to the low 70s at night and early morning. It was pleasant having moderate temps, and sleeping with a sheet instead of on top of the bed. By the end of the week we were back to normal - with temps in the low 80's at night and rising to the mid to upper 80's during the day. Those temps would be uncomfortable, but the breeze, either natural or fan induced, makes it quite pleasant, and also makes the options of no shoes, no shirt and shorts, my preferred outfit, very reasonable. Spent most of yesterday doing office work at home, and today finished my most recent book, and then cleaned my windows and screens on the side facing the road. Bradley thinks they'll be paving it within 30 days, and I hope so. I thought I would wait until they did before I cleaned the windows, but they were so dirty from the road dust that I had to clean them today. I also setup my Sirius radio so I could attach it to my audio system, allowing me to listen to NPR here at home.
I continue to work on my food options. I understood the beef here wasn't very good, but couldn't resist, and last week bought two T-bone steaks. Keep in mind that all meat here of any type is frozen. The only meat that is fresh, and that's because they are caught locally and sold by the fisherman. Well, last night I thought I would grill a steak and have mashed potatoes with tomato and cucumber. I understood that charcoal was readily available, so when I opened the bag ( a brown plastic bag) I bought last week, I discovered that it is locally made chunks of wood that have been made into charcoal. I've found that type to be hard to light, and it doesn't give off much heat. So after trying to cook my steak on the grill for a while, I transferred it to a stove top grill and cooked it. When I finally sat down to eat it, I found it to be the toughest piece of meat I've ever eaten. Not sure what 'm going to do with the other one. Was very glad I had an abundance of mashed potatoes! I'm going to have to concentrate on beans and rice, and variations of chicken.
Below is a picture of the ship that my two pallets came on. It is kind of amazing to see, because the access to the pier is not very wide or deep, and the ship is so much bigger than anything else man made here. I think the primary cargo coming into the country here at Big Creek is building materials, With bananas being the big export item. I learned that tankers also come here, because the crude oil produced in Spanish Lookout is brought here in trucks for shipment.
On the drive home, I stopped and took a photo of a house in the village of Santa Rosa that had been painted in a colorful way. It is unusual in that respect, the following photo of a house complex with thatched roofs is more typical in Santa Rosa. There are some houses here in Seine Bight and Placencia with thatched roofs, but metal roofs are more common, except on concrete homes. Thatch is a low cost roof, but Francis Ford Coppola's local resort, the Turtle Inn, has thatch.
It's now 6 PM, 87 degrees, and time for me to figure out what to have for dinner. Til next time..
2 comments:
Hey There... now I'm trying to figure out who the newest Mainer is on the Peninsula. There certainly are quite a few. Stop by sometime and introduce yourself. Drew
themainestay.com
Hi Carl- Thanks for keeping me posted. We are supposed to have a warm spell later this week- maybe 57 degrees Thurs or FRi! It's been windy, very windy and chilly but not cold. The snow has been gone for a week and nature is springing up. It get up to 80-85 degrees on the back porch most sunny days. Somewhere I heard we may be in for a cooler than usual summer in Maine.
We had leftover chicken that had been rubbed heavy with tumeric and black pepper. There's an interesting article in the May Prevention mag about "Healthy Power Pairs" (you can probably get it online). It said the combination of tumeric (circumin) with crushed black pepper reduces plaque in brain that causes Alzheimer's. We tried the rub on chicken breasts and it was one of the most delicious chicken dishes we ever tasted! Bar none. Another combo I am taking daily now is hot Green Tea with fresh lemon juice- supposed to be excellent protection for your heart. In order to do this I have switched from reg coffee to decaf in morning and then have the tea/lemon early afternoon. The weirdest combo in the article was a hamburger with lettuce and red onion on a bun followed by a dessert of frozen yoghurt!
I just finished the application today for the Visiting Artists Program in Baxter State Park taking place this summer- two weeks in your own cabin at Daicey Pond. Hope I get it but if not will reapply for next year.
Today I got up in the studio- Got all my inventory for the L'ville show on paper- then asked Mikki to come up and help me eliminate some. I had 45 ptgs on the list and we wound up eliminating 9! That's a good start. Then I touched up a couple of ptgs. Felt great to have the paints out and the turps. The studio temp at 1:30 was 65 degrees without any heat on. I have two ptgs left to sign and half a dozen to fit in frames and back with labels. Then I need to send off a list to Jamie at L'ville. I'll be glad when they are up on the wall.
I wondered if you could pick up Amy Goodman's Democracy Now with the Sirius Radio system. Sounds like you are settling in.
Tomorrow eve is the annual Bach Birthday Bash with Ray Cornils at the mighty Kotzchmar! Mikki and I picked up Mom yesterday and took her over to Easter dinner at Liza's. She had made a divine beef stew, homemade rolls, salad, little Easter baskets for everyone with chocolate and gizmos in them and we had wine. Mikki made a wonderful English Trifle for dessert with layers of fresh fruit, pound cake, marscaspone, and some calvados!
Haven't seen Patti yet, tho we have spoken by phone. She said we had spoiled McKenzie silly and he expects to be walked every day at 3sharp! Sounds like Patti had a good flight back to Boston, got in early and made the drive back to Portland with ease. She got some of her art accepted into the show at River Arts in Damariscotta.
I have been thinking about trying to take my many voice activated audio recordings I have made over the years on cassettes and transfer them to cds. I found a company in Scrborough that will do it, but it's not cheap! I got onto this search at Liza's when I mentioned how much Mikki and I enjoyed the Joel Fabiani reading of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It that we had listened to on loan from Burbank - I thought since this recording was never made into a cd I might try to get this done on my own. I have heard there is a way you can do it yourself but I would need some equipment to do it.
That's about all from here- take care. David
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