Nothing but Blue Skies...a Blessing and a Curse

 Fast forward through July, which was lovely.  We basked in the plentiful sunshine.  Visited with cousins.  Made it through what we thought would be the hot and humid "week" of the summer...for two weeks.  Said "goodbye" to a few cousins and "hello" to even more friends and relatives who arrived in time for "the Games".   With each passing day it felt like every sequential day went faster, and faster!

Pugwash on Canada Day, July 1

The buoys caught my eye!
Leaving Bar Harbor, Maine

The flower "pot" is doing great this summer!

So is the fennel!

Can't make these colors up!  One of the good ones.

We spent a lot of time watching our diligent tree swallows, build their nest,
populate the nest, feed the babies and raise them over the month.
"Must see tv"

The view from the lawnmower,
back when the grass was green and needed to be mowed.
I'll get to that in a minute.
Plus, my favorite clouds.

Another sunset...why not?

We did take a little trip down to Boston early in July, to help our daughter move to a new place.  It went well and they are settled into a nice neighborhood!  We drove down memory lane back and forth remembering the many years of driving those same roads with a van or a ginormous SUV loaded with 4 kids, one or two dogs and all the luggage for a summer of fun.  We stayed in nicer hotels this time and ate better food.  We added a stop in Bar Harbor on the way home because TJ had never visited Acadia National Park.  Checked one more off the list this summer.  Although I am not sure we can really count it as all he saw was a road, a lot of fog and some misty water.  We did however get the obligatory photo in front of the sign.  

This makes it official!

July shifted gears the last week when Rachel and the three grandsons arrived.  Suddenly the table was set for 6 or 7 or 9 depending on who joined us.  The garden started providing side dishes and summer was in full swing.  Their week culminated with...THE GAMES.  If you are unfamiliar with THE GAMES, read this post...it says it all.  Suffice it to say the days are jam packed with activities and the nights don't let up.  This year the Browns (our team) won and there was happiness and joy along our beach.  It's been a few years since we were the winners!

You would think after THE GAMES we could sit back and relax...but NO.  Add to the family, our daughter Katie and her two kids and we were now a table for 9.  All good, it was a brief overlap and then we had to say goodbye to Rachel and the boys.  Time flies up here!

Last week, was all the events for the kids.  Mini Olympics, the 50th anniversary!  Think about it...THE GAMES celebrated 50 years last year and this year the Mini Olympics turned 50!  We like to play games and compete up here.  All in good fun too!  These games were followed by a Walkathon to raise money for the Koolaid Kids.  Then, we finished the week with the Sandcastle Contest.  

Softball players

Getting ready for the 3-legged race

The Red Solo Relay
not what you think...

Water Relay, swim, push a kayak, SUP, Canoe

Mini Olympians and Alumni Mini Olympians

The Koolaid Kids!

Serious work being done here!

All of this brings me to today.  Have you noticed how nice the weather has been in my photos?  I was counting my blessings for a while when every day was sunny and warm.  After a while, we noticed we needed to water the flowers more and the garden needed more water.  Well...then the grass quit growing and then it started to turn brown.  The cars are all coated with dust.  If the windows are open, you can forget about passing any white glove test.  My skin is beginning to resemble that of an alligator.  The province has issued a fire ban and has closed all hiking in the woods, all trails in the province are closed to hikers. We are living in a giant tinder box.  One spark and it could all go up in flames.  The skies have been hazy from the smoke out west that has blown this way.  When was the last time you were on "vacation" and prayed for rain?!  We need a good soaking...soon.  Normally, looking at my weather app and seeing nothing but sunshine in the forecast would make me smile broadly.  Now I scroll across the week just hoping to see that rain icon or a thunderstorm.  So far...August 23rd is the first day with even a hint of rain predicted.  Yikes!  It is crispy out there.  Please send rain.

Life has taken a bit of a slower pace this week.  With THE GAMES in the rear view and there are only weeks until Labor Day, we are all savoring the time we have left here.  I want time to slow down.  There are things I still want to do and people I want to sit and have a nice chat with.  There are vegetables in the garden that need to be made into deliciousness.  I find myself sitting on the beach later and later each day just dreading going up and saying goodbye to another day of summer at the shore.  Usually, I write at least one summer post on a rainy day, because I am forced to stay inside.  Today I am seeking shelter after a hot and dry game of golf.  My skin felt like it was frying, and I am indulging myself with the AC running.  The other part of my brain says the sun is shining and it is time to go visit on the beach.  Guess I'll apply a gallon of moisturizer and sunscreen and head to the beach.  That part of my brain always seems to win.

Hope your summer is going well!

High Tide, Summer 2024 Part 2

 Today is a sad day for me.  August 31st feels like a turning point in shore life.  My sister, Lee Ann, left this morning and she is just one of the seemingly constant flow of people leaving over the last several weeks and into this weekend.  The population here mimics the ebb and flow of the tides we witness every day.  In July the population rises until we reach maximum capacity during the Games weekend at the beginning of August.  And just like that, people start leaving until the end of the month.  There are a few late summer arrivals, but summer definitely has a rise, a crescendo and a decline.  Cycles.  Everything follows a pattern.  The summer days get longer and longer and suddenly they get shorter and shorter.  The summer weather gets warmer and warmer, until it turns and now the air has a bit of a nip in it.  We have a daily reminder of the cycle of this place when we look out at the water.  

It is either coming in... or going out!

I already shared what the rising of the tide/population feels like.  High tide or maximum population is what we like to refer to as the Vortex.  The Vortex is when your immediate family arrives, and you have multiple generations in your immediate family.  It is when the empty nest fills to capacity with your kids and their kids.  This is what we look forward to all year.  It is also when some of us old birds have to adjust to our lifestyle.  Likely, everyone in the Vortex adjusts their lifestyle to a certain extent.  Meals are served at a whole new level.  First, there are a lot more people to feed, secondly, there are all of those "must have" meals.  The "must haves" include lobster dinner, lamb, grilled meat-fest, pancake breakfasts, and cooking every bit of produce we can harvest out of the garden just to name a few.  Everyone arrives with their own set of expectations.  We all have our "issues" that we deal with whether it be with space, meals, privacy, habits, likes, dislikes, expectations vs. reality, or just adjusting to communal life. Somehow it all seems to work.  

My Vortex! 
Table for 14...my seat is next to the cutie in front!

Some of us who spend most of the summer here joke together as the Games near and our families begin to arrive that we will see them when we exit our Vortex.  There are only so many hours in a day and spending time with family is priority when they are here which many times excludes socializing with the rest of the population.  Social interactions are intentional and less lingering than in the low season.  All things in their time.  

Not coincidentally, the Games coincide with the Vortex.  As if there weren't enough to fill our days and nights, let's add 11 competitive events plus one rip roaring barn party to a 3-day weekend!  If I've said it once, I've said it maybe 30 times...life goes on hold during the games!  Who has time?  This year was the 50th anniversary of the Games!  50 summers of various games being played, one extended family against another extended family, and I use the term "extended family" loosely, because this weekend includes many others!  On our side, the Browns, I can count 4 generations who have participated in the Games.  Impressive!  What a tradition!  I was a teenager when the first Games were played.  Now I am a grandparent and while I participated this year, I also got to see my grandchildren participate.  I never would have believed this day would happen back in 1974!  It was probably the farthest thing from my mind at the time!  The cute guy playing softball was probably more in my thoughts at the time.  

Siblings!  
We were here for the first Games and here we all are again!

The Games were epic!  Just imagine surviving this schedule!  Friday morning 8 a.m. 72 people played golf in a shotgun start at the local golf course.  Later that day there were the card and board games: bridge, cribbage, hearts and Trivial Pursuit x 3.  Saturday began with a Junior softball game, regular softball game, Frisbee Golf, Three-Legged race, Ultimate Frisbee and Volleyball on the beach.  Sunday began with a water relay (Canoeing (x2), Kayak push (x2), swimming x2, SUP x 2, Bocce Ball for 13 teams and finally the 50th Anniversary Rely with consisted of a mix of old throwback games and one new twist.  The relay began with horseshoes x 2, darts x 2, and Ice Cream run (eat an ice cream, run a course and tag the next runner who does the same), Skeet-ish shooting (shoot a flying frisbee with a water hose) and finally a historic puzzle where you had to place the activity in the decade it happened in the history of the Games.  That evening we drag our tired and hungry bodies to the grand finale.  This year there was a 50th anniversary trivia game that was hilarious and memorable!  Then...we DANCE!  This year the band Big Fish played for hours and we danced the night away!  Always one of the best nights of my year!  I love to dance, and I love these people and this place.

The softball participants

Going over Ultimate rules and spectators

Going over the Water Rely rules

The concentration was intense!

The Victory was sweet!
For a moment!

The Games ended dramatically.  It was decided that the results of the Bocce game would not be shared because if the Christies won, then it would all be over...but if the Browns won the Games would be tied and the final event would be the deciding event.  The Browns won the final event, the 50th Anniversary Relay and so the photo depicts that sweet moment when everything was possible.  Then we found out the Christies had won the Bocce game and won the Games 6-5.  We were so close...and yet so far away.

A good time was had by all!

And then we danced!
All of us from young to old and all ages in between!

The tide was turning but there were still a lot of activities after the games!  There was the Mini Olympics, the Sandcastle Contest, the Walk-a-thon and the Super Mini Olympics.  Not to mention a margarita party, our annual cousin party and one very emotional and beautiful event that requires its own post.  As I write this down and look back at my pictures, no wonder the time flew so fast!  We really were busy.  To quote Spirit of the West, "I need home for a rest!".  But not just yet!

I share this for your enjoyment, and for my memories. Every year is much the same and still subtly unique.  So many memories are made here and sometimes they all blend together.  It is nice to have the defining moments documented.   

 

In the Swing of Things

A nice way to spend a lovely Friday afternoon

This is a statement I would never have uttered until this year.  Up to this point in my life golf was something I neither had time, energy, talent, equipment or patience for.  This fall we joined the golf club in our neighborhood, a first in our married life...belonging to a golf club.  I figured I would use the athletic facilities, ie the yoga classes, and TJ would golf and therefore be otherwise occupied on the weekends.  Good plan.  But as they say....the best laid plans of mice and men...

Last fall, on a few particularly lovely afternoons, I agreed to golf with TJ.  We shared his clubs and to my surprise, I did not suck.  (yeah, I hate that word too but it seems to fit here) Must be my new bionic left forearm that has changed my game.  The other advantage of playing golf on a Friday afternoon is that after golf we get to go to the clubhouse and eat dinner, because "honey, I'm just too tired to cook tonight."  Hey, I am starting to like golf  more now. 

My relationship with golf has several facets.  First, it was what my Dad did every weekend he could when we were kids.  That is just what Dads did, we were kids, we didn't care.  Then when I got married and had kids of my own, it was something my husband wanted to do and I hated it because it meant he was gone for 6 hours and I was stuck with the kids to fend for myself for yet another day in the week.  I resented golf, that frivolous hobby that took my husband away on the weekend.  Occasionally I would be invited to participate in a game of golf back then, usually in Nova Scotia ..for the games.  No pressure....you golf once a year, we really need your score.  Sure, I will find an unsuspecting teenager to watch my kids for what will seem like an eternity while I go and curse my way around 18 holes of golf for what definitely seemed like an eternity. All the while wishing I were back at the beach sitting in a chair watching my  kids play, or cleaning a bathroom or getting a root canal!  Needless to say, golf did not win my heart back then. 

As life would have it, I now find myself with the time to play golf and a place to play.  I have no kids at home who need a babysitter.  No weekend softball games to dutifully watch anymore.  The bathrooms don't get that dirty these days. The weather has moderated for a while so I can't even complain about it being too hot to play.  And, as of Christmas I even have....

My very own golf clubs!

Means, motive, opportunity and....weapon.  I now have everything needed to commit the crime of golf.  I even find myself enjoying the game.  Shocking!  I really can't decide if this is a good thing or a sad thing in my life.  It is a bit distressing that I am now at a point in my life where I have all this leisure time to fill.  A sad state of affairs or a real blessing?  I still feel a bit guilty out there and think I really should be doing something productive.  I guess I'll get over it!

A friend told me about a t-shirt she saw that explains it pretty well.  The shirt says, "I hate golf, I hate golf, I hate golf, Nice Shot!, I love golf."  Pretty much sums it all up!  Mine might say something like, "C#*p, nice shot, S*#t, oh, nice shot...."  inconsistent is my game. 


where did it go?

right in the middle of the fairway....not bad, maybe I do like this game