Friday Five: Beach Trip

Mother Laura over at RevGalBlogPals reports:

The Grimes-Honkanen bunch is settling in after a challenging move, and bubbling with gratitude for our new "cozy cottage by the beach": a tiny rented condo on Pacific Coast Highway. We're five minutes on foot from Sunset Beach for my daily choppy-but-gorgeous swim or prayer walk, often with dolphin sightings. Ten minutes south by car is downtown Huntington with its pier and window shopping, and the same distance north is Seal Beach, much calmer for family swimming.
Nicholas is equipped with shorty wetsuit and boogie board, and game to learn mastering the local waves from Mom--though I need to get a big softy and learn to surf before he does to maintain my cool cred. But Katie is still learning to swim confidently in the pool, and Midwestern-raised Matt prefers something more like his beloved Great Lakes. "No waves, no salt?" "Yes, darling, and no worrisome wildlife." "Except for the water moccasins, dude." You get the idea...it's all a matter of taste.
So in honor of summer, please share your own beachy memories, plans, and dreams with a "Beach Trip" Friday Five.

1. Ocean rocks, lake limps? Vice versa? Or "it's all beautiful in its own way"?
It took me a while to figure that first sentence out. Finally I realized it's like "Ocean rules, lake drools." I guess that's because in Vacationland, "ocean rocks" = two nouns which usually go together. Anyway, I would definitely say "It's all beautiful in its own way." In my many years of living in Land of 10,000 Lakes, I did miss the ocean, but I enjoyed City of Lakes' lakes, Lake Ida where our church camp was, Big and Little Butternut in America's Dairyland which I'll be seeing in a couple of weeks, and of course Lake Superior. Then again I like rivers too. For someone who can't swim despite several tries at lessons, doesn't boat except as a passenger, hasn't fished in over 50 years ... I sure do love the water.
2. Year round beach living: Heaven...or the Other Place?
Heaven, if I had a chauffeur, because beachfront usually doesn't come with public transportation. But if there were a beach/shore front house within walking distance of groceries and the public library...I'd be there.
3. Any beach plans for this summer?
Probably just looking at the ocean, maybe a boat ride, and I will be taking my swimsuit along to the Midwest in case a lake opportunity arises.
4. Best beach memory ever?
So many beach memories shared with friends that it's hard to pick just one. So instead, the memory of my solitary explorations along Long Island Sound in Milford, Connecticut, ages 9-13. The shoreline there was a nice combination with some beach and some rocky shoreline, interesting seaweed to play with, a lot of scope for the imagination. One winter it got cold enough that the Sound actually froze a few feet out from shore. Yes, winter beaches can be fun too.
5. Fantasy beach trip?
You name it, I'm up for it. But I will confess that I've always wanted to experience one of those beaches that has different-colored sand -- I think there are pink sand ones, maybe in Bermuda? and black sand beaches somewhere else. Yup, I'd like to see that.
Bonus: Share a piece of music/poetry/film/book that expresses something about what the beach means to you.
I'm going to go overboard and have more than one. First this very nice video of John Masefield's poem,Sea Fever:


Book? it's a whole series: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels, starting with Master and Commander. I actually haven't read the last two -- I'm saving them for a rainy day.
Film? The Secret of Roan Inish.
Music?

This isn't my favorite version, but the best I could find on YouTube. On iTunes, you can download a very nice version of "Rolling Home to Old New England" by Seamus Kennedy; my favorite is by the New Golden Ring Singers on their album "Five Days Singing, Vol. 2" available from Folk-Legacy.
I hope there's a beach in your future -- sandy or rocky, fresh water or salt.

Another SonShineIn Project

Here's another project that SonShineIn completed, with a little help from Onkel Hankie Pants and Mr. World Domination (my nephew). One of the many places we pay property taxes is Harpswell, on this little shack and a tiny bit of land around it that we inherited. We call it Chudleigh Hall. Here it is in the 1970s:
It's a long story, believe me, you don't want to read it right now. Anyway, on this property Brother #2 had left a pile of granite and marble remnants he had come by in his work as a house painter. And they needed to come off the property. The Herbalist had a plan for some of them in the woods (I don't know the plan) but I called one scrap for a pastry slab. SSI, OHP and MWD went down to Harpswell, manhandled the slabs into the car, and got them to Bowdoinham, and SonShineIn chose the smallest and best conditioned for me, brought it home (it must weigh at least 50 lbs.), cleaned it up, bought some pads for the bottom, and voila! I was able to make a rhubarb pie to thank him. Here it is:
Now we're going to go upstairs
and watch Gone Baby Gone.

A happy cat and happier books

Just a quick post to show two of SonShineIn's projects. The first was to protect our excess books, which were stored on plastic shelving units in the basement, from the depredations caused by the cat's climbing and the dog's jumping. The idea was from Onkel Hankie Pants but most of the execution was from our own briefly-resident carpenter. Here it is:
Rusty is in the picture, trying to track the cat, who (he thinks) has disappeared. If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see the nice handles for opening; what you can't see is a caster that helps the fencing swing smoothly.
Why has the cat disappeared? SonShineIn also built her a wonderful cat tower so she can escape the dog and look out the window. I have not yet completed my task of stapling carpet on it, but she has found her special perch. Here she is:
The perch in which she's sitting (look for a round fluffy calico object, that's Heidi) was once part of a rather odd little seat that pulled out from our kitchen peninsula, probably for a small child to sit on. We now use that portion for our kitchen wastebasket. Another of the perches was a drawer front from a deceased file cabinet. I love when we can reuse things this way. Thanks again, SonShineIn!

A couple of changes

You may have noticed that my blog looks a little different. I've been having a bit of trouble with it (Blogger thinks I am SPAM, and some people are seeing words covering pictures) so I tried "resetting" it, which necessitated trying a different template.
A more important change, which I'll make in the Dramatis Personae as soon as I remember how, is that Sisterknits will henceforth be known in these pages as Sisterfilms. Although she's made some nice washcloths and trivets for us, she really doesn't knit all that much -- or even have time to -- and she is studying film, and has even started a second blog (how ambitious!) just for film thoughts. So, that's who she is.

Happy Birthday, SonShineIn!

Thirty-three years ago this morning, I awoke in labor at 5:00 am. By 7:00 am Onkel Hankie Pants and I had driven the short distance to the hospital in our new-to-us red Saab. In retrospect, it's hard to believe I was worried about not having made sandwiches for the father-to-be to munch in the labor room. SonShineIn, our first child and only son, made his appearance at 9:58 am. Onkel Hankie Pants was back home just as church let out. (Our church was about two doors away from home. The minister had noticed our car was gone when he walked the dog, had called the hospital, and announced in church that the birth was imminent. So the congregation was waiting with congratulations.) He called my parents in Maine right away with the news, but couldn't reach his own parents till later in the day, because it was Danish Day (in Minneapolis, the Sunday closest to Grundlovsdag) and they were at the picnic. Here's a photo of the young man at a Danish Day a few years later. If you ever go, you will see a lot of blondes in red and white clothes.
He was the first grandchild on both sides, and so has shared with his parents the privileges and burdens of being the firstborn. We named him for OHP's maternal grandfather (a good Danish name) and for my father, who was named for his uncle, who was named for a turn-of-the-century Maine poet and writer.
Below are photos of those he was named for:














These thirty-three years have not been entirely without worries - that comes with the territory of parenting. But overall I think things have turned out quite well. We've just come to the end of a month-long visit from SonShineIn as he decompressed from a stressful year at work. It's the most time we've had just to hang out with him in ten years or more, and it's been a lot of fun. Just as when he was three years old, he amazes even his parents with his articulate discussion and wide range of information on many topics. Rusty the dog quickly adopted him as his new best friend, and has been somewhat disconsolate since his buddy went home. And several projects around the house and grounds have been completed to a high standard -- I'll try to photograph them and post them this week.
Happy birthday! We are richly blessed to have a son like you. And here are a few more favorite photos from years gone by:

I've Been Tagged

Singing Owl has tagged me for a meme. I'm probably not going to come up with 5 people to tag, since so many of the bloggers I read already have done this one. But I'll see what I can do.

Rules: The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions/statements about himself or herself. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Ten years ago:
I was preparing for two big events: Cordeliaknits' high school graduation (and the ensuing Open House) and a mastectomy. Both had good outcomes. As I recall, the party was a lot of fun, combining many people from my daughter's various communities, and the operation went smoothly, with recovery swift and painless. (It was Stage 0 so I didn't need radiation or chemotherapy.)


Five things on today's "to do" list:

1. Make rhubarb cake.
   
2. Blog.
3. Post reviews on DorothyL and Goodreads.
4. Do some laundry.
5. Finish indexing a pedigree for the local Genealogical Society.

Things I'd do if I was a billionaire:

• Pay off all my kids' student loans. And the nieces' and nephews' student loans. And fund the rest of their educations. Grandnieces and grandnephews too.
• Give more to more charities.
• Travel.
• Add a screened porch and a second floor bath to our house.
• Go to a mystery convention. If I enjoyed it, go to some more.
• I'm afraid I'd probably buy some more books, too.

Three bad habits:

1. Nailbiting.
2. Procrastination.
3. Computer solitaire.
   

Five places I've lived:

1. Maine
2. Connecticut
3. Germany
4. Minnesota
5. California
   

Five jobs I've had:

1. Catalog card typist.
2. CB radio assembler.
3. Library paraprofessional.
4. Church secretary.
5. Russian interpreter.
   

It is hard for me to come up with taggees, since Onkel Hankie Pants says he won't do any more, and many of the blogs I read are semi-professional or multi-person blogs (mystery writers, mainly). And, this has been making the rounds of the RevGalBlogPals and others for a while. However, I don't think Cordeliaknits or Sisterknits has done it yet; and I'm also going to tag Paleika and Lemondancy, just to encourage them to blog a bit more often (though it may not work).

Garage Sales, the Sequel

Last week the Friday Five was about garage sales, and today we actually went to some! We started off the day with breakfast at Faith UMC on Orr's Island. Today the specialty was crepes -- they have a breakfast each month on the first Saturday and the main entree is different each time. I had the chicken, mushroom and asparagus crepe, which was delicious. Fried potatoes, bacon, sausage, fruit cup and juice, and mini-cinnamon rolls rounded out the breakfast. And coffee of course; the volunteers recognize us now and start the water boiling for Onkel Hankie Pants' tea as soon as we come in.

We had already learned that the Sebascodegan Garden Club was having a plant sale on the Cundy's Harbor Road so next we headed over there. Here's a picture of what we bought for $11.00: a hosta, a wee peony (it's wee now, but we hope it will grow), and three herbs that I'll plant in a big container -- rosemary, basil and oregano.
There was also a bake sale going on at the same time, so for $2.50 I got a loaf of cracked wheat bread (have you priced the artisanal breads in the supermarket lately? This was a good deal!) and for a dollar each, two cheese scones. OHP turns up his nose at scones, having had too many of the dry, nasty ones that were all the rage at bakeries and coffeeshops a while back. But I could see that these were freshly made and I just had one, it was delicious! (You can see them in the photo below).
We had also seen a sign for a neighborhood of garage sales, so we checked that out. Most of what's in the photo above is from several sales we stopped at. Onkel Hankie Pants got a tripod and a kids' telescope for $5 each, and a book called The Friar and the Cipher for a buck. I got a dough scraper with measuring markings for $2.50 (retails for $4 but I'd have to go to Bath to buy one); a cream pitcher and sugar bowl for a dollar each, Williamsburg Pottery (I think the sugar bowl may be missing a cover but as we don't usually keep sugar out, not a problem); a book of John Connolly short stories for a quarter; a Christmas ornament for another quarter and 4 Santa tealights for 50 cents; and my most expensive single purchase, too good to pass up even though it will have to wait a while:
This lovely handmade bunny was only $4! It goes to my first granddaughter. I don't know how long it will have to wait. In this photo you can also see the telescope (the odd-looking red thing).
Our last stop was the Give and Go Sale at Bowdoin College. They used to call it the Dump and Run but as the proceeds go to the various non-profits who staff it, the name has been spiffed up. Anyone who has been present when a college senior leaves the dorm or apartment for the last time knows what this is all about. The sale started at 8 and we didn't arrive until nearly 11, so who knows what treasures we may have missed. But the good side was that at 11 everything went to half-price. We didn't find a lot there, but I did get three mostly-unused notebooks, an expanding file pocket folder, and an Ann Arbor Junior League cookbook, all for $2. I'm especially pleased with the Junior League cookbook, as they tend to be exorbitantly priced at used book stores, but often have quite useful recipes for entertaining without working too hard. This one isn't as regional as some, but does seem to have a lot of mushroom recipes, as well as things like Cherry Soup.
So, that's my shopping for the day done. Now I have to prepare for the Genealogical Society meeting/picnic tomorrow -- I'm to bring dessert so I'm going to make a rhubarb cake recipe I found in the Minnesota Heritage Cookbook. And, I have to finish indexing a member's huge three-volume pedigree charts -- most people turn in 2 or 3 pages. She is eager to know if she is related to anyone in the society -- so far, she is a distant cousin of mine in a couple of lines way back. That's Saturday in Brunswick and environs.