Jewel of the Coast

I have the great fortune of being able to live in the town of Camden. Along with Neighboring Rockport, the surrounding area is often reffered to as the "The Jewel of the Maine Coast." It's not hard to see why! On a beautiful late summer night, you can feel that the tourists have begun to head home for the school year, and the slow pace has returned. Both Camden and Rockport front on the western shore of the Penobscot Bay, yet Rockport maintains a quieter atmosphere, while Camden bustles in the summer. Now that Fall is fast approaching, the air is cooling and the winds are shifting. The sun sets earlier and earlier, while the streets become quieter and quieter. The boats remain though! It is truly amazing to see the amount of beautiful sailboats that call Rockport and Camden home in the summer. A Friday night stroll down to the harbor is a perfect way to cap off the work week in the "Jewel of the Coast."

Summer Slippin' Away

The sultry dance of summer is beginning to come to an end. Only three weeks remain before Fall officially takes over, but on a recent afternoon in Port Clyde, the seasonal takeover seemed much closer than three weeks off. The wind off Muscongus Bay picked up about 2 o'clock and held steady through dusk. The temperature must have been in the low 60', but with the wind howling off the bay, the mid 50's seemed more accurate. The afternoon was beautiful for sure, but the sunset over Port Clyde Harbor was simply stunning. As the days become cooler and cooler, the air becomes drier and the colors of the Maine sky become so much more vivid! I count my blessings on a day like today, for as the summer folk begin to clear out, I remain, entrenched and ready for the sweet breezes of September and October to whistle through the pines and whip up the the whitecaps on the ocean.

Remnants of the Coast

I Have always been fascinated with the way houses and buildings look along the Maine coast. Weathered, rambling, eroded by the weather, these wooden structures tend to take on a depression-era look. The funny thing about most of these structures is that they may look like they have been forgotten, but many of them are very much still in use. They serve as places to call home, to store gear, to hold fish and to sell whatever product there is to sell. These weathered structures also give the coast and its people a certain type of character that can only be found in Maine. They seem to be saying that no matter the weather, or the hard times, these buildings, shacks and doors will keep standing, and like the people of the coast, they will keep on going, keep on serving a purpose.